1896 college football season explained

Year:	1896
Champion:	Lafayette Princeton
Heisman:	Not awarded until 1935

The 1896 college football season had no clear-cut champion, with the Official NCAA Division I Football Records Book listing Lafayette and Princeton as having been selected national champions.^[1] Lafayette finished with an 11–0–1 record while Princeton had a 10–0–1 record. In the second game of the season for both teams, Lafayette and Princeton played to a scoreless tie. Both teams had signature wins: Lafayette defeated Penn 6–4, giving the Quakers their only loss of the season, while Princeton defeated previously unbeaten Yale, 24–6, on Thanksgiving Day in the last game of the season. Princeton was retroactively named the 1896 national champions by the Billingsley Report, the Helms Athletic Foundation, the Houlgate System, and Lafayette and Princeton were named national co-champions by the National Championship Foundation and Parke Davis.

Conference and program changes

Conference changes

• The Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives, commonly known as the Western Conference and the precursor to the modern Big Ten Conference, began its first season of play in 1896 with seven founding members from across the Midwest.

Membership changes

School	1895 Conference	1896 Conference
Central Michigan Normal Normalites	Program established	Independent
	Independent	Western Conference
Clemson Tigers	Program established	SIAA
Cumberland Bulldogs	Independent	SIAA
	Independent	Western Conference
	Program Established	Independent
Kansas State Agricultural Aggies	Program established	Independent
Kentucky State Wildcats	Independent	SIAA
Louisiana State Tigers	Independent	SIAA
Mercer Baptists	Independent	SIAA
	Independent	Western Conference
	Independent	Western Conference
Mississippi Rebels	Independent	SIAA
Mississippi A&M Aggies	Independent	SIAA
Nashville ?	Independent	SIAA
Nevada State Sagebrushers	Program established	Independent
	Independent	Western Conference
	Independent	Western Conference
	Independent	SIAA
Storrs Agricultural Aggies	Program established	Independent
Texas Longhorns	Independent	SIAA
Texas Christian Horned Frogs	Program established	Independent
Tennessee Volunteers	Independent	SIAA
Territorial Normal Normals	Program established	Independent
	Independent	Western Conference

Conference standings

Minor conferences

See also

• 1896 College Football All-America Team

Notes and References

1. Book: Official 2009 NCAA Division I Football Records Book . 70 . The National Collegiate Athletic Association . August 2009 . Indianapolis, IN . 2009-10-16.