College Football Trivia

Whether you just want to learn more about the game or if you're putting together a trivia game for your next game-day party, there's always something new to be learned when you start digging around the topic of college football trivia. Note that the statistics and records provided here are up-to-date prior to the beginning of the 2015 season.

Trivia Categories for College Football

Amazing Statistics

• The University of Oklahoma has the longest winning streak in college football, emerging victorious from 47 games in a row from 1953 to 1957.
• Drew Brees holds the record for the highest number of attempted passes in a college football game. He threw the ball 83 times as a Purdue Boilermaker for a win over Wisconsin in 1998.
• The most overtimes played in a college football game is seven. Two games are tied for this record, and the University of Arkansas Razorbacks played in both. The first was Arkansas vs Ole Miss in 2001 and the second was Arkansas vs Kentucky in 2001. Arkansas won both games.
• The longest field goal ever kicked in a college football game did not come from an NCAA school. In 1976, Ove Johannson of Abilene Christian, a NAIA school, kicked a 69 yard field goal that still stands as the longest on record.
• The longest field goal kicked in an NCAA game is 65 yards,. That record is held by Martin Gramatica of Kansas State, who achieved this in 1998 without aid of a kicking tee.
• In 2013 Rice player Jayson Carter became the shortest person to play in an NCAA Division I FBS game. He stands at just 4-foot, 9-inches.
• In the 2014 season, Florida State set a new record for the highest number of points scored in a season: 723.

Impressive Awards

• The University of Alabama has won more college football championships than any other school, with ten to its credit as of 2012.
• In 1980, Marcus Allen became the first football player to have won a college championship, Heisman Trophy, Super Bowl and Super Bowl MVP award.
• Winning six national awards, in 2012 Manti Teo became one of the most decorated college football players in history. He received the Maxwell, Camp, Butkus, Lombardi, Chuck Bednarik and Nagurski awards.

Heisman Trivia

• The University of Notre Dame and the University of Southern California (USC) are tied as the top schools producing Heisman winners, with 7 trophy winners each.
• Archie Griffin of Ohio State University is the only player to win the Heisman Trophy twice. He received the award in consecutive years - 1974 and 1975.
• Johnny Manziel became the first freshman to win the Heisman Trophy in 2012, but he is not the youngest player to win the award. He is second-youngest.
• Jameis Winston of Florida Sate University became the youngest player to win the Heisman Trophy in 2013. He won as a freshman at the age of 19 (plus 342 days).
• Three Heisman Trophy winners played a professional major league sport other than football: Bo Jackson (baseball), Vic Janowicz (baseball) and Charlie Ward (basketball).

Financial Facts

• Nick Saban of the University of Alabama is the highest paid coach in college football with an annual salary of 7.5 million annually.
• With a price tag of $450 million, Texas A & M's Kyle stadium tops Stack.com's list of the most expensive college stadium renovations.
• As of June 2015, BleacherReport.com reports that the highest priced college football tickets for the 2015 season cost just over $575 on StubHub. They are for Notre Dame's home opener against Texas.
• Ivy League schools do not award any sports scholarships, so their football players do not receive any sports-related financial assistance to attend school.

Stadium Trivia

• Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor is the largest stadium in college football. It has an official seating capacity of 109,901, but they've been known to squeeze in even more people than that (see next trivia item).
• The 2013 Michigan-Notre Dame game the all-time attendance record for a college football game, with 115,109 fans in attendance at Michigan Stadium. The previous record was set in 2011 (114,804) and was for the same match-up at the same location.
• Auburn University will open the 2015 season with its newly-installed largest scoreboard in college football. The cost for such a behemoth scoreboard? $13.9 million.
• The University of Pennsylvania's Franklin Field is recognized by the NCAA as the oldest college football stadium. It is also believed to have hosted the most football games by any one collegiate team.
• The University of Wyoming's War Memorial Stadium is positioned at the highest elevation (7,220 ft.) of any college football stadium.

Team Mascots

• Auburn University actually has two mascots: a tiger and the war eagle. Both mascots have a presence at home games, although only the tiger (not a live one!) goes on the road with the team. A live eagle soars across the field just before kickoff of every home game, but the sideline mascot cheering on the crowd is Aubie the tiger.
• The University of Oregon's duck mascot just may be the hardest-working mascot in college football! Every time Oregon scores, he drops and does push ups equal to the total number of points his team has put on the board!
• The bulldog and the eagle are tied for first place as the most common mascot in college football. A total of 15 NCAA division I schools are represented by one of these two mascots.

Early Days of Football

• Rutgers and Princeton played what was described as the first-ever college football game on November 6, 1869.
• College football cheerleading began in the 1880s with all-male pep squads. It wasn't until 1923 that women were allowed to cheer. The first female cheerleaders were at the University of Minnesota.
• In 1916, Georgia Tech (under the guidance of coach John Heisman) beat Cumberland 222 to 0 in what has become "the most lopsided game in college football history."
• The NCAA started officially tracking college football statistics in 1937.
• The Rose Bowl became the first college football bowl game in 1902, which is why the game is referred to as "the grandaddy of them all." The first Rose Bowl was played between Michigan and Stanford.

Facts for Football Fans

These facts will give you plenty of interesting things to talk about with your college football-loving friends. After all, football fans just love sharing and discussing interesting facts and tidbits about their beloved sport!