110-830: The Aflac Kickoff Game (known as the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game until 2023) is an annual series of college football games played on the opening weekend of the NCAA Division I FBS season in Atlanta, Georgia . Organized by the Peach Bowl , the event coincides with Labor Day weekend in the United States. From its inception in 2008 until 2016, it was held at the Georgia Dome . The Georgia Dome's replacement, Mercedes-Benz Stadium , began hosting
220-563: A 0–0 tie. The Army–Navy game of 1893 saw the first documented use of a football helmet by a player in a game. Joseph M. Reeves had a crude leather helmet made by a shoemaker in Annapolis and wore it in the game after being warned by his doctor that he risked death if he continued to play football after suffering an earlier kick to the head. In 1879, the University of Michigan became the first school west of Pennsylvania to establish
330-463: A 56-game undefeated streak that included a 1902 trip to play in the first college football bowl game , which later became the Rose Bowl Game . During this streak, Michigan scored 2,831 points while allowing only 40. Organized intercollegiate football was first played in the state of Minnesota on September 30, 1882, when Hamline was convinced to play Minnesota . Minnesota won 2 to 0. It
440-514: A coin to determine "control dates". This allowed the network with priority on a particular date to have first choice when selecting the game it wished to air and whether it wanted the 12:00 ET or 3:30 ET timeslot. CBS won the first toss and thus earned first choice on seven dates: September 18, September 25, October 2, October 9, October 16, November 6, and November 20. ABC then got first pick on six dates, September 11, October 23, October 30, November 13, November 27, and December 4. ABC and CBS also had
550-514: A college football team. On May 30, 1879, Michigan beat Racine College 1–0 in a game played in Chicago. The Chicago Daily Tribune called it "the first rugby-football game to be played west of the Alleghenies ." Other Midwestern schools soon followed suit, including the University of Chicago , Northwestern University , and the University of Minnesota . The first western team to travel east
660-447: A great deal to Harvard's rugby. They decided to play with 15 players on each team. On November 13, 1875, Yale and Harvard played each other for the first time ever, where Harvard won 4–0. At the first The Game (as the annual contest between Harvard and Yale came to be named) the future "father of American football" Walter Camp was among the 2000 spectators in attendance. Walter, a native of New Britain, Connecticut , would enroll at Yale
770-578: A late local newscast that evening. The Mountain West Championship Game was moved to ESPN networks beginning in 2015. In 2011, in addition to Army–Navy, CBS also broadcast the other two service academy games: Navy–Air Force on October 1 and Army–Air Force on November 5, 2011 (a game which opened up as a result of CBS using its 8:00 p.m. game assignment for LSU-Alabama). Air Force's annual games vs. Army and Navy continue to air on CBS or CBS Sports Network . In 2015, CBS Sports acquired
880-548: A liking to the rugby game, and its use of the try which, until that time, was not used in American football. The try would later evolve into the score known as the touchdown . On June 4, 1875, Harvard faced Tufts University in the first game between two American colleges played under rules similar to the McGill/Harvard contest, which was won by Tufts 1–0. The rules included each side fielding 11 men at any given time,
990-453: A multi-year deal through the 2023 season to become the home of UConn Huskies home games, which will mostly air on CBS Sports Network. In August 2022, it was reported that CBS Sports was nearing a deal for rights to Big Ten football under its next round of broadcast contracts, expanding upon its rights to cover Big Ten basketball . On August 18, 2022, CBS reached a seven-year deal to broadcast Big Ten football and basketball beginning in
1100-501: A new code of rules based on the rugby game first introduced to Harvard by McGill University in 1874. Three of the schools—Harvard, Columbia, and Princeton—formed the Intercollegiate Football Association, as a result of the meeting. 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
1210-656: A particular team per season, and was allowed to air one game in primetime per season. In 2014, the Iron Bowl was given to ESPN in favor of the Egg Bowl , due to its potential effects on Mississippi State 's participation in the College Football Playoff ). Before 2019, CBS had rights to three non-SEC regular season matchups, including the Army-Navy Game. CBS and NBC Sports split coverage of
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#17327873301631320-503: A player to pick up the ball and run with it whenever he wished. Another rule, unique to McGill, was to count tries (the act of grounding the football past the opposing team's goal line; there was no end zone during this time), as well as goals, in the scoring. In the Rugby rules of the time, a try only provided the attempt to kick a free goal from the field. If the kick was missed, the try did not score any points itself. Harvard quickly took
1430-465: A professional roster spot as an undrafted free agent . Despite these opportunities, only around 1.6% of NCAA college football players end up playing professionally in the NFL. Even after the emergence of the professional National Football League (NFL), college football has remained extremely popular throughout the U.S. Although the college game has a much larger margin for talent than its pro counterpart,
1540-510: 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" and other unnecessary roughness was prohibited. There was no limit to the number of players, but there were typically ten to fifteen per side. A player could carry
