| Year: | 1926 |
| Nflchampion: | Frankford Yellow Jackets |
| Regular Season: | September 19 – December 19, 1926 |
The 1926 NFL season was the seventh regular season of the National Football League (NFL). It was a year in which a record 22 teams participated, a number not equaled again until after the 1970 NFL-AFL merger.
In the spring of 1927, a league meeting was held in Cleveland in an attempt to solidify the league by relegating smaller and financially shaky teams out of the league. A total of just 12 teams would remain for the 1927 season.
The National Football League grew to 22 teams in 1926, with newcomers including the Brooklyn Lions, Hartford Blues,Los Angeles Buccaneers, and the Louisville Colonels, with the Racine Tornadoes re-entering.
Offsetting the torrent of first-time teams, the Cleveland Bulldogs sat out the season, the Rock Island Independents defected to the upstart American Football League, and the Rochester Jeffersons suspended operations for the final time (eventually folding in early 1928).
Adding to the confusion, in 1926 the Akron Pros re-branded as the Akron Indians, the Duluth Kelleys as the Duluth Eskimos, and the Buffalo Bison as the Buffalo Rangers (the team also used the names "Texas Rangers" and "Buffalo Cowboys"). .
The Buccaneers, Eskimos, Colonels and Buffalo Rangers were "showcase teams," the first efforts for the league to reach beyond the northeast and midwest. The Buccaneers, a response to the AFL's Los Angeles Wildcats, represented the state of California; the Eskimos the far northern plains, while the Colonels represented the Southern United States and the Rangers represented the state of Texas and other areas of the Southwestern United States. These four teams (except the Rangers) all played primarily as traveling teams. Three of the four teams only lasted one season; the Buccaneers and Colonels both folded while the Rangers reverted to their previous status as the Bison, with only the Eskimos returning for 1927.
In mid-November, Brooklyn merged with the AFL's Brooklyn Horsemen and stayed in the NFL, playing one more game as the Lions before changing its name to the Brooklyn Horsemen for the last three games — all shutout losses.
The Frankford Yellow Jackets were named the NFL champions after finishing the season with the best record. Their 14 victories were the most in an NFL season to that point, a record that would not be bested until the 1968 Baltimore Colts won 15.
After the season, the Philadelphia Inquirer lobbied for a World Series-style game between the Yellow Jackets and the AFL's champions Philadelphia Quakers, with the Quakers' owner challenging the Yellow Jackets, but ultimately the NFL denied permission to this game to be held.[1]
In January 1927, an owners' meeting was held in New York City at which tentative plans were made to reorganize the NFL into two classes, "A" and "B", with weaker teams demoted to the second division.[2] A follow-up meeting was held on April 23 and 24 in Cleveland's Statler Hotel to formalize these changes.
Although the splitting of the league into tiers was initially envisioned, the decision was made to eliminate small and financially struggling teams from the league, with 10 of the league's 22 clubs thereby either relegated to independent semi-pro status or nudged into dissolution.[3]
The NFL would not again have as many as 22 teams until the 1970 season, which followed the NFL-AFL merger.
The league had a record 22 teams for the 1926 season.
| First season in NFL * | Rejoined the NFL † | Last active season ^ |
| Team | Head coach(es) | Stadium | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Akron Indians ^ | Al Nesser (2 games) and Frank Nied (6 games) | Akron League Park | |
| Brooklyn Lions *^ | Ebbets Field | ||
| Bison Stadium | |||
| Canton Bulldogs ^ | Pete Henry and Harry Robb (10 games) | League Field | |
| Cubs Park | |||
| Normal Park | |||
| Columbus Tigers ^ | West Side Athletic Club | ||
| Triangle Park | |||
| Detroit Panthers ^ | Navin Field | ||
| Duluth Athletic Park | |||
| Frankford Stadium | |||
| City Stadium | |||
| Hammond Pros ^ | Traveling team | ||
| Hartford Blues *^ | East Hartford Velodrome | ||
| Kansas City Cowboys ^ | Muehlebach Field | ||
| Los Angeles Buccaneers *^ | Traveling team | ||
| Louisville Colonels *^ | Traveling team | ||
| Milwaukee Badgers ^ | Milwaukee Athletic Park | ||
| Polo Grounds | |||
| Minersville Park | |||
| Cycledrome | |||
| Racine Tornadoes †^ | Shorty Barr (3 games) and Wally McIlwain (2 games) | Horlick Field |