Very liberal transfer rules at the time -
Gotta remember that most kids who were able to go to school past high school went to local colleges and universities -
It was a big ------- deal to go to any college. Very few graduated high school, much less went to college
The true system of publicly supported colleges was just getting off of the ground
Athletic conferences, at least in the South, weren't started until 1921 with the advent of the Southern Conference, before that time each school made their own schedules and regulations were nonexistent. College sports, and the regulations of them, took off in the "Roaring Twenties".
As an aside, one of my ancestors went to Vanderbilt, Southwestern (when it was in Clarksville - later Southwestern at Memphis, now Rhodes), and The Univ of the South at Sewanee - As I said - very liberal transfer rules at the time (and very few, if any, regulations for sports)