1650-533: A round ball instead of a rugby-style oblong ball. This series of games represents an important milestone in the development of the modern game of American football. In October 1874, the Harvard team once again traveled to Montreal to play McGill in rugby, where they won by three tries. In as much as Rugby football had been transplanted to Canada from England, the McGill team played under a set of rules which allowed
1760-537: A team be required to advance the ball a minimum of five yards within three downs. These down-and-distance rules, combined with the establishment of the line of scrimmage, transformed the game from a variation of rugby football into the distinct sport of American football. Camp was central to several more significant rule changes that came to define American football. In 1881, the field was reduced in size to its modern dimensions of 120 by 53 1 ⁄ 3 yards (109.7 by 48.8 meters). Several times in 1883, Camp tinkered with
1870-834: A title sponsorship by The Home Depot , college football games on the main CBS network are currently billed as The Home Depot Big Ten on CBS (or The Home Depot College Football on CBS for non-Big Ten games). CBS acquired the now- CBS Sports Network in 2006, which has since televised college football from the Mid American Conference , Conference USA , Mountain West Conference and Northeast Conference , as well as home football games from Army , Navy , and UConn . From 1946 through 1949, WCBS-TV aired Columbia Lions football home games locally. CBS began broadcasting games nationally in 1950, with Red Barber as
1980-512: A youth, he excelled in sports like track , baseball, and association football, and after enrolling at Yale in 1876, he earned varsity honors in every sport the school offered. Following the introduction of rugby-style rules to American football, Camp became a fixture at the Massasoit House conventions where rules were debated and changed. Dissatisfied with what seemed to him to be a disorganized mob, he proposed his first rule change at
2090-432: Is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football first gained popularity in the United States . Like gridiron football generally, college football is most popular in the United States and Canada. While no single governing body exists for college football in the United States, most schools, especially those at
2200-529: Is generally considered to be the second tier of American and Canadian football; ahead of high school competition , but below professional competition . In some parts of the United States, especially the South and Midwest , college football is more popular than professional football. For much of the 20th century, college football was generally considered to be more prestigious than professional football. The overwhelming majority of professional football players in
2310-684: 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. Early games appear to have had much in common with the traditional " mob football " played in Great Britain. The games remained largely unorganized until
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#17327873301632420-466: The SEC on CBS ), as well as becoming the television partner for the annual Army-Navy Game . In 2019, CBS declined to renew its rights to SEC football, with the package ultimately going to ABC beginning in 2024. CBS subsequently reached a deal to televise Big Ten football beginning in 2023, which replaced CBS's SEC package in its traditional 3:30 p.m. ET timeslot beginning in the 2024 season. As part of
2530-511: The 1996 Fiesta Bowl (on the same token, CBS also aired the last Bowl Alliance national championship game, where Nebraska defeated Tennessee in the 1998 Orange Bowl to split that year's national championship vote as Michigan , which was No. 1 in both the AP and Coaches Polls going into the bowls, was obligated to play in that year's Rose Bowl ). CBS also continued to air the Sun Bowl, but lost
2640-635: The 2016 Sun Bowl . After the 2020 season, CBS lost its alternating rights to the Navy–Notre Dame game to ESPN . The rights were bought as part of a new media rights contract signed between the network and the American Athletic Conference (AAC), which Navy has affiliated with for football since 2015. On December 20, 2019, it was reported by Sports Business Journal that after having offered $ 300 million per-season, CBS had exited negotiations to renew its SEC package beyond
2750-629: The COVID-19 pandemic , as the ACC announced that it was restricting all teams to one non-conference game played in the team's home state only, and the SEC cancelled all non-conference play entirely. Before the 2023 game, Aflac replaced Chick-fil-A as the title sponsor. Rankings are from the AP Poll . College football NAIA : NJCAA : College football ( French : football universitaire )
2860-560: The FCS level Northeast Conference . In 2024, CBS announced a four year extension of their agreement with the Sun Bowl . This will allow CBS to air the game through the 2030 season. The instrumental theme music for CBS's college football broadcasts was written by New York composer Lloyd Landesman , and has been used since the 1987 season . The theme music was originally used for CBS's broadcast of Super Bowl XXI on January 25, 1987, but it
2970-533: The Gator Bowl from 2007 to 2010, its biggest bowl acquisition since the Orange and Fiesta Bowls. Until 2014, CBS maintained SEC exclusivity during its 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time window. As part of an extension to CBS's contract with the SEC through the 2023–24 season, CBS no longer has exclusivity during its afternoon window, but still has the first choice of games. CBS was limited to airing five games featuring
3080-566: The NFL and other leagues previously played college football. The NFL draft each spring sees 224 players selected and offered a contract to play in the league, with the vast majority coming from the NCAA . Other professional leagues, such as the CFL and UFL , additionally hold their own drafts each year which also see primarily college players selected. Players who are not selected can still attempt to obtain
