American football in the United States

American football in the United States
The Navy Midshipmen (left in blue) line up on offense against the Army Black Knights in the annual Army–Navy Game at Giants Stadium in December 2002
CountryUnited States
Governing bodyUSA Football
National teamUnited States
First playedSeptember 17, 1869 (1869-09-17) in New Brunswick, New Jersey
Registered players5 million+[1]
Club competitions
List
International competitions

American football is a form of gridiron football and the most popular sport in the United States. In the United States, the game is most often referred to as simply "football". Football is played in leagues of different size, age and quality, in all regions of the country.

There is no single national governing body for American football in the United States or a continental governing body for North America. There is an international governing body, the International Federation of American Football, or IFAF. The National Football League has the highest revenue and average attendance of any sports league in the world.

Description

American football is the most popular sport in the United States.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8] It is a form of gridiron football. In the United States, the game is most often referred to as simply "football".

Organization in the United States

Befitting its status as a popular sport, football is played in leagues of different size, age and quality, in all regions of the country. A team is sometimes referred to as a "football program".[9] There is no single national governing body for American football in the United States or a continental governing body for North America. There is an international governing body, the International Federation of American Football (IFAF). The governing body for American football in the United States is USA Football. The Superbowl is the final championship of American football in the NFL.

Professional

National Football League

Main article: National Football League
The Dallas Cowboys (right in white) play the Philadelphia Eagles (left in green) at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, in December 2007

The 32-team National Football League (NFL) is currently the only major professional American football league in the United States. There have been numerous attempts over the past several decades to create a second major or high-level professional league, most of which failed within a few years or, in the cases of the All-America Football Conference and 1960s American Football League, merged with the NFL. The National Football League has the highest revenue and average attendance of any sports league in the world.

The NFL has not operated any developmental minor leagues since the folding of the NFL Europe League in 2007. There are some "independent" leagues operating in the US, but they are not overseen by the NFL and the teams has no affiliation to NFL franchises.

These figures reflect the popularity of professional American football as a spectator sport:

Team 2016[10] 2017[11] 2018[12] 2019[13] 2021[14] 2022[15] 2023[16] 2024[17] 2025[18]
Arizona Cardinals 62,410 62,622 62,622 62,622 62,622 62,622 62,864 67,850 63,975
Atlanta Falcons 68,115 67,586 67,944 67,944 67,944 67,586 67,944 67,679 70,995
Baltimore Ravens 70,745 70,537 70,537 70,537 70,537 70,589 70,681 68,979 70,294
Buffalo Bills 71,240 67,816 67,763 67,816 67,816 68,431 68,660 69,953 70,695
Carolina Panthers 74,418 72,211 72,211 72,211 71,906 71,351 71,951 69,905 72,311
Chicago Bears 60,618 60,834 60,488 60,834 60,834 60,834 61,769 67,831 58,282
Cincinnati Bengals 60,866 60,325 60,492 60,125 60,325 60,325 64,148 68,791 66,040
Cleveland Browns 67,522 67,431 67,431 67,681 67,431 67,431 67,681 67,431 67,431
Dallas Cowboys¹ 91,767 92,125 91,619 90,929 93,421 93,465 93,594 92,972 92,991
Detroit Lions 63,004 63,423 63,877 63,423 63,423 63,423 68,741 72,389 64,850
Denver Broncos 76,446 76,446 76,446 75,937 76,236 75,980 76,388 73,969 75,313
Green Bay Packers 77,707 77,875 77,834 77,845 77,991 76,180 77,829 78,003 77,875
Houston Texans 66,748 66,811 66,812 66,811 66,811 66,811 67,960 68,024 70,782
Indianapolis Colts 62,616 62,475 62,515 62,475 62,475 62,475 65,230 70,616 65,041
Jacksonville Jaguars 58,818 59,968 60,370 60,370 60,370 59,968 60,370 66,162 65,764
Kansas City Chiefs 75,850 75,850 75,850 75,237 73,227 73,499 73,499 72,972 73,512
Las Vegas Raiders 54,584 57,775 57,919 52,549 61,185 61,185 61,185 69,489 62,362
Los Angeles Chargers 71,598 71,402 71,598 71,240 71,598 72,734 72,205 70,603 73,411
Los Angeles Rams 70,900 70,700 70,800 70,500 71,365 71,598 72,205 70,413 69,736
Miami Dolphins 67,115 64,374 64,207 64,374 64,374 64,230 64,374 67,909 65,922
Minnesota Vikings 67,120 66,701 66,650 66,701 66,701 66,701 67,810 69,088 66,286
New England Patriots 62,616 62,475 62,515 62,475 62,475 62,475 65,230 70,616 65,041
New Orleans Saints 65,845 64,929 65,697 64,929 64,929 64,929 65,712 69,823 70,012
New York Giants 76,423 76,940 76,940 74,664 73,882 76,474 79,307 78,470 80,557
New York Jets 77,763 76,113 77,982 78,523 71,676 78,009 77,890 78,789 73,666
Philadelphia Eagles 69,296 69,796 69,913 69,797 69,796 69,869 69,794 73,857 69,879
Pittsburgh Steelers 59,775 60,488 60,173 60,488 60,488 60,488 60,488 67,960 67,440
San Francisco 49ers 71,629 71,629 71,466 71,048 71,629 71,629 71,122 70,572 71,422
Seattle Seahawks 68,302 68,408 68,402 68,408 68,735 68,735 68,408 71,482 68,740
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 60,624 59,952 54,356 50,728 65,372 65,000 67,046 63,689 67,202
Tennessee Titans 68,366 68,566 68,368 68,566 68,616 68,616 64,520 67,085 59,221
Washington Commanders 52,377 52,751 54,034 53,991 52,751 52,751 63,950 73,793 64,279
League average 66,018 65,856 65,798 65,714 65,759 65,820 66,792 66,631 69,424

