1932 college football season The 1932 college football season saw the Michigan Wolverines win the Knute Rockne Memorial Trophy as national champion under the Dickinson system . Because the " Big Nine " conference didn ' t permit its teams to play in the postseason , however , the Wolverines were not able to accept a bid to the Rose Bowl . As such , the Pasadena game matched the # 2 and # 3 teams , USC and Pittsburgh , with the USC Trojans winning the East - West matchup 35 - 0 . Colgate University became the last team to shut out all of its opponents , by an average score of 29 - 0 in nine games . Though the ' 32 Red Raiders were described as " unbeaten , untied , unscored upon . . . and uninvited " , the Rose Bowl was the only postseason bowl game at the time . Major conferences that existed in 1932 were the Western Conference ( today ' s Big Ten ) , the Pacific Coast Conference ( now the Pac - 10 ) , the Big Six ( forerunner of the Big 12 ) , the Southwest Conference , and the Southern Conference ( whose members later formed the SEC and the ACC ) . September . On September 17 , Texas Christian University ( TCU ) opened its season with a 14 - 2 win over visiting North Texas . September 24 USC beat Utah 35 - 0 , Tennessee won 13 - 0 at UT - Chattanooga , and Pittsburgh beat visiting Ohio Northern College 47 - 0 . TCU and LSU played to a 3 - 3 tie in Baton Rouge . October . October 1 Michigan beat Michigan State 26 - 0 , Purdue beat Kansas State 29 - 13 , Ohio State beat Ohio Wesleyan 34 - 7 , Wisconsin beat Marquette 7 - 2 . USC beat Washington State 20 - 0 . Pittsburgh won at West Virginia , 40 - 0 . Army beat Furman 13 - 0 . Tennessee beat Ole Miss 33 - 0 and TCU defeated Daniel Baker College 55 - 0 . October 8 Michigan beat Northwestern 15 - 6 , Wisconsin beat Iowa 34 - 0 , Purdue won at Minnesota 7 - 0 , and Ohio State and Indiana played to a 7 - 7 tie . USC beat Oregon State 10 - 0 . Pittsburgh beat Duquesne 33 - 0 . Army beat Carleton College 57 - 0 . Notre Dame opened with a 73 - 0 win over Haskell College . Tennessee beat North Carolina 20 - 7 and TCU beat Arkansas 34 - 12 . October 15 In Birmingham , Tennessee and Alabama , both 3 - 0 - 0 , met , with the visitors winning 7 - 3 . Michigan won at Ohio State 14 - 0 , while Purdue beat visiting Wisconsin 7 - 6 , and Pittsburgh won at Army 18 - 13 . TCU won at Texas A & M 17 - 0 , USC defeated Loyola Marymount 6 - 0 and Notre Dame beat Drake 62 - 0 . October 22 USC ( 4 - 0 - 0 ) and Stanford ( 5 - 0 - 0 ) met at Palo Alto , with USC winning 13 - 0 . At Pittsburgh , Ohio State and Pitt played to a 0 - 0 tie . Michigan beat Illinois 32 - 0 , Purdue tied at Northwestern 7 - 7 , and Wisconsin shut out Iowa ' s Coe College 39 - 0 . Notre Dame beat Carnegie Tech 42 - 0 . Army won at Yale 20 - 0 . Tennessee beat Maryville College 60 - 0 and TCU beat Austin College 68 - 0 October 29 Pittsburgh ( 4 - 0 - 1 ) hosted Notre Dame ( 3 - 0 - 0 ) and won 12 - 0 . Ohio State and Wisconsin played to a 7 - 7 tie giving OSU a record of 1 - 1 - 3 . Michigan defeated Princeton 14 - 7 and Purdue beat NYU 34 - 9 at Yankee Stadium . Army beat William & Mary 33 - 0 . Tennessee beat visiting Duke , 16 - 13 , and TCU defeated Baylor 27 - 0 . November . November 5 Notre Dame won at Kansas University , 24 - 6 . Michigan won at Indiana 7 - 0 , Ohio State won at Northwestern 20 - 6 , Wisconsin beat Illinois 20 - 12 and Purdue won at Chicago 37 - 0 . Pittsburgh won at Penn , 19 - 12 . USC beat California 27 - 7 . Army won at Harvard 46 - 0 Tennessee beat Mississippi State 31 - 0 and TCU won at Hardin - Simmonds 27 - 0 . November 11 On Armistice Day , TCU ( 8 - 0 - 1 ) hosted Texas ( 6 - 1 - 0 ) and won 14 - 0 . November 12 In Nashville , Tennessee ( 7 - 0 - 0 ) and Vanderbilt ( 6 - 0 - 1 ) , played to a scoreless tie . Michigan beat Chicago 12 - 0 , Purdue won at Iowa 18 - 0 , and Wisconsin beat Minnesota 20 - 13 . Ohio State beat Penn 19 - 0 . USC beat Oregon 33 - 0 . Army beat North Dakota State 52 - 0 . At Lincoln , Neb . , Pittsburgh and Nebraska played to a 0 - 0 tie . At Chicago , Notre Dame beat Northwestern 21 - 0 November 19 Michigan closed its season with a 3 - 0 win at Minnesota , Ohio State closed at Illinois with the same 3 - 0 score . Wisconsin won at Chicago 18 - 7 , and Purdue beat Indiana 25 - 7 . Notre Dame defeated Navy in a game at Cleveland , 12 - 0 . Pittsburgh beat Carnegie Tech , 6 - 0 . In Houston , TCU beat Rice 16 - 6 . Army narrowly beat visiting West Virginia Wesleyan 7 - 0 . At Providence , Colgate ( 8 - 0 - 0 ) and Brown University ( 7 - 0 - 0 ) faced each other for the season - ender for both teams . Colgate had held its first 8 opponents scoreless , and the nation waited to see if that streak would be ended by Colgate ' s toughest opponent of the year . Colgate ' s Red Raiders won 21 - 0 to close the season with a 264 - 0 edge on its opposition . November 24 On Thanksgiving Day , USC won at Washington 9 - 6 ; that win , along with California ' s 3 - 0 loss to Washington State , gave USC the Pacific Coast crown and a trip to the Rose Bowl . November 26 At Yankee Stadium , Notre Dame beat Army 21 - 0 . Pittsburgh beat visiting Stanford 7 - 0 to close its season unbeaten ( 8 - 0 - 2 ) . Tennessee beat Kentucky 26 - 0 . TCU closed its season at Dallas , with an 8 - 0 win over SMU . In eleven games , TCU had registered seven shutouts , and finished unbeaten ( 10 - 0 - 1 ) . December . December 3 In the Army – Navy Game at Philadelphia , Army won 20 - 0 . In Jacksonville , Tennessee beat Florida to close its season unbeaten ( 9 - 0 - 1 ) . December 10 In Los Angeles , USC ( 9 - 0 - 0 ) hosted Notre Dame ( 7 - 1 - 0 ) and won 13 - 0 . Colgate University . As an independent , the Colgate football team won all nine of its games , and all by shutouts , against a variety of opponents : St . Lawrence ( 41 - 0 ) , Case ( 27 - 0 ) , Niagara ( 47 - 0 ) , Lafayette College ( 35 - 0 ) , New York University ( 14 - 0 ) , Penn State ( 31 - 0 ) , Mississippi College ( 32 - 0 ) , Syracuse University ( 16 - 0 ) and Brown University ( 21 - 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 . 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 . In addition , Professor Dickinson announced in 1932 that " differential points " would be factored in for an " intersectional game " , with ratings of 0 . 00 for East schools , higher points for " Middlewest " ( + 4 . 77 ) and Southwest ( + 1 . 36 ) , negatives for the South ( - 2 . 59 ) , the Big Six ( - 2 . 60 ) and the Pacific Coast ( - 2 . 71 ) . Final Dickinson rankings . Michigan and USC were both unbeaten and untied , but as a " Middlewest " team , Michigan had a higher average rating . The higher weight put four Western Conference teams in Dickinson ' s top 11 : Michigan , Ohio State , Purdue and Wisconsin . In 1932 , the national championship trophy was presented to the winning school by the Four Horsemen ( Harry Stuhldreher , Jim Crowley , Don Miller , and Elmer Layden ) . 1933 Rose Bowl . USC had beaten Pitt in the 1930 Rose Bowl , 47 - 14 , and the rematch three years later resulted in a larger defeat . Before a crowd of 84 , 000 the previously unbeaten Pitt Panthers reached the " red zone " only twice . In the second quarter , a long run gave the Panthers first down on the USC 24 yard line , but Warren Heller ' s pass fell in the end zone , and under the rules of the day , the result was a turnover ( and a touchback , with USC given first down on the 20 ) . Pitt got another chance soon after on a blocked punt , but was stopped on downs . With the help of holes opened up by Trojan halfback , USC scored five touchdowns ( including three in the final quarter ) and won 35 - 0 . With New Year ' s Day falling on a Sunday , the Rose Bowl took place on Monday , January 2 , 1933