3190-693: The Old Main lawn on campus in State College, Pennsylvania . They compiled a 12–8–1 record in these seasons, playing as an independent from 1887 to 1890. In 1891, the Pennsylvania Intercollegiate Football Association (PIFA) was formed. It consisted of Bucknell University , Dickinson College , Franklin & Marshall College , Haverford College , Penn State, and Swarthmore College . Lafayette College , and Lehigh University were excluded because it
3300-534: The Orange Bowl annually, broadcasting the bowl annually until losing rights to ABC in 1962. CBS would add annual coverage of the Gator Bowl in 1954, broadcasting the bowl through 1963. In 1955, CBS regular season coverage returned. CBS used Joe Hasel , Bob Neal , Mal Stevens , Jack Drees , Francis Wallace, Tom Harmon , and Gil Stratton as commentators. Drees was usually paired on commentary with Wallace on Midwest games, while Hasel and subsequently, Neal
3410-513: The Peach Bowl . For the 1982 season , CBS was made an additional partner in the NCAA contract, and regular season coverage returned to the network. CBS and ABC would alternate the 12:00 and 3:30 p.m. slots from week to week during the seasons, carrying either a national game or several regional games in those frames, and also occasionally aired games in prime time, and on Black Friday . CBS broadcast games from every major conference, as well as
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3520-518: The 1982 season, because of a player strike in the National Football League , these Division III contests aired nationwide). The pregame show was titled The NCAA Today in the vein of its pro football counterpart The NFL Today . Both shows were hosted by Brent Musburger . However, for the NCAA pregame show, Pat O'Brien and Ara Parseghian were the analysts/feature reporters, although Lesley Visser made occasional appearances on
3630-401: The 19th century, when intramural games of football began to be played on college campuses. Each school played its own variety of football. Princeton University students played a game called "ballown" as early as 1820. In 1827, a Harvard tradition known as "Bloody Monday" began, which consisted of a mass ballgame between the freshman and sophomore classes. In 1860, both the town police and
3740-455: The 2023 season. CBS cited a need to "aggressively focus on other important strategic priorities moving forward". On December 10, 2020, ESPN announced that it had acquired the top SEC rights under a 10-year deal beginning in 2024, valued at $ 3 billion over the length of the contract. The games are slated to air on ABC, thus centralizing the entirety of the SEC's media rights with The Walt Disney Company. On May 11, 2020, CBS Sports agreed to
3850-717: The 2023 season. CBS will air up to 15 Big Ten football games per-season, including a Friday afternoon game on Thanksgiving weekend, and the Big Ten Football Championship Game in 2024 and 2028. Big Ten games replaced the SEC in CBS's traditional 3:30 p.m. ET window beginning in the 2024 season; in a transitional arrangement, CBS carried seven Big Ten games in 2023 around its final season of SEC coverage, which were mostly part of doubleheaders and tripleheaders with SEC and/or Mountain West games. In 2023, CBS Sports Network began airing football games from
3960-540: The CFA period. In 1989, Nantz became lead play-by-play announcer, but Haden remained the lead analyst for that year, being replaced by Brant in 1990. After 1990, ABC obtained exclusive network coverage of regular season college football, as it won back the CFA and retained the Pac-10/Big Ten rights. As the 1990s began, CBS' Division I-A college football coverage was reduced to its bowl game contracts, which it had with
4070-531: The Chick-Fil-A Bowl, told the newspaper that there was the possibility of having Alabama face Miami in a rematch of the 1993 Sugar Bowl . The 2013 edition was a rematch of the 2009 game. Alabama, the two-time defending BCS national champions, once again defeated Virginia Tech, this time by a score of 35–10. 2014 would again feature two games. Ole Miss defeated Boise State 35–13 in a Thursday night game. Alabama would defeat West Virginia 33–23 in
4180-623: The Chick-fil-A Kickoff for the 2009 game, defeating Virginia Tech to begin the 2009 season . Auburn and UCLA were initially slated to play in 2010, but Auburn officials later backed out of the offer. ABC attempted to replace Auburn with Georgia Tech , but the switch prompted UCLA to opt out entirely because the game would essentially be a home game for the Atlanta-based Yellow Jackets, with no scheduled return trip to Los Angeles . Finally, an agreement
4290-525: The College of New Jersey, in the first collegiate football game . The game more closely resembled soccer than football as it is played in the 21st century. It was played with a round ball , and used a set of rules suggested by Rutgers captain William J. Leggett , based on The Football Association 's first set of rules , which were an early attempt by the former pupils of England's public schools, to unify
4400-770: The Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York City to codify the first set of intercollegiate football rules. Before this meeting, each school had its own set of rules and games were usually played using the home team's own particular code. At this meeting, a list of rules, based more on the Football Association's rules than the rules of the recently founded Rugby Football Union , was drawn up for intercollegiate football games. Old "Football Fightum" had been resurrected at Harvard in 1872, when Harvard resumed playing football. Harvard, however, preferred to play
4510-520: The NCAA in 1966, CBS then retained the rights to air a few bowl games before returning to broadcast regular season games from the major conferences and major independents in 1982. After being outbid by ABC, CBS's college football coverage between 1991 and 1995 was again reduced to only a handful of bowl games. In 1996, CBS signed a deal with the Southeastern Conference (SEC) to carry a weekly slate of regular season games (billed as
