1931 college football season

1931 college football season
Number of bowls1
Bowl gamesJanuary 1, 1932
Champion(s)USC
Pittsburgh
← 1930 · football seasons · 1932 →

The 1931 college football season saw the USC Trojans win the Knute Rockne Memorial Trophy as national champion under the Dickinson System, as well as the No. 1 position from each of the other three contemporary major selectors (Boand, Dunkel, and Houlgate Systems).[1] Rockne, who had coached Notre Dame to a championship in 1930, had been killed in a plane crash on March 31, 1931. For the first time, the champion under the Dickinson System also played in a postseason game. The 1932 Rose Bowl, promoted as a national championship game between the best teams of East and West,[2] matched USC and Tulane, No. 1 and No. 2 in the Dickinson ratings. USC won, 21–12, and was awarded the Albert Russel Erskine Trophy.[2]

Two years later, historian Parke H. Davis selected Pittsburgh and Purdue (No. 9 and No. 10 in the Dickinson ratings) as "National Champion Foot Ball Teams" for 1931; he was the only NCAA-designated "major selector" to choose either team.[3] Davis’ work has been criticized for having a heavy Eastern bias, with little regard for the South and the West Coast.[4] Pittsburgh claims a 1931 national championship on this basis, while Purdue does not.[5]

  1. ^ 2020 NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records (PDF). Indianapolis: The National Collegiate Athletic Association. July 2020. Archived (PDF) from the original on November 1, 2020. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
  2. ^ a b Roberts, Don (January 1, 1932). "Trojans, Tulane Fight for National Crown". Los Angeles Evening Post-Record. Los Angeles. Retrieved February 28, 2023. With the Albert Russell Erskine national football championship at stake, Tulane University's Green Wave today met the University of Southern California Trojans at the Pasadena Rose Bowl.
  3. ^ Okeson, Walter R., ed. (1934). Spalding's Official Foot Ball Guide 1934. New York: American Sports Publishing Co. pp. 206–208.
  4. ^ Vautravers, James. "Parke Davis". Retrieved March 11, 2022.
  5. ^ Borghetti, E.J.; Nestor, Mendy; Welsh, Celeste, eds. (2008). 2008 Pitt Football Media Guide (PDF). Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh. pp. 16, 156. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 23, 2011. Retrieved March 8, 2013.