how many college football players are there

When watching college football games, you may notice that there are a lot of football players. So, how many college football players are there?

A college football team has up to 125 active players, but most college football teams only have 60 to 70 players. Division one teams can give full-ride scholarships to 85 athletes on their roster, which also limits how many people they will bring onto their teams.

As you can see, there are a lot of different aspects that contribute to the number of college football players there are, especially when it comes to districts and scholarships.

Each of these standards is written down, though, so there is no team that monopolizes all the good players. Continue reading to learn more about college football and how they organize their players.

How Many Players are On a Team?

On a regular college football team, there can be up to 125 players on the roster. This is not the case for all football teams though.

In the college NCAA football teams, the limit is usually 105 players. While this number is significantly smaller than the previously mentioned limit, this still is not as small as the NFL roster, which is limited to 53 active players.

College football is a different world than the professional football world. While there are these limits, they are not really informed.

A lot of college football programs are there to support their student’s health and wellness, so they do not have set limits.

However, on average, most university teams will have 100 or more players.

Whether or not a team wants that many players on its roster is another story. Only so many players can be active, and only so many can travel at once.

Also, only so many scholarships can be offered to football players, which is where things begin to get complicated.

In Division 1

College football is split into different divisions that all have their own sets of rules and funding. In division one, there are 129 teams.

Altogether, there are 15,167 players in division one right now. On average, there are 118 players on each team. Yet, not all of these players are active. Many of them do not even travel to events but are on the team for training.

Only 85 scholarships can be given to students in division one football teams so a good portion of college football players in division one goes without scholarships.

In Division 2

In division two, there are 170 teams. This division is a lot bigger than division one, but their rules are more strict. There are 18,889 players in division two.

On average, there are 111 athletes on each team in division two. This is because, in division two, they are only allowed to give out 36 college scholarships at a time.

This means that there are fewer scholarships to give out than in division one, so the majority of players in division two do not have a scholarship.

Limiting the number of scholarships available for college football players lowers the number of players who will want to play.

This makes it harder for coaches to recruit. It also makes coaches have to think strategically about who they are going to award scholarships to.

They can only give so much, and those students who are on the scholarship can really devote their time and effort to supporting their team and becoming better players.

In Division 3

Division three has the most number of teams under it. There are 248 teams in division three college football. Division three is home to 25,709 student-athletes.

These students work hard for their spot in division three. The average team in division three has 104 players.

Division three does not have any scholarship limits because the schools are the ones who are required to give the scholarships.

This makes things different for division three players.

If you go to a low-income school to play college football, you are likely to get less scholarship money, but then again, if you go to a wealthy school that profits greatly from its football team, you are likely to get a lot more money.

How Many Scholarships are On a Team?

There are limits to almost every division on how many scholarships they can give out.

We have already talked about the scholarship situation for divisions one, two, and three, but that does not mean there is not more that comes into play.

In the NAIA, coaches are allowed to give up to 24 scholarships to their team players. This is the lowest level of scholarship awarded from all of the districts.

In the JUCO division, they are allowed to give out 85 scholarships just like district one.

The CCCAA, though, is like district three where it is the university’s decision if they put their students on scholarship.

Scholarships are really a big factor in players choosing which university they want to play for.

Players want a team that is well known so they can go professional, but they also want to have money so they can support themselves while going to school.

How Many Players are On the Field at one Time?

11 people per team are on the field at a time during college football games. Altogether, 22 people are actively playing on the football field at once.

Each player has their own job, especially when it comes to offense and defense.

How Many Players Travel to Games?

There are limits on how many people can travel to out-of-home games. The limit is 70 players, but this is only for conference players.

Non-conference players can take as many players as they want. That doesn’t mean they will take everyone.

Traveling is an expense and having to pay that much for a person that will only sit on a bench is not economically beneficial.

Overall, each college football team has many players, but very few people on each roster actually play regularly unless a lot of injuries occur during a single season.

This means that even though someone is on a college football team roster, they might not play in any of the season’s games.