Predicting the 1924 National Champs

Among the difficulties of writing about the past is the tendency to bring today's worldview to yesterday's events. I was reminded of that when I decided to look back 100 years to compare the preseason forecasts of 1924 national championship hopefuls to their actual performance. It was a straightforward task I knew I could complete by searching ye old newspaper archives.

I've spent as much time as anyone thinking about old-time football. Yet, I fell into the 2024 trap of assuming that writers in 1...