1931 college football season The 1931 college football season saw the USC Trojans win the Knute Rockne Memorial Trophy as national champion under the Dickinson system . Rockne , who had coached Notre Dame to a championship in 1930 , had been killed in a plane crash on March 31 , 1931 . For the first time , the champion under the Dickinson system also played in a postseason game . The Rose Bowl , promoted as an unofficial championship matchup between the best teams of East and West , matched USC and Tulane , # 1 and # 2 in the Dickinson ratings . USC won , 21 - 12 . Also in 1931 Parke Davis through research , and recognized by the NCAA , declared that Purdue and Pittsburgh were National Champions . Major conferences that existed in 1931 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 ) . At season ' s end , the Rissman Trophy 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 26 The season started with an upset . St . Mary ' s College , a relatively small school in San Francisco , defeated USC 13 - 7 . Tulane beat Ole Miss , 31 - 0 and Tennessee beat Maryville 33 - 0 , while Pittsburgh beat Miami University , 61 - 0 . October . October 3 St . Mary ' s won again , at California , 14 - 0 , and USC won its first game of the season , beating Oregon State 30 - 0 . Tennessee beat Clemson 44 - 0 and Tulane defeated Texas A & M 7 - 0 . Northwestern beat Nebraska 19 - 7 . Purdue opened its season for the home crowd with a doubleheader , beating Ohio ' s Western Reserve 28 - 0 , followed by a 19 - 0 win over Iowa ' s Coe College Pittsburgh won at Iowa , 20 - 0 Georgia beat Virginia Tech 40 - 0 Harvard defeated Bates College , 28 - 0 and Yale beat Maine , 19 - 0 Notre Dame won at Indiana 25 - 0 October 10 In Chicago , a crowd of 75 , 000 turned out at Soldier Field to watch Northwestern and Notre Dame played to a 0 - 0 tie in a driving rain . Tennessee defeated Ole Miss 38 - 0 . USC beat Washington State 38 - 6 . Harvard beat New Hampshire , 39 - 0 . In New Haven , the Georgia Bulldogs handed the Yale Bulldogs their first defeat , 26 - 7 . Purdue beat Illinois 7 - 0 Pittsburgh beat West Virginia 34 - 0 . Tulane defeated Spring Hill College 40 - 0 and St . Mary ' s beat the West Coast Army team , 21 - 7 October 17 Tulane and Vanderbilt , both 3 - 0 - 0 , met at Nashville , with Tulane winning 19 - 0 Tennessee and Alabama , both 3 - 0 - 0 , met at Knoxville , with UT winning 25 - 0 . USC defeated visiting Oregon 53 - 0 . Northwestern beat visiting UCLA 19 - 0 Georgia won at North Carolina , 32 - 7 . Yale beat Chicago 27 - 0 and Harvard got past Army 14 - 13 . Purdue lost at Wisconsin 21 - 14 . Pittsburgh defeated Western Reserve , 32 - 0 . Notre Dame defeated Drake 63 - 0 . St . Mary ' s beat the University of San Francisco , 14 - 6 . Neither SMC or USF play college football anymore . October 24 Notre Dame ( 3 - 0 - 0 ) and Pittsburgh ( 4 - 0 - 0 ) met at South Bend , with Notre Dame winning 25 - 12 . Tulane beat Georgia Tech 33 - 0 ; Tulane had outscored its five opponents 130 - 0 . Tennessee won at North Carolina , 7 - 0 ; it had outscored its five foes 147 - 0 . Georgia beat Vanderbilt 9 - 0 . Harvard beat visiting Texas , 35 - 7 and Yale and Army played to a 6 - 6 tie , while in Pittsburgh , Purdue defeated Carnegie Tech 13 - 6 . Northwestern defeated Ohio State in Columbus , 10 - 0 . St . Mary ' s beat visiting Gonzaga University , 13 - 7 . USC won at California 6 - 0 October 31 Tulane beat Mississippi State , but not without surrendering its first points , in a 59 - 7 win ; likewise , Tennessee beat Duke , but was scored upon for the first time , in its 25 - 2 win Georgia won at Florida , 33 - 6 . Northwestern beat visiting Illinois 32 - 6 and Purdue won at Chicago 14 - 6 . Harvard beat Virginia 19 - 0 and Yale and Dartmouth played to a 33 - 33 tie . Pittsburgh won at Penn State , 41 - 6 Notre Dame defeated Carnegie Tech 19 - 0 . Surprising St . Mary ' s extended its record to 6 - 0 - 0 with a 21 - 14 win over Santa Clara . November . November 7 USC ( 4 - 1 - 0 ) and Stanford ( 5 - 0 - 1 ) met at Los Angeles , and USC won 19 - 0 . In Montgomery , Alabama , Tulane shut out