Factoid 30 - College Football: 1880 to 1889

Twenty-one schools would add Division One college football to their sports programs in the 1880s.

University of Michigan was the first non-Ivy-League, non-East-Coast school to add football in the previous decade; the 1880s, however, saw such storied programs being added as the USC Trojans, the Wisconsin Badgers, the Pittsburgh Panthers, the Minnesota Golden Gophers (who have seven national championships, the last one in 1960), the Penn State Nittany Lions, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, as well as other familiar schools.

As far as who won the championship over the decade, there were often shared number one rankings and no clear cut winners; generally it is accepted that Princeton won 6 national championships and Yale 8 for this decade, at times sharing the title.