The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and museum devoted to college football. Located in South Bend, Indiana, it is connected to a convention center and situated in the city's renovated downtown district, two miles south of the University of Notre Dame campus. It is slated to move to Atlanta in September 2013.^[1][2][3] The National Football Foundation (NFF) established the College Football Hall of Fame in 1951, and oversees its support, administration and operation.

History[link]

College Football Hall of Fame front featuring a newly installed Spriturf artificial turf field.

College Football Hall of Fame side entrance.

Blocking activity cage.

Original plans called for the Hall of Fame to be located at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, the location of the first contest under rules now considered to be those of modern football, between teams from Rutgers and the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University; Rutgers won 6–4. Rutgers donated land near its football stadium, office space, and administrative support. After years of collecting donations for the construction of the building with ground not having been broken and no plans to do so, the New Jersey Attorney General began an investigation of the finances of the Hall of Fame's foundation, the National Football Foundation. In response, the Foundation moved its operations to New York City, where it continued to collect donations for several years. When the New York Attorney General's office began its own investigation the foundation moved to Kings Mills, Ohio, where a building finally was constructed adjacent to Kings Island in 1972.

Despite estimates that the South Bend location would attract more than 150,000 visitors a year, the Hall of Fame drew about 115,000 people the first year (1995) and about 80,000 annually after that.^[3] As a result, in September 2009, the Hall of Fame announced it would be moving to Atlanta. The possibility of moving the museum has been brought up in other cities, including Dallas, which had the financial backing of billionaire T. Boone Pickens.^[4] Set to open in the fall of 2013, the new $50 million museum will be located next to Centennial Olympic Park, which is near other attractions such as the Georgia Aquarium, the World of Coca-Cola, CNN Center and the anticipated Center for Human and Civil Rights.^[1][5] Plans for a health museum also have been announced.^[2]

Building[link]

The College Football Hall of Fame's current building was constructed in 1995. Sam Jones of The Troyer Group was the lead architect and a graduate of Notre Dame. The museum, located under the Gridiron Plaza, features memorials and memorabilia of great American football players and coaches of the past. A 12-minute video in the museum's Stadium Theater highlights the "thrills and pageantry" of college football.^[6] Interactive areas allow visitors to test their own speed, agility, and punting, passing and blocking skills. Video monitors replay historical games and plays. Busts of coaches and players enshrined in the Hall of Fame are located throughout the museum. The entrance-level floor features a gift shop and restaurant, as well as murals featuring hall-of-famers and significant moments in the history of college football. The exterior of the building features a 19,000-square-foot (1,800 m²) artificial turf space, named the Gridiron Plaza, that can be rented to host outdoor events.

Prior to moving to its current location, the College Football Hall of Fame was located adjacent to Kings Island in Kings Mills, Ohio (1972-1994) 39°21′19″N 84°15′28″W / 39.3554°N 84.2577°W / 39.3554; -84.2577. It was a Georgian-colonial style building. When it opened, it featured a historical time tunnel, Knute Rockne locker room of great coaches, 4 movie theaters, strategy room, 1930's soda shop, and a regulation sized football field.^[7]

Inductees[link]

As of 2008, there are 829 players enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame, representing 186 institutions. Additionally, 178 coaches have been inducted into the Hall of Fame.

The following institutions have had the greatest number of players inducted:

Ballots[link]

• 2007

Criteria for induction[link]

The National Football Foundation outlines specific criteria that may be used for evaluating a possible candidate for induction into the Hall of Fame. NFF members and the coaches, athletic directors, and sports information officials representing member schools may submit nominations for consideration. Nominees with the highest votes received from one of the eight District Screening Committees (DSC) located closest to the nominee's college or university are included on that year's ballot, which is distributed to all NFF dues-paying members. The selection of Hall of Fame inductees, however, ultimately is determined by the Foundation's Honor Court.

