College football is American football played by teams of students. American universities, colleges, and military academies offer their fields for College football. American football first gained popularity in the United States through this venue. Among students, alumni, and other fans of the sport, College football remains extremely popular today.

Modern American football has its origins in various games. These are all known as "football", played at public schools in England in the mid-19th century. Students at Rugby School in England used to play a game by the 1840s. The sport was later known as Rugby union (or rugby) in which players were able to pick up the ball and run with it. British soldiers took the game to Canada. The game was soon being played at Canadian colleges.

The first ball game played between teams representing American colleges was played under rules derived from the 1863 rules of the English Football Association, the basis of the modern form of association football (soccer). On November 6, 1869, Rutgers College team played against the College of New Jersey at College Field in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Rutgers were successful in winning by a score of 6 "runs" to Princeton's 4. Other colleges followed suit, and for a short time soccer became the dominant code of "football" at U.S. colleges. In order to establish rules governing their athletic competition and specifically to codify rules for the emerging sport of football, representatives from Rutgers and Princeton, along with Columbia and Yale, met in New York City, on October 18, 1873.

Walter Camp is credited with changing the game from a variation of rugby into a unique sport. Camp is also known as the "Father of American Football". He is responsible for pioneering the play from scrimmage, 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 had great contributions in popularizing the game. He published numerous articles in publications such as Collier's Weekly and Harper's Weekly. He also has the honor of chosing the first College Football All-America Team.

By the end of 19th Century, the popularity of college football had been increased to a great extent. It also became increasingly violent. Following a series of player deaths from injuries suffered during games, President Theodore Roosevelt threatened to ban the sport in 1906. The response led to the formation of what became the National Collegiate Athletic Association, which set rules governing the sport. The introduction of the forward pass was one of the resulting rule changes.

College football was the predominant venue of American football prior to the founding of the National Football League and for a few decades thereafter. Innovations in strategy and style of play originated in college football and spread to the professional game gradually. Professional football began to be the predominant football medium after World War II.

College football remains extremely popular throughout the U.S even with the emergence of the NFL. The college game is especially popular in predominantly rural areas because the accessibility of professional football is limited to major urban areas. College football is more popular in the South because of the traditional lack of professional football teams. Cities like Atlanta and New Orleans traditionally show more support for the hometown teams (Georgia and Georgia Tech for Atlanta, LSU for New Orleans) than for the professional teams (the Falcons and the Saints). College football is very popular in Alabama, Arkansas, northern Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, central Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia. It is interesting to note that Alabama has earned the reputation of being craziest state about the college game. It is due to the intense rivalry between The University of Alabama and Auburn University, described as the fiercest in-state rivalry in the country.

College football is played in huge stadiums (four of which have seating capacity exceeding 100,000).The college stadiums employ bench-style seating in many cases. This allows them to seat more fans in a given amount of space than the typical professional stadium.

College football is often a source of revenue for the participating university, college athletes. Unlike professionals, the paid salaries are not permitted by the NCAA. However, the university provide scholarships and financial assistance to many of them.

The upper echelons of the college football are now dominated by public schools unlike the early years of college football. First-tier conferences are mainly made up of flagship public schools from each state.