College football facts for kids

A college football game

College football is American football played by teams of students from different American universities, colleges, and military academies. Play between colleges first made American football popular in the United States. College football is still popular today among students, alumni, and other fans of the sport. American Football is variation of Rugby introduced by Walter Camp. The very first match between two college teams using new "American" variation of Rugby was played between Princeton and Rutgers University in 1869. First season of college football had only two matches played. The game became popular quickly in coming years.

National championships

College football national championships in NCAA Division I FBS – The NCAA has never had an official championship for schools in the top-level Football Bowl Subdivision, or "FBS". Instead, several groups declare their own champions.
NCAA Division I Football Championship – The official championship for schools in the second-level Football Championship Subdivision, or "FCS".
NCAA Division I FCS Consensus Mid-Major football national championship
NCAA Division II national football championship
NCAA Division III national football championship
NAIA national football championship
NJCAA National football championship

Images for kids

A college football game from 2008 between the Kansas Jayhawks and the Missouri Tigers
A college football game between Texas Tech and Navy
Harvard vs. McGill
Walter Camp, the "Father of American Football", pictured here in 1878 as the captain of the Yale Football team
1902 football game between the University of Minnesota and the University of Michigan
University of Wisconsin football team, 1903
1895 football game between Auburn and Georgia.
An 1894 football game in Staunton, Virginia between VMI and Virginia Tech.
Sewanee's 1899 "Iron Men."
1904 Vanderbilt team in action.
The first USC football squad (1888). Before they were nicknamed the "Trojans", they were known as the USC Methodists.
The 1893 Stanford American football team
The Big Game between Stanford and California was played as rugby union from 1906 to 1914.
Colorado's First football team in 1890.
Kickoff during the 1916 Colorado – Utah game
The 1905 Utah football team
1906 St. Louis Post-Dispatch photograph of Brad Robinson, who threw the first legal forward pass and was the sport's first triple threat
Tom Davies runs against undefeated and unscored upon Georgia Tech in the 1918 game at Forbes Field.
Don Hutson in 1940.
The Virginia Cavaliers (orange and blue home uniforms) play against the Penn State Nittany Lions (all-white away uniforms) in 2012 in Scott Stadium.
A night game between Harvard and Brown, September 25, 2009
Map of Division I (A) FBS
Map of Division I (AA) FCS
Map of NCAA Division II
Map of NCAA Division III
Map of NAIA
Map of NJCAA
Map of CCCAA