College football

For over 150 years, college football has been the name given to American football played at universities and colleges in the USA and Canada. While today professional sports are in the media spotlight, college football continues to play a central role in the USA; decisive games draw more than 100,000 spectators to the stadiums and several million people watch the games on television. Six of the ten largest sports stadiums in the world across all sports are dedicated to college football, all with a capacity of more than 100,000 spectators. Despite the great media interest, however, the players are not allowed to be paid a salary; only the costs for their studies, including a scholarship for the usually high tuition fees, are covered by the universities for the players.

In addition, college football is the essential training platform for talented players before the best players can move on to professional sports. Unlike many other popular sports in North America, American football does not have training teams of the most successful franchises in lower leagues, so college football is often considered the second highest level of play after the National Football League (NFL) and before high school football. Players typically remain in college football for three or four years before moving on to professional sports when they graduate or drop out of college. Prior to each NFL season, 256 players are drafted directly to NFL professional teams as part of the NFL Draft. Undrafted players also have the opportunity to continue their playing careers in professional football after college sports as free agents.

The beginnings and first developments of American football can be traced back to college football, which achieved great popularity in the United States in the second half of the 19th century. Professionalism in American football developed based on the rules of college football with the founding of the National Football League in 1920. With the first introduction of different rules for professional teams in 1933, a separate development finally began.

College football's system of play is historically shaped and, from a European perspective, takes some getting used to. The majority of the regular season is played in regional conferences, which are small groups of up to twelve teams (see section on structure). However, not every team has to play against every other team of its conference. Instead, some teams play against teams of another conference. At the end of the regular season, the best teams qualify for a number of independent finals, the so-called bowls, based on a complicated system. Between 1998 and 2013, a selected bowl game in the Bowl Championship Series also served to determine the overall national champion. Since 2014, a play-off system has been introduced as part of the College Football Playoffs, in line with the NFL, so that since then, for the first time, two games must be completed victoriously in the post-season in order to become National Champion: After the bowl is won, the College Football Playoff National Championship Game is played.

College football is essentially organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), which, among other things, sets binding rules for college football and organizes Division I, in which the largest and most financially powerful universities play. NCAA Division I is divided into two subdivisions, the Football Bowl Subdivision and the Football Championship Subdivision (previously Division I-A and I-AA), due to pressure from the largest programs, which can market themselves significantly more profitably on their own. In 2017/18, 29029 athletes played for 254 football programs in Division I and another close to 45000 in the lower divisions.

Indeed, the small and mid-sized universities usually play in Division II and Division III of the NCAA (the latter without scholarships), or under the care of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) or the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA). Occasionally, football is organized as club football by the athletes themselves.

In order to avoid media competition between professional football and college football, both of whose seasons are traditionally played in the fall of each year, the Sports Broadcasting Act was passed in 1961. It stipulates that no professional games may be broadcast on US television on Saturdays between mid-September and mid-December. Traditionally, Saturdays have been reserved for college football, while NFL games are played on Sundays (and increasingly on Thursdays and Mondays).

History

The origin of college football is generally dated back to November 6, 1869, when teams from Rutgers and Princeton Universities played 6-4 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, under football-like rules, as American football was yet to be invented.

In 1874, the Harvard University team and the Canadian McGill University rugby team from Montreal met in games with compromise rules. Canadian football and American football then developed from this brainstorm.

The leading figure in American football was Walter Camp, who as a player, coach and official at Yale University from 1876 onwards had a decisive influence on its development (and that of other sports) until 1925. The number of players was set at eleven, exclusive possession of the ball for at least three tries was introduced and the attack formation with seven players on the line and four in the back was common. About ten games were played from September to November inclusive, marked by the Labor Day and Thanksgiving holidays.

Camp also put together a highly regarded "All America" selection team, honored by the US president, for example (see movie scene in Forrest Gump). Student games at the elite "Ivy League" universities on the East Coast became popular, with crowds of 30,000 no exception from the 1890s. By that time there were also non-university competitions with the first professional approaches, but they would remain in the shadow of college football for several decades. In 1902, the Rose Bowl in Pasadena established the tradition of bowl games on New Year's Day. A tournament to determine a champion was never established; "National Championship" honors were determined by polls of coaches and journalists, with frequent disagreement.

At the same time, however, football was already in the throes of another crisis, with more than a dozen players a year being killed as they clashed in wedge formations. U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt himself forced rule changes to make the game safer. By 1912, football had taken on its current form. In particular, the introduction of the forward pass marked the final separation from rugby. From then on, a touchdown counted for six points. The dimensions of the playing field were adapted to the newly built Harvard Stadium.

As the most important of various awards, the Heisman Trophy has been presented to the best player of a year since 1935, and O.J. Simpson was one of its winners. Another award is the Jim Thorpe Award for the best defensive back, which has been awarded since 1986 and is named after Jim Thorpe.

