History UsefulNotes / CollegiateAmericanFootball

There's also the variant known as '''''sprint football''''', which was created in the 1930s by Ivy League schools as "150-pound football" and later known as "lightweight football". It was played almost exclusively in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states before expanding into the Midwest and Upper South in 2022. It's played under standard college rules, but has severe limits on player weight. Originally, players could weigh no more than 150 lb/68 kg; today, the limit is 178 lb/81 kg, with an additional requirement of a minimum of 5% body fat.[[note]]Players must meet these limits at two separate weigh-ins, four days and two days before each game.[[/note]] This weight limit means that speed and agility are valued more than sheer strength. As of the next 2024 season, 17 schools will compete in this variant--nine in the Collegiate Sprint Football League (the variant's original league) and eight in the Midwest Sprint Football League. Since weight limits take sprint football out of the sport's mainstream, few figures in this variant have achieved any kind of notability. Future NFL coaching great George Allen did serve as an assistant coach for a season. Future NFL team owner Robert Kraft played in college, as did two others who achieved greater fame outside of sports, UsefulNotes/JimmyCarter and UsefulNotes/DonaldRumsfeld.

NCAA football is divided into four divisions: Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly I-A), Division I Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA), Division II, and Division III. Each division, in turn, is divided into conferences of around a dozen teams who play most games amongst themselves. A handful of teams (most notably Notre Dame) are independent of any conference. As of the upcoming 2024 season, the Football Bowl Subdivision has 134 teams, separated, as stated earlier, among a number of conferences. There are a total of 10 conferences in FBS, plus a few independents. See UsefulNotes/CollegiateAmericanFootballConferences, UsefulNotes/PowerFiveConferences, and UsefulNotes/GroupOfFiveConferences for a description of all D-I leagues and of their most prominent programs. For more on the other levels, see below.

[[caption-width-right:300:The tiny Appalachian State Mountaineers vs the mighty #5 Michigan Wolverines. ''[[UnderdogsAlwaysWin Guess who won?]]''[[note]]App State won 34-32, the first ever time an at-the-time FCS opponent beat a ranked FBS team.[[/note]]]]

The rules of collegiate football on the ''field'' are very similar to those detailed on the [[UsefulNotes/AmericanFootball page about American football]], so we won't go into them here save for the most basic explanation: 11 guys on offense, 11 guys on defense. Scoring is almost the same as in the professional leagues as well--the defending team has long been able to score a point on a blocked PAT (a rule that the NFL didn't adopt until 2015) and college overtime rules are '''complicated'''.[[note]]Each team starts a possession on the opposing team's 25-yard line. The first team posts a score (which can include 0 points), then the other team has to match it to continue OT or beat it to win; otherwise, the first team wins. After the 2nd possession for both teams, the PAT kick on a touchdown is banned; teams must go for two if they score a touchdown. The rules got even more complicated in 2019—the 5th and any subsequent possessions for each team are two-point conversion attempts, taken from the standard point of the 3-yard line. In 2021, to reduce the amount of time overtime takes, the two-point conversion requirement moves to the 2nd overtime, and the 3rd and subsequent overtimes use the two-point conversion shootout method until the tie is broken.[[/note]] There are a few different rule changes[[note]]The most obvious ones being that the NFL's iconic two-minute warning is not utilized; the ball carrier is down the moment his knee or body touches the ground instead of needing to be touched by a defender; receivers only need to get one foot in-bounds rather than two; in a recently implemented change, a touchback puts the ball on the 25-yard line for kickoffs (but a touchback on punts is still the 20-yard line); and in an even more recent change (which the NFL eventually adopted in 2023), if the receiving team on a kickoff makes a fair catch inside its own 25-yard line, it's treated as a touchback. Before the 2023 season, the game clock temporarily stopped to move the chain on each first down, but this now only happens in the last 2 minutes of each half (outside of NCAA Division III, which still uses the pre-2023 rules; each NCAA division can now set its own playing rules within certain limits).[[/note]], but nothing enough to disrupt the basic flow of the game.\\\

