1920 NFL playoffs
| Regular season | |
|---|---|
| Duration | September 26, 1920 – December 19, 1920 |
| Champions | Akron Pros |
The 1920 APFA season was the inaugural season of the American Professional Football Association—renamed the National Football League in 1922. The league was formed on August 20, 1920, by independent professional American football teams from Ohio, all of whom had previously played in the Ohio League or New York Pro Football League (NYPFL). At the meeting, they first called their new league the American Professional Football Conference. A second organizational meeting was held in Canton on September 17, adding more teams to the league, and at the meeting, the name of the league became the American Professional Football Association. Four other teams also joined the Association during the year. Meanwhile, Jim Thorpe of the Canton Bulldogs was named the APFA's first president but continued to play for the team.
Scheduling was left up to each team. There were wide variations, both in the overall number of games played, and in the number played against other Association members. Thus, no official standings were maintained. In addition, football teams in the APFA also faced independent football teams not associated with the league. For instance, the Rochester Jeffersons played a schedule consisting mostly of local teams from their local sandlot circuit and the NYPFL, not the APFA.
The Akron Pros ended the season as the only undefeated team in the Association. Despite this, two one-loss teams—the Decatur Staleys and Buffalo All-Americans—who both tied Akron that year made cases for a co-championship. At the league meetings in Akron on April 30, 1921, the Pros were awarded the Brunswick-Balke Collender Cup for the 1920 season, the only year the trophy was used.
If modern NFL tie-breaking rules were in force in 1920, the Buffalo All-Americans (9-1-1) would be co-champions with the Akron Pros (8-0-3), as both had a win percentage of .864 and their only game was tied, while the Staleys (10-1-2) would have finished third with .846.
Further, if games against non-APFA teams were excluded, Akron (6-0-3) would still have won the championship with .833, with the All-Americans (4-1-1) and the Staleys (5-1-2) finishing equal second with .750 as they did not play each other.
...
Wikipedia