The 1911 NCAA football season was the last one before major reforms were made to the American game in 1912. In 1911, touchdowns were worth five points, the field was 110 yards in length, and a team had three downs within which to advance the ball ten yards. Although no team finished the season unbeaten and untied, the United States Naval Academy (Navy) finished with a record of 6 wins and 3 ties (6-0-3). Two of the ties were 0-0 games with the other major unbeaten teams, Penn State (8-0-1) and Princeton (8-0-2). Other teams that finished the season unbeaten were Minnesota (6-0-1) and Florida (5-0-1). The Helms Athletic Foundation, founded in 1936, declared retroactively that Princeton had been the best team of 1911
The rules for American football in 1911 included:
Field 110 yards in lengthKickoff made from midfieldThree downs to gain ten yardsTouchdown worth 5 pointsField goal worth 3 pointsForward pass legal, but subject to penalties:A pass could not be caught beyond the goal line, nor more than 20 yards beyond the line of scrimmage.
Carlisle beat Lebanon Valley 53-0, and in a Wednesday (Sep. 27) game beat Muhlenberg 32-0Lafayette beat Bloomsburg College 53-0Brown beat New Hampshire 56-0Brown beat Rhode Island 12-0Princeton beat Stevens 37-0, and three days later, beat Rutgers 37-0Carlisle beat Dickinson 17-0Lafayette beat Ursinus College 3-0Penn State beat Geneva College 57-0Arkansas beat visiting Southwest Missouri State College, 100-0Georgia beat Alabama Presbyterian 51-0Minnesota opened its season with a 5-0 win over Iowa State.Vanderbilt opened with a 40-0 win over visiting Birmingham CollegeHarvard beat Bates 15-0Navy beat Johns Hopkins 27-5, and on Wednesday the 11th, beat St. John's College of Maryland, 21-0Princeton beat Villanova 31-0 and on October 11, played Lehigh to a 6-6 tieCarlisle beat Mount St. Mary's 46-5Penn State beat Gettysburg 31-0Army beat Vermont 12-0After a 39-0 win against the Seamen Gunners, Georgetown beat William & Mary 66-0Harvard beat Holy Cross 8-0Michigan beat Case 24-0Minnesota beat South Dakota 5-0Chicago beat Indiana 23-6Texas A&M beat Southwestern 22-0.Vanderbilt beat Maryville 46-0Florida beat The Citadel 15-3Georgia beat South Carolina 38-0Carlisle (4-0) won at Georgetown 28-5Navy beat Washington & Jefferson 16-0Penn State won 5-0 at CornellArmy beat Rutgers 18-0Texas A&M beat Austin College 33-0Vanderbilt beat visiting Rose-Hulman Institute 33-0 and *Georgia defeated Alabama at Birmingham, 11-3Harvard beat Williams 18-0Michigan won 15-3 at Michigan State.Chicago beat Purdue 11-3Princeton beat Colgate 31-0At Annapolis, Navy and Princeton played to a 0-0 tie.Carlisle won at Pittsburgh 17-0Harvard defeated Amherst 11-0Penn State beat Villanova 18-0Army beat Yale 6-0Florida and South Carolina played to a 6-6 tie, and three days later, the Gators won at Clemson, 6-5.Vanderbilt beat visiting Centre College 45-0; in its first four games, Vandy had outscored its opposition 164-0.Georgia beat visiting Sewanee 12-3.Texas A&M beat Auburn 16-0Michigan beat Ohio State 19-0Georgetown won at Richmond 65-0Minnesota stayed unbeaten with a 21-3 win over NebraskaChicago defeated Illinois 24-0In an intersectional meeting of unbeaten teams, Michigan edged visiting Vanderbilt, 9-8Navy and Western Reserve played to a 0-0 tie.Carlisle beat Lafayette 19-0At Philadelphia, Penn State beat Pennsylvania, 22-6.Army beat Lehigh 20-0Georgetown beat St. John's College of Maryland, 20-0.Princeton beat Holy Cross 20-0Minnesota won at Iowa 24-6.Wisconsin, after shutouts against Lawrence (15-0), and Ripon (24-0) *Colorado College (26-0) won at Northwestern 28-3Harvard was defeated by visiting Brown, 20-6Georgia beat Mercer 8-5In a Friday game, Texas A&M beat Ole Miss, 17-0Army and Georgetown played to a 0-0 tie.Carlisle won its 8th game, 16-0 over Penn.Michigan and Syracuse played to a 6-6 tie.Navy beat North Carolina State 17-6Penn State beat St. Bonaventure 46-0Princeton beat (5-0) Harvard 8-6Minnesota (5-0) hosted Chicago (3-0) and won 30-0Wisconsin beat Iowa 12-0Vanderbilt beat visiting (5-0-0) Georgia 17-0. Georgia beat Clemson three days later at Augusta, 22-0Florida beat visiting Columbia College 9-0 in a Friday game.Carlisle (8-0) handed Harvard (5-1) its second straight loss, winning 18-15Navy beat West Virginia 32-0.Army was scored upon for the first time in six games, as it beat Bucknell 20-2.Michigan (4-0-1) lost at Cornell, 6-0Chicago won at Northwestern 9-3Penn State beat Colgate 17-9Princeton beat Dartmouth 3-0Florida won at Stetson 27-0Vanderbilt beat Kentucky 18-0On Monday the 13th, Texas A&M lost to Texas 6-0At Annapolis, Penn State (7-0-0) and Navy (5-0-2) played to a 0-0 tie.Syracuse handed Carlisle its first defeat, winning 12-11Michigan beat Penn 11-9Princeton beat Yale 6-3 to close its season at 8-0-2Army beat Colgate 12-6Georgetown beat Virginia 28-3The Army–Navy Game was played in Philadelphia on Friday, November 24, between unbeatens, (5-0-3) Navy and (6-0-1) Army, with Navy winning 3-0Minnesota (5-0-0) and Wisconsin (5-0-1) played to a 6-6 tie.Chicago beat Cornell 6-0Vanderbilt beat Ole Miss 21-0.Georgia beat Georgia Tech 5-0Harvard beat Dartmouth 5-3.Minnesota beat Illinois 11-0Chicago beat Wisconsin 5-0Michigan and Nebraska 6-6 tieCarlisle won at Johns Hopkins, 29-6Harvard and Yale played to 0-0 tie.Kansas travels to Missouri for a 3–3 tie in what is widely considered the first homecoming game. More than 1,000 people gathered in downtown Lawrence, Kansas, to watch a mechanical reproduction of the game while it was being played with the information reported by telegraph.On Wednesday, November 29, in Savannah, Georgia and Auburn played to a 0-0 tie.Penn State won at Pittsburgh 3-0, to finish the season 8-0-1.Carlisle closed its season with a 12-6 win at Brown.Georgetown beat Lehigh 28-3.Florida beat Charleston 21-0.Vanderbilt defeated visiting Sewanee 31-0.The last five-point American football touchdown was scored on January 1, 1912, in a game played in Havana, Cuba. Mississippi A&M College (now Mississippi State University) defeated the Club Atletico de Cuba, 12-0.
Conference standings
The following is a potentially incomplete list of conference standings:
The consensus All-America team included:
Rushing yards leader: Jim Thorpe, Carlisle, 899Rushing avg. leader: Jim Thorpe, 8.0
