Map Of The Nine College Football Conferences From 1938 Explains Some Of Today’s Weirdest Rivalries

It’s hard to believe that there was a time in the United States when only nine college football conferences existed, but that was the reality in America back in 1938, during the ‘Great Depression Era’. The nine college football conferences of America were primarily broken out based on geographical distribution, because even though college football in America has existed for over six decades when this map came out in 1938 the teams were still decades away from traveling by aircraft.

What’s most striking about this map to me are some of the colleges on there that are COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT now on the college football landscape. It’s also interesting to see that back in 1938 the colleges of Oklahoma didn’t mess with Texas, but the state of Arkansas had the balls to travel to the Lone Star State and play against Texas, TCU, and SMU (who was actually relevant back then).

To zoom in on the map you can click through on that image above (or CLICK HERE) to see every tiny detail!

I came across this map over on Slate, which is odd because I almost never find myself on that website, but if you’re interested in a little back story on this map you can CLICK HERE. And if you’re interested in buying a copy of the map for yourself you can CLICK HERE.