Auburn 27 - 0 . Tennessee beat visiting Carson - Newman , 31 - 0 . Northwestern beat Minnesota , 32 - 14 . Purdue beat Centenary College 49 - 6 . Before a crowd of 65 , 000 at Yankee Stadium , Georgia stayed unbeaten as it defeated New York University 7 - 6 , with the aid of a 97 yard kickoff return by Buster Mott in the third quarter . Harvard beat Dartmouth 7 - 6 and Yale beat St . John ' s College of Maryland , 52 - 0 . Pittsburgh beat Carnegie Tech 14 - 6 . Notre Dame beat Pennsylvania 49 - 0 . St . Mary ' s suffered its first defeat , to the visiting Olympic Club , 10 - 0 November 11 In an Armistice Day game at Los Angeles , UCLA handed St . Mary ' s its second straight loss , 12 - 0 November 14 Tulane ( 7 - 0 - 0 ) and Georgia ( 6 - 0 - 0 ) faced off in Athens before a crowd of 36 , 000 for the rights to best in the South . The Green Wave rolled over Georgia ' s Bulldogs 20 - 7 . Tennessee defeated Vanderbilt 21 - 7 . USC beat visiting Montana 69 - 0 . Harvard defeated Holy Cross 7 - 0 . Purdue defeated Iowa 22 - 0 and Northwestern edged Indiana 7 - 6 . Pittsburgh beat visiting Army 26 - 0 . In Baltimore , Notre Dame beat Navy 20 - 0 November 21 Notre Dame ( 6 - 0 - 1 ) had not lost a football game in almost three years , its last defeat having been to the USC Trojans on 27 - 14 on December 1 , 1928 . A crowd of 52 , 000 turned out as ( 5 - 1 - 0 ) USC came to the Notre Dame campus in South Bend for the first time ever . The Trojans trailed 14 - 0 going into the fourth quarter , and was trailing 14 - 13 in the final minutes after Johnny Baker ' s extra point attempt had been blocked . In the final minute , Baker kicked a 34 yard field goal for a 16 - 14 win , Notre Dame ' s first loss in 27 starts . Tulane beat Sewanee 40 - 0 . Northwestern won at Iowa 9 - 0 , and Purdue won at Indiana , 19 - 0 . In Columbus , Ga . , Georgia beat Auburn 12 - 6 . Yale ( 3 - 1 - 2 ) hosted Harvard ( 7 - 0 - 0 ) and won 3 - 0 November 26 On Thanksgiving Day , Pitt and Nebraska , both 7 - 1 - 0 , met in Pittsburgh , with the home team winning 40 - 0 . Tennessee and Kentucky played to a 6 - 6 tie in Lexington . St . Mary ' s defeated Oregon 16 - 0 . November 28 In Yankee Stadium , a crowd of 80 , 000 turned out in spite of a snowstorm , and watched as Notre Dame was beaten by Army , 12 - 0 , for its second consecutive defeat after 26 games without a loss . Meanwhile , 40 , 000 watched in Chicago as Northwestern ( 7 - 0 - 1 ) and Purdue ( 8 - 1 - 0 ) met in a " post - season charity game " on a frozen field in Chicago , with the Boilermakers handing the Wildcats their first defeat , 7 - 0 . Yale beat Princeton 51 - 14 . Tulane defeated LSU 34 - 7 and Georgia defeated Georgia Tech 35 - 6 December . December 5 Tulane beat Washington State 28 - 14 to close at 11 - 0 - 0 , unbeaten and untied , while Tennessee played NYU at Yankee Stadium , winning 13 - 0 to finish at 8 - 0 - 1 . USC defeated Washington 44 - 7 . St . Mary ' s closed its season with a 7 - 2 win over Southern Methodist ( SMU ) . December 12 USC and Georgia , both 8 - 1 - 0 , met in Los Angeles , and the visiting Bulldogs were crushed 60 - 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 . Final Dickinson rankings . Although Tulane University was unbeaten and untied ( 11 - 0 - 0 ) , it was second to the University of Southern California , with a 9 - 1 - 0 record . 1932 Rose Bowl . For the first time , the East - West matchup in college football ' s unofficial championship included the # 1 ranked team under the Dickinson ratings . That team , U . S . C . , was matched against # 2 ranked Tulane . A crowd of 83 , 000 turned out in Pasadena , a Rose Bowl record . Though Tulane had outgained USC in total yards ( 378 vs . 233 ) and first downs ( 18 vs . 11 ) , the USC Trojans made the most of their three scoring opportunities . In the third quarter , Erny Pinckert ran 28 yards for a touchdown , then , after the Trojans recovered a Tulane fumble , scored again . USC went up 21 - 0 before Tulane fought back with two touchdowns , and only a tough Trojan defense held the Green Wave from scoring more . The final result was USC 21 , Tulane 12 .