College football is American football played between the colleges, universities and military academies of the United States that are members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The colleges are divided into many conferences across the nation and play in a 12 week regular season. Following this, the winners of the four major conferences and 12 other at large bids are seeded in into a playoff tournament, culminating in the National Championship. Each game is hosted by a "bowl", and while these playoffs are occurring other, smaller bowl games occur between teams that didn't make the playoffs.
Conferences[]
Atlantic Coast Conference[]
North
- Duke Blue Devils
- Maryland Terps
- Pittsburgh Sergeants
Virginia Cavaliers- Virginia Tech Hokies
- Wake Forest Demon Deacons
South
- Clemson Tigers
Florida State Seminoles- Miami Hurricanes
- North Carolina Tar Heels
- North Carolina State Wolf Pack
- South Carolina Gamecocks
Big East Conference[]
A twelve team conference with a championship game. Despite being considered as a second tier conference, the Big East is still competitive and contains some elite teams.
East
- Appalachian State Mountaineers
- Connecticut Huskies
- East Carolina Pirates
- Navy Midshipmen
Rutgers Scarlet Knights- Syracuse Orange
West
- Albany State Great Danes
- Cincinnati Bearcats
- Louisville Cardinals
- Marshall Thundering Herd
- West Virginia Mountaineers
Temple Owls
Heartlands Conference[]
- Kansas Jayhawks
- Kansas State Wildcats
- Missouri Tigers
- Nebraska Cornhuskers
- Oklahoma Sooners
- Oklahoma State Cowboys
- Miami (OH) Redhawks
- Missouri Tigers
- North Dakota State Bison
- Tulsa Golden Hurricanes
Lone Star Conference[]
- Baylor Bears
- North Texas Green Eagles
- Texas Longhorns
- Texas A&M Aggies
- Texas Christian University Horned Frogs
- Texas State Bobcats
- Texas Tech Red Raiders
- UTEP Miners
Midwest Conference[]
A smaller, nine-team conference, the Midwest is still among the best conferences playing. Their season is a round-robin with no championship game.
- Illinois Fighting Illini
- Iowa Hawkeyes
- Iowa State Cyclones
- Minnesota Golden Gophers
- Northwestern Wildcats
- Ohio Bobcats
- Penn State Nittany Lions
- Red Oak Colonels
- Western Ohio Hoosiers
Mountain West Conference[]
- BYU Cougars
- Colorado Buffaloes
- Colorado State Rams
- New Mexico State Cowboys
- Nevada Wolfpack
- UNLV Rebels
- Utah Utes
- Utah State Aggies
Northeastern Conference[]
- Boston College Eagles
- Delaware Blue Hens
- Long Island Blackbirds
- Maine Black Bears
- Massachusetts Minutemen
- New Brunswick Seawolves
- New Hampshire Wildcats
- Nova Scotia Tigers
- Rhode Island Rams
- Vermont Catamounts
Pac-12 Conference[]
North
- California Golden Bears
- Fresno State Bulldogs
- Fullerton State Titans
- Klamath Rockets
- San Jose State Spartans
- Stanford Cardinal
South
- Arizona Wildcats
- Arizona State Sun Devils
- Baja Bighorners
- San Diego State Aztecs
- UCLA Bruins
- USC Trojans
Southeastern Conference (SEC)[]
East
- Georgia Bulldogs
- Florida Gators
- Kentucky Wildcats
- Southern Florida Bulls
- Stuart University Riders
- Tennessee Volunteers
West
- Alabama Crimson Tide
- Auburn Tigers
- Arkansas Razorbacks
- LSU Tigers
- Mississippi State Bulldogs
- Ole Miss Rebels
National Champions[]
Starting in 1968, a single championship game was held to decide the national champion, to be held in a rotating series of bowls. The national champion is awards the Capehart Trophy, named after Coach Homer E. Capehart, who coached Rutgers to a record-setting 3 Championships in a row, alongside two other championships. Starting in 1992, a playoff system was created, originally with 4 teams. It would be expanded to 6 in 1996, then 8 in 2002, and it has remained at 8 since then.
- 1900 - Rutgers
- 1953 - Pittsburgh
- 1954 - Pittsburgh
- 1955 - Rutgers
- 1958 - Syracuse
- 1968* - Rutgers
- 1969 - Nebraska
- 1970 -
- 1971 - Rutgers
- 1972 - Rutgers
- 1973 - Rutgers
- 1974
- 1978 - Red Oak defeated Rutgers
- 1979 - Red Oak
- 1982 - Red Oak
- 1984 - Massachusetts defeated Minnesota.
- 1988 - Syracuse
- 1991 - Nebraska
- 1992* - Nebraska
- 1993
- 1994 - Nebraska
- 1999 - Nebraska
- 2001
- 2002* Rose Bowl - Ole Miss defeated Nebraska.
