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The first football game to be played by A&M in 1900, and the first football game of that year to have been played in Raleigh, was scheduled on very short notice. The William Bingham School, of Mebane, NC, had elected to join the burgeoning North Carolina Athletics Association, along with A&M and several other local schools and colleges. Schools were allowed to play only against other members of the NC Athletics Association, unless the other team agreed to the Association's strict rules, which limited the number of games many teams could play.

Having opened for the Fall 1900 semester just over a month prior, on September 6th, the Raleigh boys had not trained together very long. Despite a record-breaking number of applicants and the school surpassing the 300-student mark for the first time in its history, the school was still fairly small, limiting the men to choose for their football team (Enrollment History). Nonetheless, much of A&M's team was composed of new members, with only 5 members from the previous year's team initially returning. Though the team had a newly-graded practice field purchased from land near the college, the field was "not as yet in good shape." To add to the hardships facing the A&M team, though they had reportedly been practicing since September, by as late as the 22nd there was no "scrub" team for the Farmers to practice against (The Times-Visitor, September 22nd, 1900, p. 1).

The fact that the A&M boys had not been through rigorous practice was not a large hinderance to defeating the boys of the Mebane-based school. This is not necessarily a knock on Bingham's boys (though A&M had defeated Bingham 18-0 the previous year) and more a statement on the difficulty of organizing a football team. The William Bingham School did not open in 1900 until September 24th, 1900, meaning the Cadets had less than two weeks to practice before facing a larger and more well-trained college team, even if the school reported "much interest" in football (The (Raleigh) Morning Post, September 26th, 1900, p. 3).

Regardless of the difficulties both teams faced, the match was still planned to take place, with an announcement being made in the News and Observer advertising for the game on October 3rd writing "Both teams are composed of picked players that have been practicing daily for sometime [sic]," with a "fine game" expected. The Morning Post commented to on the anticipation of the city for the game, writing that "no doubt a large crowd will be out" to see the first game of the year played in Raleigh (News and Observer, October 3rd, 1900, p. 8; The (Raleigh) Morning Post, October 3rd, 1900, p. 5).

Despite the anticipation of "Raleighites" for the game, it was canceled on October 4th. The cancelation was caused by "the inability of several of the best men on the Bingham school team to play" (The (Raleigh) Morning Post, October 4th, 1900, p. 5; News and Observer, October 4th, 1900, p. 6). A make-up game was never arranged.

The Bingham team that season was not a good one. The first game I could find played by Bingham of Mebane was played on October 22nd. They lost to Guilford 0-34, with the first goal being scored within one-and-a-half minutes; "From the first rush it was apparent that Bingham stood no chance of winning." They also lost a game on the 27th to Oak Ridge 0-23, with the ball reportedly in their half of the field for all but two minutes of the 30-minute game. The Bingham School had intended to play the Sophomore Team of UNC but canceled the game owing to their "poor condition." On November 17th, the team did win a game, and it was by a large margin; the Bingham School defeated Chapel Hill High School 50-6. On November 29th, the Bingham team closed their season with a 0-0 tie against Horner at Mebane (The Greensboro Evening Telegram, October 22nd, 1900, p. 1; News and Observer, October 28th, 1900, p. 6; The Tar Heel, November 30th, 1900, p. 3; The (Asheville) Semi-Weekly Citizen, November 20th, 1900, p. 4; News and Observer, November 30th, 1900, p. 3; The (Raleigh) Morning Post, December 15th, 1900, p. 3). To me, this shows the record of a school that was at first poorly trained but eventually became stronger with leadership and time. To add to this, the end-of-year article in the Morning Post claimed (contrary to the explanation given to Chapel Hill for cancelling their game) that no member of the team was injured.

The game never was rescheduled. Bingham's bad 1-2-1 record shows that the Farmers likely could have taken down the boys from Mebane had they played. The team was scheduled to play A&M's freshman team a little after Thanksgiving, but the game was postponed and appears to have never been played. By December 14th, Bingham's football season was officially over (The (Raleigh) Morning Post, December 15th, 1900, p. 3; News and Observer, November 30th, 1900, p. 8).