Seventeen Tips to Improve American Football – Tip #16

Tip #16 – A small college football program may in fact be better for you.

There are currently 128 Division 1 football programs in the U.S. These are the teams seen on television each week, playing in games that often draw more than 100,000 fans to their stadiums. These programs are worth millions to their universities in revenue and marketing. If you are one of the top 2,500 or so high school prospects in the country and have maintained a minimum grade point average of 2.3 (a C+), you will more than likely be offered several football scholarships to attend one of these schools.

Becoming one of these top high school prospects is extremely difficult, though, and as discussed, once you get to the university, football becomes a full-time job requiring more than forty hours per week and leaving very little time for education or anything else. Yet, even in the face of these facts—that football becomes a full-time job, and there’s a good chance you’ll never actually receive a useful college education or degree—players, parents, and their coaches look upon the Division 1 college football experience as the gold standard.

For most players, there is a better way, a way to continue to play football and achieve a meaningful college education—not to mention a rewarding college experience that includes friends, clubs, and activities outside of football. Many people don’t know this, but there are lots of smaller college football programs at the Division 1AA, Division 2, and Division 3 levels.

How many? More than 500!

To learn more about college football programs and how to improve both the sport and culture of American Football, check out Tackling Dummies, Playing Amateur Football Smarter!

Please share these tips with coaches, parents, players, and any fan of the game!