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The 1910 college football season had no clear-cut champion, with the Official NCAA Division I Football Records Book listing Harvard and Pittsburgh as having been selected national champions.[1] Only Harvard claims a national championship for the 1910 season.

Rules[]

Rule changes were made prior to the 1910 season to permit more use of the forward pass, with complicated limitations:[2]

  • The only eligible receivers were the two ends, who could catch a pass no more than 20 yards beyond the line of scrimmage, and could not be interfered with until the ball was caught.
  • A legal pass could not be thrown unless the quarterback was at least 5 yards behind the line of scrimmage and the rest of the players, except the two ends, were at least 1 yard behind the scrimmage line.
  • On kickoffs and punts, the kicking team's players could not be touched until they had advanced 20 yards
  • Flying tackles were outlawed, and "the man making a tackle must have at least one foot on the ground".
  • The ballcarrier could no longer be aided in any way by his teammates.

Other rules in 1910 were:

  • Field 110 yards in length
  • Kickoff made from midfield
  • Three downs to gain ten yards
  • Touchdown worth 5 points
  • Field goal worth 3 points
  • Game time based on agreement of the teams, not to exceed two 45 minute halves.[3]

The season ran from September 24 until Thanksgiving Day (November 24).[4] Prior to Thanksgiving, the season's death toll was 22; the previous season's was thirty.[5]

Conference and program changes[]

  • The Colorado Faculty Athletic Conference (CFAC) changed its name to the Rocky Mountain Faculty Athletic Conference (RMFAC, now just the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) in 1910 after expanding into Utah.

Conference changes[]

School 1909 Conference 1910 Conference
The Citadel Bulldogs Independent SIAA
Denver Pioneers Independent Rocky Mountain
Howard Bulldogs Independent SIAA
Indiana State Normal Fightin' Teachers Independent Dropped Program
Louisville Cardinals Program Established Independent
Utah Utes Independent Rocky Mountain

Program changes[]

  • Arkansas changed its nickname from the Cardinals to the current Razorbacks.

Conference standings[]

The following is a potentially incomplete list of conference standings:

1910 Big 9 football standings
v · d · e Conf     Overall
Team W   L   T     W   L   T
Illinois § 4 0 0     7 0 0
Minnesota § 2 0 0     6 1 0
Indiana 3 1 0     5 1 0
Iowa 1 1 0     5 2 0
Chicago 2 4 0     2 5 0
Wisconsin 1 2 1     1 2 2
Northwestern 1 2 1     1 3 1
Purdue 0 4 0     1 5 0
§ – Conference co-champions
Template:1910 college football independents records
1910 Missouri Valley football standings
v · d · e Conf     Overall
Team W   L   T     W   L   T
Nebraska 2 0 0     7 1 0
Iowa 3 1 0     5 2 0
Missouri 2 1 1     4 2 2
Iowa State 2 2 0     4 4 0
Kansas 1 1 1     6 1 1
Washington (MO) 0 2 0     3 4 0
Drake 0 3 0     2 5 0
Template:1910 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference football standings
1910 SIAA football standings
v · d · e Conf     Overall
Team W   L   T     W   L   T
Vanderbilt § 5 0 0     8 0 1
Auburn § 5 0 0     6 1 0
Sewanee 3 1 0     8 2 0
Georgia 4 2 1     6 2 1
Ole Miss 2 1 0     7 1 0
Mississippi A&M 4 2 0     7 2 0
Mercer 3 2 0     6 3 0
Georgia Tech 3 3 0     5 3 0
Clemson 2 3 1     4 3 1
LSU 1 3 0     1 5 0
Tennessee 1 4 0     3 5 1
The Citadel 0 2 0     3 4 0
Alabama 0 4 0     4 4 0
Howard (AL) 0 5 0     1 7 0
§ – Conference co-champions
Template:1910 SAIAA football standings
Template:1910 IIAC football standings

Minor conferences[]

Conference Champion(s) Record
Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference Kansas State Agricultural 4–0–0
Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association Alma 1–0–0
Ohio Athletic Conference Oberlin 3–0–1

All-Americans[]

The consensus All-America team included Walter Camp's selections:

Position Name Height Weight (lbs.) Class Hometown Team
QB Earl Sprackling 5'9" 150 Jr. Cleveland, Ohio Brown
HB Percy Wendell So. Roxbury, Massachusetts Harvard
HB Talbot Pendleton Princeton
FB Leroy Mercer So. Penn
E Stanfield Wells Jr. Massillon, Ohio Michigan
T Robert McKay Sr. Harvard
G Albert Benbrook 240 Sr. Chicago, Illinois Michigan
C Ernest Cozens Sr. Penn
G Bob Fisher Jr. Boston, Massachusetts Harvard
T James Walker Minnesota
E John Kilpatrick Yale

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.
  2. "New Football As Walter Camp Sees It", New York Times, September 15, 1910
  3. Danzig, Allison (1956). The History of American Football: Its Great Teams, Players, and Coaches. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall. pp. 70–71.
  4. "Football Under New Rules Starts To-Day", New York Times, September 24, 1910
  5. "Death toll of football season". Eugene Daily Guard ((Oregon)): p. 6. November 23, 1910. https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=1GdXAAAAIBAJ&sjid=WfADAAAAIBAJ&pg=6497%2C3118092.


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