The rules of collegiate football on the ''field'' are very similar to those detailed on the [[UsefulNotes/AmericanFootball page about American football]], so we won't go into them here save for the most basic explanation: 11 guys on offense, 11 guys on defense. Scoring is almost the same as in the professional leagues as well--the defending team has long been able to score a point on a blocked PAT (a rule that the NFL didn't adopt until 2015) and college overtime rules are '''complicated'''.[[note]]Each team starts a possession on the opposing team's 25-yard line. The first team posts a score (which can include 0 points), then the other team has to match it to continue OT or beat it to win; otherwise, the first team wins. After the 2nd possession for both teams, the PAT kick on a touchdown is banned; teams must go for two if they score a touchdown. The rules got even more complicated in 2019—the 5th and any subsequent possessions for each team are two-point conversion attempts, taken from the standard point of the 3-yard line. In 2021, to reduce the amount of time overtime takes, the two-point conversion requirement moves to the 2nd overtime, and the 3rd and subsequent overtimes use the two-point conversion shootout method until the tie is broken.[[/note]] There are a few different rule changes[[note]]The most obvious ones being that the NFL's iconic two-minute warning is not utilized; the ball carrier is down the moment his knee or body touches the ground instead of needing to be touched by a defender; receivers only need to get one foot in-bounds rather than two; in a recently implemented change, a touchback puts the ball on the 25-yard line for kickoffs (but a touchback on punts is still the 20-yard line); and in an even more recent change (which the NFL eventually adopted in 2023), if the receiving team on a kickoff makes a fair catch inside its own 25-yard line, it's treated as a touchback. Before the 2023 season, the game clock temporarily stopped to move the chain on each first down, but this now only happens in the last 2 minutes of each half (outside of NCAA Division III, which still uses the pre-2023 rules; each NCAA division can now set its own playing rules).[[/note]], but nothing enough to disrupt the basic flow of the game.\\\

The first signs of a changing landscape came in the NAIA (see "Different levels" below), which in 2014 allowed student-athletes at its member schools to profit from their name, image, and likeness (NIL), though they initially could not reference their status as student-athletes. Much larger change followed in 2019 when California passed a law that allowed college athletes within the state to profit from their NIL, with considerably fewer restrictions than the then-current NAIA rules. Several other states followed with similar laws, with some set to take effect in July 2021. Shortly before the first of these laws were to take effect, the US Supreme Court held that any serious NCAA attempts to prevent student-athletes from receiving NIL compensation would likely run afoul of antitrust (competition) laws. Caving to the inevitable, the NCAA issued its own NIL rules. While the NCAA still prohibits member schools from ''directly'' paying players beyond their scholarships, schools can no longer prevent players from being paid by outside parties, with certain limitations that vary from instituion and state (ex. Can't conflict with a university's athletic sponsorship deals, can't use their school's trademarks barring a licensing deal or permission, can't run afoul of an existing school honor code, etc.).\\\

While pro football players can ostensibly play as long as they can compete (10-15 year runs are not uncommon and 20 years is not unheard of, especially for kickers and punters since they tend not to get hit very often), a college football player's eligibility is more or less limited to four years. We say "more or less" because there is the option of ''redshirting'', where a coach is allowed to stretch a player's eligibility to five years instead of four, with the stipulation that one of those years (most commonly the first, as many freshman are felt to be not quite ready for the collegiate level) will be spent sitting on the bench and that the player participate no more than four games (Division I) or three games (Division II).[[note]]Prior to 2018 in Division I and 2023 in Division II, even participating in one game "burned" the redshirt. Division III still prohibits redshirting.[[/note]] They ''can'' participate in practices, which is the origin of the name; such players traditionally wore a red jersey in practice. Extra redshirt seasons are occasionally granted in extreme cases of injury where a player is sidelined for multiple seasons.\\\

