1930 college football season The 1930 college football season saw Notre Dame repeat as national champion under the Dickinson system , and a post - season Rose Bowl matchup between two unbeaten ( 9 - 0 - 0 ) teams , Washington State and Alabama , ranked # 2 and # 3 , respectively . Alabama won the Pasadena contest , 24 - 0 . Major conferences that existed in 1930 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 20 Stanford opened its season against a non - college team , beating the West Coast Army club , 32 - 0 September 27 Nearly all the big schools scheduled tune - up games against weaker visitors , and all but one shut out the opposition . Michigan opened its season with a doubleheader , beating Denison 33 - 0 and Eastern Michigan 7 - 0 . Other schools rolled up high schores , as Stanford beat the Olympic Club , 18 - 0 ; Army beat Boston University 39 - 0 ; Alabama beat Samford , 43 - 0 ; USC rolled over UCLA 52 - 0 ; Tennessee beat Maryville College 54 - 0 ; Dartmouth beat Norwich College 79 - 0 ; and Tulane defeated Lafayette College of Louisiana , 84 - 0 . Only Washington State was scored upon , getting a surprise from the Coyotes of College of Idaho , which unleashed a surprise passing attack for two touchdowns ( and 12 of 19 completions ) in the fourth quarter . WSU won 47 - 12 . October . October 4 Notre Dame opened its season with a 20 - 14 win over visiting Southern Methodist . Northwestern beat visiting Tulane , 14 - 0 . Washington State won at California 16 - 0 and USC beat visiting Oregon State 27 - 7 , while Stanford defeated Santa Clara 20 - 0 . Dartmouth beat Bates 20 - 0 and Army beat Furman , 54 - 0 . Alabama rolled over visiting Ole Miss , 64 - 0 and in Danville , Kentucky , Tennessee dfeated Centre College 18 - 0 . Michigan and Michigan State played to a scoreless tie . October 11 Washington State edged visiting USC 7 - 6 . Notre Dame beat Navy 26 - 2 . Northwestern beat Ohio State 19 - 2 , and Michigan narrowly won over Purdue 14 - 13 . Dartmouth crushed visiting Boston University 74 - 0 , and Army beat Swarthmore 39 - 0 . Tennessee beat Ole Miss 27 - 0 . In Birmingham , Alabama shut out Sewanee 25 - 0 , and in Dallas , Tulane beat Texas A & M 19 - 9 . In Minneapolis , Stanford and Minnesota played to a 0 - 0 tie . October 18 Alabama and Tennessee , both 3 - 0 - 0 , and both unscored upon , met at Tuscaloosa in a game that would ultimately determine the fictional championship of the South . Alabama won 18 - 6 . Notre Dame beat Carnegie Tech 21 - 6 . Northwestern won at Illinois 32 - 0 and Michigan won at Ohio State , 13 - 0 USC won at Utah State 65 - 0 , Washington State won in Spokane at Gonzaga University , 24 - 0 , and Stanford beat Oregon State 13 - 7 . Dartmouth beat Columbia 52 - 0 and Army defeated Harvard , 6 - 0 . Tulane defeated Birmingham Southern College 21 - 0 October 25 Alabama and Vanderbilt , both 4 - 0 - 0 , met at Birmingham . In another close game , Alabama won 12 - 7 . USC ( 3 - 1 - 0 ) and Stanford ( 3 - 0 - 1 ) met in Palo Alto , with the Trojans handing the Indians their first loss of the season , 41 - 12 . Notre Dame won at Pittsburgh 35 - 19 . Washington State beat visiting Montana , 61 - 0 . Northwestern beat Centre College 45 - 7 and Michigan beat Illinois 15 - 7 . ( Dartmouth was scored upon , winning at Harvard 7 - 2 , and Army ' s streak of shutouts ended with its 7 - 7 tie at Yale . Tennessee beat visiting North Carolina 9 - 7 , and in Atlanta , Tulane shut out Georgia Tech 28 - 0 . November . November 1 Dartmouth ( 5 - 0 - 0 ) and ( 3 - 1 - 1 ) Yale ( 3 - 1 - 1 ) played to a 0 - 0 tie in New Haven . Notre Dame beat Indiana 27 - 0 and Northwestern won at Minnesota 27 - 6 USC beat Denver , 33 - 13 . Army defeated visiting North Dakota 33 - 6 . In Portland , Washington State defeated Oregon State 14 - 7 . Alabama won at Kentucky , 19 - 0 , Tennessee beat Clemson 27 - 0 and Tulane beat Mississippi State 53 - 0 November 8 Notre Dame beat Pennsylvania 60 - 20 . Washington State won at Idaho 33 - 7 . Northwestern won at Indiana 25 - 0 and Michigan won at Harvard 6 - 3 . Army defeate Illinois