Co-stars include Larry Miller, Sinbad, Jason Bateman, Kathy Ireland, Rob Schneider, and Fred Dalton Thompson.

The film touches on an up-and-coming season at the (then) fictional higher learning institution of Texas State University and its football team nicknamed the Fightin' Armadillos.

This predicament is based on the "death penalty" handed out to the Southern Methodist University football team for violations very similar to the ones found at the fictional Texas State.

After winning consecutive conference and national championships, massive NCAA violations resulted in the program having to forfeit years' worth of victories.

Along with this, they must worry about Phillip Elias (Miller), the dean of the university, who wants the team to fail so he can scrap it due to the corruption the football program has caused over the years, and funnel the funding into his own pocket.

Assistant coach Wally "Rig" Riggendorf (Loggia) finds Paul Blake (Bakula), a 34-year-old high school star who never attended college due to his father's death.

Blake then recruits a graduate student teaching assistant named Andre Krimm (Sinbad), who is also enrolled at the school and still has some eligibility remaining.

When she is brought on board, the team has its first taste of success, as Draper kicks a field goal in a driving rainstorm to forge a 3–3 tie with Kansas.

Minutes before the final touchdown, after learning about his scheme to get rid of the football program (and his sexual harassment of Carter), TSU president Purcell fires Dean Elias, though not before the entire Armadillo defensive line runs him down.

These players included Jerry Rice, Roger Craig, Earl Campbell, Dick Butkus, Ben Davidson, Tony Dorsett, Ed "Too Tall" Jones, Herschel Walker, Jim Kelly, and Randy White.

The consensus states: "This likable, goofy football comedy has its moments, but it ultimately adheres too closely to the sports movie playbook to overcome the cliches in the script.