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4620-634: The NCAA per ABC's and WTBS' demands. In 1984, after the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated the NCAA contract in NCAA v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma, and the University of Georgia , the College Football Association was formed to handle affairs between television networks and college football programs, the result was an exclusive contract with ABC that granted the network rights to all CFA partner conference games and
4730-510: The NFL, are not permitted by the NCAA to be paid salaries. Colleges are only allowed to provide non-monetary compensation such as athletic scholarships that provide for tuition, housing, and books. With new bylaws made by the NCAA, college athletes can now receive "name, image, and likeness" (NIL) deals, a way to get sponsorships and money before their pro debut. Modern North American football has its origins in various games, all known as "football", played at public schools in Great Britain in
4840-756: The North Carolina State Fairgrounds in Raleigh, North Carolina . On November 13, 1887, the Virginia Cavaliers and Pantops Academy fought to a scoreless tie in the first organized football game in the state of Virginia . Students at UVA were playing pickup games of the kicking-style of football as early as 1870, and some accounts even claim that some industrious ones organized a game against Washington and Lee College in 1871, just two years after Rutgers and Princeton's historic first game in 1869. But no record has been found of
4950-541: The SEC team is the home team. The network shared the rights to SEC conference games with the ESPN family of networks, which also airs the interconference rivalry games when the SEC team is not the home team (with the exception of Notre Dame), as well as all Pac-12/SEC regular season games. In 2000, CBS installed Verne Lundquist on its No. 1 team following Sean McDonough's departure from CBS Sports. The events of September 11, 2001, resulted in postponements for games scheduled
5060-558: The amount of revenue gained in excess of the Kickoff's $ 5.5 million budget. In 2008, Clemson and Alabama were both expected to receive more than $ 2 million. On July 12, 2023 Aflac will be the new sponsor for the game. The first game, known that year as the Chick-fil-A College Kickoff, was played on August 30, 2008, the opening Saturday of the 2008 season . Alabama defeated Clemson 34–10. Alabama returned to
5170-583: The annual matchup between Notre Dame and Navy , with CBS televising the game in years where Navy served as the host team. CBS also added the Mountain West championship game to its coverage per a pre-existing contract that the network has with the conference (although most of the games air on CBS Sports Network ); the game began in the last hour of primetime for the Eastern and Central time zones, meaning stations in those zones in most cases would not carry
5280-428: The ball only when being pursued. As a result of this, Harvard refused to attend the rules conference organized by Rutgers, Princeton and Columbia at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York City on October 20, 1873, to agree on a set of rules and regulations that would allow them to play a form of football that was essentially Association football; and continued to play under its own code. While Harvard's voluntary absence from
5390-481: The ball was advanced by kicking or carrying it, and tackles of the ball carrier stopped play – actions of which have carried over to the modern version of football played today Harvard later challenged its closest rival, Yale, to which the Bulldogs accepted. The two teams agreed to play under a set of rules called the "Concessionary Rules", which involved Harvard conceding something to Yale's soccer and Yale conceding
5500-473: The bench seating). 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 three stadiums owned by U.S. colleges or universities, L&N Stadium at the University of Louisville , Center Parc Stadium at Georgia State University , and FAU Stadium at Florida Atlantic University , consist entirely of chair back seating. College athletes, unlike players in
5610-407: The booth with him. Jim Nantz succeeded Musburger as studio host. In 1987, CBS took over the CFA contract, which it would hold until 1990. CBS' tendency during this period was to air one marquee game each week, such as the legendary 1988 "Catholics vs Convicts" matchup between Notre Dame and Miami, though regional telecasts would occasionally be aired. For 1987 and 1988, Pat Haden joined Musburger in
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#17327873301635720-413: The booth, with John Dockery manning the sidelines. Nantz hosted what was now known as the " Prudential College Football Report", which was mostly a roundup of the day's scores and top headlines (including those in other sports), though sometimes key figures in the sport would be interviewed. Verne Lundquist, Tim Brant , Dick Stockton , Steve Zabriskie and Brad Nessler also called games for CBS during
5830-474: The center. Later changes made it possible to snap the ball with the hands, either through the air or by a direct hand-to-hand pass. Rugby league followed Camp's example, and in 1906 introduced the play-the-ball rule, which greatly resembled Camp's early scrimmage and center-snap rules. In 1966, rugby league introduced a four-tackle rule (changed in 1972 to a six-tackle rule) based on Camp's early down-and-distance rules. Camp's new scrimmage rules revolutionized
5940-563: The city of New Haven , banned the play of all forms of football in 1860. American football historian Parke H. Davis described the period between 1869 and 1875 as the 'Pioneer Period'; the years 1876–93 he called the 'Period of the American Intercollegiate Football Association'; and the years 1894–1933 he dubbed the "Period of Rules Committees and Conferences". On November 6, 1869, Rutgers University faced Princeton University , then known as