Criteria for player nominees[link]

1. FIRST AND FOREMOST, A PLAYER MUST HAVE RECEIVED MAJOR FIRST TEAM ALL-AMERICA RECOGNITION.
2. A player becomes eligible for consideration by the Foundation's Honors Court 10 years after his last year of intercollegiate football played.
3. While each nominee's football achievements are of prime consideration, his post-football record as a citizen is also weighed. He must have proven himself worthy as a citizen, carrying the ideals of football forward into his relations with his community and his fellow man with love of his country. Consideration may also be given for academic honors and whether or not the candidate earned a college degree.
4. In accordance with the 50-year rule,† players must have played their last year of intercollegiate football within the last 50 years. For example, to be eligible for the 2005 ballot, the player must have played his last year in 1955 or thereafter.
5. The nominee must have ended his professional athletic career prior to the time of the nomination.

†Those players that do not comply with the 50-year rule and coaches who have not won 60% of their games may still be eligible for consideration by the Division I-A and Divisional Honors Review Committees, which examine unique cases.

^[8]

Criteria for coach nominees[link]

1. While each nominee's football achievements are of prime consideration, his post-football record as a citizen is also weighed. He must have proven himself worthy as a citizen, carrying the ideals of football forward into his relations with his community and his fellow man with love of his country.
2. A coach becomes eligible three years after retirement or immediately following retirement provided he is at least 70 years of age. Active coaches become eligible at 75 years of age.
3. The nominee must have held a head coaching position at the collegiate level for at least ten years.
4. The nominee must hold at least a .600 career record over the course of 100 games or more.

^[8]

The eligibility criteria have changed over time, and have occasionally led to criticism—Dennis Dodd of CBSSports.com has said,

"The NFF election process is arcane and confusing. Based on current rules, Notre Dame's Joe Montana will never be in the College Football Hall of Fame. He was never an All-American on a team recognized by the NCAA. If that sounds outrageous, consider that at one time hall of famers had to actually graduate." (emphasis in original)^[9]

References[link]

External links[link]

• College Football Hall of Fame website
• National Football Foundation website

41°40′33.80″N 86°14′58.67″W / 41.676056°N 86.2496306°W / 41.676056; -86.2496306Coordinates: 41°40′33.80″N 86°14′58.67″W / 41.676056°N 86.2496306°W / 41.676056; -86.2496306

A Football Hall of Fame may refer to:

American football[link]

• College Football Hall of Fame
• Pro Football Hall of Fame

Association football[link]

• Australian Soccer Hall of Fame
• English Football Hall of Fame
• National Soccer Hall of Fame – New York, US
• Scottish Football Hall of Fame

Australian rules football[link]

• Australian Football Hall of Fame
• West Australian Football Hall of Fame

Canadian football[link]

• Canadian Football Hall of Fame

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Walhalla temple, Germany

Along the Hollywood Walk of Fame, U.S.

A hall of fame, wall of fame, walk of fame, walk of stars or avenue of stars is a type of attraction established for any field of endeavor to honor individuals of noteworthy achievement in that field. The meaning of "Fame" has changed over the years, originally meaning "renown" as opposed to today's more common meaning of "celebrity".^[1]

In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actual halls or museums which enshrine the honorees with sculptures, plaques, and displays of memorabilia. Sometimes, the honorees' plaques may instead be posted on a wall (a '"wall of fame") or inscribed on a sidewalk (a "walk of fame" or an "avenue of fame"). In others, the hall of fame is more figurative, and just simply consists of a list of names of noteworthy individuals maintained by an organization or community.

The English-language term was first used for the Hall of Fame for Great Americans at Bronx Community College, in New York City, although its inspiration, the Ruhmeshalle in Munich, Germany, also means "Hall of Fame". The Walhalla Temple in Bavaria, Germany, is an even earlier hall of fame, conceived in 1807 and built between 1830 and 1842.

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Halls of fame

Look up hall of fame in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• R. Rubin (1997). "The Mall of Fame". The Atlantic Monthly 280 (1): 14–18. 

This organization-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2008)

The Marwar Hall at Umaid Bhawan Palace, Jodhpur, India

Hall in religious buildings : prayer hall of the Great Mosque of Kairouan, in Kairouan, Tunisia

A hallway at the Royal York Hotel

Hallway during and after construction in an apartment building in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

An outdoor passageway near the Alamo

In architecture, a hall is fundamentally a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age, a mead hall was such a simple building and was the residence of a lord and his retainers. Later, rooms were partitioned from it, so that today the hall of a house is the space inside the front door through which the rooms are reached....

