The team competes in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) and are members of the Ivy League.

The Bears play their home games at the 20,000-seat Richard Gouse Field at Brown Stadium in Providence, Rhode Island.

Brown University was slow to adopt football as an intercollegiate sport, compared to some other Ivy League schools like Princeton (1869), Yale (1872), Harvard (1873), and Penn (1876).

[2] Future football legend John Heisman, frustrated by the lack of playing opportunity at Brown, joined a Pawtucket club team to get more time on the field.

In 1997, Phil Estes began a twenty-one year tenure as Brown's head coach, resulting in three Ivy League championships.

[8] In 1999, the Bears went 9–1 (the most victories since 1926, along with a record seven game winning streak), while beating Columbia 23–6 to share the Ivy League title with Yale.

[9] In 2005, the Bears finished 9–1, beating Columbia 52–21 in their final game in order to clinch their first ever outright Ivy League title and third overall.