The 1933 college football season saw the Michigan Wolverines repeat as winners of the Knute Rockne Memorial Trophy as national champion under the Dickinson System. The unofficial east–west championship game, the Rose Bowl, was between Stanford (8–1–1) who was ranked behind USC and unranked Columbia (7–1). The

Columbia Lions The Columbia University Lions are the collective athletic teams and their members from Columbia University, an Ivy League institution in New York City, United States. The current director of athletics is Peter Pilling. Ivy League athletics Th ...

won the Rose Bowl game 7–0.

Conference and program changes

Conference changes

Two new conferences began play in 1933: ** Chesapeake Conference – active through the 1936 season **

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities o ...

(SEC) – active NCAA Division I FBS conference; formed after its thirteen members broke away from the

Southern Conference The Southern Conference (SoCon) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I. Southern Conference football teams compete in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly k ...

in 1932.

Membership changes

September

September 23 USC opened its season with a doubleheader against Occidental College, and Whittier College. Using a combination of varsity and reserves, the Trojans won 39–0 and 51–0, respectively. Although future President Richard M. Nixon had been on the freshman football team at Whittier, he was not part of the varsity squad that played against USC.

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

defeated Linfield College 53–0. Stanford beat San Jose State 27–0 September 30 Stanford narrowly defeated UCLA 3–0, USC beat Loyola Marymount 18–0, and

won at Gonzaga 14–0.

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

opened with a 19–6 win over Mercer College.

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

beat visiting South Dakota State 19–6.

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

beat Washington & Jefferson 9–0.

October

October 7 USC defeated Washington State 33–0, Stanford beat Santa Clara 7–0, and

got past Portland College 14–7.

and Indiana tied 6–6.

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

(whose team included Gerald Ford as a center) beat Michigan State 20–6, Purdue beat Ohio University 13–6, and

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

rolled over Virginia 75–0.

beat Virginia Military Institute (VMI) 32–0

beat West Virginia 21–0.

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...

beat visiting Texas 26–0. Princeton opened its season with a shutout (40–0) over Amherst. October 14 In Minneapolis,

and Purdue played to a 7–7 tie. In Chicago, Stanford and Northwestern played to a 0–0 tie.

won at Washington 6–0, and USC beat St. Mary's 14–7.

defeated Delaware 52–0 and

beat Navy 34–6.

defeated Vanderbilt 20–0.

beat Cornell 40–0.

won at Iowa State 20–0. Princeton recorded its second shutout, a 45–0 win over Williams. Tennessee suffered its first defeat since 1930, losing 10–2 against Duke. October 21

beat visiting

13–0.

(1–0–2) hosted

(3–0–0), with the home team Gophers winning, 7–3. Purdue won at Chicago 14–0. In Portland, USC and Oregon State played to a 0–0 tie. Stanford won at the University of San Francisco, 20–13. In Cleveland

beat Illinois 6–0.

won at Kansas State 9–0.

beat Idaho 19–0 in a Friday Night game. Princeton beat Columbia, 20–0, to stay unscored upon. October 28 USC narrowly won at California, 6–3,

won at UCLA 7–0, and Stanford lost at Washington 6–0.

won at Chicago 28–0,

beat Northwestern 12–0,

beat Iowa 19–7, and Purdue won at Wisconsin 14–0.

won at Yale 21–0.

won at Notre Dame 14–0.

beat Oklahoma 16–7. Princeton narrowly won, but stayed unscored upon, with a 6–0 win over Washington & Lee.

November

November 4

beat Utah 26–7. Stanford beat the Olympic Club 21–0 and

beat Coe College 34–0. Purdue beat Carnegie Tech 17–7.

won at Illinois, 7–6,

beat Indiana 21–0.

and Northwestern played to a 0–0 tie.

beat Centre College 37–0.

stayed unbeaten with a 26–0 win over Missouri. Princeton extended its shutout streak to five with a 33–0 win at Brown. November 11 In Los Angeles, USC (6–0–1) hosted Stanford (5–1–1). The Trojans suffered their first defeat in 27 games, losing 13–7, in a game that ultimately decided the Pacific Coast championship.

defeated Iowa 5–3. At Portland,

beat Oregon State, 13–3 to extend its record to 8–0–0.

won at Harvard 27–0. In Phildadelphia,

beat Penn 20–7 and Purdue won at Notre Dame 19–0.

beat Duquesne 7–0 and

defeated Kansas 12–0 Princeton beat Dartmouth, 7–0, for its sixth straight shutout. November 18 USC (6–1–1) handed visiting

(8–0–0) its first defeat, 26–0.

