1881 Final College Football Team Rankings
1881 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 | 1.000 |  Princeton (PRINCETON) | IND FBSI | 7–0–2 | 0.889 | 2 | +8 | Tied Yale 0–0 |
| 2 | 0 | 1.120 |  Yale (YALE) | IND FBSI | 5–0–1 | 0.917 | 1 | +9 | Tied Princeton 0–0 |
| 3 | 0 | 1.500 |  Dartmouth (DARTMOUTH) | IND FBSI | 1–0–1 | 0.750 | 4 | 0 | BYE |
| 4 | 0 | 2.117 |  Harvard (HARVARD) | IND FBSI | 6–1–1 | 0.813 | 3 | +3 | BYE |
| 5 | 1 | 2.676 |  Columbia (COLUMBIA) | IND FBSI | 3–3–1 | 0.500 | 5 | +2 | Beat Rutgers 1–0; Beat PENNSYLVANIA 2–0 |
| 6 | -1 | 4.028 |  Rutgers (RUTGERS) | IND FBSI | 2–4–1 | 0.357 | 7 | -5 | Lost to Columbia 0–1 |
| 7 | 1 | 4.301 | Stevens (STEVENS) | IND FBSI | 1–2–1 | 0.375 | 6 | -1 | BYE |
| 8 | -1 | 4.327 | Amherst (AMHERST) | IND FBSI | 0–3–1 | 0.125 | 8 | 0 | BYE |
| 9 | 0 | 4.764 |  Michigan (MICHIGAN) | IND FBSI | 0–3 | 0.000 | 9 | -1 | BYE |
| 10 | 0 | 6.800 |  Pennsylvania (PENNSYLVANIA) | IND FBSI | 0–5 | 0.000 | 9 | -8 | Lost to Columbia 0–2 |