College Sports Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
8correct to beat the crowd
198 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 198 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 198 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which president's White House conferences led to the founding of the NCAA?
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt summoned college football leaders to the White House in 1905 after a season of deaths and injuries; the body founded in 1906 was renamed the NCAA in 1910.
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
The NCAA counts over 500,000 student-athletes competing across its three divisions and roughly 1,100 member schools, one of which, Simon Fraser University, is in Canada.
Q 04Where is the NCAA headquartered?
Indianapolis
Indianapolis has housed the NCAA since 1999, and 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
Oregon's 'Tall Firs' beat Ohio State 46-33 in the 1939 final at Evanston, Illinois, to win the first NCAA men's basketball tournament, then an eight-team event.
Q 07In which year did the men's tournament expand to 64 teams?
1985
The field grew to 64 teams in 1985, up from 53 the year before; a 65th team was added in 2001 and the First Four made it 68 in 2011.
Q 08Which university has won the most men's basketball championships?
UCLA
UCLA has won 11 NCAA men's basketball titles, the first in 1964 and the most recent in 1995; Kentucky is second with eight.
Q 09Which round of the men's tournament comes immediately before the Elite Eight?
The Sweet Sixteen
The Sweet Sixteen is the regional semifinal round; its eight winners form the Elite Eight, whose winners reach the Final Four national semifinals.
Q 10How many NCAA championships did John Wooden win at UCLA?
Ten
John Wooden won ten NCAA titles at UCLA between 1964 and 1975, including seven straight from 1967 to 1973; he retired immediately after the 1975 championship game.
Q 11How long was UCLA's record winning streak under John Wooden?
88 games
UCLA won 88 consecutive games from January 1971 until a 71-70 loss at Notre Dame in January 1974, the longest streak in NCAA men's Division I history.
Q 12What did John Wooden call his framework of motivational principles?
The Pyramid of Success
Wooden's Pyramid of Success stacks 15 building blocks, from industriousness and enthusiasm at the base to competitive greatness at the apex; he began sketching it as a high-school teacher in the 1930s.
Q 13What is John Wooden's well-known nickname?
The Wizard of Westwood
Q 21Which system did the College Football Playoff replace?
The Bowl Championship Series
The Bowl Championship Series ran from 1998 to 2013, using polls and computer rankings to pair the top two teams in one title game; the four-team playoff replaced it.
Q 22Which postseason game is nicknamed 'The Granddaddy of Them All'?
The Rose Bowl
Broadcaster Keith Jackson dubbed the Rose Bowl 'The Granddaddy of Them All' because, first played in 1902, it is the oldest college bowl game.
Q 23What was the score of the first Pasadena bowl game?
49-0
Michigan beat Stanford 49-0 in the January 1902 game; Stanford conceded with eight minutes left, and Pasadena did not stage football again until 1916.
Sportswriters dubbed Wooden the Wizard of Westwood after UCLA's Los Angeles neighborhood; he disliked the nickname and preferred simply to be called Coach.
Q 14After whom is college football's most famous individual award named?
John Heisman
John Heisman, a longtime coach at Georgia Tech and elsewhere, was athletic director of New York's Downtown Athletic Club; the club's trophy was renamed in his honor after his death in 1936.
Q 15Who won the first Heisman Trophy, in 1935?
Jay Berwanger
Jay Berwanger, a University of Chicago halfback, won the 1935 award, then called the Downtown Athletic Club Trophy; in 1936 he was also the first pick in the first NFL draft.
Q 16Who is the only player to win the Heisman Trophy twice?
Archie Griffin
Archie Griffin, an Ohio State running back, won the Heisman in 1974 and 1975, the only player to take the award twice.
Q 17Who is the youngest Heisman winner?
Lamar Jackson
Lamar Jackson was 19 years and 338 days old when he won the 2016 Heisman for Louisville, younger than any previous winner; he later won two NFL MVP awards.
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
The four-team College Football Playoff debuted in the 2014 season; Ohio State beat Oregon 42-20 in the first final, played in Arlington, Texas, in January 2015.
Q 20How many teams did the College Football Playoff expand to for the 2024 season?
Twelve
The playoff grew from four teams to twelve for the 2024 season, with first-round byes for the top four seeds; Ohio State won the first twelve-team title in January 2025.
Q 24On which date is the Pasadena bowl game traditionally played?
1 January
The Rose Bowl is played on 1 January, New Year's Day, except when that date falls on a Sunday, when the game and parade move to Monday 2 January.
Q 25Which two conferences traditionally supplied the Pasadena bowl game teams from 1947 to 2024?
The Big Ten and the Pac-12
The Big Ten and the Pac-12, earlier the Pacific Coast Conference and Pac-8/Pac-10, held the Rose Bowl tie-in from the 1947 game until the playoff era and the Pac-12's 2024 breakup ended it.
Q 26In which year was the first Army-Navy football game played?
1890
The first Army-Navy game was played at West Point in 1890, with Navy winning 24-0; the academies have met nearly 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 28The annual Army-Navy football game, one of college football's oldest rivalries, is officially branded as what?
America's Game
America's Game is the official brand of the Army-Navy Game, traditionally the last regular-season fixture on the college calendar, played in the second week of December.
Q 29Which side leads the all-time series between the two service academies?
Navy
Navy leads the all-time series, helped by a record 14 straight wins over Army from 2002 to 2015; Army ended that run in 2016.
Q 30In which city has the College World Series been held since 1950?
Omaha
The College World Series has been played in Omaha, Nebraska, every June since 1950; eight teams contest it, and a new downtown ballpark replaced the city's old stadium in 2011.