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Partial College Football Rankings 1890-1900

Like my top 25 lists for 1901-1935, these partial rankings for 1890-1900 are based on hypothetical AP polls. For each season I started with where teams would have been approximately rated if there had been an AP poll, based upon my research, and then I fixed the lists so that they made logical sense, much like I fixed all the actual AP polls.

The purpose of creating these partial ratings was to rate teams that were led by coaches who were eligible for my list of top all-time college football coaches by total ranking points. That list is based on where coaches' teams finished in the top 25 every season, and until I finished these partial rankings (January 2020), the list only counted 1901-present. This meant that some all-time great coaches, such as Pop Warner, Fielding Yost, and Amos Alonzo Stagg, did not have all of their great seasons accounted for on that list. Now they do.

Because the point of these rankings is to account for teams coached by relevant coaches, I did not do a full top 25 for each season. You'll also see some lists note that a team "would not be ranked": that is a team that was coached by a relevant coach (Stanford in 1900, for example, was coached by Fielding Yost).

I am not interested in creating full top 25s for the 19th century because I think that college football was too regional, not national enough yet, for top 25s to be meaningful enough to bother with. I chose 1901 as a good year to start top 25s. Again, the only reason I created these 19th century rankings was so that my list of top all-time coaches by ranking points would be full and complete. Still, as long as I went to the trouble of putting them together, I figured I would share these partial rankings for those interested in looking at them.

1900

1) Yale 12-0
2) Harvard 10-1
3) Penn 12-1
4) Columbia 7-3-1
5) Princeton 8-3
6) Lafayette 9-2
7) Cornell 10-2
8) Iowa 7-0-1
9) Minnesota 10-0-2
10) Wisconsin 8-1
11) Navy 6-3
12) Brown 7-3-1
13) Syracuse 7-2-1
14) Carlisle 6-4-1
15) Washington & Jefferson 6-3-1
16) Army 7-3-1
17) Chicago 9-5-1
18) Michigan 7-2-1
19) Hamilton 8-1

(7-2-1 Stanford would not be ranked)
1899

1) Harvard 10-0-1
2) Princeton 12-1
3) Lafayette 12-1
4) Yale 7-2-1
5) Carlisle 9-2
6) Chicago 16-0-2
7) Penn 8-3-2
8) Iowa 9-0-1
9) Brown 7-3-1
10) Cornell 7-3
11) Columbia 8-3
12) Wisconsin 10-2
13) Michigan 8-2-1
14) Wesleyan 8-2
15) Navy 5-3
16) Sewanee 12-0
17) Kansas 10-0
18) Washington & Jefferson 9-2-1
19) California 7-1-1
20) Williams 10-4
1898

1) Harvard 11-0
2) Penn 12-1
3) Princeton 11-0-1
4) Yale 9-2
5) Army 3-2-1
6) Cornell 10-2
7) Carlisle 6-4
8) Brown 6-4
9) Navy 7-1
10) Michigan 11-0
11) Oberlin 7-1
12) Chicago 14-2-1
13) Wisconsin 9-1
14) Wesleyan 7-3

(8-3 Nebraska would not be ranked)
1897

1) Penn 15-0
2) Harvard 10-1-1
3) Yale 9-0-2
4) Army 6-1-1
5) Princeton 10-1
6) Cornell 5-3-1
7) Lafayette 9-2-1
8) Navy 8-1
9) Brown 7-4
10) Carlisle 6-4
11) Dartmouth 4-3
12) Wisconsin 9-1
13) Chicago 11-1
14) Virginia 7-2-1, Vanderbilt 6-0-1
16) Illinois 6-2
17) Michigan 6-2-1
18) Oberlin 5-1-1
19) Ohio Wesleyan 7-1-1
20) Case 5-1
21) Purdue 5-3-1
22) Nebraska 5-1
1896

1) Princeton 10-0-1
2) Lafayette 11-0-1
3) Penn 14-1
4) Yale 13-1
5) Harvard 7-4
6) Army 3-2-1
7) Dartmouth 5-2-1
8) Navy 5-3
9) Brown 4-5-1
10) Carlisle 5-5
11) Cornell 5-3-1
12) Wisconsin 7-1-1
13) Michigan 9-1
14) Minnesota 8-2
15) Chicago 15-2-1
16) Northwestern 6-1-2
17) Illinois 4-2-1, Purdue 4-2-1
19) Iowa 7-1-1
20) Kansas 7-3

23) Georgia 4-0
1895

1) Penn 14-0
2) Yale 13-0-2
3) Princeton 10-1-1
4) Harvard 8-2-1
5) Army 5-2
6) Michigan 8-1
7) Lafayette 6-2
8) Missouri 7-1
9) Kansas 6-1
10) Cornell 3-4-1
11) Brown 7-6-1
12) Dartmouth 7-5-1
13) Bowdoin 6-1-1
14) Purdue 4-3
15) Minnesota 7-3
16) Chicago 10-3
17) Wisconsin 5-2-1, Illinois 4-2-1
19) Northwestern 6-5
20) Grinnell 6-2
21) Nebraska 6-3

(3-4 Georgia would not be ranked)
1894

1) Yale 16-0
2) Penn 12-0

(14-8-1 Chicago would not be ranked)
1893

1) Princeton 11-0
2) Yale 10-1
3) Harvard 11-1
4) Penn 12-3

(6-4-2 Chicago would not be ranked)
1892

1) Yale 13-0
2) Harvard 10-1
3) Cornell 10-1
4) Penn 15-1
5-13) Princeton, Dartmouth, Amherst, MIT,
          Tufts, Army, Navy, Penn State, Bucknell
14) Purdue 8-0
15) Minnesota 5-0
16) Kansas 7-1
17) Michigan 7-5
18) Wisconsin 4-3
19) Northwestern 5-3-2
20) Chicago 8-4-1
21) Illinois 9-4-1
1891

1) Yale 13-0
2) Princeton 12-1, Harvard 13-1
4) Penn 11-2
5) Cornell 7-3
6) Lehigh 7-6
7) Penn State 6-2
8) Bucknell 6-2-1
9) Williams 9-3-1
10) Trinity (Connecticut) 6-4
11) Dartmouth 2-2-1
12) Amherst 9-4-3
13) Rutgers 8-6
14) Army 4-1-1
15) Navy 5-2

(5-8-1 Springfield would not be ranked)
1890

(5-3 Springfield would not be ranked)


Fixed AP Polls
Top 25 Rankings 1901-1935
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