8/19: College Football Is Back!

Good in the Game 8/19

August 19, 2025

Good morning, football fans! The National Football Foundation has expanded its "I Played" initiative with the introduction of IPlayed.org, a dedicated storytelling hub that brings together inspiring personal narratives from those who have played the game at any level. The site also features an open submission form, inviting former players to share their own stories and experiences.

College football continues to grow, with a total of 777 colleges and universities now fielding programs! The expansion of college football is not a recent phenomenon but a continuation of a long-standing trend. Since 1978, when the NCAA began tracking attendance figures, the number of schools playing NCAA football has increased by 189, growing from 484 to 673 institutions by 2025. Including NAIA and independent schools, and accounting for upcoming programs, the total now stands at 777 colleges and universities offering football.

🏈 Click here to read more about programs adding football for the 2025 season

In case you missed it, the 2025 FWAA-NFF Super 16 Preseason Poll was released last week, with Texas taking the top spot with 27 first-place votes! The eventual national champion has been ranked in the top six of the preseason poll nine times since 2015. Alabama in 2017 is the only national champion to start the season ranked No. 1 in the preseason poll.

🏈 Click here to check out the 2025 FWAA-NFF Super 16 Preseason Poll

In the latest episode of the Good in the Game Podcast, host LaVar Arrington sits down with long time friend, VP of NFL Football Development Roman Oben! LaVar and Roman discuss how the game has helped him in his career, the 2002 Super Bowl-winning Tampa Bay Bucs, being the first Cameroon player drafted in the NFL and what he wants his legacy to be!

Join us to celebrate college football legends at one of the sport's grandest traditions!

The highlight of the Awards Dinner will be the induction of the 2025 College Football Hall of Fame Class, where 18 legendary players and four acclaimed coaches take their place amongst the greatest of all time. The inductees proudly represent every region of the country, 28 collegiate institutions, 11 conferences, and seven decades.

Jim Hansen, the 1992 winner of the William V. Campbell Trophy as an offensive tackle at Colorado, has quite the resume both on and off the field.

The Buffs won 39 games during Hansen’s time in the trenches, earning bids to two Orange Bowls and a national championship in 1990. Individually, Hansen earned First Team All-Big Eight honors. In the classroom, Hansen earned an undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering and a perfect 4.0 GPA is his graduate course work in the field of fluid dynamics, later becoming just the second Campbell Trophy winner to be awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford.

Hansen, speaking to the NFF at this year’s Campbell Trophy Summit, said winning the prestigious award back in 1992 has been crucial in his career, which now sees him as the Superintendent and a member of the Senior Executive Team at the Naval Research Laboratory Marine Meteorology Division (NRL) in California.

“College football has helped form my values with my family and my work,” Hansen said. “There are contacts I have made throughout this process that have allowed me to build a group of mentors and peers who I have been able to bounce concerns off of, ideas off of, that have helped me be a better leader, help me be a better parent, and a better member of my community.”

USC linebacker Anthony Beavers Jr. hosted a free camp for local kids from L.A.’s Best ahead of the Trojans’ season opener against Missouri State next weekend!

Derreck Robinson, who played on the defensive line at Iowa from 2001-04 and later spent four seasons in the NFL, has passed away. He was 43.

Name: Jelani Taylor, 2019 William V. Campbell Trophy Finalist
High School: Beecher High School (Mich.)
College: Cornell University

How has football impacted your life?
“I’m a part of a brotherhood, from a standpoint of relationships I have been able to build with people who want to go the same places I want to go. Especially coming out of school during COVID, where there’s nobody right over your shoulder, [football] is a great reminder that you’re not alone in the journey.”

Share your football story with us! We want to know what football means to you, the lessons you learned, and the opportunities it provided.

August 23 – Week Zero Games

September 24 — Announcement of the 2025 Campbell Trophy® Semifinalists

October 22 — Announcement of the 2025 Campbell Trophy® Finalists and the 2024 NFF National Scholar-Athlete Class, presented by Fidelity Investments

December 9 — 67th NFF Annual Awards Dinner Presented by Las Vegas at Bellagio Resort & Casino

December 9 — Announcement of the winner of the 36th NFF William V. Campbell Trophy® during the 67th NFF Annual Awards Dinner Presented by Las Vegas

January 19, 2026 — CFP National Championship at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida

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