The 1922 college football season had a number of unbeaten and untied teams, and no clear-cut champion, with the Official NCAA Division I Football Records Book listing California, Cornell, Iowa, Princeton, and Vanderbilt as national champions.

Andy Smith's Pacific Coast Conference champion "Wonder Team" at California continued on its streak since 1920.

Eastern power Cornell was coached by Gil Dobie and led by one of the sport's great backfields with George Pfann, Eddie Kaw, Floyd Ramsey, and Charles E. Cassidy.

The Commodores tied Michigan 0–0 on October 14 at the dedication of Dudley Field, the South's first permanent college football stadium.

The West Virginia Mountaineers played the Gonzaga Bulldogs in the only other bowl game this season, the San Diego East-West Christmas Classic.

In the first game between Eastern and Western teams of the college football season, Iowa dominated Yale.

In Nashville, Michigan and Vanderbilt played to a 0–0 tie at the inaugural game for Dudley Field, the first dedicated football-only stadium in the South in the style of the Eastern schools.

October 21 Harvard had been shocked the year before in a 6–0 upset by the "Prayin' Colonels" of Centre College of Danville, Kentucky.

[9] John Thomas ran for three touchdowns and Chicago's Maroons led 18–7 as the fourth quarter began, but a 40–yard fumble return closed the gap.

In the closing minutes, Princeton back Harry Crum was buried under a pile of players as he plunged toward the goal line, and when the mass was untangled, it was a touchdown.

[12] The 1922 Spalding's Football Guide ranked Florida as the best forward passing team in the country.

Alabama coach Xen C. Scott resigned due to cancer at year's end.

November 11 Princeton and Harvard were both unbeaten(6–0–0) when the Tigers travelled to Cambridge to face the Crimson.

On the 18 yard line, though, the Tigers outsmarted Harvard with a triple pass that set up Harry Crum's touchdown run, and went on to win 10–3.

Grantland Rice wrote the next day, "Crimson shadows around Cambridge way were thicker tonight than the Chinese wall and as deep as the darkness of Stygia itself..." [15] At the Polo Grounds, Cornell beat Dartmouth, with the Big Red overcoming the Big Green, 23–0.

Cornell beat Albright, 48–14 Harvard lost its second straight game, falling 3–0 to Brown Iowa won at Ohio State 12–9 to stay unbeaten.

The West Virginia Mountaineers defeated the Gonzaga Bulldogs, 21 to 13, to finish the season undefeated with a 10–0—1 record.

Three different "retro polls", taken years later and based on opinions drawn from historical research, reached different conclusions.

Clyde Berryman retroactively selected Vanderbilt, which tied Michigan, as a national champion.