This:

• Deriving from the above, a hall is often the term used to designate a British or Irish country house.
• In later medieval Europe, the main room of a castle or manor house was the great hall.
• Where the hall inside the front door of a house is elongated, it may be called a passage, corridor, or hallway.
• In a medieval building, the hall was where the fire was kept. With time, its functions as dormitory, kitchen, parlour and so on were divided off to separate rooms or, in the case of the kitchen, a separate building.

On the same principle:

• Many buildings at colleges and universities are formally titled "_______ Hall", typically being named after the person who endowed it, for example, King's Hall, Cambridge. Others, such as Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, commemorate respected people. Between these in age, Nassau Hall at Princeton University began as the single building of the then college. In medieval origin, these were the halls in which the members of the university lived together during term time. In many cases, some aspect of this community remains.
• At colleges in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, Hall is the dining hall for students, with High Table at one end for fellows. Typically, at "Formal Hall", gowns are worn for dinner during the evening, whereas for "informal Hall" they are not.
• Many Livery Companies (e.g., in the City of London) have a Hall that is their headquarters and meeting place.

Similarly:

• A hall is also a building consisting largely of a principal room, that is rented out for meetings and social affairs. It may be privately or government-owned, such as a function hall owned by one company used for weddings and cotillions (organized and run by the same company on a contractual basis) or a community hall available for rent to anyone.
• In religious architecture, as in Islamic architecture, the prayer hall is a large room dedicated to the practice of the worship.^[1] (example : the prayer hall of the Great Mosque of Kairouan in Tunisia)

Following a line of similar development:

• In office buildings and larger buildings (theatres, cinemas etc.), the entrance hall is generally known as the foyer (the French for fire-place). The atrium, a name sometimes used in public buildings for the entrance hall, was the central courtyard of a Roman house.

Firehall (London, Ontario) in 1923

References[link]

1. ^ Stanford Anderson and Colin St. John Wilson, The Oxford companion to architecture, Volume 1, Oxford University Press, 2009, page 477

Look up Hall or hall in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

A college football game between Colorado State and Air Force

College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States.

History[link]

A college football game between Texas Tech and Navy

Rugby in England and Canada[link]

Modern North 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 were playing a game in which players were able to pick up the ball and run with it, a sport later known as Rugby football. The game was taken to Canada by British soldiers stationed there and was soon being played at Canadian colleges.

The first documented gridiron football match was a game played at University College, a college of the University of Toronto, November 9, 1861. One of the participants in the game involving University of Toronto students was (Sir) William Mulock, later Chancellor of the school. A football club was formed at the university soon afterward, although its rules of play at this stage are unclear.

In 1864, at Trinity College, also a college of the University of Toronto, F. Barlow Cumberland and Frederick A. Bethune devised rules based on rugby football. Modern Canadian football is widely regarded as having originated with a game played in Montreal, in 1865, when British Army officers played local civilians. The game gradually gained a following, and the Montreal Football Club was formed in 1868, the first recorded non-university football club in Canada.

First American college football game[link]

The first ever intercollegiate football game between two American teams played under rules which modern audiences would recognize as football occurred between Harvard University and Tufts University on June 4, 1875.^[1] The first game ever played that resembles the game as it is known today was played between an American team, Harvard, and a Canadian team, McGill University of Montreal in 1874. Harvard, who was trying to get away from the soccer like game that many schools played, set out to find another school who played a game similar to them. This first game was a lot like rugby but much closer to the modern day version of football than soccer. After the captains of the two teams met they quickly realized that the games each school played were still different. In a compromise the teams decided to play two different games, one under each teams set of rules. On May 14, Harvard won the game under their rules, and the game on the following day, May 15, under McGill's rules ended in scoreless tie. Harvard would eventually go on to fully adopt the McGill version of the game that included more carrying of the ball and also used an oblong ball that was easier to carry and throw.^{[EBSCOhost 1]} An 1869 game of intercollegiate "football" between Rutgers and Princeton is often cited as the first intercollegiate American football game, however it was an unfamiliar ancestor of today's college football, as it was played under 6-year-old soccer-style Association rules.^[2] The game played between teams from Rutgers University and Princeton University, which was called the College of New Jersey at the time, took place on November 6, 1869 at College Field, which is now the site of the College Avenue Gymnasium at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Rutgers won by a score of 6 "runs" to Princeton's 4.^[3][4] The 1869 game between Rutgers and Princeton is important in that it is the first documented game of something called intercollegiate "football" ever played between two American colleges, and because of this, Rutgers refers to itself as The Birthplace of College Football. It came two years before an inter-club rugby game under the auspices of the Rugby Football Union would be played in England; though it must be remembered that rugby had been codified 24 years before this in 1845 and played by many schools, universities and clubs even before the laws were first put on paper. Although the Rutgers-Princeton game was undoubtedly different from what we today know as American football, it was the forerunner of what evolved into American football. Another similar game took place between Rutgers and Columbia University in 1870. The popularity of intercollegiate competition in football would spread throughout the country.