Many College Division schools shared dual membership in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), a younger organization than the NCAA that catered more to smaller schools. The NAIA launched a playoff system culminating in a national championship game in 1956. After that, the NCAA formalized its two-tier structure. While the University Division had the highest profile with its polls and bowl games, the College Division also got weekly AP and UPI rankings with a mythical national champ declared at the end of the season and a smattering of regional bowl games (Tangerine, Boardwalk, Grantland Rice, Pecan, Camellia) that aired on Creator/{{ABC}}. However, this two-tiered structure didn't please everyone. UD schools who couldn't maintain the large football budgets of the biggest programs pushed for an intermediate division of like-minded schools, and there was a growing divide between College Division schools who offered athletic scholarships and those who didn't.\\\

As with all things college football, deciding the conference champion via a game rather than standings is something fans love to grumble about. Besides the above-mentioned conference realignment and national championship issues, the NCAA's old requirement that the conferences had divisions also introduced the rare but not unheard of possibility of the champion having a worse record than ''multiple'' other teams in the same conference if they won a tightly contested division with multiple mediocre teams while the other one was top heavy. (In 2022, the NCAA allowed the conferences to have complete control over who participates in the game, leading some conferences to immediately scrap the division system and just pick the two best teams.) The other issue for schools with national title aspirations is that the extra game can put them at a ''disadvantage'' for playoff selection; several teams have been within striking distance of a Top 4 selection only to lose or receive key injuries in the extra game and get knocked out, while other teams[[note]]2016 and '22 Ohio State, '18 Alabama (who won the natty), and '19 Notre Dame[[/note]] have made the playoffs despite not even being ''eligible'' to play in one and getting a longer rest period.

The four-team CFP model had a selection committee (as in the NCAA basketball tournaments) pick the teams instead of the polls. The sites for the first two semifinal games were played at a rotation of the major bowls, and the Championship game (much like the NFL's Super Bowl) is awarded to a city based on a bid. Almost immediately after its announcement, the new system was met with various criticisms from fans, ranging from concerns that the new selection committee would be no more unbiased in selecting teams as the old BCS formula (which mixed human polls with a set of complicated computer algorithms that nobody outside the programmers actually understood) to complaints that having only 4 teams compete is nowhere near enough to fairly decide a true champion in the 133-team FBS.[[note]]FCS has a 24-team playoff, while Divisions II and III respectively have 28- and 32-team playoffs, significantly more than anyone has seriously suggested for FBS. NAIA expanded its playoff from 16 teams to 20 in 2023. Thus, it's been demonstrated that leagues with considerably less resources than FBS can handle a larger playoff.[[/note]] Additionally, this limited selection remained dominated by the SEC, largely excluded participation from many conferences (even an undefeated 2017 UCF team, which defiantly claimed a natty even when they were excluded from the playoff and not ranked #1 by any polls), and further devalued the other bowl games. In response, the playoff will expand in 2024 from four teams to twelve, with guaranteed spots for the five highest-ranked conference champions, a new four-round system (with the first being new games scheduled at the home stadiums of the higher ranked teams and the New Year's Six bowls comprising the second and third rounds), and first-round byes for the top four teams.\\\

The current four-team CFP model has a selection committee (as in the NCAA basketball tournaments) pick the teams instead of the polls. The sites for the first two semifinal games are played at a rotation of the major bowls, and the Championship game (much like the NFL's Super Bowl) is awarded to a city based on a bid. Almost immediately after its announcement, the new system was met with various criticisms from fans, ranging from concerns that the new selection committee would be no more unbiased in selecting teams as the old BCS formula (which mixed human polls with a set of complicated computer algorithms that nobody outside the programmers actually understood) to complaints that having only 4 teams compete is nowhere near enough to fairly decide a true champion in the 133-team FBS.[[note]]FCS has a 24-team playoff, while Divisions II and III respectively have 28- and 32-team playoffs, significantly more than anyone has seriously suggested for FBS. NAIA expanded its playoff from 16 teams to 20 in 2023. Thus, it's been demonstrated that leagues with considerably less resources than FBS can handle a larger playoff.[[/note]] Additionally, this limited selection remained dominated by the SEC, largely excluded participation from many conferences (even an undefeated 2017 UCF team, which defiantly claimed a natty even when they were excluded from the playoff and not ranked #1 by any polls), and further devalued the other bowl games. In response, the playoff will expand in 2024 from four teams to twelve, with guaranteed spots for the five highest-ranked conference champions, a new four-round system (with the first being new games scheduled at the home stadiums of the higher ranked teams and the New Year's Six bowls comprising the second and third rounds), and first-round byes for the top four teams.\\\