6050-489: The college authorities agreed the Bloody Monday had to go. Harvard students responded by going into mourning for a mock figure called "Football Fightum", for whom they conducted funeral rites. The authorities held firm, and it was another dozen years before football was once again played at Harvard. Dartmouth played its own version called " Old division football ", the rules of which were first published in 1871, though
6160-528: The fall after the loss of college football. In 1994 and 1995, after losing the MLB contract and its NFL contract , trying but failing to buy NHL rights , and still unable to secure a college football contract, CBS did not have any major sports coverage in the fall. (In desperation, the network began talks with the Canadian Football League , but nothing came of them.) For 1995, CBS re-acquired
6270-649: The first game in Virginia. On April 9, 1880, at Stoll Field , Transylvania University (then called Kentucky University) beat Centre College by the score of 13 + 3 ⁄ 4 –0 in what is often considered the first recorded game played in the South . The first game of "scientific football" in the South was the first instance of the Victory Bell rivalry between North Carolina and Duke (then known as Trinity College) held on Thanksgiving Day , 1888, at
6380-499: The first in the series to be played in the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Downtown Atlanta. For the first time, the 2020 event was intended to include three games across two consecutive weeks, with a week 1 doubleheader between Florida State and West Virginia, followed by Georgia and Virginia. Auburn and North Carolina were to also play a week 2 game as part of the series. On July 29, 2020, all three games were cancelled due to
6490-404: The first meeting he attended in 1878: a reduction from fifteen players to eleven. The motion was rejected at that time but passed in 1880. The effect was to open up the game and emphasize speed over strength. Camp's most famous change, the establishment of the line of scrimmage and the snap from center to quarterback , was also passed in 1880. Originally, the snap was executed with the foot of
6600-404: The first time. The Yale team was coached and captained by David Schley Schaff, who had learned to play football while attending Rugby School . Schaff himself was injured and unable to play the game, but Yale won the game 3–0 nonetheless. Later in 1872, Stevens Tech became the fifth school to field a team. Stevens lost to Columbia, but beat both New York University and City College of New York during
6710-454: The following year. By 1873, the college students playing football had made significant efforts to standardize their fledgling game. Teams had been scaled down from 25 players to 20. The only way to score was still to bat or kick the ball through the opposing team's goal, and the game was played in two 45-minute halves on fields 140 yards long and 70 yards wide. On October 20, 1873, representatives from Yale, Columbia, Princeton, and Rutgers met at
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#17327873301636820-431: The game dates to at least the 1830s. All of these games, and others, shared certain commonalities. They remained largely "mob" style games, with huge numbers of players attempting to advance the ball into a goal area, often by any means necessary. Rules were simple, and violence and injury were common. The violence of these mob-style games led to widespread protests and a decision to abandon them. Yale , under pressure from
6930-404: The game, though not always as intended. Princeton, in particular, used scrimmage play to slow the game, making incremental progress towards the end zone during each down . Rather than increase scoring, which had been Camp's original intent, the rule was exploited to maintain control of the ball for the entire game, resulting in slow, unexciting contests. At the 1882 rules meeting, Camp proposed that
7040-569: The games of most major independents. However, the Big Ten and Pac-10 conferences were not included in this package, and signed their own agreement with CBS. Miami also reached an agreement for CBS to televise its most important home games, and in 1985, the Atlantic Coast Conference was added to CBS' list of college football properties. In 1985, Musburger took over the role of lead play-by-play voice, with Parseghian moving to
7150-561: The games of the then major independents such as Penn State (now a Big Ten member), Notre Dame (a temporary Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) member in 2020 only) and Miami (now in the ACC). Per the September 1, 1982, edition of the Elyria (OH) Chronicle Telegram and the September 1, 1982, edition of Sports Illustrated , ABC and CBS officials met with NCAA representatives and flipped
7260-804: The games starting in 2017. Since 2012, there have been occasional doubleheaders in the series. Organizers intended for the game to become a national spotlight game, on par with the Kickoff Classic held in the Meadowlands from 1983 to 2002, and the Disneyland Pigskin Classic in the 1990s. In 2008, ESPN's College Gameday broadcast from Downtown Atlanta , while ESPN corporate sponsors and local Atlanta-based companies featured prominent displays at Fanzones in Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park . Payout to each team depends on
7370-462: The headliner on Saturday afternoon. It marked the first ever meeting between Alabama and West Virginia in any sport. The 2015 Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game, which moved to CBS that season, returned to a single game with the ACC's Louisville Cardinals taking on the SEC's Auburn Tigers. Auburn defeated Louisville, 31–24. The 2016 Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game, which moved back to ESPN, featured North Carolina and Georgia, both making their second appearances in
7480-636: The highest levels of play, are members of the NCAA . In Canada, collegiate football competition is governed by U Sports for universities. The Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (for colleges) governs soccer and other sports but not gridiron football. Other countries, such as Mexico , Japan and South Korea , also host college football leagues with modest levels of support. Unlike most other major sports in North America , no official minor league farm organizations exist for American football or Canadian football . Therefore, college football
