The institutions typically hire full-time professional coaches and staff, although the student-athletes are mostly amateur and have historically not been paid.

The first de facto college football game held in the U.S. in 1869 between Rutgers and Princeton Universities was contested at Rutgers captain John W. Leggett's request, with rules mixing soccer and rugby and loosely based on those of the Football Association in London, England.

From 1973 to 2003 no team won more men's national championships or had more NCAA College Cup appearances than Indiana.

Virginia won a record four consecutive men's national championships from 1991 to 1994 under head coach Bruce Arena.

The University of North Carolina, coached by Anson Dorrance, immediately stood out as the ones to beat in the women's college game and remain that way up to today.

After many months of extended unofficial discussion, on August 22, 2016, NCAA Division I men's coaches and the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) officially began an "informational campaign" to build support for a proposed change of the playing schedule for Division I men's soccer.

In addition to more closely matching the professional season, the changes address player health and safety issues and the time demands on student-athletes.

[citation needed] At this time, there is only the "informational campaign" "...to educate our Athletic Directors, NCAA leadership, student-athletes, coaches and fans on the advantages of this Academic Year Model," said Sasho Cirovski, NSCAA D1 Men's committee chair and University of Maryland head coach.

A formal proposal was made and a vote was scheduled to take place in April, 2020,[17] but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

While similar in general appearance, NCAA rules diverge significantly from FIFA Laws of the Game.

Since 2024, all playoff matches have an overtime period if the game remains tied after 90 minutes, but not the regular season.

In most professional soccer leagues, there is an up-counting clock with the referee adding stoppage time to the end of each 45-minute half.

If this proposal had been adopted,[21] The committee felt that the then-current timekeeping system led to gamesmanship, specifically blatant delaying tactics, at the end of matches.

On January 15, 2020, a change for the men's D1 season to run across the full academic year with fall and spring play was proposed.

[22] The main motivations for the proposal were to reduce injury and improve the balance academic and other college experiences for athletes.

In the fall during the regular season, teams may play 18 to 20 games over 10 weeks—an average of one match every 3.6 days—resulting in higher rates of injury compared to players who recovered for 6 or more days.

The proposal was to be voted on in April 2020 but was indefinitely tabled due to NCAA D1 Legislative Committees prioritizing issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Several American college soccer programs have developed players who have gone on to play professionally or for the U.S. national teams.

The Hermann Trophy is awarded annually by the Missouri Athletic Club to the top male and female college soccer players in the United States.

In an annual banquet held at the Missouri Athletic Club of St. Louis, the winners of the two awards are announced.

Hermann Trophy winners who have starred for the U.S. national teams at multiple FIFA World Cups include Tony Meola (1989), Alexi Lalas (1991), and Claudio Reyna (1993), Michelle Akers (1988), Shannon Higgins (1989), Kristine Lilly (1991), Mia Hamm (1991–92), Tisha Venturini (1994), Shannon MacMillan (1995), Cindy Parlow (1997–98), Aly Wagner (2002), Kelley O'Hara (2009), Christen Press (2010), Crystal Dunn (2012) and Morgan Brian (2013–14).

Many top American men's college soccer players play for separate teams in the Premier Development League (PDL) during the summer.

Players are also chosen from college to be members of the United States women's national soccer team.

[34][35] In addition, there is the Prime Minister Cup All Japan University Soccer Tournament (ja:総理大臣杯全日本大学サッカートーナメント), which has a completely open format regarding the competing teams.

Therefore, from 1993, when the professional J.League was founded and had a training organization, until 1998_FIFA_World_Cup, many of the members of the Japanese national team were university graduates.

Nine players of the Japan national football team at the 2022 FIFA World Cup have a college soccer background.

In addition, the "National University Women's Soccer Tsukuba Festival" is held every August with the participation of more than 30 teams.

Historically, a majority of players who represented the South Korea national under-20 football team played soccer in college.

Similarly, the South Korea women's national under-20 football team also has players from college soccer.

[43] The UAAP Football Championship is contested by the eight member schools of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines.