🏈 The 1923 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
1923 national champion
Named by the selectors, with the road it took.
The path8-0
- Oct 6vsNebraskaW24-7
- Oct 13vsButlerW21-7
- Oct 20atIowaW9-6
- Oct 27atNorthwesternW29-0
- Nov 3vsChicagoW7-0
- Nov 10vsWisconsinW10-0
- Nov 17vsMississippi StateW27-0
- Nov 24atOhio StateW9-0
The 1923 major bowls
No title game this year. The big bowls of the season, by date.
- Rose BowlJan 1Navy14
The 1923 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.
1923 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.
1923 Elo at season endElo
Elo top 22
rating, z
The 1923 honours
The Heisman vote and the major awards side by side, then the All-Americans.
The 1923 honours
Consensus All-Americans
A star marks a unanimous selection.
- Jack BlottMichigan
- George PfannCornell
- Red GrangeIllinois
- Harry WilsonPenn State
- Ray EcklundMinnesota
- Pete McRaeSyracuse
- Lynn BomarVanderbilt
- Jack BlottMichigan
- George PfannCornell
- Red GrangeIllinois
- Harry WilsonPenn State
- Ray EcklundMinnesota
- Pete McRaeSyracuse
- Lynn BomarVanderbilt
- Marty BelowWisconsin
The best games of 1923
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 192310 games
Upsets of 1923
The results the ratings gave the winner the least chance of, lowest first.
How this is measured
Upsets of 192310 upsets
1923 standings by conference
Every conference at once: conference and overall record, and the final AP rank. A star marks the conference champion.
1923 standings by conference7 groups
Big Ten
10 teams| # | Team | Conf | All | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Illinois★ conference champion | 5-0 | 8-0 | |
| 2 | Michigan★ conference champion | 4-0 | 8-0 | |
| 3 | Chicago | 5-1 | 7-1 | |
| 4 | Minnesota | 2-1-1 | 5-1-1 | |
| 5 | Iowa | 3-3 | 5-3 | |
| 6 | Indiana | 2-2 | 3-4 | |
| 7 | Wisconsin | 1-3-1 | 3-3-1 | |
| 8 | Ohio State | 1-4 | 3-4-1 | |
| 9 | Purdue | 1-4 | 2-5-1 | |
| 10 | Northwestern | 0-6 | 2-6 |
Missouri Valley
9 teams| # | Team | Conf | All | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nebraska★ conference champion | 3-0-2 | 4-2-2 | |
| 2 | Kansas★ conference champion | 3-0-3 | 5-0-3 | |
| 3 | Drake | 3-1 | 5-2 | |
| 4 | Iowa State | 3-2-1 | 4-3-1 | |
| 5 | Kansas State | 2-2-2 | 4-2-2 | |
| 6 | Missouri | 1-3-2 | 2-3-3 | |
| 7 | Oklahoma | 2-4 | 3-5 | |
| 8 | Grinnell | 1-3 | 2-6 | |
| 9 | Washington University | 1-4 | 3-5 |
Pacific Coast
8 teams| # | Team | Conf | All | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California★ conference champion | 5-0 | 9-0-1 | |
| 2 | Washington | 4-1 | 10-1-1 | |
| 3 | Stanford | 2-2 | 7-2 | |
| 4 | USC | 2-2 | 6-2 | |
| 5 | Idaho | 2-2-1 | 5-2-1 | |
| 6 | Oregon State | 1-3-1 | 4-5-2 | |
| 7 | Washington State | 1-3-1 | 2-4-1 | |
| 8 | Oregon | 0-4-1 | 3-4-1 |
Rocky Mountain
11 teams| # | Team | Conf | All | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Colorado★ conference champion | 8-0 | 9-0 | |
| 2 | Colorado College | 5-1-1 | 6-1-1 | |
| 3 | Colorado A&M | 5-1-1 | 5-2-1 | |
