1922 college football season The 1922 college football season had a number of unbeaten and untied teams , and no clear - cut champion . Three different " retro polls " , taken years later and based on opinions drawn from historical research , reached different conclusions . The Helms Athletic Foundation , founded in 1936 , declared retroactively that Cornell University ( 8 - 0 - 0 ) was the best , while the College Football Researchers ' Association ( CFRA ) recognized shared between Drake University ( 7 - 0 - 0 ) and Princeton University ( 8 - 0 - 0 ) ; and the National Championship Foundation ( NCF ) cited the University of California ( 9 - 0 - 0 ) as best . The other unbeaten and untied team was the University of Iowa , which canceled its game with unbeaten Drake University that year . Other teams that had no defeats in 1922 were West Virginia University ( 10 - 0 - 1 ) , Vanderbilt University ( 8 - 0 - 1 ) , the University of Michigan ( 6 - 0 - 1 ) , and the United States Military Academy ( Army ) , which had an 8 - 0 - 2 record . Major conferences that existed in 1922 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 ) . September . September 30 Harvard beat Middlebury 20 - 0 , Princeton beat Johns Hopkins 30 - 0 , and Cornell beat St . Bonaventure 55 - 6 . Vanderbilt opened its season with a 38 - 0 win over Middle Tennessee Normal ( now MTSU ) . Baylor beat North Texas 55 - 0 California beat Santa Clara 45 - 14 . October . October 7 Princeton defeated Virginia 5 - 0 , Harvard beat Holy Cross 20 - 0 , and Cornell beat Niagara 66 - 0 Vanderbilt beat Henderson - Brown College 33 - 0 North Carolina lost to Yale at New Haven , 18 - 0 . Iowa beat Knox College 61 - 0 , and Michigan defeated Case 48 - 0 Drake opened its season with a win over Cornell College of Iowa , 16 - 0 Baylor beat Hardin - Simmons 42 - 0 In a meeting with the visiting Mare Island Marines service team , California routed them 80 - 0 . October 14 Princeton beat Colgate 10 - 0 , Harvard defeated Bowdoin 15 - 0 , and Cornell beat New Hampshire 68 - 7 At New Haven , Iowa defeated Yale 6 - 0 . In Nashville , Michigan and Vanderbilt played to a 0 - 0 tie . After beating Duke 20 - 0 in a Thursday game , North Carolina beat South Carolina , 10 - 7 . Drake defeated Kansas 6 - 0 . California beat St . Mary ' s 41 - 0 . October 21 In Dallas , Vanderbilt and Texas , both unbeaten at 3 - 0 - 0 , met , with the Commodores winning 20 - 10 . In Houston , Baylor defeated Rice 31 - 0 . North Carolina won at NC State , 14 - 9 . Harvard had been shocked the year before in a 6 - 0 upset by the " Prayin ' Colonels " of Centre College of Danville , Kentucky . In the rematch , the Crimson beat Centre 24 - 10 . Princeton recorded antoher shutout , blanking Maryland 26 - 0 . Cornell defeated Colgate 14 - 0 Iowa won at Illinois 8 - 7 , and Michigan won at Ohio State 19 - 0 ; In St . Louis , Drake beat Washington University , 31 - 7 Baylor beat Arkansas 60 - 13 California shut out the Olympic Club team , 25 - 0 . October 28 In the first football game ever broadcast on the radio Princeton ( 4 - 0 - 0 ) traveled to the University of Chicago ( 3 - 0 - 0 ) for a rematch of Chicago ' s 1921 win . The game was witnessed by 32 , 000 fans , and listened to on New York ' s WEAF radio station . John Thomas ran for three touchdowns and Chicago ' s Maroons led 18 - 7 as the fourth quarter began , but a 40 yard interception return closed the gap . In the closing minutes , and Harry Crum was buried under a pile of players as he plunged toward the goal line , and when the mass was untangled , it was a touchdown . With the help of a better kicking game , Princeton