7590-585: The home of the SEC Championship Game , the rights to which had been retained by ABC following the SEC's move. Following the 2000 season, the Big East decided not to renew its contract with CBS and instead signed with ABC, leading to the telecasts taking on the SEC on CBS branding. Until 2023, CBS aired the top SEC weekly in-conference games as well as rivalry games with various other conferences when
7700-560: The idea. Both networks demanded that CBS pay more in rights fees if it showed additional games. WTBS also objected to CBS moving games from Saturday to Sunday due to fears that such games would steal viewers from the NFLPA All-Star Games that WTBS planned to air. When the red tape made showing big time college football too difficult to pull off, CBS got the idea to run Division III games on that Sunday. It doesn't appear that CBS had plans to air any more games, however, since, Division III or not, it would have likely meant having to kick more money to
7810-406: The kickoff series. The Bulldogs defeated the Tar Heels 33–24 in the final edition of the game played the Georgia Dome. The 2017 event was the third doubleheader in the series. Alabama defeated Florida State on Saturday evening by a score of 24–7, serving as the Saturday Night Football season opener. Tennessee defeated Georgia Tech 42–41 in double overtime on Monday evening. The two games were
7920-472: The last two decades of the 19th century. Several major rivalries date from this time period. November 1890 was an active time in the sport. In Baldwin City, Kansas , on November 22, 1890, college football was first played in the state of Kansas . Baker beat Kansas 22–9. On the 27th, Vanderbilt played Nashville (Peabody) at Athletic Park and won 40–0. It was the first time organized football played in
8030-485: The lead broadcasters. In 1966, ABC Sports gained exclusive rights to all regular season games and CBS was reduced to coverage of bowl games. The ABC exclusive contract would run through 1981. CBS added the Sun Bowl in 1968, which continues to air on CBS as of 2024 in the longest-running contract with a single bowl and network. From 1974 to 1977, CBS also aired the Fiesta Bowl , and from 1978 to 1986 it carried
8140-498: The meeting made it hard for them to schedule games against other American universities, it agreed to a challenge to play the rugby team of McGill University , from Montreal , in a two-game series. 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. Jarvis Field
8250-415: 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. Walter Camp is widely considered to be the most important figure in the development of American football. As
8360-452: 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 game was played at University College , a college of the University of Toronto , on November 9, 1861. One of
8470-514: The most successful programs from a BCS non-automatic qualifier conference in recent years, defeated Georgia 35–21. The Chick-fil-A Kickoff consisted of two games in 2012. Tennessee defeated NC State 35–21 on Friday night prior to Clemson defeating Auburn 26–19 in the headliner on Saturday. The dual-game idea was first mentioned in the Miami Herald in May 2010, when Gary Stokan, president of
8580-730: The nearest college to play football. It took place at Hamilton Park in New Haven and was the first game in New England. The game was essentially soccer with 20-man sides, played on a field 400 by 250 feet. Yale wins 3–0, Tommy Sherman scoring the first goal and Lew Irwin the other two. After the first game against Harvard, Tufts took its squad to Bates College in Lewiston, Maine for the first football game played in Maine . This occurred on November 6, 1875. Penn 's Athletic Association
8690-1004: The network initially intended to show those games on Saturday afternoons, with the broadcasts being received only in markets that were interested in carrying them. However, with no NFL games to show on October 3, 1982 (on what would have been Week 5 of the NFL season) due to the strike, CBS decided to show all of its NCAA Division III games on a single Sunday afternoon in front of a mass audience. CBS also used their regular NFL crews ( Pat Summerall and John Madden at Wittenberg – Baldwin–Wallace , Tom Brookshier and Wayne Walker at West Georgia – Millsaps , Tim Ryan and Johnny Morris at Wisconsin–Oshkosh – Wisconsin–Stout , and Dick Stockton and Roger Staubach at San Diego – Occidental ) and aired The NFL Today instead of using their regular college football broadcasters. CBS originally wanted to air some Division I-A games on Sunday. However, according to Sports Illustrated , fellow NCAA football rights holders ABC and WTBS refused to sign off on
8800-620: The next year. He was torn between an admiration for Harvard's style of play and the misery of the Yale defeat, and became determined to avenge Yale's defeat. Spectators from Princeton also carried the game back home, where it quickly became the most popular version of football. On November 23, 1876, representatives from Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Columbia met at the Massasoit House hotel in Springfield, Massachusetts to standardize
8910-419: The participants in the game involving University of Toronto students was William Mulock , later chancellor of the school. A football club was formed at the university soon afterward, although its rules of play then 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
9020-568: The play-by-play commentator. CBS aired a weekly game during the 1950 college football season , culminating in a broadcast of the Army-Navy Game with Connie Desmond doing the play-by-play. Desmond served as play-by-play commentator for CBS's 4 broadcasts in 1951, including the first ever color telecast when #5 California played #19 Penn. However the NCAA began strictly limiting broadcasts that season and CBS would not show regular season games again until 1955. In 1953, CBS began covering