¹ ~80,000 without people watching on screens at the party decks

Minor leagues

Main article: Minor league football (gridiron)
The DC Defenders (red) and Seattle Dragons (white), two teams in the XFL, a professional league that has undergone three incarnations in its history

The eight-team United Football League is the predominant professional spring football league. It originated with the XFL and the USFL, each originally founded and played as separate eight-team leagues in 2020 and 2022 respectively before agreeing to a merger with each other. Both conferences bore the names of leagues before them: the USFL was named after a 1980s major professional league known as the United States Football League and reached a settlement with the remaining rightsholders to that league; the XFL was a revival of a 2001 league of the same name from the same founder, Vince McMahon, who sold the league and brand with its 2020 season unfinished. The XFL and USFL brands continued as conferences after the merger until Mike Repole took over the league and abolished the brands during the 2025 offseason. A third-tier league, the Continental Football League, is slated to launch in 2026.

Other active minor league are the Gridiron Developmental Football League and the Rivals Professional Football League which are viewed as low-level or semi-pro leagues.

Indoor American football

Main article: Arena football
See also: Indoor practice facility

There are several professional and semi-professional indoor American football leagues, played at hockey-sized arenas. The largest and oldest operating league is the Indoor Football League which has 13 teams spanning from Ohio to California mostly in markets with other major or high-minor professional sports franchises. Historically the Arena Football League, which launched in 1987 was the most prominent league but as the league had operational issues following its 2008 bankruptcy, teams folded and left for other leagues before the Arena Football League folded in 2019. An attempt at reviving the Arena Football League collapsed a few weeks into its only season in 2024, with the remaining teams reorganizing to play out the season; this league abandoned the AFL brand to become Arena Football One (AF1), which plays in mostly suburban and mid-sized cities.

Other pro leagues include the second-tier National Arena League, the Great Plains and Mississippi Valley-based The Arena League (a league originally playing six-man football), and the third-tier regional and semi-professional leagues such as American Indoor Football (Iowa and Michigan) and the American Arena League (East Coast). AF1 accepted the champions of both TAL and the NAL following their 2025 seasons, while sending two of their rural franchises to the NAL.

Indoor football leagues play by significantly different rules that accommodate a field of play half the width and length of a traditional football field.

Other professional football leagues

Further information: Canadian Football League

Some American players compete in the Canadian Football League in Canada, which operates professionally on a somewhat older rule system with a number of differences from the American game but still recognizable as "football" to the casual American football observer. The CFL allocates half of its teams' rosters for players born and raised in Canada but allows the rest of the players to be foreign born (in practice, these spots are almost always filled by Americans); the CFL also has television presence in the United States and as recently as 1995 played games in the U.S.

