1888 college football season

The 1888 college football season had no clear-cut champion, with the Official NCAA Division I Football Records Book listing Yale as having been selected national champions.[1] October 18 saw the first intercollegiate game in the state of North Carolina when Wake Forest defeated North Carolina 6–4.[2] The first "scientific game" occurred on Thanksgiving of the same year when North Carolina played Duke (then Trinity). Duke won 16 to 0.[3]

1888 college football season
1888 Yale Bulldogs
Champion(s)	Yale
football seasons

Conference and program changes

School	1887 Conference	1888 Conference
Southern California Methodists	Program established	Independent

Statistical leaders

• Player scoring most points: Knowlton Ames, Princeton, 243

Conference standings

The following is a potentially incomplete list of conference standings:

1888 Eastern Intercollegiate Football Association standings Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T Dartmouth + 3 – 1 – 0     3 – 4 – 0 MIT + 3 – 1 – 0     ? – ? – ? + – Conference co-champions

Independents

1888 Eastern college football independents records Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T Yale   –       13 – 0 – 0 Harvard   –       12 – 1 – 0 Princeton   –       11 – 1 – 0 Lehigh   –       10 – 2 – 0 Trinity (CT)   –       5 – 1 – 1 Lafayette   –       6 – 3 – 0 Cornell   –       4 – 2 – 0 Penn   –       9 – 7 – 0 Williams   –       4 – 4 – 0 Bucknell   –       2 – 3 – 0 Fordham   –       1 – 2 – 0 Massachusetts   –       2 – 4 – 0 Stevens   –       2 – 7 – 1 Wesleyan   –       2 – 7 – 0 Amherst   –       2 – 8 – 1 Worcester Tech   –       1 – 4 – 0 Rutgers   –       1 – 7 – 1 Penn State   –       0 – 2 – 1 Swarthmore   –       0 – 5 – 0	1888 Midwestern college football independents records Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T Cincinnati   –       1 – 0 – 1 Notre Dame   –       1 – 0 – 0 Washington University   –       1 – 0 – 0 Michigan   –       2 – 1 – 0 Northwestern   –       2 – 1 – 0 Lake Forest   –       2 – 2 – 0 Minnesota   –       1 – 1 – 0 Indiana   –       0 – 0 – 1 Miami (OH)   –       0 – 0 – 1 Albion   –       0 – 2 – 0	1888 Southern college football independents records Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T Georgetown   –       4 – 2 – 0 Trinity (NC)   –       2 – 1 – 0 Virginia   –       2 – 1 – 0 Wake Forest   –       2 – 1 – 0 Johns Hopkins   –       6 – 5 – 0 Richmond   –       1 – 2 – 0 North Carolina   –       1 – 3 – 0 Navy   –       1 – 4 – 0 Gallaudet   –         –   Randolph–Macon   –         –   St. John's (MD)   –         –
1888 Western college football independents records Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T USC   –       2 – 0 – 0 California   –       6 – 1 – 0

References

1. Official 2009 NCAA Division I Football Records Book (PDF). Indianapolis, IN: The National Collegiate Athletic Association. August 2009. p. 70. Retrieved 2009-10-16.
2. "Wake Forest: A Look Back".
3. "Trinity College To Have Football Season". Winston-Salem Journal. July 25, 1920. p. 5.