🏈 The 1917 college football season
The champion and its path, the poll race week by week, the honours, the best games and every conference table.
Jump to any season1869–2026
1917 national champion
Named by the selectors, with the road it took.
The path, Georgia Tech9-0
- Sep 29vsWake ForestW33-0
- Sep 29vsFurmanW25-0
- Oct 6vsPennsylvaniaW41-0
- Oct 13vsDavidsonW32-10
- Oct 20vsWashington & LeeW63-0
- Nov 3vsVanderbiltW83-0
- Nov 10atTulaneW48-0
- Nov 17vsCarlisleW98-0
- Nov 29vsAuburnW68-7
The 1917 major bowls
No title game this year. The big bowls of the season, by date.
- Rose BowlJan 1Camp Lewis7
The 1917 Elo race
Elo by week, higher is better. There was no AP poll this year, so the ratings tell the story.
How this is measured
- Regular season ends
- Bowl season
Tap or drag on the chart to read a team's Elo in any week.
1917 Elo at season end
There is no AP poll before 1936, so the ratings stand in: the ten highest-rated major teams when the season ended.
1917 Elo at season endElo
Elo top 18
rating, z
The 1917 honours
The Heisman vote and the major awards side by side, then the All-Americans.
The 1917 honours
Consensus All-Americans
A star marks a unanimous selection.
- Frank RydzewskiNotre Dame
- Elmer OliphantArmy
- Everett StrupperGeorgia Tech
- Charles HarleyOhio State
- Ben BoyntonWilliams
- Charles BolenOhio State
- Henry MillerPennsylvania
- Paul RobesonRutgers
Show all 5 positions
- Eugene NeelyDartmouth
- Dale SeisPittsburgh
- John SutherlandPittsburgh
- Frank RydzewskiNotre Dame
- Elmer OliphantArmy
- Everett StrupperGeorgia Tech
- Charles HarleyOhio State
- Ben BoyntonWilliams
- Charles BolenOhio State
- Henry MillerPennsylvania
- Paul RobesonRutgers
- Eugene NeelyDartmouth
- Dale SeisPittsburgh
- John SutherlandPittsburgh
The best games of 1917
The ten best games of the season by Game Score. Switch to the Elo score for a second opinion.
How this is measured
The best games of 191710 games
Upsets of 1917
The results the ratings gave the winner the least chance of, lowest first.
How this is measured
Upsets of 191710 upsets
1917 standings by conference
Every conference at once: conference and overall record, and the final AP rank. A star marks the conference champion.
1917 standings by conference6 groups
Big Ten
10 teams| # | Team | Conf | All | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ohio State★ conference champion | 4-0 | 8-0-1 | |
| 2 | Minnesota | 3-1 | 4-1 | |
| 3 | Northwestern | 3-2 | 5-2 | |
| 4 | Wisconsin | 3-2 | 4-2-1 | |
| 5 | Illinois | 2-2-1 | 5-2-1 | |
| 6 | Chicago | 2-2-1 | 3-2-1 | |
| 7 | Indiana | 1-2 | 5-2 | |
| 8 | Michigan | 0-1 | 8-2 | |
| 9 | Purdue | 0-4 | 3-4 | |
| 10 | Iowa | 0-2 | 3-5 |
Missouri Valley
7 teams| # | Team | Conf | All | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nebraska★ conference champion | 2-0 | 5-2 | |
| 2 | Kansas | 3-1 | 6-2 | |
| 3 | Iowa State | 3-1 | 5-2 | |
| 4 | Kansas State | 2-2 | 6-2 | |
| 5 | Washington University | 1-2 | 4-3 | |
| 6 | Missouri | 2-4 | 3-5 | |
| 7 | Drake | 0-3 | 0-5-2 |
Pacific Coast
5 teams| # | Team | Conf | All | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Washington State★ conference champion | 3-0 | 6-0-1 | |
| 2 | California | 2-1 | 5-5-1 | |
| 3 | Oregon State | 1-2-1 | 4-2-1 | |
| 4 | Oregon | 1-2 | 4-3 | |
| 5 | Washington | 0-2-1 | 1-2-1 |
Rocky Mountain
8 teams| # | Team | Conf | All | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Denver★ conference champion | 5-0 | 9-0 | |
| 2 | Utah State | 4-0 | 7-0-1 | |
