Real college students were recruited for larger scenes, each getting paid $5 a day. While this helped provide appropriate atmosphere for the college setting of this film, the students were hired at a rate that was below the standard $7.50-a-day paid daily to professional extras in Los Angeles.
Some archive footage of football games were incorporated into the football sequences. Variety's review reported seeing 2 well-known football players at the time: Albie Booth and Barry Wood.
This film was unsuccessful at the box office, resulting in a loss to MGM of $28,000 ($490,000 in 2018) according to studio records.
Robert Montgomery was originally cast in the role of Tony. Montgomery would have been 28 years old at the time, while Navarro was a less-convincing 33.
MGM changed the setting of the film to Yale from Notre Dame, as it was in the novel, because of Universal's release of The Spirit of Notre Dame (1931) the previous year.