1922 college football season
Image of pivotal play inPrinceton–Chicago game
Number of bowls	2
Bowl games	December 25, 1922 – January 1, 1923
Champion(s)	California Cornell Princeton
← 1921 · football seasons · 1923 →

The1922 college football season had a number of unbeaten and untied teams, and no clear-cut champion, with theOfficial NCAA Division I Football Records Book listingCalifornia,Cornell,Iowa,Princeton, andVanderbilt as national champions.^[1] California, Cornell, and Princeton were all picked by multiple selectors.

Andy Smith'sPacific Coast Conference champion "Wonder Team" at California continued on its streak since 1920. Eastern power Cornell was coached byGil Dobie and led by one of the sport's greatbackfields withGeorge Pfann,Eddie Kaw,Floyd Ramsey, andCharles E. Cassidy.Bill Roper's Princeton team was dubbed the "team of destiny" byGrantland Rice after defeatingChicago 21–18 in thefirst game nationally broadcast on radio.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Today,college football on radio is common for nearly every game in every division. On the same day, Cal defeatedUSC at the dedication ofRose Bowl Stadium.

TheSouthern Conference would begin its first season of football in 1922. Vanderbilt tied withNorth Carolina andGeorgia Tech for the conference championship. The CommodorestiedMichigan 0–0 on October 14 at the dedication ofDudley Field, theSouth's first permanent college football stadium. On the same day,Big Ten champion Iowa upsetYale.

The1923 Rose Bowl at season's end was the first called the "Rose Bowl"^[7] and was held in the newly constructed stadium. In the first bowl appearance for either team, USC beatPenn State 14–3.

TheWest Virginia Mountaineers played theGonzaga Bulldogs in the only other bowl game this season, the San Diego East-West Christmas Classic. WVU won 21–13.

The 1922 season included the new "try for a point" rule.^[8] One was allowed to either kick an extra point after a touchdown as usual, or to place the ball anywhere beyond the five yard line and try to score either by touchdown or by a kick, and receive the one point if successful. On the "try for a point," any foul by the defense awarded the offense the point, and any foul by the offense made the try no good

• Five new conferences began play in 1922:
  • California Coast Conference – active until 1924
  • Midwest Collegiate Athletic Conference – an active NCAA Division III conference
  • North Central Intercollegiate Athletic Conference – an NCAA Division II conference active through the 2007 season; later known as just theNorth Central Conference
  • South Dakota Intercollegiate Conference – an NAIA conference active through the 1999 season; later known as theSouth Dakota-Iowa Athletic Conference
  • Southern Conference – an active Division I FCS conference; its 20 members broke away from theSouthern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA) andSouth Atlantic Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SAIAA) in 1921 and 1922

September 30Harvard beat Middlebury 20–0,Princeton beat Johns Hopkins 30–0, andCornell beat St. Bonaventure 55–6.Vanderbilt opened its season with a 38–0 win over Middle Tennessee Normal (now MTSU).Baylor beat North Texas 55–0California beat Santa Clara 45–14.

October 7Princeton defeated Virginia 5–0,Harvard beat Holy Cross 20–0, andCornell beat Niagara 66–0Vanderbilt beat Henderson-Brown College 33–0North Carolina lost to Yale at New Haven, 18–0.Iowa beat Knox College 61–0, andMichigan defeated Case 48–0. Chicago beat Georgia 20–0Drake opened its season with a win over Cornell College of Iowa, 16–0Baylor beat Hardin-Simmons 42–0In a meeting with the visiting Mare Island Marines service team,California routed them 80–0.

October 14Princeton beat Colgate 10–0,Harvard defeated Bowdoin 15–0, andCornell beat New Hampshire 68–7At New Haven,Iowa defeated Yale 6–0. In the first game between Eastern and Western teams of the college football season, Iowa dominated Yale. Yale lost to a Western team for the first time ever.

In Nashville,Michigan andVanderbilt played to a0–0 tie at the inaugural game forDudley Field, the first dedicated football-only stadium in the South in the style of the Eastern schools.After beating Duke 20–0 in a Thursday game,North Carolina beat South Carolina, 10–7. Centre gave VPI its only loss of the season.Drake defeated Kansas 6–0.California beat St. Mary's 41–0.

October 21Harvard had been shocked the year before in a 6–0 upset by the "Prayin' Colonels" of Centre College of Danville, Kentucky. In the rematch, the Crimson beat Centre 24–10.Princeton recorded another shutout, blanking Maryland 26–0.Cornell defeated Colgate 14–0.

In Dallas,Vanderbilt and Texas, both unbeaten, met at the State Fair, with the Commodores winning 20–10. In Houston,Baylor defeated Rice 31–0.North Carolina won at NC State, 14–9. Georgia beat Tennessee 7–3.

Iowa won at Illinois 8–7, andMichigan won at Ohio State 19–0; In St. Louis,Drake beat Washington University, 31–7Baylor beat Arkansas 60–13California shut out the Olympic Club team, 25–0.

