Factoid #4 - 1900 - Yale wins the NCAA football championship outright!

Yale went 12- 0 in 1900 to claim the NCAA football championship. All the major and recognized selectors chose them as the national champions. Malcolm Lee McBride was the coach who was also a former player at Yale. While he would only coach the one season, his head adviser Walter Camp perhaps had a quite a bit of input during this successful year.

In 1900 there were already 41 teams on the college football season. There was an interesting league called the Big Nine: Minnesota; Iowa; Wisconsin; Michigan; Northwestern; Chicago; Indiana; Illinois; and Purdue. (Ohio State joined the Big Nine in 1912. Michigan was kicked out in 1907 and only rejoined in 1917. From then on it was known as the Big Ten. In 1939 Chicago suspended its football program due to being non competitive in the Big Ten and completely left the Big Ten in 1946. Michigan State joined the conference in the spring of 1949.)

In 1900 both Minnesota and Iowa were unbeaten, although Minnesota had two ties and Iowa had one. Perhaps these teams could have taken on Yale, but we will never know.

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