1934 college football season The 1934 college football season saw the addition of not one , but two New Year ' s Day football games to rival the venerable Rose Bowl . On February 15 , Warren V . Miller and Joseph M . Cousins had organized the New Orleans Mid - Winter Sports Association and by October , the group had enough funds to sponsor the Sugar Bowl . Meanwhile , W . Keith Phillips and the Greater Miami Athletic Club worked in November at a January 1 game for Florida , and the Orange Bowl was created . Once again , a Big Ten team was selected by Professor Dickinson ( of the University of Illinois ) as the national champion , with the Minnesota Golden Gophers being accorded the honor . The conference , however , still had a bar against its members playing in the postseason , so Minnesota did not play in any of the bowl games . The Alabama Crimson Tide was selected national champions by Dunkel , Williamson and " Football Thesaurus " . Major conferences that existed in 1934 were the Western Conference ( today ' s Big Ten ) , the Pacific Coast Conference ( now the Pac - 12 ) , the Southeastern Conference ( SEC ) , the old Southern Conference ( whose members later played in the ACC ) , the Big Six Conference ( later the Big 12 ) and the Southwest Conference . September . September 22 Stanford opened with a 48 - 0 win over San Jose State , while in Houston , Rice opened with a 12 - 0 win over Loyola College of New Orleans . September 29 Minnesota beat North Dakota State 56 - 12 and Illinois beat Bradley 40 - 7 . Alabama beat Samford 24 - 0 , and Tulane beat UT - Chattanooga 41 - 0 . Rice and LSU played to a 9 - 9 tie while Stanford and Santa Clara tied 7 - 7 . Navy defeated William & Mary 20 - 7 while Pittsburgh beat Washington & Jefferson 26 - 6 . October . On a Wednesday game ( October 3 ) Minnesota beat Nebraska 20 - 0 . Illinois beat Washington University ( at St . Louis ) 12 - 7 , and on Friday , Alabama beat Sewanee 35 - 6 in Montgomery . October 6 Navy beat Virginia 21 - 6 in a game in Washington , DC . In New Orleans , Tulane beat Auburn 13 - 0 . At Portland , Stanford beat Oregon State 17 - 0 . Columbia opened its season in New York with a 12 - 6 win over Yale , and Colgate beat St . Lawrence 32 - 0 . Pittsburgh won at West Virginia 27 - 6 . Ohio State beat Indiana 33 - 0 . Rice won at Purdue 14 - 0 . October 13 . Illinois beat Ohio State 14 - 13 . Stanford beat visiting Northwestern 20 - 0 . Pittsburgh defeated visiting USC 20 - 6 . Alabama defeated Mississippi State 41 - 0 , Rice defeated SMU 9 - 0 , and Tulane won at Florida 28 - 12 . Navy defeated Maryland 16 - 13 , Colgate beat St . Bonaventure 62 - 0 and Columbia beat VMI 29 - 6 . October 20 Minnesota won at Pittsburgh , 13 - 7 . Ohio State defeated visiting Colgate 10 - 7 . Navy beat Columbia 18 - 7 . Alabama and Tennessee , both 3 - 0 - 0 , met in Birmingham , with Bama winning 13 - 6 . Tulane edged visiting Georgia 7 - 6 . In Omaha , Rice beat Creighton University 47 - 13 . Stanford beat USF at San Francisco , 3 - 0 . October 27 Alabama beat Georgia 26 - 6 at Birmingham , while in New Orleans , Tulane beat Georgia Tech 20 - 12 . Rice stayed unbeaten with a 20 - 9 win over visiting Texas . Minnesota won at Iowa 48 - 12 , . Illinois won at Michigan 7 - 6 , and Ohio State won at Northwestern 28 - 6 . Stanford registered its fourth shutout , a 16 - 0 win over USC . Navy won at Penn , Colgate won at Holy Cross 20 - 7 and Columbia beat visiting Penn State 14 - 7 . Pittsburgh beat host school Westminster College of Pennsylvania , 30 - 0 In a Sunday game , November . November 3 Pitt ( 4 - 1 - 0 ) and Notre Dame ( 3 - 0 - 0 ) met in Pittsburgh , with the Panthers winning 19 - 0 . Minnesota beat Michigan 34 - 0 . In Cleveland , Ohio State won at Western Reserve 76 - 0 . Illinois beat Army 7 - 0 . Alabama won at Kentucky 34 - 14 . Rice beat Texas A & I 27 - 0 . Tulane beat Ole Miss 15 - 0 . In Los Angeles , Stanford beat UCLA 27 - 0 . Columbia defeated Cornell 14 - 0 and Navy beat Washington & Lee 26 - 0 . November 10 At Yankee Stadium , Tulane ( 6 - 0 - 0 ) faced Colgate ( 3 - 1 - 0 ) , with the Red Raiders handing the Green Wave their first loss , 20 - 6 . In a meeting of unbeaten teams , Stanford ( 7 - 0 - 1 ) hosted Washington ( 4 - 0 - 0 ) and had a sixth straight shutout 24 - 0 . Over in Cleveland , Navy beat Notre Dame 10 - 6 . Pittsburgh won at Nebraska 25 - 6 . Minnesota beat Indiana 30 - 0 , Illinois won at Northwestern 14 - 3 , and Ohio State beat Chicago 33 - 0 Alabama beat Clemson 40 - 0 and Rice won at Arkansas 