* Colorado vs. Colorado State ("The Rocky Mountain Showdown") - The main intrastate rivalry in Colorado, played for the Centennial Cup. Dates back to February 10, 1893 but was discontinued in the 1960s and 1970s due to how one-sided it was in Colorado's favor (a nearly 3-1 edge, which has remained since its 1980s revival). It was played at a neutral site in Denver (home of the NFL's Broncos) throughout the 2010s, but went on pause during COVID; the first post-COVID game in 2023 was in Boulder. (Colorado State hasn't hosted since 1996.) The 2023 game, an OT thriller won by Colorado, was overshadowed by a dirty hit by a CSU DB on CU's two-way star Travis Hunter that caused Hunter to miss a few weeks.

* Texas vs. Texas A&M ("Lone Star Showdown"[[note]]They're the two largest schools in Texas, the Lone Star State.[[/note]]) – Dates back to 1894 and was a long-standing traditional UsefulNotes/ThanksgivingDay game, but like the Border War it ended after 2011 because of conference realignment. Both fanbases seem to simultaneously blame the other school for the ending of the game [[SourGrapes and then claim they didn't really want to play it that much anyway.]] A significantly less tradition-filled game between Texas and either Baylor or Texas Tech (or TCU since their joining the Big 12) has for the time being stood in for Thanksgiving. To be revived once UT[[labelnote:*]]or, to hardcore Aggies, "t.u."[[/labelnote]] joins A&M in the SEC.

* Michigan vs. Michigan State ("The Battle for the Mitten"[[note]]Michiganders frequently call the Lower Peninsula, home to both schools and the vast majority of the state's population, "The Mitten", from its appearance on a map.[[/note]]/"Paul Bunyan--Governor of Michigan Trophy") - Taken more seriously by MSU than UM--as UM has OSU to deal with--with the result that MSU takes it even ''more'' seriously in a "what are we, chopped liver?" kind of way. The OSU thing leads to a lot of conflicted emotions for MSU fans, since on the one hand Michigan is the great rival but on the other hand OSU is from Ohio and most MSU fans are Michiganders, leading one to recall UsefulNotes/HenryKissinger's comment about the UsefulNotes/IranIraqWar: "It's a shame they can't both lose." Also a protected post-2023 Big Ten matchup. One notable matchup is the 2001 edition that resulted in the Big Ten changing its timekeeping rules as Michigan State won on a controversial last second play.

* Washington vs. Washington State (The Apple Cup)[[note]]Washington is famous for its apples.[[/note]] – The Cascade Ranges keep everything civil during most of the year, with U-Dub fans to the west and Wazzu fans to the east. Many Washington fans consider Oregon to be their "true" rival, similarly to how Michigan treats Michigan State compared to Ohio State. Further cementing this sentiment is that when the Pac-12 imploded, U-Dub and Oregon moved together to the Big Ten (starting in 2024), leaving Wazzu and Oregon State to an uncertain future. Though the schools worked out a deal to continue to play the Apple Cup annually, it only came by moving the game to the "neutral" site of the NFL's Seattle Seahawks stadium... which is only 15 minutes away from where Washington plays their home games.