The Rutgers College football team in 1882.

Rugby is adopted by American colleges[link]

Yale, together with Rutgers, Princeton and Columbia met on October 20, 1873 at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York City to agree a set of rules and regulations that would allow them play a form of football that was essentially Association football (today often called "soccer" in the US) in character. Harvard University turned down an invitation to join this group because they preferred to play a rougher version of football called "the Boston Game" in which the kicking of a round ball was the most prominent feature though a player could run with the ball, pass it, or dribble it (known as “babying”). The man with the ball could be tackled, although hitting, tripping, “hacking” (shin-kicking) and other unnecessary roughness was prohibited. There was no limit to the number of players, but there were typically ten to fifteen a-side.

Harvard's decision not to join the Yale-Rutgers-Princeton-Columbia association meant that they needed to look further afield to find football opponents so when a challenge from Canada’s McGill University rugby team in Montreal was issued to Harvard, they accepted. It was agreed that two games would be played on Harvard’s Jarvis baseball field in Cambridge, Massachusetts on May 14 and 15, 1874: one to be played under Harvard rules, another under the stricter rugby regulations of McGill. Harvard beat McGill in the "Boston Game" on the Thursday and held McGill to a 0-0 tie on the Friday. The Harvard students took to the rugby rules and adopted them as their own,^[5] travelling to Montreal to play a further game of rugby in the Fall of the same year winning by three tries to nil.

Harvard then played Tufts University on June 4, 1875, again at Jarvis Field. Jarvis Field was at the time a patch of land at the northern point of the Harvard campus, bordered by Everett and Jarvis Streets to the north and south, and Oxford Street and Massachusetts Avenue to the east and west. The game was won by Tufts 1-0^[6] and a report of the outcome of this game appeared in the Boston Daily Globe of June 5, 1875. In this game each side fielded eleven men, participants were allowed to pick up the inflated egg-shaped ball and run with it and the ball carrier was stopped by knocking him down or "tackling" him. A photograph of the 1875 Tufts team which hangs in the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Indiana commemorates this match as the generally accepted first intercollegiate football game between two US institutions.^[7]

In 1876 at Massasoit House in Springfield, Massachusetts, Harvard persuaded Princeton and Columbia to adopt an amalgam of rugby's laws and the rules that they were then playing, thus forming the Intercollegiate Football Association (IFA). Yale initially refused to join this association because of a disagreement over the number of players to be allowed per team (relenting in 1879) and Rutgers were not invited to the meeting. The rules that they agreed upon were essentially those of rugby union at the time with the exception that points be awarded for scoring a try, not just the conversion afterwards (extra point). Incidentally, rugby was to make a similar change to its scoring system 10 years later.

Rugby becomes American Football[link]

Walter Camp, the "Father of American Football", pictured here in 1878 as the captain of the Yale Football team

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, who was a rugby coach, decided to come up with a new set of rules to create a game that was completely different. Camp is responsible for pioneering the play from scrimmage (earlier games featured a rugby scrum, and was also the one who decided that teams should have four downs to advance the ball ten yards. Camp was also responsible the eleven-man team. ^{[EBSCOhost 1]} Camp also had a hand in popularizing the game. He published numerous articles in publications such as Collier's Weekly and Harper's Weekly, and he chose the first College Football All-America Team.

