Talk:1921 All-Big Ten Conference football team

All-Western teams

Neat that you start these @Cbl62:. I know Eckersall's All-West teams were often considered strong selections. Do you know of any important years for peeling back the Eastern bias in the West like with the South we have circa WW1 (first national champion, in 1918 our first Camp All-American, rise of Centre) and circa 1932 (SEC established, 3 All-Americans), with the era in between having many of our upsets of northern schools. Might there be an era before these when it changed from East and West to "the North?" Perhaps when Willie Heston was first-team All-America in 1903? Clarence Herschberger's article makes it sound like 1898 Penn-Chicago was an important moment. In retrospect 1904 was huge for the south, with Donahue and McGugin some vigorous northern injections and Heisman going to Tech. Cake (talk) 04:52, 23 February 2015 (UTC)

The Eastern bias was driven in part by the fact that Camp was the only official selector in any many years until his death in 1925. The non-Eastern All-Americans prior to 1901 can be counted on one hand. Even after that, though, the Eastern schools continued to dominate until the early 1920s. For this reason, I think All-Southern and All-Western teams have special importance in the years before 1925. Cbl62 (talk) 06:13, 23 February 2015 (UTC)