9130-505: The right to take away a game from WTBS as long as it did so no later than the Monday before the game. WTBS was only able to show teams that had not been on national TV in 1981 and a maximum of four teams that had been on regional TV on two occasions. As required by the NCAA, the network also televised Division I-AA, II and III games to very small audiences, giving teams such as The Citadel and Clarion State some television exposure (during
9240-509: The rights to 12 MAC football games through a sublicensing agreement with ESPN . In 2019, CBS Sports extended its contract with the MAC for four more years. Verne Lundquist retired from his role as lead play-by-play commentator for CBS after the 2016 Army-Navy Game . Brad Nessler , formerly of ESPN, joined CBS as a secondary play-by-play announcer during the 2016 season, and officially replaced Lundquist on December 30, 2016, for CBS's coverage of
9350-683: The rights to the Carquest Bowl after the game was moved from New Year's Day following the Orange Bowl's move to the home of the Carquest Bowl, Joe Robbie Stadium . CBS resumed full-time college football coverage in 1996, as the network signed television contracts with the Big East Conference and Southeastern Conference (SEC) to be the exclusive national television home of their in-conference schedules. The coverage
9460-699: The rights to the Cotton Bowl Classic and also gained rights to the Fiesta Bowl and the Orange Bowl from NBC. This was an important move for CBS as those two bowls would become part of the Bowl Alliance with the Sugar Bowl beginning that season; the goal was to try to guarantee an undisputed national champion in college football, something its predecessor the Bowl Coalition had also tried but did not fully succeed in doing. Under
9570-489: The rules of their various public schools. The game was played at a Rutgers Field in New Brunswick, New Jersey . Two teams of 25 players attempted to score by kicking the ball into the opposing team's goal. Throwing or carrying the ball was not allowed, but there was plenty of physical contact between players. The first team to reach six goals was declared the winner. Rutgers won by a score of six to four. A rematch
9680-625: The rules were changed to allow tackling below the waist, and in 1889, the officials were given whistles and stopwatches. After leaving Yale in 1882, Camp was employed by the New Haven Clock Company until his death in 1925. Though no longer a player, he remained a fixture at annual rules meetings for most of his life, and he personally selected an annual All-American team every year from 1889 through 1924. The Walter Camp Football Foundation continues to select All-American teams in his honor. College football expanded greatly during
9790-421: The rules were formulated before the game. SEC on CBS College Football on CBS Sports is the blanket title used for broadcasts of college football games that are produced by CBS Sports , for CBS and CBS Sports Network . CBS first televised regular season college football games in 1950, airing them on a weekly basis during periods in the 1950s and 1960s. After ABC won an exclusive contract with
9900-591: The score of this contest. Washington and Lee also claims a 4 to 2 win over VMI in 1873. On October 18, 1888, the Wake Forest Demon Deacons defeated the North Carolina Tar Heels 6 to 4 in the first intercollegiate game in the state of North Carolina . On December 14, 1889, Wofford defeated Furman 5 to 1 in the first intercollegiate game in the state of South Carolina . The game featured no uniforms, no positions, and
10010-431: The scoring rules, finally arriving at four points for a touchdown, two points for kicks after touchdowns , two points for safeties, and five for field goals . Camp's innovations in the area of point scoring influenced rugby union's move to point scoring in 1890. In 1887, game time was set at two-halves of 45 minutes each. Also in 1887, two paid officials—a referee and an umpire —were mandated for each game. A year later,
10120-427: 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 people. In many cases, college stadiums employ bench-style seating, as opposed to individual seats with backs and arm rests (although many stadiums do have a small number of chair back seats in addition to
10230-445: The show. Gary Bender was the lead play-by-play announcer for game coverage, working with analysts such as Pat Haden and Steve Davis . Other CBS game commentators were Verne Lundquist , Lindsey Nelson , Frank Herzog , Jack Snow and Dennis Franklin . This arrangement was in place during the 1982 and 1983 seasons. Also during the 1982 NFL strike , CBS' NCAA football contract required the network to show four Division III games;
10340-487: The state of Tennessee . The 29th also saw the first instance of the Army–Navy Game . Navy won 24–0. Rutgers was first to extend the reach of the game. An intercollegiate game was first played in the state of New York when Rutgers played Columbia on November 2, 1872. It was also the first scoreless tie in the history of the fledgling sport. Yale football starts the same year and has its first match against Columbia,
10450-571: The terms of the contract, which ran from 1995 through 1997 , the Bowl Alliance games would be scheduled for New Year's Eve, New Year's Night, and January 2 with the last of the three serving as the national championship game. CBS would thus be guaranteed two national championship game matchups, with the Sugar Bowl airing on ABC. CBS was the first network to air a Bowl Alliance national championship game, as Nebraska defeated Florida in
10560-462: The then-John Hancock (reverted to Sun Bowl in 1994), Cotton and the then- Blockbuster bowls. However, it lost the rights to the Cotton Bowl to NBC after the 1992 game, leaving the network with just two bowl games to round out its college football coverage. CBS televised Major League Baseball from 1990 to 1993, so as a result the network was not without major sports coverage on Saturdays during
