College football

This article covers college football played in the United States; for college football in Canada, see Canadian Interuniversity Sport.

College football is American football played by teams of students fielded by American universities and colleges, including United States military academies. It was the venue through which American football first gained popularity in the United States. College football remains extremely popular today among students, alumni, and other fans of the sport.

History

Like other modern codes of football, modern American football has its origins in various games, all known as "football", played at public schools in England in the mid-19th century. By the 1840s, students at Rugby School in England were playing a game in which players were able to pick up the ball and ran with it, a sport later known as Rugby football (or rugby). The game was taken to Canada by British soldiers stationed there, and was soon being played at Canadian colleges.

However, the first game played between teams representing American colleges was played under rules more similar to the 1863 rules of the English Football Association, the basis of the modern form of soccer. The game, between Rutgers University and Princeton University, took place on November 6, 1869 at College Field (now the site of the College Avenue Gymnasium), New Brunswick, New Jersey. Rutgers won, by a score of 6 "runs" to 4. Other colleges followed suit and — for a short time — soccer became the dominant code of "football" at U.S. colleges.

The American experience with rugby-style games began in 1874 at a meeting in Cambridge, Massachusetts between Harvard University and Montreal, Quebec's McGill University. The McGill team played a rugby-style game, while Harvard was isolated from other U.S. colleges by the fact that it played under rules which allowed greater handling of the ball than soccer. The teams agreed to play under compromise rules. The Harvard students took to the rugby rules and adopted them as their own.

Walter Camp, known as the "Father of American Football," is credited with changing the game from a variation of rugby into a unique sport. Camp is responsible for pioneering the play from scrimmage (earlier games featured a rugby scrum), most of the modern elements of scoring, the eleven-man team, and the traditional offensive setup of the seven-man line and the four-man backfield. Camp not only shaped the game, but also had a hand in popularizing it. He published numerous articles in publications such as Collier's Weekly and Harper's Weekly and chose the first College Football All-America Team.

College football increased in popularity through the remainder of the 19th century. It also became increasingly violent. President Theodore Roosevelt threatened, in 1906, to ban the sport following a series of player deaths from injuries suffered during games. The response to this was the formation of what became the National Collegiate Athletic Association, which set rules governing the sport. One of the resulting rule changes was the introduction of the forward pass. Another was the banning of "mass momentum" plays (many of which, like the infamous "flying wedge", were sometimes literally deadly).

Prior to the founding of the National Football League, and for a few decades thereafter, college football was the predominant venue of American football. Innovations in strategy and style of play originated in college football and spread to the pro game gradually. It was not until the post-World War II era that the pro game achieved ascendancy in the eyes of the average American sports fan.

Even with the emergence of the NFL, college football remains extremely popular throughout the U.S. Because the accessibility of the pro game is limited to major urban areas, the college game is especially popular in more rural areas; some particularly notable examples of this may be found in Oklahoma, Nebraska, West Virginia, Iowa, Central Pennsylvania, and throughout the Southern United States.

Although the college game has a much larger margin for talent than its pro counterpart, the sheer number of fans following major colleges provides a financial equalizer for the game, with Division I programs playing in, and consistently selling out huge stadiums (several of which have seating capacity exceeding 100,000). In many cases, the college stadiums employ bench-style seating (as oppsed to individual seats with backs and arm rests). This allows them to seat more fans in a given amount of space than the typical pro stadium, which tends to be a bit more luxurious.

A lack of a pro franchise is not necessarily an indicator of where the college game is most successful; for example, in California, Ohio, Texas, Pennsylvania, and Florida -- states which all have multiple NFL franchises -- there are universities that also rank in the upper financial echelons of the college football. However, some of the most successful college teams in those states do not reside in the same city as an NFL team. In college football players subject themselves to injury and must sign releases acknowledging the fact that their career could be ended within a matter of seconds. Student athletes should not depend entirely on their athletic ability for their career.

Being a college student, there are many different responsibilities that a student must uphold, besides supporting their families. The NCAA does not condone students financially supporting their family. The NCAA encourages students to learn to be financially independent as to help them prepare for life.

