For the second straight season the JCGridiron.com Dirty 30 National Title has multiple winners in College of San Mateo and Hutchinson College. CSM and Hutch won the 3C2A and NJCAA titles, respectively, and both had impressive resumes.
The 2024 season had a wild ending over the past 10 days. First, San Mateo demolished (43-11) a Mt. San Antonio squad that came into the final rankings as the top team in the nation to win the 3C2A title. Then, Hutchinson won its second straight game on the road with a 28-23 victory over an Iowa Western program that was ranked No. 2 coming into the final rankings.
San Mateo and Hutchinson had very different resumes, but they both added up to impressive.
San Mateo had eight wins against programs that finished in the Dirty 30 or on the bubble but had just one win against a program in the top 10. Hutchinson had six wins against programs in the Dirty 30 or on the bubble but had three wins against top 10 programs. The best loss of the two belonged to San Mateo, who lost to No. 12 Modesto (20-23) while Hutchinson’s loss came against No. 37 Butler (22-27). (ADVANTAGE CSM)
The most impressive thing was the way these two programs finished. San Mateo dismantled a Mt. SAC program in the state finals when they allowed the Mounties just 65 yards of offense and under 18 minutes of total time-of-possession. However, the Bulldogs were able to stay home for the entirety of the playoffs, never leaving their home turf while beating Modesto and Mt. SAC. On the contrary, Hutchinson had to travel nearly 1,500 miles in a matter of 10 days, winning in Milledgeville, Georgia, against Georgia Military (63-21) before heading to Texas to defeat a tremendous Iowa Western program for a second time this season in the NJCAA finals. (ADVANTAGE HUTCH)
In the end, the argument only makes the need for a battle between the 3C2A and NJCAA champs more evident. It’s been 47 years since the Junior Rose Bowl existed (1977), and a lot has happened in between. We at JCGridiron just celebrated our 20th national championship (Dirty 30). We would love to see the two organizations come together and decide the title on the field. If not in the Rose Bowl, perhaps a handful of smaller venues on a rotation. At the end of the day, the funds are hard to raise and the logistics perhaps even tougher, leaving us with our current format.
For San Mateo it was a second Dirty 30 title overall and second in three years after capturing the 2022 title outright. For Hutchinson, it was the second Dirty 30 title overall and the second in five years after capturing the outright 2020-21 title that started in 2020 and ended in 2021 due to COVID-19. The second win for both programs puts them both in a tie for third place in total Dirty 30 titles won with San Francisco, Riverside City, Butte and Mt. San Antonio. East Mississippi remains the leader with four total titles while Iowa Western has three.
It was the fifth split title in Dirty history and second in a row. A total of 25 national titles have been awarded by JCGridiron in 20 years, with 14 going to the NJCAA ranks and 11 to the 3C2A ranks. Below is a complete history of the Dirty 30 National Champions.
Congratulations to both programs on a sensational season and we’ll see you against for a 21st season in 2025.
The rest of the Dirty 30 Rankings follow. Just a reminder, the Dirty 30 Rankings do not include games against club teams, prep schools, non-CCCAA, non-NJCAA or non-HJCAC programs in its rankings.
