The 1901 college football season had no clear-cut champion, with the ''Official NCAA Division I Football Records Book'' listing

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

, and

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

as having been selected retrospectively as

national champions National champions are corporations which are technically private businesses but due to governmental policy are ceded a dominant position in a national economy. In this system, these large organizations are expected not only to seek profit but als ...

. Harvard beat Yale 22–0 the last game of the year.

Conference and program changes

Rose Bowl

The very first collegiate football

bowl game In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivis ...

was played following the 1901 season. Originally titled the "Tournament East-West football game" what is now known as the

Rose Bowl Game The Rose Bowl Game is an annual American college football bowl game, usually played on January 1 (New Year's Day) at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. When New Year's Day falls on a Sunday, the game is played on Monday, January 2. The Rose ...

was first played on January 1, 1902, in

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. I ...

defeated

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

49–0.

Conference standings

Major conference standings

Independents

Minor conferences

Awards and honors

All-Americans

The consensus

All-America The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...

team included:

Statistical leaders

*Player scoring most points:

Bruce Shorts Bruce Carman Shorts (January 15, 1878 – March 29, 1945) was an American football player and coach. He played as a tackle at the University of Michigan from 1900 to 1901. Shorts served as the head football coach at the Nevada State University— ...

, 123 *Rushing leader:

Willie Heston William Martin Heston (September 9, 1878 – September 9, 1963) was an American football player and coach. He played halfback at San Jose State University and the University of Michigan. Heston was the head football coach for Drake University ...

, Michigan, 684 *Rushing avg. leader: Willie Heston, 10.2 *Rushing touchdowns leader: Willie Heston, 20

References

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