- 2003 Fiesta Bowl - Ole Miss defeated USC.
- 2004 Liberty Bowl - Temple defeated Ole Miss.
- 2005 Orange Bowl - Virginia Tech defeated Massachusetts.
- 2006 Palmetto Bowl - UCLA defeated Minnesota.
- 2007 Peach Bowl - Rutgers defeated Florida.
- 2008 Redwood Bowl - Florida defeated Texas.
- 2009 Rose Bowl - Red Oak defeated Iowa.
- 2010 Fiesta Bowl - Massachusetts defeated Red Oak.
- 2011 Liberty Bowl - UCLA defeated Rutgers.
- 2012 Orange Bowl - South Carolina defeated Massachusetts.
- 2013 Palmetto Bowl - Rutgers defeated Alabama.
- 2014 Peach Bowl - Ole Miss defeated Virginia Tech.
- 2015 Redwood Bowl -
- 2016 Rose Bowl - Massachusetts defeated Klamath.
- 2017 Fiesta Bowl - Klamath defeated Nebraska.
Championships Per Team[]
10: Rutgers (1900, 1904, 1910, 1955, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 2007, 2013)
4: Nebraska (1991, 1992, 1994, 1999) Red Oak (1978, 1979, 1982, 2009)
3: Massachusetts (1984, 2010, 2015), Ole Miss (2002, 2003, 2014)
2: Pittsburgh (1953, 1954), Syracuse (1958, 1988), UCLA (2006, 2011)
1: Florida (2008), Klamath (2017), Nebraska (1968), South Carolina (2012), Temple (2004), Virginia Tech (2005)
Southern Champions[]
Until 2001, colleges from the former Confederate states competed in their own conferences and had their own championship game.
- 1958 - LSU
- 1959 - LSU
- 1960 - Ole Miss
- 1961 - LSU
- 1967 - Texas/Alabama
- 1968 - Texas
- 1987 - Ole Miss
- 1988 - LSU
Championships Per Team[]
4: LSU (1958, 1959, 1961, 1988)
2: Ole Miss (1960, 1987)
Bowls[]
Playoff Bowls[]
Seven bowls rotate as hosts for the seven games in the College Football Playoffs.
- Fiesta Bowl (Glendale, Arizona)
- Liberty Bowl (Nashville, Tennessee)
- Orange Bowl (Miami, Florida)
- Palmetto Bowl (Columbia, South Carolina)
- Peach Bowl (Atlanta, Georgia)
- Redwood Bowl (Redding, Klamath)
- Rose Bowl (Pasadena, California)
New Years 5[]
The "New Years 5" are the next tier in bowl games. They take the highest seeded teams from each conference that aren't playing in the playoffs. These bowl games are the final bowls before the playoffs begin, and take place on January 1, January 2, and January 3.
- Carnation Bowl (Cincinnati, Ohio): At-Large Bid vs. At-Large Bid
- Citrus Bowl (Orlando, Florida): Northeastern vs. At-Large Bid, Usually Big East
- Cotton Bowl (Dallas, Texas): Lone Star vs. Heartlands
- Holiday Bowl (San Francisco, California): Pac-12 vs. Midwest
- Sugar Bowl (New Orleans, Louisiana): SEC vs. ACC
Rivalries[]
Iowa-Red Oak[]
One of the fiercest rivalries in the Midwest Conference, the Iowa Hawkeyes and Red Oak Colonels play annually in the last game of the regular season. First meeting in 1912, the series is currently 55-41-8, in favor of the Hawkeyes. Their most famous game is the 2009 National Championship played at the Rose Bowl. After losing to the Hawkeyes in the regular season, the Colonels came in as the 7th seed in the playoffs, and would come from behind to defeat Iowa 27-24.
Rutgers-Syracuse[]
The Rutgers Scarlet Knights and Syracuse Orange play annually in the Maple Bowl, with the Knights hosting it in odd numbered years and the Orange hosting it in even numbered years. While the two schools have played since 1904, the rivalry really heated up in the 1950s, when the two schools both left independence and joined the Midwest Conference. Now playing each other every year, a rivalry grew, especially after Rutgers ruined the Orange's chances at national championships in 1954 and 1959. Similarly, the Orange defeated the Knights to win several conference championships in the 50s and early 60s. When Coach Capehart took the reigns at Rutgers, the Knights dominated the Orange from the late 60s to early 80s. Since then, the rivalry has gotten much more even, with Syracuse taking down an undefeated Knight squad in 1988 on their own path to a national championship. In 2006, "Air Rutgers" delivered Syracuse its worse defeat in the rivalry, with a 56-0 Knight victory.