1929 college football season The 1929 college football season saw a number of unbeaten and untied teams . Purdue , Tulane , Notre Dame and Pittsburgh all finished the regular season with wins over all their opponents ; Notre Dame was recognized as national champion under the Dickinson system . Pitt and USC met in the Rose Bowl , at that time the only postseason college football game and an unofficial title game between the best teams of east and west , but Pitt ' s claims for a national title were demolished by the Trojans , 47 – 14 . A major change in the rules for 1929 was that a fumbled ball was dead as soon as it struck the ground . Previously , a defending player could run with a recovered fumble , as in the case of Roy Riegels in the 1929 Rose Bowl . Major conferences that existed in 1929 were the Western Conference ( today ' s Big Ten ) , the Pacific Coast Conference ( now the Pacific - 12 ) , 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 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 21 In Dallas , Southern Methodist University ( SMU ) opened its season with a 13 - 3 win over North Texas State . September 28 SMU and Howard Payne College played to a 13 - 13 tie , and TCU rolled over visiting Daniel Baker College , 61 - 0 . In Los Angeles , USC opened its season against crosstown rival UCLA , rolling over the Bruins 76 - 0 . Pittsburgh beat Waynesburg State , 53 - 0 California beat Santa Clara 27 - 6 Pennsylvania beat Franklin & Marshall 14 - 7 Tulane opened with a win over Northwestern State , 40 - 6 October . October 5 SMU and Nebraska played to a 0 - 0 tie in Nebraska . Notre Dame opened its season with a 14 - 0 win at Indiana TCU beat hardin Simmons , 20 - 0 Illinois beat Kansas 25 - 0 , and Purdue beat Kansas State , 26 - 14 Pittsburgh won at Duke , 52 - 7 USC beat Oregon State 21 - 7 Pennsylvania defeated Swarthmore 20 - 6 California and St . Mary ' s played to a 0 - 0 tie . Tulane beat Texas A & M , 13 - 10 October 12 In Baltimore , Notre Dame defeated Navy , 14 - 7 . SMU beat Austin College , 16 - 0 In Shreveport , TCU registered another shutout , beating Centenary College 28 - 0 Nebraska won at Syracuse , 13 - 6 USC won at Washington , 48 - 0 , and California beat visiting Washington State , 14 - 0 . Purdue beat Michigan 30 - 16 and Illinois beat Bradley 45 - 0 Pittsburgh beat West Virginia 27 - 7 Pennsylvania beat Virginia Tech , 14 - 8 Tulane beat Mississippi State , 34 - 0 October 19 Pittsburgh handed Nebraska its first loss , 12 - 7 ; TCU surrendered its first points , but beat Texas A & M , 13 - 7 . Illinois and Iowa played to a 7 - 7 tie . Purdue beat DePauw 26 - 7 Tulane beat Lafayette College of Louisiana , 60 - 0 USC scored big again , with a 64 - 0 win over Occidental . At 4 - 0 - 0 , the Trojans had outscored their opponents 209 - 7 . In Chicago , Notre Dame defeated Wisconsin 19 - 0 In Philadelphia , ( 1 - 0 - 1 ) California and ( 3 - 0 ) Pennsylvania played , with California winning 12 - 7 October 26 During the weekend between October 24 and October 29 , 1929 ( see Wall Street Crash of 1929 ) , SMU beat visiting Ole Miss , 52 - 0 and TCU , with a 131 - 7 aggregate lead over its opponents , won its fifth straight , a 22 - 0 win over Texas Tech . In Pittsburgh , the Pitt Panthers beat Allegheny 40 - 0 and Notre Dame defeated Carnegie Tech 7 - 0 . Illinois beat visiting Michigan 14 - 0 , and Purdue won at Chicago 26 - 0 The USC offense was held to single digits at Stanford , winning 7 - 0 . California defeated the non - college Olympic Club , 21 - 19 . Pennsylvania beat Lehigh 10 - 7 and in New Orleans , Tulane beat Georgia Tech , 20 - 14 . Nebraska and Missouri played to a 7 - 7 tie . November . November 2 In Los Angeles , USC ( 5 - 0 - 0 ) hosted California ( 4 - 0 - 1 ) . California handed the Trojans their first loss , 15 - 7 In Dallas , unbeaten ( 3 - 0 - 2 ) SMU and unbeaten and untied Texas ( 5 - 0 - 0 ) both stayed unbeaten , playing to 0 - 0 tie . Notre Dame beat visiting Georgia Tech 26 - 6 In Columbus , Georgia , Tulane beat Georgia , 21 - 15 TCU beat North Texas State , 25 - 0 Nebraska beat Kansas , 12 - 6 Purdue won at Wisconsin 13 - 0 , but Illinois lost at Northwestern , 7 - 0 , Pittsburgh beat Ohio State , 18 - 2 Pennsylvania defeated Navy , 7 - 2 November 9 SMU won at Texas A & M 12 - 7 and TCU beat Rice , 24 - 0 Illinois beat