🏈 The 1920 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
1920 national champion
Named by the selectors, with the road it took.
The path, California9-0
- Sep 25vsOlympic ClubW21-0
- Oct 2vsMare Island MarinesW88-0
- Oct 9vsSt. Mary'sW127-0
- Oct 16vsNevadaW79-7
- Oct 23vsUtahW63-0
- Oct 30atOregon StateW17-7
- Nov 6vsWashington StateW49-0
- Nov 20vsStanfordW38-0
- Jan 1vsOhio StateW28-0Rose Bowl
The 1920 major bowls
No title game this year. The big bowls of the season, by date.
- Rose BowlJan 1
The 1920 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.
1920 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.
1920 Elo at season endElo
Elo top 19
rating, z
The 1920 honours
The Heisman vote and the major awards side by side, then the All-Americans.
The 1920 honours
Consensus All-Americans
A star marks a unanimous selection.
- Herb SteinPittsburgh
- George GippNotre Dame
- Gaylord StinchcombOhio State
- Charles WayPenn State
- Donold LouriePrinceton
- Luke UrbanBoston College
- Bill FincherGeorgia Tech
- Charles CarneyIllinois
Show all 5 positions
- Tom WoodsHarvard
- Iolas HuffmanOhio State
- Herb SteinPittsburgh
- George GippNotre Dame
- Gaylord StinchcombOhio State
- Charles WayPenn State
- Donold LouriePrinceton
- Luke UrbanBoston College
- Bill FincherGeorgia Tech
- Charles CarneyIllinois
- Tom WoodsHarvard
- Iolas HuffmanOhio State
The best games of 1920
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 192010 games
Upsets of 1920
The results the ratings gave the winner the least chance of, lowest first.
How this is measured
Upsets of 192010 upsets
1920 standings by conference
Every conference at once: conference and overall record, and the final AP rank. A star marks the conference champion.
1920 standings by conference6 groups
Big Ten
10 teams| # | Team | Conf | All | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ohio State★ conference champion | 5-0 | 7-1 | |
| 2 | Wisconsin | 4-1 | 6-1 | |
| 3 | Indiana | 3-1 | 5-2 | |
| 4 | Illinois | 4-2 | 5-2 | |
| 5 | Iowa | 3-2 | 5-2 | |
| 6 | Michigan | 2-2 | 5-2 | |
| 7 | Northwestern | 2-3 | 3-4 | |
| 8 | Chicago | 2-4 | 3-4 | |
| 9 | Purdue | 0-4 | 2-5 | |
| 10 | Minnesota | 0-6 | 1-6 |
Missouri Valley
8 teams| # | Team | Conf | All | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oklahoma★ conference champion | 4-0-1 | 6-0-1 | |
| 2 | Missouri | 5-1 | 7-1 | |
| 3 | Kansas | 3-2 | 5-2-1 | |
| 4 | Iowa State | 3-2 | 4-4 | |
| 5 | Drake | 1-3-1 | 4-5-1 | |
| 6 | Washington University | 1-4 | 4-4 | |
| 7 | Grinnell | 0-2-1 | 3-3-1 | |
| 8 | Kansas State | 0-3-1 | 3-3-3 |
Pacific Coast
6 teams| # | Team | Conf | All | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California★ conference champion | 3-0 | 9-0 | |
| 2 | Stanford | 2-1 | 4-3 | |
| 3 | Washington State | 1-1 | 5-1 | |
| 4 | Oregon | 1-1-1 | 3-2-1 | |
| 5 | Oregon State | 1-2-1 | 2-2-2 | |
| 6 | Washington | 0-3 | 1-5 |
Rocky Mountain
8 teams| # | Team | Conf | All | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Colorado A&M★ conference champion | 6-0-1 | 6-1-1 | |
| 2 | Colorado College | 4-1-1 | 5-1-1 | |
| 3 | Colorado | 3-1-2 | 4-1-2 | |
| 4 | Utah State | 2-1 | 4-2-1 | |
| 5 | Utah | 1-2-1 | 1-5-1 | |
| 6 | Denver | 2-4 | 3-4 | |
| 7 | Wyoming | 2-5-1 | 4-5-1 | |
| 8 | Colorado Mines | 0-6 | 0-6 |
Southwest
8 teams| # | Team | Conf | All | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Texas★ conference champion | 5-0 | 9-0 | |
| 2 | Texas A&M | 5-1 | 6-1-1 | |
| 3 | Arkansas | 2-0-1 | 3-2-2 | |
| 4 | Rice | 2-2-1 | 4-2-2 | |
| 5 | Baylor | 1-2-1 | 4-4-1 | |
| 6 | SMU | 0-4-1 | 3-5-2 | |
| 7 | Phillips | 0-3 | 4-4-2 | |
| 8 | Oklahoma A&M | 0-3 | 0-7-1 |
Independent
56 teams| # | Team | Conf | All | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Notre Dame | - | 9-0 | |
| 2 | VMI | - | 9-0 | |
| 3 | Georgia | - | 8-0-1 | |
| 4 | Harvard | - | 8-0-1 | |
| 5 | Princeton | - | 6-0-1 | |
| 6 | Alabama | - | 10-1 | |
| 7 | Furman | - | 9-1 | |
| 8 | TCU | - | 9-1 | |
| 9 | Georgia Tech | - | 8-1 | |
| 10 | Penn State | - | 7-0-2 | |
| 11 | Pittsburgh | - | 6-0-2 | |
| 12 | Centre | - | 8-2 | |
| 13 | Presbyterian | - | 5-1-1 | |
| 14 | Auburn | - | 7-2 | |
| 15 | Dartmouth | - | 7-2 | |
| 16 | Maryland | - | 7-2 | |
| 17 | Tennessee | - | 7-2 | |
| 18 | Cornell | - | 6-2 | |
| 19 | Navy | - | 6-2 | |
| 20 | Syracuse | - | 6-2-1 | |
| 21 | Tulane | - | 6-2-1 | |
| 22 | North Carolina State | - | 7-3 | |
| 23 | Birmingham Southern | - | 6-3 | |
| 24 | Brown | - | 6-3 | |
| 25 | Lehigh | - | 5-2-2 | |
| 26 | Virginia | - | 5-2-2 | |
| 27 | Washington & Jefferson | - | 6-3-1 | |
| 28 | Florida | - | 5-3 | |
| 29 | Lafayette | - | 5-3 | |
| 30 | Mississippi State | - | 5-3 | |
| 31 | Washington & Lee | - | 5-3 | |
| 32 | Yale | - | 5-3 | |
| 33 | LSU | - | 5-3-1 | |
| 34 | Nebraska | - | 5-3-1 | |
| 35 | Vanderbilt | - | 5-3-1 | |
| 36 | Pennsylvania | - | 6-4 | |
| 37 | Sewanee | - | 4-3-1 | |
| 38 | South Carolina | - | 5-4 | |
| 39 | West Virginia | - | 5-4-1 | |
| 40 | Davidson | - | 5-5 | |
| 41 | Oglethorpe | - | 4-4-1 | |
| 42 | Kentucky | - | 3-4-1 | |
| 43 | UT-Chattanooga | - | 3-4-1 | |
| 44 | Clemson | - | 4-6-1 | |
| 45 | Virginia Tech | - | 4-6 | |
| 46 | Samford | - | 3-5-1 | |
| 47 | Mississippi College | - | 3-5 | |
| 48 | Citadel | - | 2-6 | |
| 49 | Colgate | - | 1-5-2 | |
| 50 | North Carolina | - | 2-6 | |
| 51 | Mercer | - | 2-7 | |
| 52 | Rutgers | - | 2-7 | |
| 53 | Wake Forest | - | 2-7 | |
| 54 | Southwestern | - | 1-6-1 | |
| 55 | Newberry | - | 1-7 | |
| 56 | Wofford | - | 0-8-1 |
1920 bowls
One line per game, latest first. A tag marks the playoff and the other major bowls.
1920 bowls2 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.