| 3 | Colorado | 4-2 | 6-2 | |
| 4 | Colorado Mines | 3-2 | 5-3 | |
| 5 | Colorado College | 2-3 | 3-3 | |
| 6 | Utah | 2-3 | 2-4 | |
| 7 | Wyoming | 1-4 | 3-4 | |
| 8 | Colorado A&M | 0-7 | 0-7-1 |
Southwest
7 teams| # | Team | Conf | All | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Texas A&M★ conference champion | 3-0 | 8-0 | |
| 2 | Baylor | 2-1 | 6-2-1 | |
| 3 | Rice | 1-1 | 7-1 | |
| 4 | Oklahoma | 1-1-1 | 6-4-1 | |
| 5 | Texas | 2-4 | 4-4 | |
| 6 | Oklahoma A&M | 1-2 | 4-5 | |
| 7 | Arkansas | 0-1-1 | 5-1-1 |
Independent
51 teams| # | Team | Conf | All | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Georgia Tech | - | 9-0 | |
| 2 | Mare Island Marines | - | 8-0 | |
| 3 | Pittsburgh | - | 10-0 | |
| 4 | Presbyterian | - | 8-1 | |
| 5 | Army | - | 7-1 | |
| 6 | Georgetown | - | 7-1 | |
| 7 | Navy | - | 7-1 | |
| 8 | Mississippi State | - | 6-1 | |
| 9 | Syracuse | - | 8-1-1 | |
| 10 | Rutgers | - | 7-1-1 | |
| 11 | Pennsylvania | - | 9-2 | |
| 12 | Notre Dame | - | 6-1-1 | |
| 13 | Brown | - | 8-2 | |
| 14 | TCU | - | 8-2 | |
| 15 | Lehigh | - | 7-2 | |
| 16 | Clemson | - | 6-2 | |
| 17 | Auburn | - | 6-2-1 | |
| 18 | North Carolina State | - | 6-2-1 | |
| 19 | Virginia Tech | - | 6-2-1 | |
| 20 | Washington & Jefferson | - | 7-3 | |
| 21 | Alabama | - | 5-2-1 | |
| 22 | Colgate | - | 4-2 | |
| 23 | West Virginia | - | 6-3-1 | |
| 24 | Dartmouth | - | 5-3 | |
| 25 | Sewanee | - | 4-2-2 | |
| 26 | Tulane | - | 5-3 | |
| 27 | Vanderbilt | - | 5-3 | |
| 28 | Davidson | - | 6-4 | |
| 29 | Washington & Lee | - | 4-3 | |
| 30 | Maryland | - | 4-3-1 | |
| 31 | SMU | - | 3-2-3 | |
| 32 | Penn State | - | 5-4 | |
| 33 | Wofford | - | 5-4 | |
| 34 | Citadel | - | 3-3 | |
| 35 | VMI | - | 4-4-1 | |
| 36 | Idaho | - | 2-3 | |
| 37 | Bucknell | - | 3-5-1 | |
| 38 | Kentucky | - | 3-5-1 | |
| 39 | Furman | - | 3-5 | |
| 40 | LSU | - | 3-5 | |
| 41 | Lafayette | - | 3-5 | |
| 42 | South Carolina | - | 3-5 | |
| 43 | Carlisle | - | 3-6 | |
| 44 | Cornell | - | 3-6 | |
| 45 | Florida | - | 2-4 | |
| 46 | Mississippi | - | 1-4-1 | |
| 47 | Southwestern | - | 1-5-1 | |
| 48 | Montana | - | 1-4 | |
| 49 | Wake Forest | - | 1-6-1 | |
| 50 | Tulsa | - | 0-8-1 | |
| 51 | Newberry | - | 0-6 |
1917 bowls
One line per game, latest first. A tag marks the playoff and the other major bowls.
1917 bowls1 bowls
Where these numbers come from
Enough to disbelieve this page on purpose rather than by accident.
Champions, polls, standings, bowls, honours and games are read from the Citizen of Nowhere college football database, built from its own workbook one season at a time. Team colours and crests are the current programs’, so a school is drawn the way it looks today even where it played under another name.
The AP poll begins in 1936, so earlier seasons have no poll race and no final poll, but they do have an Elo race, and their champions are those the selectors named. Before 1992 there was no title game, so those seasons list the major bowls instead; from 1992 the title game is shown with the other major bowls, and from 2014 the playoff bracket. Where the database has no entry for a section, the section is left out rather than shown empty.
Elo ratings, the upsets and the best games come from the site’s college football Elo, which rates every game since 1869 and counts games against lower-level opponents. Each season’s ratings are shown on a scale where the average major team ends the season at 1500; z is the distance from that average in standard deviations.