Structure

College football is played at hundreds of universities, which are divided by the NCAA into Division I - Bowl Subdivision (until 2005: Division I-A), Division I - Championship Subdivision (until 2005: I-AA), Division II, and Division III. (The traditional "I-A" and "I-AA" designations continue to be used unofficially). The elite Ivy League universities that dominated in the founding era last recorded a (shared) championship with Dartmouth in 1925, and are still second-tier at best athletically (Div I-AA).

The all-important Division I is made up of over 120 teams that have formed Conferences of usually ten to twelve participants. Here is a listing:

• Pac-12 Conference (Arizona Wildcats, Arizona State Sun Devils, California Golden Bears, Colorado Buffaloes, Oregon Ducks, Oregon State Beavers, Stanford Cardinal, UCLA Bruins, USC Trojans, Washington Huskies, Washington State Cougars, Utah Utes).
• Big Ten Conference (Illinois Fighting Illini, Indiana Hoosiers, Iowa Hawkeyes, Maryland Terrapins, Michigan Wolverines, Michigan State Spartans, Minnesota Golden Gophers, Nebraska Cornhuskers, Northwestern Wildcats, Ohio State Buckeyes, Penn State Nittany Lions, Purdue Boilermakers, Rutgers ScarletKnights, Wisconsin Badgers).
• Big 12 Conference (Baylor Bears, Iowa State Cyclones, Kansas Jayhawks, Kansas State Wildcats, Oklahoma Sooners, Oklahoma State Cowboys, TCU Horned Frogs, Texas Longhorns, Texas Tech Red Raiders, West Virginia Mountaineers).
• Atlantic Coast Conference (Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Boston College Eagles, Clemson Tigers, Duke Blue Devils, Florida State Seminoles, Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, Louisville Cardinals, Miami Hurricanes, North Carolina Tar Heels, North Carolina State Wolfpack, Pittsburgh Panthers, Syracuse Orange, Virginia Cavaliers, Virginia Tech Hokies, Wake Forest Demon Deacons).
• Notre Dame is not an ACC member in football, but has agreed to play five of its 12 regular season games each year against other ACC teams.
• Southeastern Conference (Alabama Crimson Tide, Arkansas Razorbacks, Auburn Tigers, Florida Gators, Georgia Bulldogs, Kentucky Wildcats, LSU Tigers, Ole Miss Rebels, Mississippi State Bulldogs, Missouri Tigers, South Carolina Gamecocks, Tennessee Volunteers, Texas A&M Aggies, Vanderbilt Commodores)
• American Athletic Conference (Cincinnati Bearcats, East Carolina Pirates, Houston Cougars, Memphis Tigers, Navy Midshipmen (football only), SMU Mustangs, South Florida Bulls, Temple Owls, Tulane Green Wave, Tulsa Golden Hurricane, UCF Knights).
• Mountain West Conference (Air Force Falcons, Boise State Broncos, Colorado State Rams, Fresno State Bulldogs, Hawaii Rainbow Warriors (football only), Nevada Wolf Pack, New Mexico Lobos, San Jose State Spartans, San Diego State Aztecs, UNLV Rebels, Utah State Aggies, Wyoming Cowboys).
• Sun Belt Conference (Appalachian State Mountaineers, Arkansas State Red Wolves, Coastal Carolina Chanticleers, Georgia Southern Eagles, Georgia State Panthers, Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns, Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks, South Alabama Jaguars, Texas State Bobcats, Troy Trojans).
• Conference USA (FIU Panthers, Florida Atlantic Owls, Louisiana Tech Bulldogs, Marshall Thundering Herd, Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders, North Texas Mean Green, Old Dominion Monarchs, Rice Owls, Southern Miss Golden Eagles, UAB Blazers, UTEP Miners, UTSA Roadrunners, Western Kentucky Hilltoppers).
• Mid-American Conference (Akron Zips, Ball State Cardinals, Bowling Green Falcons, Buffalo Bulls, CentralMichigan Chippewas, Eastern Michigan Eagles, Kent State Golden Flashes, Miami RedHawks, Northern Illinois Huskies, Ohio Bobcats, Toledo Rockets, Western Michigan Broncos).

Add to that the NCAA Independents, which used to be more numerous. Some well-known universities (Pennsylvania State University, University of Miami) have joined leagues, others have left. So the BigTen now counts eleven teams, with the 11 trickily inserted under the T in the adjusted logo. Currently, seven teams are independent in the design of their schedule. These are in addition to the Army Black Knights, the BYU Cougars, the Liberty Flames, the New Mexico State Aggies, the UConn Huskies, the UMass Minutemen, and traditionally, the legendary Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

These leagues are purely junior leagues. The players who play in them do not get a salary.