The season schedule

The college football season begins two to three weeks earlier than the NFL, toward the end of August. Until 2003, the regular season was officially ushered in by the Kickoff Classic (other pre-season games such as the Eddie Robinson Classic and the Pigskin Classic have also been played). Recent NCAA policy changes have eliminated some of these games. The regular season continues through early December, ending with the annual Army-Navy Game and several conference championship games on the same weekend.

The postseason consists of a series of bowl games that showcase top college teams. Bowl games generally match two teams of similar standing from different conferences, although some pit a high ranked team from a smaller conference against a lower ranked team from a more prestigious one. Division I-A football is the only NCAA sport which doesn't decide its champion with a playoff. In the past, the unofficial national champion was determined by various polls, such as the Associated Press Poll, CNN/USA Today Coaches Poll, and the United Press International Poll. This system was problematic, as two polls often named different champions.

Since 1998, the National Championship has been determined by the Bowl Championship Series. This formula, incorporating numerous computer rankings and human polls, is used to determine the top two teams in the country. The two teams compete for the championship in one of the four BCS bowls. This system is not without controversy. Some critics argue that the system unfairly favors teams from large conferences, and that the process used to select the teams can be just as ambiguous as the earlier poll system. Also, to add to the controversy, the Bowl Championship Series champion has not always been the undisputed national champion; for example, in 2003, the Associated Press and Bowl Championship Series chose different champions, which is precisely what the system was designed to prevent. The 2005 season did produce a consensus national champion, with the USC Trojans and Texas Longhorns facing each other as the only two major teams to finish the regular season undefeated. Texas beat USC 41 to 38 in the Rose Bowl.

The season concludes with series of all-star bowl games in January. These include the East-West Shrine Game, the Gridiron Classic, the Hula Bowl, and the Senior Bowl. However, the Gridiron Classic was recently declared canceled for 2006 due to lack of sponsorship.

The length of the season has gradually increased over the course of the game's history. In spring 2005, the NCAA ruled that teams could schedule twelve regular-season games (up from eleven) beginning in the 2006 season. This decision was met with some criticism from those who claimed that expanding the season would overwork the athletes.

In the spring, many colleges stage a scrimmage between their offensive and defensive players. The spring game generally comes at the conclusion of spring practice.

Rules

Although rules for the high school, college, and NFL games are generally consistent, there are some differences. The NCAA determines the regulations for Division I-A, I-AA, II, and III games (The NAIA is a separate organization). Some unique rules are:

A pass is ruled complete if one of the receiver's feet is inbounds at the time of the catch. In the NFL, both feet must be inbounds.
A player is considered down when any part of his body other than the feet or hands touches the ground (due to a tackle or otherwise). In the NFL, a player is active until he is tackled or forced down another way by a member of the opposing team (down by contact).
The game-clock is stopped when a first down is achieved, until the first-down markers are moved to the new line of scrimmage.
When a game goes to overtime, each team is given one possession from its opponent's twenty-five yard line. The leader after those possessions, if there is one, is declared the winner. If the teams remain tied, this continues, switching the order of possessions for each overtime, until one team leads the other at the end of the overtime. Extra points do not count from the 3rd overtime on, making it necessary for teams scoring touchdowns to attempt a two-point conversion. (In The NFL, overtime is decided by a 15-minute sudden-death quarter.)
Two-point conversions are attempted from the three yard line. The NFL uses the two yard line.
The defensive team can score on a missed conversion attempt. If the defense returns a blocked kick, fumble, or interception into the opposition end zone, it receives two points, officially scored as a safety. In the NFL, a conversion attempt automatically ends once the defensive team gains possession of the football.

For a more general discussion of football rules, see The rules of American football.

National championships

File:BCS national championship trophy and Bevo.JPG

UT's Bevo with the BCS Division I-A National Championship trophy

NCAA divisions and conferences

NCAA Division I-A

NCAA Division I-AA

NCAA Division II

NCAA Division III

Defunct Conferences and Teams

NAIA Conferences

College Bowl Games

Bowl Championship Series

Other Current Bowl Games

All-Star Games

List of college bowl games, including defunct bowls and non-Division I games