7 - 0 . Columbia beat Brown 39 - 0 November 17 Navy ( 7 - 0 - 0 ) hosted Pittsburgh ( 6 - 1 - 0 ) and lost 31 - 7 Minnesota beat Chicago 35 - 7 and Ohio State defeated Michigan 34 - 0 . Previously unbeaten ( 6 - 0 - 0 ) Illinois was upset at Madison when it faced a ( 3 - 3 - 0 ) Wisconsin Badgers team , falling 7 - 3 . Alabama defeated Georgia Tech 40 - 0 , while Tulane won at Kentucky 20 - 7 . Stanford beat the Olympic Club team 40 - 0 , and had a record of 192 - 7 against its opponents to that time . Colgate won at Syracuse 13 - 2 and Columbia edged Penn 13 - 12 . Rice beat Texas A & M 25 - 6 . November 24 Minnesota won at Wisconsin 34 - 0 , Ohio State beat Iowa 40 - 7 , and Illinois won at Chicago 7 - 1 . Stanford clinched a trip to the Rose Bowl with a 9 - 7 win at California . Colgate beat Rutgers 14 - 0 . Tulane beat Sewanee 32 - 0 . Columbia ( 7 - 1 - 0 ) beat Syracuse ( 6 - 1 - 0 ) in a Sunday game 12 - 0 . In Houston , previously unbeaten ( 8 - 0 - 1 ) Rice hosted ( 6 - 3 - 0 ) Texas Christian ( TCU ) and was upset , 7 - 2 . On Thanksgiving Day , November 29 , Alabama beat Vanderbilt in Birmingham , 34 - 0 , and was invited soon after to meet Stanford at the Rose Bowl . Pittsburgh beat crosstown rival Carnegie Tech , 20 - 0 , and Kansas State beat Nebraska 19 - 7 to clinch the Big Six Conference championship . December . December 1 In Louisiana , Tulane ( 8 - 1 - 0 ) and LSU ( 6 - 0 - 2 ) faced each other in Baton Rouge . Both teams were likely hosts for the first Sugar Bowl in New Orleans , and Tulane edged the Tigers 13 - 12 to become the host team , where it would face 7 - 0 - 2 Temple University . Rice ended at 9 - 1 - 1 with a 32 - 0 win at Baylor . Colgate closed its season with a 20 - 13 win in Providence against Brown . At the Army – Navy Game , held in Philadelphia , Navy ( 7 - 1 - 0 ) beat Army ( 7 - 2 - 0 ) on a field goal , 3 - 0 . Conference standings . The following is an incomplete list of conference standings : Dickinson System . The first ever published AP Poll came in 1934 . However , this was a one time event and the AP sportswriters ' poll would not be continuously until 1936 . 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 Rissman Trophy , and later the Rockne Memorial Trophy , was awarded to the winning university . In an AP story with the caption " Figure This Out ! " , the system was explained : " For each victory of a first division team over another first division team , the winner gets 30 points and the loser 15 points . For each tie between two first division teams , each team gets 22 . 5 points . For each victory of a first division team over a second division team , the first division winner gets 20 points and the second division loser 10 points . For each tie between two second division teams , each gets 15 points . For each tie between a first division team and a second division team , the first division team gets 15 points and the second division team gets 20 points . Then , after each team has been given its quota of points its final " score " is tabulated by taking an average on the number of games played . " Final Dickinson rankings . Minnesota ( 8 - 0 - 0 ) and Alabama ( 9 - 0 - 0 ) were both unbeaten and untied , and ranked 1st and 6th , respectively , in the Dickinson ratings Bowl Games . In the first Sugar Bowl game , ( 9 - 1 - 0 ) hosted unbeaten ( 7 - 0 - 2 ) before a crowd of 30 , 000 in New Orleans . Temple took a 14 - 0 lead before Tulane came back to win the game 20 - 14 . Temple had closed its season with a 0 - 0 tie against Bucknell University , which finished at 6 - 2 - 2 , and the Bucknell Bison were invited to play the in the first Orange Bowl . The ' Canes best days were still ahead of them , and they made only three first downs altogether . Although 15 , 000 were expected , only 5 , 000 turned out to watch Bucknell beat Miami 26 - 0 . The big game remained the Rose Bowl with , at 9 - 0 - 1 , and Alabama , at 9 - 0 - 0 . With both teams unbeaten , a crowd of 85 , 000 turned out in Pasadena to watch them . Stanford led 7 - 0 in the first quarter , but Alabama scored 22 points in the second , with the help of quarterback Millard ( Dixie ) Howell and future NFL hall of fame receiver Don Hutson , with Alabama winning 29 - 14 . The Sun Bowl was given a test drive , with the El Paso All - Stars beating the visiting Ranger Bulldogs 25 - 12 before a crowd of 3 , 000 in El Paso . At Honolulu , beat vacationing 14 - 0 , and in Houston , Tuskegee beat Prairie View A & M 15 - 6 in a New Year ' s Day game for negro colleges