* '''Shaun Alexander Award''': The newest significant award (first presented in 2018), and the FBS equivalent to the Jerry Rice Award—though it's among the lower-profile national awards, and is arguably more obscure than its FCS counterpart. Presented by the Maxwell Football Club (as in the Maxwell Award) and named for the former Alabama and Seattle Seahawks star.[[note]]Ironically, Alexander ''didn't'' have an earth-shattering freshman season—except for one game, in which he set a school record for single-game rushing yardage.[[/note]] ''2023 winner:'' Caleb Downs, S, Alabama

* '''Academic All-America Team Member of the Year''': A scholar-athlete award voted on and presented by College Sports Communicators,[[note]]known before the 2022 season as College Sports Information Directors of America[[/note]] going to the top selection of their selected teams in each of four divisions.[[note]]A D-I team combining FBS and FCS, plus D-II, D-III, and NAIA.[[/note]] It's not a guarantee that [=CSC's=] choice will match that of the more-famous Campbell Trophy committee; for example, the 2022 Campbell Trophy recipient wasn't even on [=CSC's=] ''second team''. ''2022 D-I winner:'' Will Levis, QB, Kentucky; ''2023 recipient to be announced January 23, 2024''

* '''Manning Award''': Another award given to the best quarterback; named after the Manning QB family.[[note]]Archie and his sons Peyton and Eli[[/note]] Whenever a QB wins the Heisman, there is a good chance that he will win this award as well. Like the now-defunct awards presented by the Touchdown Club of Columbus, it's not awarded until ''after'' the bowl games; in fact, the award specifically takes bowl game performances into account, and the voting deadline is deliberately set after the CFP title game. ''2022 winner:'' Stetson Bennett, Georgia

* Montana vs. Montana State (the "Brawl of the Wild", or "Cat–Griz Game") – One of the tentpole rivalries in FCS, matching the state's liberal-arts flagship and its land-grant school, each on opposite sides of the Continental Divide. First played in November 1897, the rivalry featured two annual games in its early years before becoming a (mostly) annual affair in the 1910s. Since 1925, it's only been interrupted for WWII and COVID. Since 1993, it's been the final regular-season game for both teams, and often has implications for the Big Sky Conference's FCS autobid. The "Brawl of the Wild" nickname was introduced in 1997, four years before the introduction of the Great Divide Trophy, a 300-pound sculpture of a mountain with bobcat and grizzly paws on separate sides. ''College [=GameDay=]'' came to Montana State for the 2022 edition. While Montana has a strong overall lead, it only has an 11–10 lead in the trophy era.

The rest of 4-year college football is currently played in the FCS and Division II and III in the NCAA, and in the NAIA, which was once large enough to have two divisions, but a mass exodus of NAIA schools to the NCAA starting in TheNineties has reduced NAIA membership to under 100 schools for football. The term "small college" is often used to describe non-FBS football, and it's largely accurate, but enrollment can range anywhere from 400 full-time students (Eureka, a D-III Illinois school) to nearly 32,000 undergraduates (FCS UC Davis).[[note]]Before moving to FBS for the 2024 season, the largest non-FBS football school was Kennesaw State, with over 37,000 undergraduates in its final FCS season in 2023.[[/note]] D-II is largely made up of lower-tier state-supported schools; D-III is mainly private colleges, including some of America's most elite schools (MIT, Chicago, Johns Hopkins, Amherst), while the NAIA is heavy on tiny church-related schools. All of those classifications crown a national champion via a playoff system. In normal years, FCS has 24 teams in its playoff, D-II has 28, D-III has 32, and the NAIA increased from 16 to 20 for 2023. These classifications all have their own elite programs, traditions and rivalries, and some of the most amazing statistical feats of college football have occurred in them. Linfield University, a D-III school from Oregon, is on a 67-year streak of winning seasons (1956–present, interrupted in 2020 by COVID-19). An Ohio D-III school, the University of Mount Union, won 24 consecutive conference titles from 1982 to 2015, and put up a .951 winning percentage from 1990–2019 (397–20–1). John Gagliardi, who coached at NAIA member Carroll (Montana) and D-III school Saint John's (Minnesota), amassed 489 wins in 64 years as a head coach, while the wins leader among active coaches is Kevin Donley at NAIA school St. Francis (Indiana), who sits at 348 career victories after the 2023 season. The highest-scoring game in the sport's modern history was a 2011 NAIA contest in which Faulkner (Alabama) defeated Union (Kentucky) 95-89 in triple OT (the score was tied at 75 at the end of regulation). These schools boast some unique stadiums, like Winston-Salem State (the stadium is also home to a UsefulNotes/{{NASCAR}} track, which circles the field), Northern Michigan (the only domed stadium outside of Division I), South Dakota Mines (there are several parking terraces surrounding the field, which allows you to watch a game from your car) and Knox College (except for two tiny sets of bleachers, all of the stadium's "seats" are on grass berms that totally surround the field).\\\

