1899 college football rankings

The 1899 college football season rankings included a ranking by New York City newspaper The Sun.^[1][2]

1899 college football rankings
Season	1899
Bowl season	1899–00 bowl games
college football rankings 1900 →

The Sun

In December 1899, New York City newspaper The Sun published a column detailing "how the leading elevens are impartially rated."^[1]

Eastern teams

The Sun's top-seven list contained only Eastern teams, without stating that specifically.^[1]

Rank	Team[1]	Record
1	Harvard	10–0–1
2	Princeton	12–1
3	Lafayette	12–1
4	Carlisle	9–2
5	Penn	8–3–2
6	Cornell	7–3
7	Columbia	9–3

Western teams

The column in The Sun also separately ranked the top two teams in the West.^[1]

Rank	Team[1]	Record
1	Chicago	16–0–2
2	Wisconsin	9–2

References

1. "In the Football World — How the Leading Elevens are Impartially Rated — Harvard, Princeton, Lafayette and the Indians Top the List". The Sun. December 4, 1899. Retrieved January 27, 2024. With the football season at an end, the critics are busily engaged in reviewing the various big games and in rating the leading elevens according to merit. Impartial judges place Harvard at the top of the heap, for the simple reason that the Crimson did not suffer a defeat.
2. Jenkins, Dan (September 11, 1967). Laguerre, André (ed.). "This Year The Fight Will Be In The Open". Sports Illustrated. Vol. 27, no. 11. Chicago. pp. 28–34. Retrieved February 8, 2016. Polls and systems to determine the No. 1 team are not nearly so ancient as the mere naming of the "intercollegiate champion" by a Casper Whitney or a J. Parmly Paret.