won 21 - 18 Harvard defeated Dartmouth 12 - 3 . Iowa beat Purdue 56 - 0 , and Michigan beat Illinois 24 - 0 Baylor beat Mississippi College 40 - 7 Vanderbilt beat Mercer 25 - 0 North Carolina defeated Maryland 27 - 3 California was 4 - 0 - 0 , and USC was 5 - 0 - 0 , when the teams met in Pasadena . Cal had a 2 - 0 lead at halftime , and held off USC on two goal line stands , before scoring a touchdown and a field goal to win 12 - 0 . November . November 4 Princeton beat Swarthmore , 22 - 13 . Harvard beat the visiting Florida Gators 24 - 0 Cornell ( 5 - 0 - 0 ) trounced Columbia , which had been 4 - 1 - 0 , by a score of 56 - 0 Michigan beat Michigan State 63 - 0 , having outscored its opponents 154 - 0 in its first five games . Vanderbilt won at Tennessee , 14 - 6 . Baylor beat Texas A & M 13 - 7 Drake defeated Iowa State 14 - 7 In New Orleans , North Carolina defeated Tulane 19 - 12 . California defeated Washington State , 61 - 0 . November 11 Princeton and Harvard were both unbeaten ( 6 - 0 - 0 ) when the Tigers travelled to Cambridge to face the Crimson . Princeton had not won on Harvard ' s home field since 1896 , and 54 , 000 turned out to watch . Although both teams were unbeaten , Harvard was heavily favored to overcome the young Tiger team , and led 3 - 0 early in the game . On the 18 yard line , though , the Tigers outsmarted Harvard with a triple pass that set up Harry Crum ' s touchdown run , and went on to win 10 - 3 . Grantland Rice wrote the next day , " Crimson shadows around Cambridge way were thicker tonight than the Chinese wall and as deep as the darkness of Stygia itself . . . " At the Polo Grounds , Cornell beat Dartmouth , with the Big Red overcoming the Big Green , 23 - 0 . In Boston , Baylor lost to Boston College , 33 - 0 . In Seattle , California ( 7 - 0 - 0 ) faced Washington ( 5 - 0 - 0 ) in a battle of unbeatens , and handed the Huskies their first defeat , 45 - 7 . Iowa beat Minnesota 28 - 14 , and Michigan beat Wisconsin 13 - 6 ; Drake beat Colorado State , 19 - 6 Vanderbilt beat Kentucky 9 - 0 North Carolina beat VMI 9 - 7 at Richmond . November 18 Princeton beat Yale , 3 - 0 , to close a perfect season . Cornell beat Albright , 48 - 14 Harvard lost its second straight game , falling 3 - 0 to Brown Iowa won at Ohio State 12 - 9 to stay unbeaten . Drake defeated Grinnell College . 21 - 0 Baylor beat Oklahoma State , 10 - 0 Vanderbilt won at Georgia 12 - 0 At Charlotte , NC , North Carolina defeated Davidson 20 - 6 . California defeated Nevada , 61 - 13 . November 25 Harvard won at Yale , 10 - 3 . California closed its season with a 28 - 0 win at Stanford . Iowa closed its season at 7 - 0 - 0 with a win over Northwestern 37 - 3 , Michigan won at Minnesota 16 - 7 ; Drake won at Mississippi State in Starkville , 48 - 6 Vanderbilt beat Sewanee , 26 - 0 , to close at 8 - 0 - 1 . November 30 was Thanksgiving Day in 1922 . In Philadelphia , Cornell defeated Penn 6 - 3 . In Dallas , Baylor defeated SMU , 24 - 0 , to win the Southwest Conference title . The following week , Baylor lost to the Haskell Indians team , 21 - 20 . North Carolina closed its season with a 10 - 7 win at Virginia , to finish at 9 - 1 - 0 1923 Rose Bowl . Though it had a record of 9 - 1 - 0 overall , USC was actually the fourth best team in Pacific Coast Conference play , behind California , Oregon and Washington , having been defeated by PCC champion California . Penn State had won its first five games , then only one of the next five , and had a 6 - 3 - 1 record at season ' s end . USC defeated Penn State 14 - 3 . Conference standings . The following is an incomplete list of conference standings :