ootball was rapidly changing with each passing year in the late 1800s. Rules makers were busy trying to tweak the game in an almost trial-by-error methodology. Crafty players and captains were coming up with out of the ordinary strategies on a regular basis, strategies that changed the landscape of the game.

The turmoil of Harvard's leaving the league and the rumors that pointed to Yale being on the brink of leaving made meetings of association members a very uncomfortable, uneasy experience. Yale had been conferring secretly with Harvard, not to form a dual league, but merely to continue scheduling football games between the two schools. This is how the young sport would enter the 1890s, a league that was very exciting but whose future was very much in doubt.