* Ohio State vs. Michigan ("The Game") - Voted the #1 rivalry in North American sports by ESPN in 2000, and often the most watched college football game of every season. First played in 1897, became an annual game in 1918, and then was scheduled as the final game of their regular season since 1935; before the expansion of the conference and advent of divisional play, it was usually the de facto Big Ten championship game.[[note]]These days, since both are in the same division of the Big Ten, it usually decides which of them goes to the conference championship.[[/note]] Like many big rivalries, this one grew out of existing animosity between the bordering states: Specifically, the "[[UsefulNotes/ToledoOhio Toledo War]]", a dispute over ownership of the economically vital Great Lakes port of Toledo. Ohio got Toledo, but Michigan generally had the upper hand in the football rivalry, though Ohio State has been much more dominant in recent years. The annual series was interrupted in 2020 due to a COVID-based cancellation; Michigan has been making a comeback ever since and still leads the series. It goes without saying that the Big Ten designated this as one of its "protected" matchups in its post-2023 scheduling model. It has its share of quirky idiosyncrasies, like Ohio State banning use of the letter M on campus during the rivalry week.

* North Dakota State vs. South Dakota State (for the Dakota Marker) – One of the tentpole rivalries in FCS, involving the Dakotas' land-grant schools. While the first game was played in November 1903, the trophy only dates to 2004, when NDSU and SDSU joined FCS and temporarily separated from their respective in-state rivals, which remained in D-II until going FCS in 2008. The trophy is a replica of the boundary markers placed when the Dakota Territory was split into the two modern states in 1889. Played annually since 1917 except during the World Wars, the rivalry has been marked by two long periods of dominance—first SDSU's into the early 1960s, and then an even more dominant NDSU run through the 2010s, giving the Bison a solid overall lead. However, the Jackrabbits have won all of the matchups so far in the 2020s, including the 2022 FCS championship game.

* '''AFCA Coach of the Year''': The oldest annual award for head coaches, first presented in 1935 (the same year in which the Heisman was introduced). Voted on and presented by the American Football Coaches Association, the trade organization for college football coaches. This award is presented at each level of play—FBS, FCS, D-II, D-III, NAIA, and juco. ''2023 FBS winner:'' Kalen [=DeBoer=], Washington[[note]]Led the Huskies to a 13–0 conference title in their last year in the Pac-12, breaking the school record for wins in a season, though losing out to Michigan in the CFP final.[[/note]]

* '''Jet Award''': Along with the Rice Award, the newest major US-based award (first presented in 2011[[note]]While the award was created in 2011, winners for each season from 1959–2010 are being retroactively chosen, one year at a time.[[/note]]), which is given to the top return specialist in college football. "Jet" comes from the nickname of legendary 1970s Nebraska receiver/return man Johnny Rodgers. ''2022 winner:'' Derius Davis, TCU %% The ceremony is in April, but the award is announced in late January.

* North Dakota State vs. South Dakota State (for the Dakota Marker) – One of the tentpole rivalries in FCS. involving the Dakotas' land-grant schools. While the first game was played in November 1903, the trophy only dates to 2004, when NDSU and SDSU joined FCS and temporarily separated from their respective in-state rivals, which remained in D-II until going FCS in 2008. The trophy is a replica of the boundary markers placed when the Dakota Territory was split into the two modern states in 1889. Played annually since 1917 except during the World Wars, the rivalry has been marked by two long periods of dominance—first SDSU's into the early 1960s, and then an even more dominant NDSU run through the 2010s, giving the Bison a solid overall lead. However, the Jackrabbits have won all of the matchups so far in the 2020s, including the 2022 FCS championship game.