Army , 17 - 7 and Purdue beat Ole Miss 27 - 7 Pittsburgh beat Washington & Jefferson 21 - 0 Notre Dame defeated Drake University Tulane beat Auburn , 52 - 0 USC beat visiting Nevada , 66 - 0 and California beat Montana 53 - 18 At Philadelphia , ( 5 - 1 - 0 ) Penn State defeated ( 5 - 1 - 0 ) Pennsylvania , 19 - 7 November 16 In Chicago , a record crowd of 123 , 000 turned out at Soldier Field to watch Notre Dame ( 6 - 0 - 0 ) and USC ( 6 - 1 - 0 ) . Knute Rockne , who had been hospitalized with an infected leg , guided his team from a cot set behind the Notre Dame bench . In the third quarter , the Irish took a 13 - 6 lead , on — Savoldi ' s plunge and Frank Carideo ' s extra point . On the ensuing kickoff , - - Saunders ran the ball back 95 yards for a touchdown , but the point after failed , and Notre Dame held on to win 13 - 12 . Nebraska and visiting Oklahoma played to a 13 - 13 draw ; at ( 2 - 1 - 3 ) , the Cornhuskers had tied more games than they had won or lost . SMU beat Baylor , 25 - 6 . TCU was ( 7 - 0 - 0 ) and had outscored its opposition 193 - 7 ; Texas ( 5 - 0 - 2 ) had an aggregate 120 - 0 lead on its opponents , though its last two games had been scoreless ties . When they met at Austin , Texas scored first , but Cy Leland returned the kickoff 90 yards for a TCU score . At halftime , TCU led 13 - 12 on the only extra point scored that day , and finished 15 - 12 Illinois defeated Chicago 20 - 6 and Purdue beat Iowa 7 - 0 Pittsburgh beat Carnegie Tech , 34 - 13 Pennsylvania visited Columbia and won 20 - 0 California beat Washington 7 - 0 Tulane defeated Sewanee 18 - 0 November 23 Nebraska won at Kansas State , 10 - 6 SMU beat Rice , 34 - 0 TCU beat Baylor , 34 - 7 Illinois beat Ohio State , 27 - 0 , and Purdue won at Indiana 32 - 0 to finish its season unbeaten . Notre Dame won at Northwestern 26 - 6 . USC beat visiting Idaho , 72 - 0 Stanford ( 7 - 2 - 0 ) and California met in Palo Alto , with Stanford winning 21 - 6 . November 28 , Thanksgiving Day ; Pittsburgh beat Penn State 20 - 7 Pennsylvania beat Cornell 17 - 7 Nebraska closed its season with a 31 - 12 win over Iowa State , to finish at 4 - 1 - 3 . November 30 In a season - ending matchup of the Southwest Conference ' s two best teams at Fort Worth , Texas Christian ( 9 - 0 - 0 ) hosted Southern Methodist ( 6 - 0 - 3 ) . Although SMU took a 7 - 0 lead in the third quarter , and held the Frogs once at the goal line , TCU reached the one on its next possession , and scored on third down . Hawks Green ' s kick staved off an upset , tied the Mustangs 7 - 7 , and gave TCU the conference title . Notre Dame ( 8 - 0 - 0 ) closed its season at Yankee Stadium in New York , where it faced Army ( 6 - 2 - 1 ) . The Fighting Irish won 7 - 0 . USC beat Washington State , 27 - 7 Tulane closed its season with a 21 - 0 win at LSU , to finish unbeaten at 9 - 0 - 0 On December 14 , USC defeated Carnegie Tech , 45 - 13 . 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 . Notre Dame and Pittsburgh , both with nine wins , and no losses or ties ( 9 - 0 - 0 ) were ranked first and second by Dickinson , with the Irish getting the higher rating based on the their opposition . As Grantland Rice noted in his column , " There is no questioning the fact that among the unbeaten teams who were not even tied , Notre Dame fought its way through the hardest field . But when it comes to saying that Notre Dame could beat Pittsburgh or the Notre Dame could beat Purdue or that Pittsburgh could beat Purdue - - that is something else again , " 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 . 1930 Rose Bowl . USC had been beaten earlier in the year , at Chicago , by Notre Dame . The Trojans and the Fighting Irish were not able to agree on a rematch , and USC was given the right to invite another eastern powerhouse — the unbeaten ( 9 - 0 - 0 ) Pittsburgh Panthers . Pitt ' s bid for a claim to the national championship started on the first play of the game , as Toby Uansa ran 68 yards before being tackled at the 11 , but the Panthers failed to reach the end zone . Six minutes into the game , Russ Saunders and - - - Edelson connected on a 56 yard pass play for USC ' s first touchdown . By halftime , USC led 26 - 0 . Pitt finally scored in the third quarter to trail 33 - 7 . After seven USC touchdowns , the final score was USC 47 , Pitt 14 .