The 1933 college football season saw the Michigan Wolverines repeat as winners of the Knute Rockne Memorial Trophy as national champion under the Dickinson System.

The unofficial east–west championship game, the Rose Bowl, was between Stanford (8–1–1) who was ranked behind USC and unranked Columbia (7–1).

[1] Although future President Richard M. Nixon had been on the freshman football team at Whittier, he was not part of the varsity squad that played against USC.

Stanford beat San Jose State 27–0 September 30 Stanford narrowly defeated UCLA 3–0, USC beat Loyola Marymount 18–0, and Oregon won at Gonzaga 14–0.

October 7 USC defeated Washington State 33–0, Stanford beat Santa Clara 7–0, and Oregon got past Portland College 14–7.

Michigan (whose team included Gerald Ford as a center) beat Michigan State 20–6, Purdue beat Ohio University 13–6, and Ohio State rolled over Virginia 75–0.

Minnesota (1–0–2) hosted Pittsburgh (3–0–0), with the home team Gophers winning, 7–3.

Princeton narrowly won, but stayed unscored upon, with a 6–0 win over Washington & Lee.

In Phildadelphia, Ohio State beat Penn 20–7 and Purdue won at Notre Dame 19–0.

Purdue suffered its first loss of the season, falling 14–6 to visiting Iowa.

November 25 Princeton was finally scored upon, after holding its first seven opponents scoreless.

December 2 In Los Angeles, USC (8–1–1) hosted Georgia (8–1–0) and won 31–0 Army (9–0–0) and Notre Dame (2–5–1) met at Yankee Stadium.

Princeton, no longer having to maintain a streak of shutouts, won at Yale 27–2 to finish as the nation's only unbeaten and untied team.

[2] Cliff Montgomery, the Columbia quarterback, was named the Rose Bowl Player Of The Game when the award was created in 1953 and selections were made retroactively.

[6] (although, the first time was a one instance publishing in 1934[7]) Frank G. Dickinson, an economics professor at the University of Illinois, had invented the Dickinson System to rank colleges based upon their records and the strength of their opposition.

Chicago clothing manufacturer Jack Rissman then persuaded Dickinson to rank the nation's teams under the system, and the Rockne Memorial Trophy was awarded to the winning university.

Then, after each team has been given its quota of points its final "score" is tabulated by taking an average on the number of games played."

Based on its schedule, Michigan was ranked highest by Professor Dickinson.

As in 1932, Dickinson, an economics professor at the University of Illinois, included four Big Ten Conference teams among the best in the US.