The Wildcats compete in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) and are members of the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA).

The team plays its home games at the 11,000 seat Wildcat Stadium in Durham, New Hampshire, and are led by head coach Ricky Santos.

Bill Bowes, who served as head coach from 1972 to 1998, is an inductee of the College Football Hall of Fame.

"[3] Funded by donations from alumni, it was built on the site of the prior athletic field,[3] which had been referred to as the College Oval.

The team has appeared in one bowl game during its history:[15] Notes: The team made the postseason twice during the time it competed in Division II (1973–1977), compiling an overall record of 1–2: The Wildcats have appeared in the Division I-AA/FCS Playoffs 18 times, playing 33 postseason games.

A longtime UNH librarian, Robert Morin, died in 2015 and left $4 million to the University; $1 million of that money was spent on a new video scoreboard for the football stadium, and the decision to spend so much of the donation on a scoreboard became a controversial topic.