College football

Main article: College football
Alabama Crimson Tide football fans tailgate on the main campus of the University of Alabama

In the United States, college football is governed by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Many colleges and universities have football teams, often with dedicated football stadiums. These teams mostly play other similarly sized schools, through the NCAA's divisional system, which divides collegiate sports teams into four divisions (I-FBS, I-FCS, II and III). The largest, most popular collegiate teams routinely fill stadiums larger than 75,000.[19]

Among college football stadiums, eight, the University of Michigan's Michigan Stadium, Penn State's Beaver Stadium, Ohio State's Ohio Stadium, Texas A&M's Kyle Field, the University of Tennessee's Neyland Stadium, LSU's Tiger Stadium, Alabama's Bryant–Denny Stadium, and Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium at the University of Texas at Austin, seat over 100,000 fans and typically sell out. The weekly autumn ritual of college football, which includes marching bands, cheerleaders, homecoming, parties, tailgate parties, form an important part of college football's culture.[20][21] Football is a major source of revenue to the athletic programs of schools, public and private, in the United States.[22] Top college football players enter the NFL draft after their college careers are over, in hopes of signing with an NFL team.

"FBS" and "FCS" are abbreviations for the Football Bowl Subdivision and Football Championship Subdivision, two sections of Division I that exist only in football. These two subdivisions were formerly known as Divisions I-A and I-AA respectively. The Championship Subdivision, consisting mostly of smaller schools than the FBS but larger than D-II, has a multiple-round playoff system just like Divisions II and III, while the Bowl Subdivision has only a limited, and unofficial, twelve-team playoff and has historically only featured division championships and bowl games. FBS and FCS teams can, and often do, play against each other. Unofficially, the Bowl Subdivision is divided into two further subdivisions, "major conferences" (also known as "Power Five conferences", since reduced to four with the breakup of the Pac-12 Conference) and "mid-majors" (known in modern parlance as the "Group of Five"). In practice, only major conference teams are eligible to compete for the national championship and receive significant favor in the opinion polling over mid-majors, and it was not until the addition of the BCS National Championship Game that mid-majors had a realistic chance at appearing in one of the major bowls. Although the FCS has a playoff, three conferences do not participate (the Ivy League does not allow its teams to play in the postseason, and the historically black SWAC and MEAC instead play each other in a bowl of their own). Division III teams do not offer scholarships to their players; two Division I FCS leagues also do not offer scholarships—the Ivy League, which prohibits athletic scholarships in any sport, and the Pioneer Football League, which only competes in football and whose members all offer scholarships in non-football sports.

With the exception of the annual Army–Navy Game, only Power Five conference teams air on national broadcast television, although mid-majors, FCS teams, D-II and D-III games can see more limited coverage on cable and local television.

Though the NCAA is the most publicized college athletic organization, the NAIA (which houses mostly smaller private colleges in the midwest) also sanctions football games. At the community college level, the NJCAA oversees the sport in 47 of the 48 contiguous states, the lone exception being California, where the California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) operates outside the bounds of the NJCAA. There also exists a club football circuit for student-run teams and colleges that choose not to compete at the varsity level. In addition to this, 10 northeastern colleges field teams in the Collegiate Sprint Football League, a league in which all players must weigh no more than 178 pounds (81 kg) in order to be eligible to play; a second sprint league based in the midwest, the Midwest Sprint Football League, launched in 2021.

The Michigan Wolverines drew the highest average home attendance of all college football teams in 2025. These figures reflect the popularity of college football as a spectator sport:

# College football team Average attendance
1 Michigan Wolverines 110,842
2 Penn State Nittany Lions 107,093
3 Texas A&M Aggies 106,159
4 Ohio State Buckeyes 104,105
5 Texas Longhorns 102,367
6 LSU Tigers 101,575
7 Tennessee Volunteers 101,915
8 Alabama Crimson Tide 100,077
9 Georgia Bulldogs 93,033
10 Florida Gators 90,125
11 Auburn Tigers 88,043
12 Nebraska Cornhuskers 86,549
13 Oklahoma Sooners 83,532
14 South Carolina Gamecocks 79,334
15 Clemson Tigers 79,142
16 Notre Dame Fighting Irish 77,622
17 Wisconsin Badgers 70,403
18 Michigan State Spartans 70,389
19 Arkansas Razorbacks 69,762
20 Iowa Hawkeyes 69,250
21 Washington Huskies 68,238
22 USC Trojans 67,783
23 Ole Miss Rebels 66,772
24 Florida State Seminoles 65,876
25 Miami Hurricanes 63,834
26 BYU Cougars 63,789
27 Iowa State Cyclones 60,862
28 Texas Tech Red Raiders 60,143
29 Virginia Tech Hokies 59,946
30 Oregon Ducks 58,582
31 Illinois Fighting Illini 58,350
32 Kentucky Wildcats 57,779
33 Missouri Tigers 57,321
34 NC State Wolfpack 56,919
35 Purdue Boilermakers 56,581
36 West Virginia Mountaineers 54,506
37 Arizona State Sun Devils 54,444
38 Mississippi State Bulldogs 53,186
39 Pittsburgh Panthers 51,845
40 Kansas State Wildcats 51,773
41 Utah Utes 51,701
42 Indiana Hoosiers 51,184
43 North Carolina Tar Heels 50,500
44 Colorado Buffaloes 50,469
45 Louisville Cardinals 50,292
46 Virginia Cavaliers 48,776
47 Rutgers Scarlet Knights 48,459
48 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 47,694
49 Minnesota Golden Gophers 46,519
50 Oklahoma State Cowboys 44,664
51 UCF Knights 43,409
52 TCU Horned Frogs 43,319
53 Arizona Wildcats 41,782
54 Boston College Eagles 41,090
55 Maryland Terrapins 40,765
56 Kansas Jayhawks 39,478
57 Baylor Bears 39,447
58 Syracuse Orange 38,605
59 Fresno State Bulldogs 38,030
60 UCLA Bruins 37,282
61 East Carolina Pirates 37,097
62 Cincinnati Bearcats 36,052
63 California Golden Bears 34,991
64 Vanderbilt Commodores 34,813
65 SMU Mustangs 33,530
66 South Florida Bulls 33,194
67 Boise State Broncos 32,891
68 Houston Cougars 32,215
69 Navy Midshipmen 31,960
70 Colorado State Rams 31,901
71 Appalachian State Mountaineers 31,813
72 UNLV Rebels 31,589
73 UConn Huskies 30,444
74 Oregon State Beavers 30,145
75 Memphis Tigers 30,097
76 Wake Forest Demon Deacons 29,433
77 Jackson State Tigers 28,733
78 Army Black Knights 28,390
79 Stanford Cardinal 28,171
80 Southern Miss Golden Eagles 27,912
81 Air Force Falcons 26,665
82 Washington State Cougars 26,527
83 Montana Grizzlies 26,464
84 San Diego State Aztecs 26,189
85 Marshall Thundering Herd 25,298
86 New Mexico Lobos 25,252
87 James Madison Dukes 25,135
88 North Texas Mean Green 24,493
89 UTSA Roadrunners 24,361
90 Duke Blue Devils 24,283
91 Tulane Green Wave 24,068
92 Troy Trojans 24,053
93 Wyoming Cowboys 23,433
94 Rice Owls 23,423
95 Georgia Southern Eagles 22,541
96 Southern Jaguars 22,051
97 Montana State Bobcats 21,877
98 Norfolk State Spartans 21,212
99 Toledo Rockets 21,199
100 Ohio Bobcats 21,007
101 Tarleton State Texans 20,841
102 Alabama State Hornets 20,618
103 Western Michigan Broncos 20,194
104 Jacksonville State Gamecocks 19,993
105 Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns 19,982
106 UAB Blazers 19,702
107 Utah State Aggies 18,855
108 Old Dominion Monarchs 18,583
109 Texas State Bobcats 18,565
110 Bowling Green Falcons 18,556
111 Liberty Flames 18,371
112 Coastal Carolina Chanticleers 18,352
113 Nevada Wolf Pack 17,875
114 Florida Atlantic Owls 17,667
115 South Dakota State Jackrabbits 17,640
116 Temple Owls 17,566
117 Louisiana–Monroe Warhawks 17,486
118 South Alabama Jaguars 17,273
119 Arkansas State Red Wolves 16,964
120 Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens 16,751
121 Tulsa Golden Hurricane 16,369
122 Central Michigan Chippewas 16,277
123 North Dakota State Bison 16,048
124 UTEP Miners 15,818
125 Georgia State Panthers 15,500
126 Sacramento State Hornets 15,468
127 Eastern Michigan Eagles 14,842
128 Western Kentucky Hilltoppers 14,772
129 Alabama A&M Bulldogs 14,111
130 Florida A&M Rattlers 14,093
131 San Jose State Spartans 13,997
132 Holy Cross Crusaders 13,931
133 FIU Panthers 13,864
134 Buffalo Bulls 13,808
135 Hawaiʻi Rainbow Warriors 13,708
136 Louisiana Tech Bulldogs 13,682
137 Charlotte 49ers 13,564
138 UC Davis Aggies 12,991
139 South Carolina State Bulldogs 12,702
140 UTRGV Vaqueros 12,539
141 Yale Bulldogs 12,398
142 North Carolina A&T Aggies 12,282
143 Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders 12,252
144 Miami RedHawks 11,658
145 North Dakota Fighting Hawks 11,603
146 Northwestern Wildcats 11,548
147 Missouri State Bears 11,547
148 Western Carolina Catamounts 10,986
149 Kennesaw State Owls 10,743
150 The Citadel Bulldogs 10,652
151 William & Mary Tribe 10,508
152 McNeese Cowboys 10,417

Sources[23][24]:

High school

Main article: High school football

In the United States, most high schools have football teams. High school football is popular; top schools regularly fill stadiums holding over 10,000 fans, and can afford artificial playing surfaces.