| 4 | Utah State | 4-2 | 5-2 | |
| 5 | Denver | 4-3 | 6-3 | |
| 6 | Utah | 2-3 | 4-3 | |
| 7 | Montana State | 1-2 | 5-4 | |
| 8 | BYU | 1-5 | 2-5 | |
| 9 | Colorado Mines | 1-5 | 2-5 | |
| 10 | Colorado State College | 0-2 | 2-3-1 | |
| 11 | Wyoming | 0-7 | 0-8 |
Southern
21 teams| # | Team | Conf | All | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Washington & Lee | 4-0-1 | 6-2-1 | |
| 2 | Vanderbilt★ conference champion | 4-0-1 | 5-2-1 | |
| 3 | Virginia Tech | 4-1 | 6-3 | |
| 4 | Alabama | 5-1-1 | 7-2-1 | |
| 5 | Florida | 1-0-2 | 6-1-2 | |
| 6 | Maryland | 2-1 | 7-2-1 | |
| 7 | Tennessee | 4-2 | 5-4-1 | |
| 8 | North Carolina | 2-1-1 | 5-3-1 | |
| 9 | Mississippi State | 2-1-2 | 5-2-2 | |
| 10 | Georgia | 3-2 | 5-3-1 | |
| 11 | Clemson | 1-1-1 | 5-2-1 | |
| 12 | Tulane | 2-2-1 | 6-3-1 | |
| 13 | Auburn | 0-1-3 | 3-3-3 | |
| 14 | Kentucky | 0-2-2 | 4-3-2 | |
| 15 | North Carolina State | 1-4 | 3-7 | |
| 16 | Virginia | 0-3-1 | 3-5-1 | |
| 17 | Sewanee | 0-2 | 5-4-1 | |
| 18 | Mississippi | 0-4 | 4-6 | |
| 19 | South Carolina | 0-4 | 4-6 | |
| 20 | LSU | 0-3 | 3-5-1 | |
| 21 | Georgia Tech | 0-0-4 | 3-2-4 |
Southwest
8 teams| # | Team | Conf | All | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SMU★ conference champion | 5-0 | 9-0 | |
| 2 | Texas | 2-0-1 | 8-0-1 | |
| 3 | TCU | 2-1 | 4-5 | |
| 4 | Baylor | 1-1-2 | 5-1-2 | |
| 5 | Arkansas | 2-2 | 6-2-1 | |
| 6 | Oklahoma A&M | 1-3 | 2-8 | |
| 7 | Rice | 1-4 | 3-5 | |
| 8 | Texas A&M | 0-3-1 | 5-3-1 |
Independent
42 teams| # | Team | Conf | All | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cornell | - | 8-0 | |
| 2 | Yale | - | 8-0 | |
| 3 | Furman | - | 10-1 | |
| 4 | Notre Dame | - | 9-1 | |
| 5 | VMI | - | 9-1 | |
| 6 | Dartmouth | - | 8-1 | |
| 7 | Syracuse | - | 8-1 | |
| 8 | Centre | - | 7-1-1 | |
| 9 | Rutgers | - | 7-1-1 | |
| 10 | West Virginia | - | 7-1-1 | |
| 11 | Washington & Jefferson | - | 6-1-1 | |
| 12 | Lafayette | - | 6-1-2 | |
| 13 | Mississippi College | - | 5-1-2 | |
| 14 | Army | - | 6-2-1 | |
| 15 | Colgate | - | 6-2-1 | |
| 16 | Lehigh | - | 6-2-1 | |
| 17 | Navy | - | 5-1-3 | |
| 18 | Penn State | - | 6-2-1 | |
| 19 | William & Mary | - | 7-3 | |
| 20 | Wake Forest | - | 6-3 | |
| 21 | Wofford | - | 6-3 | |
| 22 | Citadel | - | 5-3-1 | |
| 23 | Brown | - | 6-4 | |
| 24 | Gonzaga | - | 4-3 | |
| 25 | Carnegie Tech | - | 4-3-1 | |
| 26 | Harvard | - | 4-3-1 | |
| 27 | Presbyterian | - | 4-3-1 | |
| 28 | Duke | - | 5-4 | |
| 29 | Pennsylvania | - | 5-4 | |
| 30 | Pittsburgh | - | 5-4 | |
| 31 | Columbia | - | 4-4-1 | |
| 32 | Montana | - | 4-4 | |
| 33 | Princeton | - | 3-3-1 | |
| 34 | Oglethorpe | - | 5-6 | |
| 35 | Samford | - | 3-4-3 | |
| 36 | UT-Chattanooga | - | 3-4-2 | |
| 37 | Richmond | - | 3-5 | |
| 38 | Mercer | - | 3-6 | |
| 39 | Davidson | - | 3-7 | |
| 40 | Newberry | - | 2-8 | |
| 41 | Whitman | - | 1-5 | |
| 42 | Boston University | - | 1-6 |
1923 bowls
One line per game, latest first. A tag marks the playoff and the other major bowls.
1923 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.