1906 St. Louis Post-Dispatch photograph of Brad Robinson, who threw the first legal forward pass

Formation of the NCAA[link]

College football increased in popularity through the remainder of the 19th century. It also became increasingly violent. In 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt threatened to ban the sport following a series of player deaths from injuries suffered during games.The deaths and injuries were a result of the mass formations and gang tackling that characterized the sport in its early years. The response to this was President Roosevelt calling a conference of thirteen school leaders to come up with a solution to the problems that the game of football was facing. Resulting from this conference was the formation of the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States in 1906. The IAAUS was the original rule making body of college football, but would go on to sponsor championships in other sports. The IAAUS would get its current name of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), in 1910 which still sets rules governing the sport. The rules committee considered widening the playing field to "open up" the game, but Harvard Stadium (the first large permanent football stadium) had recently been built at great expense; it would be rendered useless by a wider field. The rules committee legalized the forward pass instead. The first legal pass was thrown by Bradbury Robinson on September 5, 1906, playing for coach Eddie Cochems, who developed an early but sophisticated passing offense at Saint Louis University. Another rule change banned "mass momentum" plays (many of which, like the infamous "flying wedge", were sometimes literally deadly).

Even after the emergence of the professional National Football League (NFL), college football remained extremely popular throughout the U.S.^[8] 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 – the highest level – playing in huge stadiums, six of which have seating capacity exceeding 100,000. In many cases, college stadiums employ bench-style seating, as opposed to individual seats with backs and arm rests. This allows them to seat more fans in a given amount of space than the typical professional stadium, which tends to have more features and comforts for fans. (Only two stadiums owned by U.S. colleges or universities—Papa John's Cardinal Stadium at the University of Louisville and FAU Stadium at Florida Atlantic University—consist entirely of chairback seating.)

College athletes, unlike professionals, are not permitted by the NCAA to be paid salaries, though many do receive athletic scholarships and financial assistance from their university.

Official rules and notable rule distinctions[link]

A night game between Harvard and Brown, September 25, 2009

Although rules for the high school, college, and NFL games are generally consistent, there are several minor differences. The NCAA Football Rules Committee determines the playing rules for Division I (both Bowl and Championship Subdivisions), II, and III games (the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) is a separate organization, but uses the NCAA rules).