10670-466: The two schools organized a game for October 23, 1869, but it was rained out. Students of the University of Virginia were playing pickup games of the kicking-style of football as early as 1870, and some accounts even claim it organized a game against Washington and Lee College in 1871; but no record has been found of the score of this contest. Due to scantiness of records of the prior matches some will claim Virginia v. Pantops Academy November 13, 1887, as
10780-511: The weekend of September 15. The Tennessee - Florida game was rescheduled to December 1, which pushed the SEC title game one week later to December 8. In 2005, CBS Sports Network , then operating as College Sports Television, signed a multi-year agreement to air select Conference USA football games. CBS Sports Network has aired the Conference USA Football Championship Game since 2018. CBS aired
10890-473: Was also the first time one team scored over 100 points and the opposing team was shut out. The next week, Princeton outscored Lafayette 140 to 0. The first intercollegiate game in the state of Vermont happened on November 6, 1886, between Dartmouth and Vermont at Burlington, Vermont . Dartmouth won 91 to 0. Penn State played its first season in 1887, but had no head coach for their first five years, from 1887 to 1891. The teams played its home games on
11000-512: 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. 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, The games featured
11110-538: Was felt they would dominate the Association. Penn State won the championship with a 4–1–0 record. Bucknell's record was 3–1–1 (losing to Franklin & Marshall and tying Dickinson). The Association was dissolved prior to the 1892 season. The first nighttime football game was played in Mansfield, Pennsylvania on September 28, 1892, between Mansfield State Normal and Wyoming Seminary and ended at halftime in
11220-562: Was looking to pick "a twenty" to play a game of football against Columbia. This "twenty" never played Columbia, but did play twice against Princeton. Princeton won both games 6 to 0. The first of these happened on November 11, 1876, in Philadelphia and was the first intercollegiate game in the state of Pennsylvania . Brown entered the intercollegiate game in 1878. The first game where one team scored over 100 points happened on October 25, 1884, when Yale routed Dartmouth 113–0. It
11330-424: Was originally branded "College Football on CBS", sponsored initially by NASDAQ , a tag it retains for non-SEC games broadcast on the network. CBS also televised games featuring non-Big East or SEC teams during this time. As part of the contract signed in 1996, CBS succeeded ABC Sports as the television home of the Army-Navy Game . On September 26, 1998, CBS planned to show UCLA @ Miami at noon, but this game
11440-770: Was paired with Stevens on Eastern regional games, and Harmon was paired with Stratton in games taking place on the West Coast . CBS would lose regular season rights to NBC the next year. In 1958, CBS began annual coverage of the Cotton Bowl Classic , a tradition that would continue through 1992. By 1960, CBS showed four bowl games annually with the addition of the Bluebonnet Bowl , which would air on CBS through 1963. In 1962 and 1963, regular season coverage returned to CBS. Lindsey Nelson , Jim Simpson and former Notre Dame head coach Terry Brennan were
11550-542: Was played at Princeton a week later under Princeton's own set of rules (one notable difference was the awarding of a "free kick" to any player that caught the ball on the fly, which was a feature adopted from The Football Association's rules; the fair catch kick rule has survived through to modern American game). Princeton won that game by a score of 8 – 0. Columbia joined the series in 1870 and by 1872 several schools were fielding intercollegiate teams, including Yale and Stevens Institute of Technology . Columbia University
11660-409: Was postponed due to Hurricane Georges . Sean McDonough and Terry Donahue were the scheduled announcers. CBS lost the rights to three of its bowl games following the 1997 season, as ABC gained the rights to the Orange and Fiesta Bowls as the exclusive television home of the newly formed Bowl Championship Series and Fox acquired the rights to the Cotton Bowl Classic. Beginning in 2001, CBS became
11770-665: Was reached in which LSU and North Carolina would match up, with the Tigers winning 30–24. The 2010 game also saw the introduction of a trophy awarded to the winner, the Old Leather Helmet. The 2011 edition was the first Chick-fil-A Kickoff to feature a team that was not a member of the ACC or SEC , the two conferences with tie-ins to the Peach Bowl . Boise State of the Mountain West Conference , one of
11880-617: Was the 1881 Michigan team , which played at Harvard, Yale and Princeton. The nation's first college football league, the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives (also known as the Western Conference), a precursor to the Big Ten Conference , was founded in 1895. Led by coach Fielding H. Yost , Michigan became the first "western" national power. From 1901 to 1905, Michigan had
11990-656: Was the first game west of the Mississippi River . November 30, 1905, saw Chicago defeat Michigan 2 to 0. Dubbed "The First Greatest Game of the Century", it broke Michigan's 56-game unbeaten streak and marked the end of the "Point-a-Minute" years. Organized collegiate football was first played in the state of Virginia and the south on November 2, 1873, in Lexington between Washington and Lee and VMI . Washington and Lee won 4–2. Some industrious students of
12100-488: Was the third school to field a team. The Lions traveled from New York City to New Brunswick on November 12, 1870, and were defeated by Rutgers 6 to 3. The game suffered from disorganization and the players kicked and battled each other as much as the ball. Later in 1870, Princeton and Rutgers played again with Princeton defeating Rutgers 6–0. This game's violence caused such an outcry that no games at all were played in 1871. Football came back in 1872, when Columbia played Yale for
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