* Washington vs. Washington State (The Apple Cup)[[note]]Washington is famous for its apples.[[/note]] - The Cascade Ranges keep everything civil during most of the year, with U-Dub fans to the west and Wazzu fans to the east. Many Washington fans consider Oregon to be their "true" rival, similarly to how Michigan treats Michigan State compared to Ohio State. Further cementing this sentiment is that when the Pac-12 imploded, U-Dub and Oregon moved together to the Big Ten (starting in 2024), leaving Wazzu and Oregon State to an uncertain future. Though the schools worked out a deal to continue to play the Apple Cup annually, it only came by moving the game to the "neutral" site of the NFL's Seattle Seahawks stadium... which is only 15 minutes away from where Washington plays their home games.
* Mississippi State vs. Ole Miss ("The Battle for the Golden Egg"/"The Egg Bowl")[[note]]The "Golden Egg" is the official name of the trophy, first awarded in 1927, consisting of a football-shaped brass piece attached to a wood base. The "Egg" name came about years later—footballs in the 1920s had a much more oval shape than those used today, which means that to more modern eyes, the trophy resembles a large egg.[[/note]] - An annual matchup between the two biggest football programs of their football-crazed state, one would expect this to on par with the neighboring state's Iron Bowl in terms of intensity. It ''is'', but for different reasons; unlike Alabama and Auburn, neither program has been competitive for national titles in half a century (and, in Mississippi State's case, has a lifetime losing record), making the Egg Bowl typically the most important (and often final) game for both teams' seasons. In the 21st century, the game has ''also'' become notable for being typically the only FBS game played on Thanksgiving.

* Colorado vs. Utah (The "Rumble in the Rockies") – Had been one of the hottest rivalries in the West for the first half of the 20th century but stopped after 1962. Revived in 2011 when Colorado and Utah joined the Pac-12 and were placed in the same football division; it will remain a conference rivalry when both schools move to the Big 12 in 2024.

* '''Manning Award''': Another award given to the best quarterback; named after the Manning QB family.[[note]]Archie and his sons Peyton and Eli[[/note]] Whenever a QB wins the Heisman, there is a good chance that he will win this award as well. Like the now-defunct awards presented by the Touchdown Club of Columbus, it's not awarded until ''after'' the bowl games; in fact, the voting deadline is deliberately set after the CFP title game. ''2022 winner:'' Stetson Bennett, Georgia

* '''George Munger Award''': Presented since 1989 by the Maxwell Football Club, named after longtime Penn head coach George Munger, and awarded after the bowl games. Infamously changed its name to the Joseph V. Paterno Award in 2010, one year before the Jerry Sandusky scandal forced them to revert to the former name and rescind his three awards. ''2022 winner:'' Willie Fritz, Tulane; ''2023 winner to be announced January 10, 2024''

* '''Eddie Robinson Award''': Presented since 1987 to the top I-AA/FCS head coach by the publisher of the most widely recognized FCS poll—originally The Sports Network (''not'' the Anglophone Canadian equivalent to ESPN, but rather a wire service), now the sports analytics company Stats Perform. One of two major coaching awards named after Grambling State coaching legend Eddie Robinson. ''2023 winner:'' Jimmy Rogers, South Dakota State[[note]]Succeeded his predecessor at SDSU, the retired John Stiegelmeier, as recipient, leading the Jackrabbits to their second straight undefeated regular season.[[/note]]

* '''George Munger Award''': Presented since 1989 by the Maxwell Football Club, named after longtime Penn head coach George Munger, and awarded after the bowl games. Infamously changed its name to the Joseph V. Paterno Award in 2010, one year before the Jerry Sandusky scandal forced them to revert to the former name and rescind his three awards. ''2022 winner:'' Fritz; ''2023 winner to be announced January 10, 2024''