1886 college football season

The 1886 college football season had no clear-cut champion, with the Official NCAA Division I Football Records Book listing Yale and Princeton as national champions.

On Thanksgiving Day in Princeton, NJ, undefeated teams from Yale and Princeton met in a game that was expected to decide the 1886 college football championship. The game started late due to the absence of a referee, and heavy rain caused the game to be called on account of darkness with Yale leading 4-0 in the second half. Under the rules of the time, the game was declared "no contest" by the substitute referee, and the final score was declared to be 0-0. After a special meeting of the Intercollegiate Football Association held to review the game, the Association issued a two-part resolution - that (1) Yale should have been acknowledged the champion, but that (2) under their existing rules, the Association did not have the authority to award the game to them.