High school teams generally play only against other teams from their state; notable exceptions include matchups between nearby schools located on opposite sides of a state line and occasional matchups between two nationally-ranked teams for television purposes. Some private Christian high schools play for national championships through organizations like the Federated Christian Athletic Association. Public high school football in most states, as is the case with other high school sports, is governed by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS).

For rural schools that do not have the student body to support a full football team, NFHS sanctions nine-man football, which is popular in the upper Midwest. In other regions of the U.S., six-man football is popular in Texas, and eight-man football is the most common reduced-man format in most other states.

Adult amateur football and semi-pro football

Adult amateur football, also known as semi-pro football, is a level of American football. It is commonly known as "working man's" football, meaning the players have regular jobs and play football on the weekends. Though the players do not get paid, the leagues and the games are run in a somewhat professional manner. For most leagues, it is against the rules to pay its players to play. The rules of the game are usually a hybrid of NFL and NCAA rules.

There are several leagues, regional in nature, which play in the United States:

League First season Type Geographical area
Amateur to Professional Developmental Football League[25][26][27] 2013[28] Outdoor Southeast
East Coast Football League[29][30] 2013 Outdoor New England
Eastern Football League[31][32][33] 1961[34] Outdoor Northeastern
Empire Football League 1969 Outdoor New York State
Florida Football Alliance 2008 Outdoor Florida
Mason-Dixon Football League[35][36][37] 1978[38] Outdoor Mid-Atlantic
MidStates Football League[39][40][41] 1999[42] Outdoor North Central
Minor Football League[43][44][45][46] 1993 Outdoor Eastern & Central United States
North Louisiana Football Alliance 2020 Nine-man football South Central
New England Football League 1994 Outdoor New England
Pacific Coast Football League[47][48][49] 2006[50] Outdoor California
Pacific Northwest Football League[51][52] 2016 Outdoor Pacific Northwest
Rocky Mountain Football League[53][54] 1997[55] Outdoor Rocky Mountains

Several leagues supporting women's semi-professional football play have existed. The current major league is the Women's Football Alliance (WFA). The WFA started to play in 2009 stocked with teams from two dissolved leagues, the National Women's Football Association and Women's Professional Football League (NWFA and WPFL respectively).

Other codes

Further information: Eight-man football and Flag football

American 7s Football League (A7FL) is a semi-professional league which plays a seven-man version of gridiron football, while the American Flag Football League plays a variant of American football where, instead of tackling players to the ground, the defensive team must remove a flag or flag belt from the ball carrier to end a down.

US National American football team

Further information: United States men's national American football team and United States women's national American football team

USA Football assembles a national football team for competition in the IFAF World Championship every four years. Because of concerns over competitive balance, USA Football did not field teams for the first two events in 1999 and 2003. The 2007 team consisted solely of amateur players who had graduated from college that spring, from a diverse mix of smaller and larger colleges and universities. The 2011 squad's criteria were looser, allowing some professional players to play (mostly unemployed, lower-end and minor league players; no NFL or NCAA stars participated). Both the 2007 and 2011 incarnations of the team won their year's respective world championship.

The IFAF also fields an U-19 team composed of high school football players that has participated in the 2009, 2012, 2014 and 2016 junior world championships. The national U-19 team won the 2009 and 2014 contests but lost the 2012 contest to Canada.

Women's football in the United States

Main article: Women's American football in the United States

Women's football teams in the United States have had many sports leagues. Among them are the Women's Professional Football League (1965–1973), the Women's Professional Football League, the Independent Women's Football League, the Women's Football Alliance, and the X League. In 1970, Patricia Palinkas became the holder of the Orlando Panthers and became the first woman to play in the Atlantic Coast Football League,[56] and in 2010 Katie Hnida became the kicker for the Fort Wayne FireHawks in the Continental Indoor Football League.[57]

See also

References

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