Our MNC Wednesday “prequel” miniseries returns this week with a look at the 1931 college football season. America still was stuck in the Great Depression, and the New Deal wouldn’t arrive for another 18 months or so. It was a bleak time in U.S. history, much like what most of the country is feeling today, sadly enough. Never fear, people: the trend of civilization is forever upward—or so we have observed as historians, right?

The 1931 MNC: USC (Helms, NCF); USC (DMP)

As usual, there were only a handful of real candidates here, led by the USC Trojans, who won the mythical national title in 1932. The glorified Southern California machine earned the credentials for 1931, as well, and it’s up to us to see if it holds. The Trojans lost their opener to St. Mary’s College (CA), and then they ran the table to a 10-1 record, including a Rose Bowl victory over Tulane. USC finished No. 1 in the SRS and the SOS.

Makes you wonder how they lost at home to the Gaels, eh?

Either way, the Green Wave finished No. 2 in the SRS after coming into the Rose Bowl undefeated at 11-0. With the head-to-head loss to the Trojans, Tulane is out of the conversation here, although the No. 13 SOS ranking was pretty solid for posting that record. While the Green Wave posted an 8-0 record in the Southern Conference, the Tennessee Volunteers were going 6-0-1 in conference to finish 9-0-1 overall.

That represents the best winning percentage in the nation, to go along with the No. 5 SRS slot on the back of the No. 40 SOS ranking. Regardless of not facing Tulane head-to-head, the Vols didn’t win their conference and didn’t have the SOS to compete with USC, either. The Pittsburgh Panthers finished 9-1 at No. 6 in the SRS, yet their SOS (41) was hurt by playing two small schools. They can’t stack up to the Trojans, of course.

Meanwhile, Michigan, Northwestern, and Purdue all finished 5-1 in the Western Conference, with the Wildcats coming out with the best SRS rank (7). They also played a Top 10 schedule, but losing their final game of the season at home to the Boilermakers prevented the team from being in the MNC conversation here. One final footnote: Alabama was No. 8 in the SRS, but the SOS ranked just 60th in the country. Ouch!

Thus, this makes it 13 MNCs for the Trojans now, moving ahead of Ohio State in our count. It is also the fourth straight confirmation we’ve made of the established MNC choice, out of the five entries in our prequel series. Only the first one resulted in a shift of designation in our corner of the interwebs. Not sure if this will become a pattern, but … we have fun each week exploring the data and arriving at our own spot.