EARLY AMERICAN FOOTBALL STYLE COLLEGE CHAMPIONS 1882/83 - 1890/91 TEAM RECORD RATING RUNNERUP DIVISION I AMERICAN COLLEGIATE GAME 1882/83 YALE COLL 8-0-0 103.7 PRINCETON COLL 1883/84 YALE COLL 8-0-0 120.5 PRINCETON COLL 1884/85 YALE COLL 8-0-1 129.3 PRINCETON COLL 1885/86 PRINCETON COLL 9-0-0 138.5 YALE COLL AMERICAN RUGBY FOOTBALL 1886/87 YALE COLL 10-0-1 161.0 HARVARD UNIV 1887/88 HARVARD UNIV 10-1-0 150.2 YALE UNIV 1888/89 YALE UNIV 14-0-0 165.2 PRINCETON COLL 1889/89 YALE UNIV 16-1-0 170.7 PRINCETON COLL 1890/91 HARVARD UNIV 13-0-0 159.1 YALE UNIV DIVISION II AMERICAN COLLEGIATE GAME 1882/83 HARVARD 1886 FROSH 3-2-1 59.7 WILLIAMS 1886 FROSH 1883/84 PRINCETON 1886 SOPHS 3-2-0 67.4 HARVARD 1887 FROSH 1884/85 YALE 1888 FROSH 6-2-0 81.9 HARVARD 1888 FROSH 1885/86 PRINCETON 1889 FROSH 8-0-0 83.5 YALE 1889 FROSH AMERICAN RUGBY FOOTBALL 1886/87 PRINCETON 1890 FROSH 4-0-0 81.6 ST JOHNS (FORDHAM) DIV II 1887/88 WORCESTER POLY INST 4-0-1 74.1 U CALIFORNIA 1888/89 YALE 1892 FROSH 5-1-0 77.7 HARVARD 1892 FROSH 1889/90 UNIV VIRGINIA 5-2-0 73.2 HARVARD 1893 FROSH 1890/91 COLORADO SCH OF MINES 6-0-0 83.9 HARVARD 1891 SENIORS DIVISION III AMERICAN COLLEGIATE GAME 1882/83 ST JOHNS (FORDHAM) DIV III 3-0-0 51.6 DARTMOUTH 1885 SOPHS 1883/84 AMHERST 1885 JUNIORS 3-0-0 54.3 ST JOHNS (FORDHAM) DIV III 1884/85 ST JOHNS (FORDHAM) DIV III 5-1-0 57.0 RUTGERS 1886 JUNIORS 1885/86 ST JOHNS (FORDHAM) DIV III 8-2-0 66.3 RUTGERS 1886 SENIORS AMERICAN RUGBY FOOTBALL 1886/87 LAFAYETTE 1887 SENIORS 5-0-0 66.4 ST JOHNS (FORDHAM) DIV III 1887/88 U PENNSYLVANIA 1889 JUNIORS 5-0-0 59.9 LAFAYETTE 1889 JUNIORS 1888/89 ST JOHNS (FORDHAM) DIV III 8-0-0 64.5 LAFAYETTE 1889 SENIORS 1889/90 ST JOHNS (FORDHAM) DIV III 6-1-0 59.0 LAFAYETTE 1891 JUNIORS 1890/91 ST JOHNS (FORDHAM) DIV III 8-1-0 64.8 STEVENS TECH 1892 JUNIORS Notes: 1) When the third form of 'foot ball' was declared in 1882, it was called the College or Collegiate Game for a few years. Then the majority of the articles began to call the game Rugby Football. Around the time the forward pass was allowed in 1906, this game was called American Football. 2) Yale College became a University in 1887. 3) St Johns (now Fordham) College put its 'foot ball' program into three divisions by age groups during the 1880s. The oldest students were found in the varsity Division I section, the 'middlers' age group in Division II and the youngest students were in Division III. 4) Division I four-year college teams had to play at least half their games with other Division I teams to be in this group. Division II contains all other four-year college varsities plus college class teams playing outside games. Division III teams are mainly intramural college class teams, plus college club teams and other small teams playing football without much supervision. EARLY COLLEGE FOOTBALL TEAM COUNTS POSSIBLE TEAM COUNTS/ACTUAL TEAM COUNTS SEASON DIV I DIV II DIV III 1882/83 18/18 29/25 10/9 1883/84 19/18 49/42 20/14 1884/85 20/20 47/37 34/23 1885/86 21/20 57/46 34/28 1886/87 25/25 65/55 45/33 1887/88 26/26 71/56 49/37 1888/89 28/28 86/64 50/43 1889/90 31/31 137/114 70/56 1890/91 40/40 216/166 63/43 Notes: 1) "Possible Team Counts" include scheduled games not played or score is not available or there was a team but no other records available. 2) "Actual Team Counts" are the actual number of teams with football games with numeric scores, and includes W (for win) or L (loss).