American football finds its roots in rugby, the traditional British game created during the Middle Ages. The game was brought to America by those who settled the nation, but rules varied by town and team, resulting in crowded fields and violent outcomes. According to a history of the sport offered by Santa Monica College, the first intercollegiate game, an 1869 match between Princeton and Rutgers, included 25 players on the field for each team at one time. Rules have evolved over time, as have the levels of competition that extend the game from adult professionals to youth leagues of elementary school children.
Eleven-Player Tackle Football
Part of football's evolution has been the reduction of players on the field. Princeton vs. Rutgers featured 50 players on the field, but by 1873 a federation of colleges established rules reducing that number to 15 on each side. Yale University football coach Walter Camp led an effort prior to the turn of the 20th century to further lessen the field to 11 on each side. This number has become the accepted rule for play in professional and amateur games, including high school, collegiate and youth.
Eleven-Player Football Team Makeup
While a team can have only 11 players on the field at any time, the number of players on the roster varies by level. The National Federation of State High School Association's 2010 football rule book has no roster caps, offering schools a way to carry as many players as necessary. The National Collegiate Athletic Association also has no roster cap, but it does limit the number of scholarships that can be awarded. According to Education Planner, Football Bowl Subdivision, formerly known as Division I-A, teams can award up to 85 scholarships. Teams at the Football Championship Division, formerly I-AA, can give 63. Division II teams can offer 36, while teams at Division III are prohibited from awarding scholarships based on athletic performance. National Football League teams have cut-down deadlines. Teams may carry 80 players during the off-season, cutting to 75 in August and 53 in September. Each team can reserve up to eight additional players on a practice squad.
Nine-Player Football
Rural high schools and colleges, primarily in the plains and southwestern states, often cannot field a 22-player team. In many of these locales, a reduced-player version of the game is played between schools. Nine-man football is played primarily as a semi-professional game. The National Nineman Football League, based in Oregon, was formed in 2001 with teams playing throughout the Pacific Northwest. Nine-player football is played on 80-by-40-yard fields; traditional 11-man football fields are 120 yards by 53 1/3 yards.
Six-Player Football
Six-player football is played mostly by small, remote high schools in Texas. According to SixManFootball.com, the game was invented in 1934 in Nebraska, making its way to Texas in 1938. The game continues to grow, with more than 130 teams competing in 2010, according to the NFHS. The NFHS rule book states that six-player games are contested on 40-by-80-yard fields. Instead of the traditional 10-yard series of downs, six-man uses 15 yards, and all offensive players on the field are considered eligible receivers.
Eight-Player Football
The eight-man game is the most widely played modification of football. The NFHS reports that more than 16,000 high school students compete in eight-player football. Both Nebraska and Kansas have more than 100 schools that sponsored the sport in 2009-10. Eight-player football shares many of the same rules as 11-player football, except for the 80-by-40-yard field and receiver eligibility. Only the ends and players behind the line of scrimmage are considered eligible receivers.
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