The 1879 Princeton Tigers football team represented the College of New Jersey, then more commonly known as Princeton College, in the 1879 college football season. The team finished with a 4–0–1 record and was retroactively named national champion by the Billingsley Report and National Championship Foundation and as co-national champion by Parke H. Davis. This season was Princeton's ninth national championship, and one of 11 in a 13-year period between 1869 and 1881. The team's captain was Bland Ballard.

The 1879 Michigan Wolverines football team represented the University of Michigan in the 1879 college football season. The team was the first intercollegiate football squad to represent the University of Michigan. They played two games, winning one and tying the other. In its first intercollegiate football game, Michigan defeated a team from Racine College. Irving Kane Pond scored the first touchdown, and team captain David DeTar scored the first point and the first field goal.