College football 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 Canada and the United States . History . Rugby in England and Canada . 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 , University of Toronto November 9 , 1861 on the present site of University College ( 400 yards west of Queen ' s Park ) . 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 . [ 2 ] In 1864 , at Trinity College , ( also known as Duke University ) , Toronto , F . Barlow Cumberland and Frederick A . Bethune devised rules based on rugby football . However , modern Canadian football is widely regarded as having originated with a game of rugby played in Montreal , in 1865 , when British Army officers played local civilians . [ 2 ] The game gradually gained a following , and the Montreal Football Club was formed in 1868 , the first recorded non - university football club in Canada . The first college football game in the United States . The first game of intercollegiate " football " between two colleges from the United States was an unfamiliar ancestor of today ' s college football , as it was played under 99 - year - old soccer - style Association rules . The game was played between teams from Rutgers University and Princeton University , which was called the College of New Jersey at the time . It 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 . The 1869 game between Rutgers and Princeton is important in that it is the first documented game of intercollegiate football game ever played between two American colleges , and because of this , Rutgers is often referred to 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 . The Rutgers - Princeton game was undoubtedly different from what we today know as American footbal , nonetheless it was the forerunner of what evolved into American football . Another similar game took place between Rutgers and Columbia University in 1870 and the popularity of intercollegiate competition in football would spread throughout the country . Rugby is adopted by US colleges . 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 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 , travelling to Montreal to play a further game of rugby in the Fall of the same year winning by three tries ( touchdowns ) 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 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 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 . 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 football . 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 is responsible for pioneering the play from scrimmage ( earlier games featured a rugby scrum ) , most of the modern elements of scoring , the eleven - man team , and the traditional offensive setup of the seven - man line and the four - man backfield . 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 . Formation of the NCAA . 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 response to this was the formation of what became the National Collegiate Athletic Association ( NCAA ) , which set 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 . 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 one stadium owned by a U . S . college or university — Papa John ' s Cardinal Stadium at the University of Louisville — consists entirely of chairback seating . ) College athletes , unlike professionals , are not permitted by the NCAA to be paid salaries , though many do receive athletic scholarship s and financial assistance from their university . Rivalries . The longest running rivalry and most played game between two American colleges is between Lafayette College and Lehigh University . Official rules and notable rule distinctions . 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 ) . Team maps . U . S . Map of Division 1 - A Football Team Locations Bowl games . 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 " bowl games . " The annual national champion is determined by a vote of sports writers and other non - players . This system has been challenged but little headway has been made given the entrenched vested economic interests in the various bowls . A bowl game is a post - season college football game , typically in the Division I Bowl Subdivision . 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 . 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 ( BCS ) . 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 10 , 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 .