at Yankee Stadium , 13 - 0 . USC beat California 74 - 0 and Stanford beat Washington 25 - 7 Alabama won at Florida , 20 - 0 , Tulane beat Auburn 21 - 0 , and Allegheny College did what no other team had done that season , scoring two touchdowns against Dartmouth ; the Big Green won 43 - 14 to stay unbeaten . Tennessee shut out Carson - Newman College 34 - 0 November 15 Tennessee and Vanderbilt University , both 6 - 1 - 0 , met at Nashville , with Tennessee winning 13 - 0 . Notre Dame defeated Drake University 28 - 7 . In Seattle , Washington State won another close one , beating Washington 3 - 0j . Alabama beat LSU in a game at Montgomery , Alabama , 33 - 0 , while Tulane ( 6 - 1 - 0 ) and Georgia ( 6 - 0 - 1 ) met at New Orleans , with Tulane handing the Bulldogs their first loss , 25 - 0 Northwestern beat Wisconsin 20 - 7 and Michigan beat Minnesota 7 - 0 USC defeated visiting Hawaii 52 - 0 , while Stanford beat Caltech , 57 - 7 Dartmouth won at Cornell 19 - 13 . Army beat Kentucky Wesleyan 47 - 2 November 22 Notre Dame and Northwestern , both unbeaten ( 7 - 0 - 0 ) met at Evanston , with the Fighting Irish winning 14 - 0 . Michigan beat Chicago 16 - 0 Stanford won at California 41 - 0 . Army defeated Ursinus College 18 - 0 . November 27 , Thanksgiving Day , Alabama ( 8 - 0 - 0 ) met Georgia ( 6 - 1 - 1 ) in Birmingham . The Crimson Tide extended its unbeaten streak , 13 - 0 , to close the regular season unbeaten . The champion of the South also earned a Rose Bowl invitation to face Washington State . USC beat Washington 32 - 0 . Tennessee defeated Kentucky 8 - 0 and Tulane won over LSU , 12 - 7 . November 29 ( 8 - 0 - 0 ) Notre Dame and ( 8 - 0 - 1 ) Army met at Chicago , with the Irish narrowly winning 7 - 6 . In Philadelphia , Washington State beat Villanova , 13 - 0 , to close its season 9 - 0 - 0 . ( 8 - 1 - 1 ) Stanford hosted ( 7 - 0 - 1 ) Dartmouth and won 14 - 7 December . Although the Rose Bowl was the lone postseason game , and other bowl games were still four years in the future , several big contests were played after most colleges had completed their seasons . December 6 In Los Angeles , a crowd of 90 , 000 turned out at the Coliseum as Notre Dame ( 9 - 0 - 0 ) visited USC ( 8 - 1 - 0 ) . While some predicted a Trojans win , or at least a close game , " Rockne ' s Ramblers " scored six minutes into the game and never looked back . Paul O ' Connor , a third string player earlier in the season , had 11 carries for 142 yards , and one touchdown . The Irish closed their season with a decisive 27 - 0 victory and with another victory over a tough opponent , finished first in the Dickinson ratings . Nobody realized at the time that Knute Rockne had coached his final game . Rockne was killed in a plane crash on March 31 , 1931 . At Jacksonville , Tennessee defeated Florida 13 - 6 . December 13 In the Army – Navy Game , played in New York , Army won 6 - 0 to close its season at 9 - 1 - 1 . 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 , Washington State and Alabama , all unbeaten and untied , were ranked first , second and third by Dickinson , with the Irish getting the higher rating based on the 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 . 1931 Rose Bowl . The Rose Bowl stadium ' s capacity had been increased to 81 , 000 , but only 65 , 000 spectators turned out to watch an East - West matchup between two unbeaten ( 9 - 0 - 0 ) , but out - of - state teams , the Washington State Cougars and the Alabama Crimson Tide . It was the Cougars who were decked out in crimson , however , in what reports of the day described as " a bizarre touch " . Besides solid red jerseys , pants ans socks , the WSU players had bright red leather helmets and shoes . Freddie Sington , Bama ' s star tackle / linebacker , was pitted against WSU ' s Turk Edwards , and blocked WSU ' s only chance to score . In addition , Sington blocked for the rushing of Johnny Campbell , " The Mississippi Rabbit " , who ran 42 yards for one of Alabama ' s three touchdowns in the second quarter . After a 21 - 0 halftime lead , Alabama went on to a 24 - 0 win .