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Gridiron football has been played at a collegiate level since its inception, with the modern rules of the game being created in intercollegiate games shortly after the American Civil War. The first college football game was played in 1869 between Princeton and Rutgers, using rules based on association football rules from the English Football Association. There was no codified set of gridiron football rules in the early days of the game; typically, visiting teams would play using the home team's preferred rule set. Throughout the 1870's, new rules would be adopted from rugby, making the game more similar to modern football. The first codified ruleset came with the founding of the Intercollegiate Football Association in 1876, with the game continuing to change significantly for several decades afterwards.

Today, intercollegiate football is played in many different countries, with teams of student-athletes representing colleges and universities. Like gridiron football generally, college football is most popular in the United States and Canada. The largest governing body for college football is the NCAA, with smaller governing bodies such as the NAIA and NJCAA representing some small schools and junior colleges. In Canada, collegiate football competition is governed by U Sports for universities. 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 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 the NFL and other leagues previously played college football. As of the 2024 offseason, 88.6% of NFL players had previously played at the collegiate level. Other professional leagues, such as the CFL and UFL, source the majority of their players from college football teams. (Full article...)

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The 1966 Liberty Bowl was a post-season American college football bowl game between the Virginia Tech Hokies and the Miami Hurricanes at Memphis Memorial Stadium in Memphis, Tennessee on December 10, 1966. The game was the final contest of the 1966 college football season for both teams, and ended in a 14-7 victory for the Miami Hurricanes. A then-record 39,101 tickets were sold for the game, but due to 36-degree temperatures at game time, only 25,012 spectators attended. The game marked just the second time that Virginia Tech had played in a bowl game since the creation of the team in 1892. The game also marked the second time in each school's history that the two teams had faced each other. The previous meeting, held in 1953, ended in a 26-0 shutout victory for the Hurricanes. Current Virginia Tech head football coach and then-player Frank Beamer participated in the game as a backup cornerback for the Hokies.

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