1886 Final College Football Team Rankings
1886 rankings calculated with the Classic formula (Ken's 2016-based hybrid, applied retroactively); records, NOW and game results come from James Howell's historical college football score archive.
| Rank | Change | Rating | Team | Conf | Record | Win % | Place | NOW | Game Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 | -4.229 |  Yale (YALE) | IND FBSI | 9–0–1 | 0.950 | 1 | +34 | Tied Princeton 0–0 |
| 2 | 0 | -2.831 |  Harvard (HARVARD) | IND FBSI | 12–2 | 0.857 | 3 | +19 | Beat Pennsylvania 28–0 |
| 3 | 0 | -1.812 |  Princeton (PRINCETON) | IND FBSI | 7–0–1 | 0.938 | 2 | +41 | Tied Yale 0–0 |
| 4 | 0 | 1.224 |  Williams (WILLIAMS) | IND FBSI | 5–1–1 | 0.786 | 5 | +8 | BYE |
| 5 | 0 | 1.292 |  Lafayette (LAFAYETTE) | IND FBSI | 10–2 | 0.833 | 4 | +6 | Beat Lehigh 4–0 |
| 6 | 0 | 2.587 |  Lehigh (LEHIGH) | IND FBSI | 4–3–1 | 0.563 | 6 | -2 | Lost to Lafayette 0–4 |
| 7 | 0 | 2.742 |  Pennsylvania (PENNSYLVANIA) | IND FBSI | 9–7–1 | 0.559 | 7 | +10 | Lost to Harvard 0–28 |
| 8 | 0 | 4.128 |  Dartmouth (DARTMOUTH) | IND FBSI | 2–2 | 0.500 | 8 | 0 | BYE |
| 9 | 0 | 6.339 | Amherst (AMHERST) | IND FBSI | 3–4 | 0.429 | 9 | -14 | BYE |
| 10 | 0 | 8.482 |  Rutgers (RUTGERS) | IND FBSI | 1–3 | 0.250 | 11 | -11 | BYE |
| 11 | 0 | 12.218 |  M.i.t. (M.I.T.) | IND FBSI | 2–6–1 | 0.278 | 10 | -6 | BYE |
| 12 | 0 | 13.175 | Wesleyan (WESLEYAN) | IND FBSI | 2–6 | 0.250 | 11 | +4 | BYE |
| 13 | 1 | 17.981 | Stevens (STEVENS) | IND FBSI | 0–7–1 | 0.063 | 13 | -9 | BYE |
| 14 | -1 | 18.027 |  Tufts (TUFTS) | IND FBSI | 0–9 | 0.000 | 14 | -20 | BYE |