(6–0–0) and

(3–0–3), both unbeaten, played to a scoreless tie.

(6–1–0) hosted

(5–0–0) and won 6–0. Princeton beat visiting Navy 13–0. In seven games, it had outscored its opponents 164–0. Stanford beat Montana 33–7.

defeated Pennsylvania Military Institute, 12–0.

won at Wisconsin 6–0. Purdue suffered its first loss of the season, falling 14–6 to visiting Iowa. November 25 Princeton was finally scored upon, after holding its first seven opponents scoreless. The streak was broken by Rutgers, which lost 26–6. USC won at Notre Dame, 19–0 and Stanford beat California 7–3. The annual Army–Navy Game took place in Philadelphia, and

won 12–7.

closed its season with a 7–6 win over Illinois and

won at Northwestern 13–0,

beat Wisconsin 6–3, and Purdue won at Indiana 19–3.

beat Iowa 7–6 Thanksgiving Day fell on November 30 in 1933.

defeated Oregon State 22–0 to close its season at 8–1–0.

won at St. Mary's, 13–7.

beat Carnegie Tech 16–0.

December

December 2 In Los Angeles, USC (8–1–1) hosted Georgia (8–1–0) and won 31–0

(9–0–0) and Notre Dame (2–5–1) met at Yankee Stadium. The Fighting Irish pulled off a 13–12 upset. Princeton, no longer having to maintain a streak of shutouts, won at Yale 27–2 to finish as the nation's only unbeaten and untied team.

1934 Rose Bowl

The

defeated the Stanford Indians (now Cardinal) 7–0. Cliff Montgomery, the Columbia quarterback, was named the Rose Bowl Player Of The Game when the award was created in 1953 and selections were made retroactively.

Other bowls

* Dixie Classic

Conference standings

Major conference standings

Independents

Minor conferences

Minor conference standings

Dickinson System

The AP sportswriters' poll would not begin continuously until 1936. (although, the first time was a one instance publishing in 1934) Frank G. Dickinson, an economics professor at the University of Illinois, had invented the Dickinson System to rank colleges based upon their records and the strength of their opposition. The system was originally designed to rank teams in the Big Nine (later the Big Ten) conference. Chicago clothing manufacturer Jack Rissman then persuaded Dickinson to rank the nation's teams under the system, and the Rockne Memorial Trophy was awarded to the winning university. In an AP story with the caption "Figure This Out!", the system was explained: "For each victory of a first division team over another first division team, the winner gets 30 points and the loser 15 points. For each tie between two first division teams, each team gets 12.5 points. For each victory of a first division team over a second division team, the first division winner gets 20 points and the second division loser 10 points. For each tie between two second division teams, each gets 15 points. For each tie between a first division team and a second division team, the first division team gets 15 points and the second division team gets 20 points. Then, after each team has been given its quota of points its final "score" is tabulated by taking an average on the number of games played."

Final Dickinson rankings

(7–0–1),

(4–0–4) and Princeton (9–0) were all unbeaten, and Princeton was untied as well. Based on its schedule, Michigan was ranked highest by Professor Dickinson. As in 1932, Dickinson, an economics professor at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univer ...

, included four

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

teams among the best in the US. In 1933, they were Michigan, Minnesota,

, and Purdue. "Dickinson System Awards Michigan National Grid Title," ''Wisconsin State Journal'' (Madison, Wis.), December 10, 1933, p19

Awards and honors

All-Americans

The consensus All-America team included:

Statistical leaders

*Player scoring most points: Beattie Feathers, Tennessee, 78

References

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