October 28 In the first football game ever broadcast nationally on the radioPrinceton (4–0–0) traveled to the University of Chicago (3–0–0) for a rematch of Chicago's 1921 win. The game was witnessed by 32,000 fans, and listened to on New York'sWEAF radio station.^[9]John Thomas ran for three touchdowns and Chicago's Maroons led 18–7 as the fourth quarter began, but a 40–yard fumble return closed the gap. In the closing minutes, Princeton backHarry Crum was buried under a pile of players as he plunged toward the goal line, and when the mass was untangled, it was a touchdown. With the help of a superior kicking game, Princeton won21–18.^[10]

Harvard defeated Dartmouth 12–3.Iowa beat Purdue 56–0, andMichigan beat Illinois 24–0Baylor beat Mississippi College 40–7

Vanderbilt beat Mercer 25–0North Carolina defeated Maryland 27–3

California was 4–0–0, and USC was 5–0–0, when the teams met in Pasadena. Cal had a 2–0 lead at halftime, and held off USC on two goal line stands, before scoring a touchdown and a field goal to win 12–0.^[11]

November 4Princeton beat Swarthmore, 22–13.Cornell (5–0–0) trounced Columbia, which had been 4–1–0, by a score of 56–0.Harvard beat the visiting Florida Gators 24–0. In the Gators' first ever game against a traditional northeastern college football power, the Gators stopped inWashington, D. C. and were greeted by PresidentWarren Harding.^[12] The 1922 Spalding's Football Guide ranked Florida as the bestforward passing team in the country.^[13] The 1922 Florida freshmen won the southern crown for freshmen squads.^[14]

TheAlabama Crimson Tide had its first intersectional victory,9–6 overJohn Heisman's Penn. Alabama coachXen C. Scott resigned due to cancer at year's end.Vanderbilt won at Tennessee, 14–6. In New Orleans,North Carolina defeated Tulane 19–12.

Michigan beat Michigan State 63–0, having outscored its opponents 154–0 in its first five games.Drake defeated Iowa State 14–7

Baylor beat Texas A&M 13–7.California defeated Washington State, 61–0.

November 11Princeton andHarvard were both unbeaten(6–0–0) when the Tigers travelled to Cambridge to face the Crimson. Princeton had not won on Harvard's home field since 1896, and 54,000 turned out to watch. Although both teams were unbeaten, Harvard was heavily favored to overcome the young Tiger team, and led 3–0 early in the game. On the 18 yard line, though, the Tigers outsmarted Harvard with a triple pass that set up Harry Crum's touchdown run, and went on to win 10–3. Grantland Rice wrote the next day, "Crimson shadows around Cambridge way were thicker tonight than the Chinese wall and as deep as the darkness of Stygia itself..."^[15]

At the Polo Grounds,Cornell beat Dartmouth, with the Big Red overcoming the Big Green, 23–0.In Boston,Baylor lost to Boston College, 33–0.

In Seattle,California (7–0–0) faced Washington (5–0–0) in a battle of unbeatens, and handed the Huskies their first defeat, 45–7.

Iowa beat Minnesota 28–14, andMichigan beat Wisconsin 13–6;Drake beat Colorado State, 19–6Vanderbilt beat Kentucky 9–0North Carolina beat VMI 9–7 at Richmond.

November 18Princeton beat Yale, 3–0, to close a perfect season.Cornell beat Albright, 48–14Harvard lost its second straight game, falling 3–0 to BrownIowa won at Ohio State 12–9 to stay unbeaten.Drake defeated Grinnell College. 21–0Baylor beat Oklahoma State, 10–0Vanderbilt won at Georgia 12–0. Auburn upset Centre 6–0. The 1922 Tigers are considered one of Auburn's greatest football teams.^[16]At Charlotte, NC,North Carolina defeated Davidson 20–6.California defeated Nevada, 61–13.

November 25Harvard won at Yale, 10–3.California closed its season with a 28–0 win at Stanford.Iowa closed its season at 7–0–0 with a win over Northwestern 37–3,Michigan won at Minnesota 16–7;Drake won at Mississippi State in Starkville, 48–6

November 30 was Thanksgiving Day in 1922. In Philadelphia,Cornell defeated Penn 6–3.In Dallas,Baylor defeated SMU, 24–0, to win the Southwest Conference title. The following week, Baylor lost to the Haskell Indians team, 21–20.North Carolina closed its season with a 10–7 win at Virginia, to finish at 9–1–0.Vanderbilt beat Sewanee, 26–0, to close at 8–0–1.

In the1923 Rose Bowl,USC defeatedPenn State, 14–3.Though USC had an overall record of 9–1 coming into the game, the Trojans finished fourth place inPacific Coast Conference (PCC) play, behindCalifornia,Oregon, andWashington, having been defeated by PCC champion California. Penn State won its first five games, then only one of the next five, and had a 6–4–1 record at season's end.

The1922 San Diego East-West Christmas Classic was played on December 25 atBalboa Stadium inSan Diego, California. TheWest Virginia Mountaineers defeated theGonzaga Bulldogs, 21 to 13, to finish the season undefeated with a 10–0—1 record.

Three different "retro polls", taken years later and based on opinions drawn from historical research, reached different conclusions. TheHelms Athletic Foundation, founded in 1936, declared retroactively thatCornell (8–0) was the best, while theCollege Football Researchers Association (CFRA) recognizedPrinceton (8–0), and theNational Championship Foundation (NCF) citedCalifornia (9–0) and Princeton as best.^[17] The Princeton team was dubbed the "team of destiny" byGrantland Rice after defeatingChicago in thefirst game nationally broadcast on radio.^[18] Today,college football on radio is common for nearly every game in every division.

The other unbeaten and untied team wasIowa (7–0), which canceled its game with unbeaten Drake that year. Other teams that had no defeats in 1922 wereWest Virginia (10–0–1),Vanderbilt (8–0–1),Michigan (6–0–1), andArmy (8–0–2).Clyde Berryman retroactively selected Vanderbilt, whichtied Michigan, as a national champion.^[19]

The consensusAll-America team included: