College football Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids College football
Fullback Adam Ballard (22) rushes while being pursued by defenders Cason Shrode (54) and Taylor Justice (42) during the 2005 Army–Navy Game, a college football rivalry in the U.S.
Governing body	NCAA NAIA NJCAA
First played	1869
Club competitions
NCAA: Division I (FBS) Playoff National (FBS) Playoff (FBS) Division I (FCS) Division II Division III NAIA: National Championship NJCAA: National Championship
Audience records
Single match	156,990 (Tennessee 45–24 Virginia Tech at Bristol Motor Speedway), 10 Sep 2016

A college football game

College football is a type of American football or Canadian football. It is played by teams of student athletes. These students go to colleges and universities. The rules for American football first became popular because of college football games.

There are no official minor leagues for American or Canadian football. College football is like the second level of play. It is above high school football. It is below professional football. In some parts of the U.S., like the South and Midwest, college football is even more popular than professional football. For much of the 1900s, college football was seen as more important.

The better a player performs in college football, the better their chances are. They might get to play professional football. After playing for three or four years in college, the best players can join the professional draft. The NFL holds this draft every spring. Each year, 256 players are chosen. Players who are not picked can still try to join an NFL team. They can do this as an undrafted free agent.

American Football is a type of Rugby. It was created by Walter Camp.

The very first game between two college teams was in 1869. It used the new "American" style of Rugby. The teams were Princeton and Rutgers University. The first college football season only had two games. But the sport quickly became very popular in the years that followed.

College Football Championships
College Football Playoff
Images for kids
See also

College Football Championships

Many different championships are held in college football. They are organized by different groups.

NCAA Division I FBS Championships

The NCAA does not have an official champion for its top level, called the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). Instead, different groups name their own champions.

NCAA Division I FCS Championship

This is the official championship for the second level of schools. It is called the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS).

Other NCAA Championships

NCAA Division I FCS Consensus Mid-Major football national championship
NCAA Division II national football championship
NCAA Division III national football championship

Other National Championships

NAIA national football championship
NJCAA National football championship

College Football Playoff

The College Football Playoff (CFP) started in 2014. It is a tournament for four teams. A committee of 13 people chooses and ranks the teams.

The semifinal games are played at two famous bowl games. These are part of the New Year's Six bowl games. The semifinal hosts change each year. They rotate among three pairs of games: Rose/Sugar, Orange/Cotton, and Fiesta/Peach. The two teams that win their semifinal games then play in the College Football Playoff National Championship. The city for this final game is chosen years in advance.

The Alabama Crimson Tide team has been very strong recently. They have played in almost every College Football Playoff.

Images for kids

Fullback Adam Ballard (22) rushes while being pursued by defenders Cason Shrode (54) and Taylor Justice (42) during the 2005 Army–Navy Game, a college football rivalry in the United States
Plaque on College Avenue on the New Brunswick campus of Rutgers University identifying the place where the first college football game was played in 1869
The McKill vs. Harvard football game in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1874
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 in 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; note the grid pattern on the field
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