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The 1896 college football season had no clear-cut champion, with the Official NCAA Division I Football Records Book listing Lafayette and Princeton as having been selected national champions.[1] Lafayette finished with an 11-0-1 record while Princeton had a 10-0-1 record. In the second game of the season for both teams, Lafayette and Princeton played to a scoreless tie. Both teams had signature wins: Lafayette defeated Penn 6-4, giving the Quakers their only loss of the season, while Princeton defeated previously unbeaten Yale, 24-6, on Thanksgiving Day in the last game of the season. Princeton was retroactively named the 1896 national champions by the Billingsley Report, the Helms Athletic Foundation, the Houlgate System, and Lafayette and Princeton were named national co-champions by the National Championship Foundation and Parke Davis.

Conference and program changes[]

Conference changes[]

  • The Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives, commonly known as the Western Conference and the precursor to the modern Big Ten Conference, began its first season of play in 1896 with seven founding members from across the Midwest.

Membership changes[]

School 1895 Conference 1896 Conference
Central Michigan Normal Normalites Program established Independent
Chicago Maroons Independent Western Conference
Clemson Tigers Program established SIAA
Cumberland Bulldogs Independent SIAA
Illinois Illini Independent Western Conference
Indiana State Sycamores Program Established Independent
Kansas State Agricultural Aggies Program established Independent
Kentucky State Wildcats Independent SIAA
Louisiana State Tigers Independent SIAA
Mercer Baptists Independent SIAA
Michigan Wolverines Independent Western Conference
Minnesota Golden Gophers Independent Western Conference
Mississippi Rebels Independent SIAA
Mississippi A&M Aggies Independent SIAA
Nashville ? Independent SIAA
Nevada State Sagebrushers Program established Independent
Northwestern Wildcats Independent Western Conference
Purdue Boilermakers Independent Western Conference
Southwestern Presbyterian Lynx Independent SIAA
Storrs Agricultural Aggies Program established Independent
Texas Longhorns Independent SIAA
Texas Christian Horned Frogs Program established Independent
Tennessee Volunteers Independent SIAA
Territorial Normal Normals Program established Independent
Wisconsin Badgers Independent Western Conference

Conference standings[]

The following is a potentially incomplete list of conference standings:

1896 CFA football standings
v · d · e Conf     Overall
Team W   L   T     W   L   T
Colorado 2 0 0     5 0 0
Colorado Mines 1 1 0     1 2 0
Colorado College 0 2 0     3 4 0
† – Conference champion
1896 Maryland Intercollegiate Football Association standings
v · d · e Conf     Overall
Team W   L   T     W   L   T
Maryland           6 2 2
† – Conference champion
1896 SIAA football standings
v · d · e Conf     Overall
Team W   L   T     W   L   T
LSU § 3 0 0     6 0 0
Georgia § 2 0 0     4 0 0
Vanderbilt 3 0 2     3 2 2
Auburn 3 1 0     3 1 0
Georgia Tech 1 1 1     1 1 1
Texas 1 1 0     4 2 1
Alabama 1 1 0     2 1 0
Kentucky State 1 1 0     3 6 0
Sewanee 3 3 0     3 3 0
Tulane 1 2 0     3 2 0
SW Presbyterian 0 1 0     0 1 0
Nashville 0 1 1     0 1 1
Mercer 0 2 1     0 2 1
Central (KY) 0 2 1     0 3 1
Mississippi A&M 0 2 0     0 4 0
Cumberland            
§ – Conference co-champions
1896 college football independents records
v · d · e Conf     Overall
Team W   L   T     W   L   T
Virginia         7 2 2
California         6 2 2
Washington Agricultural         2 0 1
Oregon         2 1 0
Utah         3 2 0
Notre Dame         4 3 0
Clemson         2 1 0
Texas A&M         2 0 1
Stanford         2 1 1
Washington         2 3 0
Michigan Agricultural         1 2 1
Oregon Agricultural         1 2 0
North Carolina         3 4 1
USC         0 3 0
Indiana State Normal         0 1 0
1896 Triangular Football League standings
v · d · e Conf     Overall
Team W   L   T     W   L   T
Dartmouth 2 0 0     5 2 1
Amherst 1 1 0     3 6 1
Williams 0 2 0     6 4 1
† – Conference champion
1896 Western Conference football standings
v · d · e Conf     Overall
Team W   L   T     W   L   T
Wisconsin 2 0 1     7 1 1
Michigan 2 1 0     9 1 0
Northwestern 2 1 1     6 1 2
Chicago 3 2 0     15 2 1
Minnesota 1 2 0     8 2 0
Illinois 0 2 1     4 2 1
Purdue 0 2 1     4 2 1
† – Conference champion
1896 Western Interstate football standings
v · d · e Conf     Overall
Team W   L   T     W   L   T
Iowa 2 0 1     7 1 1
Kansas 2 1 0     7 3 0
Nebraska 1 1 1     6 3 1
Missouri 0 3 0     7 5 0
† – Conference champion

Minor conferences[]

Conference Champion(s) Record
Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association Michigan State Normal Schoo 3–0–0

See also[]

References[]

  1. Official 2009 NCAA Division I Football Records Book. Indianapolis, IN: The National Collegiate Athletic Association. August 2009. pp. 70. http://web1.ncaa.org/web_files/stats/football_records/DI/2009/2009FBS.pdf. Retrieved 2009-10-16.


LafayettePennFootballOct23

Lafayette on defense in its 6-4 upset victory over Pennsylvania in college football on October 24, 1896 at Franklin Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (The book incorrectly gives the date as October 23, which was a Friday.) From the book "Football - The American Intercollegiate Game", written by Parke H. Davis in 1911 and no longer in copyright

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