In 1932 the Colgate football team was undefeated, untied, and unscored-upon. But they did not receive an invitation to the Rose Bowl, although they were considered the top college team in the country.
From The Giant Book of More Strange But True Sports Stories by Howard Liss. Illustrations by Joe Mathieu.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1933_Rose_Bowl
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1932_Colgate_Red_Raiders_football_team
https://200.colgate.edu/looking-back/moments/1932-undefeated-football-team
I don’t know the mechanics of how Rose Bowl invitations are offered back then, but the team that did get invited from the East didn’t have as good a record as Colgate–and they got destroyed, 35-0. There’s a little piece of me which thinks perhaps Colgate was left out because they didn’t want USC to lose.
The Colgate coach, when he’d heard the invitation was not offered, wrote on the blackboard that the team was ‘Undefeated, Untied, Unscored-upon—and Uninvited.’
or maybe much like today it was all about money? Colgate is a pretty small school w/ a small following compared to Pitt. Somethings never change!