How College Football Became a Juggernaut in the US

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We must travel back to 1869 to find the first collegiate football game. It was contested by Rutgers University and Princeton University, but there were some big differences between that game and the college football we enjoy today.

Live Televised Games

However, the launch of live televised American Football was also to the benefit of college football. From the 1950s onwards, college football took advantage of television deals and which brought more money into the game. College football became more commercialized, and with an increase in money, the pressure was higher for colleges to succeed. Live television coverage of college football games became the norm, and even if some fans were only tuning in when there were no NFL games being played, viewing figures were promising.

With college football televised live across the world today, many fans search for the best college football odds. With the rise in the number of states legalizing online sports betting, gambling on college football is hugely popular. However, some states still have rules surrounding betting on college sports.

As interest grew in the media, more people started attending college football games in person. The average attendance across all games and conferences is over 40,000 people, which is incredible for college sports.

Camp Makes Changes

Walter Camp, who excelled at sport during his time at Yale, made several changes to the rules and format of the game. Camp is considered to be the person who made the most significant changes to the rules of American Football and developed the sport into something resembling what we see now. The sport soon spread across the United States, but there were still changes to be made throughout the early to mid-1900s, and it was in the 1930s that college football captured the attention of the nation. That led to games played between teams outside of the regional leagues.

Rise of the NFL

While college football continued to progress in the early 1900s, the National Football League was formed in 1920. This was a professional league and rose from the rules created within the college system. The 1958 NFL championship game, deemed “the most exciting game ever played,” cemented the NFL’s position as the top American Football competition in the United States. This was certainly true from a national perspective, with fans wanting to watch the big NFL games on television while college football remained popular at the regional level.

Money in College Football

With more people watching college football on television, teams receiving increased amounts of money, and stadiums growing, college football has continued to flourish. A sign of how college football has grown to become a juggernaut in the US is the size of the financial packages received by the colleges and the players.

Schools share revenue directly with athletes. In 2021, it is believed college players earned a total of $390 billion, but in 2025, that figure could be as high as $1.9 billion. Commercial deals for college football players have gone up in value by over $150 million between 2021, when NIL (name, image, and likeness) for players was introduced, and 2025.

The numbers are big, but that does not always translate into huge paychecks for the players, with more than 66% of college football players earning less than $10,000 annually. The coaches of college football teams are paid handsomely, especially when compared with sports tutors at the college level across the world. Some college football coaches are paid over $10 million, which highlights the importance placed on American football at the college level.

College football has grown into a financial powerhouse. The introduction of live television coverage, plus the creation of the Bowl Championship Series in 1998, both had a significant role to play in college football becoming the juggernaut it is today.