The Northern Intercollegiate Football Association
It seems that this marked the beginning of conference play in American college football:
It’s not clear that MIT or Tufts actually fielded teams in 1885. I’ll have to spend time looking for reports of the games listed on this schedule, if they even exist.
Unfortunately, I’ve been unable to find an original list of football rules from 1885. These do not correspond well to the rules lists I have access to from 1883 and 1888, which means it’s not clear precisely which rules were omitted and which rules were modified. Let me know if you have any insights.
The IFA was founded in 1876, so it preceded the NIFA. I recently came across a period article indicating that Dartmouth applied for membership but was rejected due to being distant from the other conference members.