1924 NFL season

January league meeting Team owners and representatives held their annual scheduling meeting at the Hotel Sherman in Chicago during the weekend of January 26–27, 1924. Representatives from twenty teams were in attendance, including a delegate from Kansas City requesting admission into the league. Carl Storck of Dayton was selected as the league's secretary-treasurer. Lambeau proposed that instead of allowing each team to schedule its own games — a system which allowed big-market teams such as the Chicago Bears to play most of their games at home against chosen opponents — the league should instead take over scheduling as an equalizing measure. While neither of these small town clubs were able to satisfy team owners in the league of their viability, Kansas City was admitted for 1924. The league meeting presented gold footballs to members of the 1923 Canton Bulldogs for winning the league championship. An appeal was heard by the delegates, presented by the Rock Island Independents, over the guarantee paid in 1923 to the Rochester Jeffersons for their October 14 game. The Jeffs, it was alleged, misrepresented their lineup and breached their contract by failing to bring in regular players for a competitive game. The visiting substitutes had been blasted 56–0 by the Islanders in one of the most one-sided games of the 1923 season. This dispute was decided in favor of Rochester, however, and the team was awarded its guarantee. ==Teams==

Eighteen teams competed in the NFL during the 1924 season, with four financially failing teams from 1923 failing to return — the Toledo Maroons, St. Louis All-Stars, Louisville Brecks, and the Oorang Indians of Marion, Ohio. ==Standings==

The Cleveland Bulldogs, Buffalo Bisons, Frankford Yellow Jackets, Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears were the contenders for the title in November. However, Buffalo faltered down the stretch, dropping their last three games to drop from 6–2 to 6–5, finishing squarely in the middle of the pack, and Green Bay similarly fell from 6–2 to 7–4. This left Cleveland and Chicago to contend for the title, since Frankford had two losses and the other two teams only one. Teams such as the Duluth Kelleys and the Rock Island Independents would have been contenders for the title, but their more limited schedules (six games for Duluth and nine for Rock Island) effectively ruled them out of title contention. The official end of the season was designated on November 30, 1924, with Cleveland atop the league standings. After this date, Chicago challenged Cleveland to a post-season rematch and won, setting up a repeat of 1921, when the Bears (at that time still known as the Staleys) were able to win the championship from Buffalo (at the time known as the All-Americans) using the same tactic: this time, however, league officials declared any game after November 30 to be effectively exhibition games, null and void with regard to the season standings, which allowed the Bulldogs to keep their title. The Bears argued that the Bulldogs had agreed in advance that the game will be the title match, but the NFL officials claimed the Bulldogs couldn't make the decision for the league, and awarded them the title based on "league play". In terms of pure win–loss differential, the Yellow Jackets would have easily won the title, as they had nine more wins than losses, compared to the +6 of the Bulldogs and the +5 of the Bears. Had the current (post-1972) system of counting ties as half-a-win and half-a-loss been in force in 1924, the Kelleys (5–1) would have tied with the Bulldogs (7–1–1) for the league title at .833, with the tiebreaker not applicable as the Kelleys and Bulldogs did not play each other, while the Yellow Jackets (11–2–1) would have finished third at .821, with the Bears (6–1–4) finishing fourth at .727. ==References==