• 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 or when the ball carrier is tackled or otherwise falls and loses possession of the ball as he contacts the ground with any part of his body, with the sole exception of the holder for field goal and extra point attempts. In the NFL a player is active until he is tackled or forced down by a member of the opposing team (down by contact).
• The clock stops after the offense completes a first down and begins again—assuming it is following a play in which the clock would not normally stop—once the referee declares the ball ready for play. In the NFL the clock does not explicitly stop for a first down.
• Overtime was introduced in 1996, eliminating ties. When a game goes to overtime, each team is given one possession from its opponent's twenty-five yard line with no game clock, despite the one timeout per period and use of play clock. The team leading after both possessions is declared the winner. If the teams remain tied, overtime periods continue, with a coin flip determining the first possession. Possessions alternate with each overtime, until one team leads the other at the end of the overtime. Starting with the third overtime, a one point PAT field goal after a touchdown is no longer allowed, forcing teams to attempt a two-point conversion after a touchdown. (In the NFL overtime is decided by a 15-minute sudden-death quarter, and regular season games can still end in a tie if neither team scores. Overtime for regular season games in the NFL began with the 1974 season. In the post-season, if the teams are still tied, teams will play additional overtime periods until either team scores.)
• Extra point tries are attempted from the three-yard line. The NFL uses the two-yard line. This counts as one point. Teams can also go for "the two-point conversion" which is when a team will line up at the three yard line and try to score. If they are successful, they receive two points, if they are not, then they receive zero points. The two-point conversion was not implemented in the NFL until 1994, but it had been previously used in the old American Football League (AFL) before it merged with the NFL in 1970.
• The defensive team may score two points on a point-after touchdown attempt by returning a blocked kick, fumble, or interception into the opposition's end zone. In addition, if the defensive team gains possession, but then moves backwards into the endzone and is stopped, a one point safety will be awarded to the offense, although, unlike a real safety, the offense kicks off, opposed to the team charged with the safety. This college rule was added in 1988. In the NFL, a conversion attempt ends when the defending team gains possession of the football.
• The two-minute warning is not used in college football, except in rare cases where the scoreboard clock has malfunctioned and is not being used.
• There is an option to use instant replay review of officiating decisions. Division I FBS (formerly Division I-A) schools use replay in virtually all games; replay is rarely used in lower division games. Every play is subject to booth review with coaches only having one challenge. In the NFL, only scoring plays, the final 2:00 of each half and all overtime periods are reviewed, and coaches are issued two challenges (with the option for a 3rd if the first two are successful).
• In the 2006 season, the game clock was started when the ball was declared ready for play after the defensive team (during a scrimmage down) or the kick-receiving team (during a free kick down) was awarded a first down (change of possession), reducing the time of games. This rule only lasted one year.
• In the 1984 season, the ball was placed on the 30 yard line (instead of the 20) if a kickoff sailed through the end zone on the fly and untouched. This rule was rescinded after one year.
• Among other rule changes in 2007, kickoffs were moved from the 35-yard line back five yards to the 30-yard line, matching a change that the NFL had made in 1994. Some coaches and officials questioned this rule change as it could lead to more injuries to the players as there will likely be more kickoff returns.^[9] The rationale for the rule change was to help reduce dead time in the game.^[10] The NFL returned its kickoff location to the 35-yard line effective in 2011; college football did not do so until 2012.
• Several changes were made to college rules in 2011, all of which differ from NFL practice:^[11]
  • if a player is penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct for actions that occurred during a play ending in a touchdown by that team, but before the goal line was crossed, the touchdown will be nullified. In the NFL, the same foul would result in a penalty on the conversion attempt or ensuing kickoff, at the option of the non-penalized team.
  • If a team is penalized in the final minute of a half and the penalty causes the clock to stop, the opposing team now has the right to have 10 seconds run off the clock in addition to the yardage penalty. The NFL has a similar rule in the final minute of the half, but it applies only to specified violations against the offensive team. The new NCAA rule applies to penalties on both sides of the ball.
  • Players lined up outside the tackle box—more specifically, those lined up more than 7 yards from the center—will now be allowed to block below the waist only if they are blocking straight ahead or toward the nearest sideline.
  • On placekicks, no offensive lineman can now be engaged by more than two defensive players. A violation will be a 5-yard penalty.

Organization[link]

College teams mostly play other similarly sized schools through the NCAA's divisional system. Division I generally consists of the major collegiate athletic powers with larger budgets, more elaborate facilities, and more athletic scholarships. Division II primarily consists of smaller public and private institutions that offer fewer scholarships than those in Division I. Division III institutions also field teams, but do not offer any scholarships.

Football teams in Division I are further divided into the Bowl Subdivision and the Championship Subdivision. The Bowl Subdivision does not have an organized tournament to determine its champion, and instead teams compete in post-season bowl games.

Teams in each of these four divisions are further divided into various regional conferences.

Coaching[link]

National championships[link]

• Bowl Championship Series (not an official NCAA championship, includes only Division I FBS teams)
• National football championship (this article pertains to systems of determining a national champion prior to and including the BCS)
• NCAA Division I Football Championship^[12] (includes only Division I FCS teams)
• 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
• CSFL Championship

Team maps[link]

• 

  Map of BCS participants

• FBS map 2011.png

  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

• 

  Map of Division 1-A

Bowl games[link]

Unlike most other sports—collegiate or professional—the Football Bowl Subdivision, formerly known as Division I-A college football, does not employ a playoff system to determine a champion. Instead, it has a series of postseason "bowl games". The annual National Champion in the Football Bowl Subdivision is then instead traditionally determined by a vote of sports writers and other non-players. This system has been challenged often, beginning with an NCAA committee proposal in 1979 to have a four-team playoff following the bowl games.^[13] However, little headway has been made to institute a playoff tournament, given the entrenched vested economic interests in the various bowls.

The first bowl game was the 1902 Rose Bowl, played between Michigan and Stanford; Michigan won 49-0. It ended when Stanford requested and Michigan agreed to end it with 8 minutes on the clock. That game was so lopsided that the game was not played annually until 1916, when the Tournament of Roses decided to reattempt the postseason game. The term "bowl" originates from the shape of the Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena, California, which was built in 1923 and looked like a bowl. This is where the name came in to use, as it became known as the Rose Bowl Game. Other games came along and used the term "bowl", whether the stadium was shaped like a bowl or not.

