The 1879 college football season had no clear-cut champion, with the Official NCAA Division I Football Records Book listing Princeton and Yale having been selected as national champions.

[1] Racine College and the University of Michigan played the first football game in the Midwest.

The 1879 Michigan Wolverines football team beat Racine in a game played in Chicago.

The US Naval Academy also had its first game; the team did not have a coach until 1890.

This college football 1870s season article is a stub.