200 free College Sports trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
40 free College sports trivia questions with answers. College sports in America are older than the professional leagues and stranger in every detail, which makes them ideal quiz material. These 200 questions cover the president whose White House meetings produced the NCAA, the division that bans athletic scholarships, the ruling that changed how athletes get paid, and the 1939 winner of the first basketball tournament. There are rounds on March Madness and the coach who won ten titles in twelve years, on the Heisman Trophy and the man the statue was modelled on, on the Rose Bowl's 49-0 opening game, the Army-Navy tradition of singing both alma maters, the College World Series in Omaha, and the 2024 women's final that outdrew the men's. Every answer was checked against a primary reference before publication, so the records, dates and figures here are accurate rather than approximate. Difficulty runs from questions any fan will get to a few aimed at people who follow signing day.
30 of 200 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which president's White House conferences led to the founding of the NCAA?
Theodore Roosevelt
Repeated injuries and deaths in college football prompted them. The body still governs about 1,100 schools.
Q 02Which NCAA tier may not offer athletic scholarships at all?
Division III
Divisions I and II can. Division III schools compete without them entirely.
Q 03Roughly how many student athletes compete under NCAA rules each year?
Over 500,000
They are spread across about 1,100 member schools. One of those schools is in Canada.
Q 04Where is the NCAA headquartered?
Indianapolis
It moved there in 1999. The men's Final Four is often played nearby.
Q 05What did the Supreme Court's 2021 ruling in NCAA v. Alston allow?
Unlimited education-related compensation
The ruling was unanimous. It opened the door to the name, image and likeness era.
Q 06Which team won the first NCAA men's basketball tournament in 1939?
Oregon
The field has grown enormously since. It stayed at 64 teams from 1985 until recent expansions.
Q 07In which year did the men's tournament expand to 64 teams?
1985
Before that the field had varied from as few as eight teams to as many as 53. The bracket stayed stable for four decades.
Q 08Which university has won the most men's basketball championships?
UCLA
Eleven titles, most of them under one coach. Seven of them came in a row.
Q 09Which round of the men's tournament comes immediately before the Elite Eight?
The Sweet Sixteen
The tournament is branded as March Madness, or the Big Dance. The semi-finals are the Final Four.
Q 10How many NCAA championships did John Wooden win at UCLA?
Ten
They came in a twelve-year period, including a record seven in a row. His teams also won 88 consecutive games.
Q 11How long was UCLA's record winning streak under John Wooden?
88 games
It remains an NCAA men's basketball record, set under a coach who won ten titles in a dozen years.
Q 12What did John Wooden call his framework of motivational principles?
The Pyramid of Success
He used short, simple messages with his players. It was meant to apply to life as much as basketball.
Q 13What is John Wooden's well-known nickname?
The Wizard of Westwood
He disliked it. His teams won ten titles in a dozen years.
Q 21Which system did the College Football Playoff replace?
The Bowl Championship Series
It had brought the major conferences and bowls together from 1998. Before that, champions were decided by polls.
Q 22Which postseason game is nicknamed 'The Granddaddy of Them All'?
The Rose Bowl
Broadcaster Keith Jackson gave it the name. It was the first postseason football game ever established.
Q 23What was the score of the first Pasadena bowl game game?
49-0
Michigan crushed Stanford in a game so one-sided the fixture was not repeated for years. Stanford conceded with time remaining.
Q 14After whom is college football's most famous individual award named?
John Heisman
He was the athletic director of the Downtown Athletic Club, and the award took his name after his death in 1936. The first winner was Jay Berwanger.
Q 15Who won the first Heisman Trophy, in 1935?
Jay Berwanger
He played for the University of Chicago. He later became the first player ever picked in the NFL draft.
Q 16Who is the only player to win the Heisman Trophy twice?
Archie Griffin
He won in 1974 and 1975 at Ohio State. Nobody has repeated it since.
Q 17Who is the youngest Heisman winner?
Lamar Jackson
He was 19 years and 338 days old when he won in 2016 for Louisville. He later became an NFL most valuable player.
Q 18Who was the model for the figure on the Heisman Trophy?
A 1934 NYU football player
His name was Ed Smith. Frank Eliscu designed the statue.
Q 19In which season was the first College Football Playoff held?
2014
It replaced the Bowl Championship Series. A 13-member committee selects and seeds the teams.
Q 20How many teams did the College Football Playoff expand to for the 2024 season?
Twelve
The previous format had used four since 2014. The new bracket runs through the 2027 season.
Q 24On which date is the Pasadena bowl game traditionally played?
1 January
It is played in Pasadena, in a stadium seating over 92,000. For decades it matched the Big Ten and Pac-12 champions.
Q 25Which two conferences traditionally supplied the Pasadena bowl game teams from 1947 to 2024?
The Big Ten and the Pac-12
Their predecessors filled the slots before then. The playoff has since reshaped the arrangement.
Q 26In which year was the first Army-Navy football game played?
1890
Navy won it 24-0. The two academies have met almost every year since.
Q 27What happens at the end of every Army-Navy game?
Both academies' alma maters are sung
The winning team stands alongside the losers and faces the losing academy's students. It is one of the most respected traditions in American sport.
Q 28How is the annual meeting of the two service academies branded?
America's Game
It is one of the oldest rivalries in college football. Through 2025, Navy led the series 64-55-7.
Q 29Which side leads the all-time series between the two service academies?
Navy
Through the 2025 meeting the record stood at 64-55-7. Ten years have passed without a game since 1890.
Q 30In which city has the College World Series been held since 1950?
Omaha
It moved to Charles Schwab Field in 2011 from Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium. Eight teams contest it each June.