At the Division I FBS level, teams must earn the right to be bowl eligible by winning at least 6 games during the season (teams that play 13 games in a season, which is allowed for Hawaiʻi and any of its home opponents, must win 7 games). They are then invited to a bowl game based on their conference ranking and the tie-ins that the conference has to each bowl game. For the 2009 season, there were 34 bowl games, so 68 of the 120 Division I FBS teams were invited to play at a bowl. These games are played from mid-December to early January and most of the later bowl games are typically considered more prestigious.

After the Bowl Championship Series, additional all-star bowl games round out the post-season schedule through the beginning of February.

Bowl Championship Series[link]

Partly as compromise between both bowl game and playoff supporters, the NCAA created the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) in 1998 in order to create a definitive National Championship game for college football. The series would include the four most prominent bowl games (Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Fiesta Bowl), while the National Championship game would rotate each year between one of these venues. If, for example, the Rose Bowl was to be played as the National Championship one year, the other three games of the series would still follow their normal procedures for picking teams, such as considering conference champions and at-large bids. The ACC, Big 10, Big 12, Big East, Pac 12, and SEC Conference champions would all be guaranteed a spot in one of the BCS games, while the remaining spots would go to at-large teams.

The BCS selection committee uses a complicated, and often controversial, computer system to rank all Division 1-FBS teams and the top two teams at the end of the season play for the National Championship. This computer system, which factors in newspaper polls, online polls, coaches' polls, strength of schedule, and various other factors of a team's season, has led to much dispute over whether the two best teams in the country are being selected to play in the National Championship game. The BCS system was slightly adjusted in 2006, as the NCAA added a 5th game to the series, called the National Championship Game. This would allow the four other BCS bowls to use their normal selection process to select the teams in their games while the top 2 teams in the BCS rankings would play in the new National Championship Game.

College football outside the United States[link]

Canadian football, which precedes American football, is played by collegiate teams in Canada under the auspices of Canadian Interuniversity Sport. Organized competition in American football also exists at the collegiate level in Mexico (ONEFA), the UK (British Universities American Football League), Japan (Japan American Football Association, Koshien Bowl), and South Korea (Korea American Football Association).

Awards[link]

• Heisman Trophy
• Associated Press Player of the Year
• Johnny Rodgers Award

See also[link]

College football portal

References[link]

• 1874. By: Schwarz, Frederick D., American Heritage, 00028738, May/Jun99, Vol. 50, Issue 3
• The Invention Of Football. Current Events, 00113492, 11/14/2011, Vol. 111, Issue 8

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: College football

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• NCAA football official site

Statistics[link]

• College Football at Sports-Reference.com
• Stassen College Football, comprehensive college football database
• Totalfootballstats.com, focusing on individual stats starting from 1970
• College Football Data Warehouse
• Gridiron History

Rules[link]

• NCAA Football 2011 and 2012 Rules and Interpretations

Maps[link]

• Map of NCAA Division I FBS Football Stadiums
• U.S. Map with NCAA Division 1-A Football Team Locations
• Google Map of Division II Football Programs

v t e National Collegiate Athletic Association NCAA Awards Hall of Champions Conferences Division I sports and championships Institutions Athletic directors Baseball (Championship, CWS) Basketball (Men, Women) Women's bowling Boxing Cross country (Men, Women) Fencing (Team, Individual) Women's field hockey Football (FBS / BCS, FCS) Golf (Men, Women) Gymnastics (Men, Women) Ice hockey (Men, Women) Lacrosse (Men, Women) Rifle Rowing (Women's Championship) Skiing Soccer (Men, Women) Softball (Championship, CWS) Swimming and diving (Men, Women) Tennis (Men, Women) Track and field (Men's indoor and outdoor, Women's indoor and outdoor) Volleyball (Men, Women) Water polo (Men, Women) Wrestling (Championship) Division II Institutions Baseball (CWS) Basketball (Men, Women) Football (Championship) Soccer (Men) Softball (CWS) Division III Institutions Baseball (CWS) Basketball (Men, Women) Football (Championship) Soccer (Men) Softball (CWS)