AFCA Blue Ribbon Commission Champion 1924
Teams named national champions by NCAA-designated selectors
(Underline: Claimed title for the season; +: co-champion selection)
Notre Dame (Berryman, Billingsley, Boand, CFRA, Dickinson, Helms, Houlgate, NCF, Poling, Sagarin)
- 3 shutouts; 8 wins by double digits
- Best win: vs Stanford (8-1-1; @ Rose Bowl)
- Other notable wins: vs Army (5-1-2; @ NYC); @ Princeton (4-2-1)
Pennsylvania (Parke Davis)
- 6 shutout wins; 6 wins by double digits
- Best win: vs Columbia (5-3-1)
- Other notable win: vs Lafayette (7-2, non-FBS); vs Virginia (5-4)
- Loss: @ California (8-0-2)
- Scoreless tie: vs Penn State (6-3-1)
Other Possible Contenders
California
- 4 shutouts; 5 wins by double digits
- Best win: vs Pennsylvania (9-1-1)
- Other notable wins: vs St. Mary’s (8-1, non-FBS); vs USC (9-2)
- Ties: vs Stanford (7-1-1; PCC champ); @ Washington (8-1-1)
Dartmouth
- 4 shutouts; 5 wins by double digits
- Best win: vs Brown (5-4)
- Other notable wins: vs Cornell (4-4; @ NYC); @ Harvard (4-4)
- Tie: @ Yale (6-0-2)
Yale
- 3 shutouts; 5 wins by double digits
- Best win: @ Princeton (4-2-1)
- Other notable wins: vs Brown (5-4); vs Georgia (7-3)
- Ties: vs Army (5-1-2); vs Dartmouth (7-0-1)
| California | Dartmouth | Notre Dame | Pennsylvania | Yale | |
| Overall Record | 8-0-2 | 7-0-1 | 10-0 | 9-1-1 | 6-0-2 |
| Opponent Win % | 0.671 | 0.418 ^ | 0.607 | 0.555 | 0.625 |
| +.500 Opponents | 6 | 2 | 8 | 6 | 5 |
| Average PF-PA | 16.2-5.1 | 28.1-3.9 | 28.5-5.4 | 18.5-2.8 | 18.0-4.5 |
| FBS Record | 3-0-2 | 4-0-1 | 8-0 | 3-1-1 | 6-0-2 |
| FBS Opponent Win % | 0.745 | 0.538 | 0.621 | 0.652 | 0.625 |
| Average FBS PF-PA | 19.0-6.8 | 19.0-6.2 | 26.4-6.8 | 11.4-4.2 | 18.0-4.5 |
| Conference Record | 2-0-2 | Independent | Independent | Independent | Independent |
| Non-Home Games | 1 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 1 |
| SOS (S-R/BR) | 48/49 | 68/62 | 8/5 | 77/45 | 2/11 |
^ – Dartmouth played a game against Canadian university McGill. Was unable to find their record outside of the Dartmouth contest.
Where I’ve been making the cases for teams, I think 1924 is a pretty easy year. Notre Dame performed the best against one of the year’s best schedules, with no opponents finishing below .500, defeating 5 teams that would’ve been Top 25-caliber or close to (Army, Georgia Tech, Nebraska, Princeton, and Stanford), and playing 6 of their 10 games away from South Bend. Knute Rockne’s Irish, led by the “Four Horseman” backfield, were the only FBS-level team to have a perfect record, and had transitive chains over all of the other contenders. 1924 is Notre Dame’s 1st claimed national title season, and they are a slam dunk for a retroactive Coaches Trophy here. Penn is the only other team to claim a title thanks to a NCAA-designated selector. They had one of the worst schedules, playing 6 non-FBS teams and only 6 opponents that had winning records. In addition, they lost their only road game of the year against the only legitimate Top 25-caliber team they faced (California). Parke Davis’ selection of the Quakers was downright awful; the Quakers actually claiming this as a title season is worse.
While I don’t think they would be legitimate Tier 2 and Tier 3 in my typical sense due to Notre Dame being an overwhelming favorite, I’m going to still try to sort the other 3 teams on the list. Yale had one of the best schedules and played 4 teams that were Top 25-caliber or close to (Army, Dartmouth, Georgia, and Princeton); they also played only 1 road game and suffered 2 ties on the year. California played 4 games against Top 25-caliber teams (Penn, Stanford, USC, and Washington), but only 1 true road game and 5 games against non-FBS opponents (albeit 2 of those were 8-1 St. Mary’s and SCC champ Pomona). Ties against Washington and Stanford cost the Bears a shot to win the PCC and a Rose Bowl matchup against Notre Dame for a legitimate claim to the national title. Dartmouth had the best record beside Notre Dame, but played one of the worst schedules (3 non-FBS, only 2 opponents with winning records) and tied in their only game against a Top 25-caliber foe (at Yale). I’ll give Yale the edge as Tier 2 due to their quality of competition, as they were the only contender to play an all-FBS schedule and closest to Notre Dame in games played against Top 25-caliber competition. California and Dartmouth, due to having a weaker SOS, would be Tier 3 as their cases aren’t as strong as the Irish or Bulldogs, but better than Penn’s.
Tier 1 (Best Case to be awarded AFCA Trophy): Notre Dame
Tier 2 (Legitimate case for champion/co-champion): Yale
Tier 3 (Minor Contender, could make a case): California, Dartmouth
Tier 4 (Not Serious Contenders): Pennsylvania