1927 college football season The 1927 college football season ended with the Illini of the University of Illinois ( 7 - 0 - 1 ) being recognized as champion under the Dickinson system . In the Rose Bowl , the Pittsburgh Panthers ( 8 - 0 - 1 ) were invited to play against the Pacific Coast Conference champion . Though USC and Stanford had identical records in conference play , Stanford was given a chance to " avenge " its 7 - 7 tie against Alabama in the last Rose Bowl . Although an Illinois vs . USC matchup would have been equally plausible for the 1928 Rose Bowl , their Pasadena meeting would have to wait 80 years - - until 2008 . The major rules change in 1927 was the moving of the goal posts from the goal line , to the end of the end zone , where they have been ever since . The move was for both safety reasons and to de - emphasize the kicking game Major conferences that existed in 1927 were the Western Conference ( today ' s Big Ten ) , the Pacific Coast Conference ( now the Pac - 10 ) , the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association ( MVIAA , forerunner of the Big 12 ) , the Southwest Conference , and the Southern Conference ( whose members later formed the SEC and the ACC ) . At season ' s end , the Rissler Cup was awarded to the team that finished first in the " Dickinson ratings " , which considered strength of schedule , in that a win , loss or tie against a " strong " opponent was worth more than one against a lesser team , and the results were averaged . September . September 17 Washington defeated Willamette 32 - 6 . September 24 USC beat Occidental 33 - 0 ; Army beat Boston University , 13 - 0 ; Pittsburgh beat Thiel College 42 - 0 . Texas A & M shut out Trinity 45 - 0 . October . October 1 USC beat Santa Clara 52 - 12 . Notre Dame beat Iowa ' s Coe College 28 - 7 ; Army beat Detroit Mercy 6 - 0 . Yale beat Bowdoin 41 - 0 ; The Western Conference ( later the Big Ten ) teams opened their seasons . Minnesota beat North Dakota , 57 - 10 , Michigan beat Ohio Wesleyan , 33 - 0 , and Illinois beat Bradley , 19 - 0 . Pittsburgh beat Grove City College , 33 - 0 ; Nebraska beat Iowa State , 6 - 0 ; Georgia beat Virginia , 32 - 0 ; and Texas A & M beat Southwest Texas 31 - 0 . October 8 USC edged Oregon State 13 - 12 ; Detroit Mercy , fresh from its 6 - 0 loss at West Point , played at Notre Dame and lost 20 - 0 ; Army beat Marquette 21 - 12 ; In a battle of Bulldogs , Georgia beat Yale 14 - 10 in New Haven . Pittsburgh won another shutout , over West Virginia , 49 - 0 ; Minnesota beat Oklahoma State , 40 - 0 , Michigan beat Michigan State , 21 - 0 , and Illinois beat Butler 58 - 0 . At Columbia , Missouri , Missouri beat Nebraska , 7 - 6 , and Texas A & M recorded its third shutout , an 18 - 0 win over Sewanee . October 15 USC played at Stanford University in Palo Alto , to a 13 - 13 tie . Notre Dame and Navy played at Baltimore , with the Irish winning 19 - 6 . Army beat Davis & Elkins College , 27 - 6 Yale beat Brown 19 - 0 ; In Western Conference play , Minnesota and Indiana played to a 14 - 14 tie Michigan won at Wisconsin , 14 - 0 , Illinois and Iowa State played to a 12 - 12 tie , Pittsburgh beat Drake 32 - 0 ; Nebraska beat Grinnell College 58 - 0 Furman v . Georgia took place in Athens , Ga . , as the University of Georgia hosted the Paladins of Furman University and won , 32 - 0 . Texas A & M surrendered its first points in a 40 - 6 win over Arkansas . October 22 USC beat Caltech 51 - 0 ; Notre Dame beat Indiana 19 - 6 ( 4 - 0 ) Army and ( 2 - 1 ) Yale met at New Haven , with Yale winning 10 - 6 Minnesota beat Iowa , 38 - 0 Michigan beat Ohio State , 21 - 0 , Brown was upset by Lebanon Valley , 13 - 12 Illinois edged Northwestern , 7 - 6 Pittsburgh beat crosstown team Carnegie Tech , but not in a shutout ( 23 - 7 ) . Nebraska was idle ; Georgia beat Auburn , 33 - 3 Texas A & M played at Texas Christian , and was tied , 0 - 0 . October 29 Michigan ( 4 - 0 - 0 ) and Illinois ( 3 - 0 - 1 ) faced off at Champaign , Ill . The Illini won 14 - 0 . USC beat California , 13 - 0 Notre Dame beat Georgia Tech , 26 - 7 Army beat Bucknell 34 - 0 ; Yale beat Dartmouth , 19 - 0 ; Minnesota beat Wisconsin , 13 - 7 ; Pittsburgh beat Allegheny 62 - 0 ; Nebraska beat visiting Syracuse , 21 - 0 ; Georgia beat Tulane , 31 - 0 Texas A & M had beaten Texas Tech , 47 - 6 , in a Friday game . November . November 5 USC was idle , while ( 5 - 1 - 1 ) Stanford and ( 7 - 0 - 0 ) Washington met in Seattle for a conference game , with Stanford winning 13 - 7 . In a meeting of unbeatens , ( 5 - 0 - 0 ) Notre Dame hosted ( 4 - 0 - 1 ) Minnesota . The teams played to a 7 - 7 tie . Army beat Franklin & Marshall , 45 - 0 ; Yale beat Maryland 30 - 6 Michigan won at Chicago , 14 - 0 and Illinois beat Iowa 14 - 0 Pittsburgh and Washington & Jefferson , both ( 6 - 0 - 0 ) , played to a 0 - 0 tie Nebraska beat Kansas , 47 - 13 ; Georgia defeated Florida at Jacksonville , 28 - 0 ; Texas A & M beat SMU , 39 - 13 On Armistice Day , November 11 , Texas A & M defeated Rice University in Houston , 14 - 0 . November 12 USC beat Colorado 46 - 7 ; ( 6 - 1 - 0 ) Army faced off against ( 5 - 0 - 1 ) Notre Dame at Yankee Stadium . The Cadets handed Rockne ' s team its first defeat , 18 - 0 Yale beat Princeton 14 - 6 ; Minnesota beat Drake 27 - 6 ; Michigan beat Navy 27 - 12 ; Illinois beat Chicago 15 - 6 ; Georgia beat Clemson , 32 - 0 ( 6 - 0 - 1 ) Pittsburgh and ( 4 - 1 - 0 ) Nebraska faced off in Pittsburgh , with the Panthers winning 21 - 13 November 19 USC defeated Washington State , 27 - 0 , while Stanford beat visiting California , 13 - 6 to close their season at 8 - 2 - 1 . Though USC , at 8 - 1 - 1 , had the better overall record , Stanford ' s two losses at been outside the conference , to St . Mary ' s and to Santa Clara , and they had tied USC . In PCC play , Stanford and USC both finished 4 - 0 - 1 , and either could have been invited to play in the 1928 Rose Bowl . The Rose Bowl committee went with Stanford , which had been tied by Alabama in the 1927 New Year ' s Day game . Notre Dame beat Drake University in Des Moines , 32 - 0 . Drake , which played against Navy , Pitt , Minnesota , Notre Dame and UCLA , would finish at 3 - 6 - 0 Army beat Ursinus College 13 - 0 ; Yale closed its season hosting Harvard , and won 14 - 0 ; Illinois defeated Ohio State , 13 - 0 At Ann Arbor , ( 5 - 0 - 2 ) Minnesota visited ( 6 - 1 - 0 ) Michigan . The Gophers beat the Wolverines 13 - 7 to close their seasons . Nebraska won at Kansas State , 33 - 0 Georgia beat Mercer , 26 - 7 November 24 On Thanksgiving Day , Pittsburgh beat Penn State , 30 - 0 . Pitt , with a record of 8 - 0 - 1 , had outscored its opponents 283 to 20 , with seven shutouts , and was selected to meet Stanford in the Rose Bowl . Nebraska beat visiting New York University , 27 - 18 ; Texas A & M closed its season with a 28 - 7 win over Texas . November 26 Notre Dame ( 6 - 1 - 1 ) and USC ( 7 - 0 - 1 ) played before an estimated record crowd of 123 , 000 ( Reported as 117 , 000 in the Chicago Tribune ) at Soldier Field in Chicago , with Notre Dame winning 7 - 6 ( on the strength of a blocked extra point attempt ) to hand the Trojans their first loss . In the Army – Navy Game , played before a crowd of 70 , 000 at the Polo Grounds in New York , Army came back from 9 - 0 at halftime to win 14 - 9 . In Birmingham , Georgia beat Alabama , 20 - 6 . December 3 USC closed its season with a 33 - 13 win over Washington . ( 9 - 0 - 0 ) Georgia faced off against ( 7 - 1 - 1 ) Georgia Tech in Atlanta to close the season . The Yellow Jackets undid the Bulldogs ' hopes for a perfect season , winning 12 - 0 Conference standings . The following is an incomplete list of 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 awarded the Rissman Trophy to the winning university . Although Dickinson retroactively applied the system to the 1924 and 1925 seasons , the year 1926 was the first in which the trophy was awarded at season ' s end . The system awarded 30 points for a win over a " strong team " , and 20 for a win over a " weak team " . Losses were awarded points ( 15 for loss to a strong team , 10 for loss to a weak team ) . Ties were treated as half a win and half a loss ( 22 . 5 for a tie with a strong team , 15 for a tie with a weak team ) . An average was then derived by dividing the points by games played . 1928 Rose Bowl . As the only post - season college football game , the Rose Bowl sought an East - West matchup between the best available eastern team and the PCC champion . In 1927 , the Pitt Panthers had finished the season at 8 - 0 - 1 , with seven shutouts against various levels of opposition , while the Stanford Indians had been tied 7 - 7 by Alabama on New Year ' s Day . Since January 1 , 1928 , fell on a Sunday , the game was played on Monday , January 2 . Stanford Punter Frankie Wilton had been the " goat " of the 1927 Rose Bowl , after an Alabama defender broke through the line , blocked his kick , and set up the Tide ' s tying touchdown . Wilton lost the ball after being hit on his own 20 yard line , and Pitt ' s Jimmy Hagan ran the fumble in for a touchdown . Walter Heinecke of Stanford blocked the point attempt , holding Pitt ' s lead to 6 - 0 . Wilton ' s chance at redemption came later , when his teammate Spud Lewis fumbled a yard from goal . Wilton scooped up the ball and crashed through for the tying touchdown . The Stanford kick was good , and the Indians held on for a 7 - 6 win .