When did colleges stop doing Freshman or JV Games?

I think in the early 80’s. LSU had a freshman team when I started there in '79. Dalton Hilliard and Garry James were the first two true freshmen I can remember starting for the Tigers, but they're the first two I can recollect particularly after DH ran all over Florida in 1982.

They were still having these games in the NE in the ‘90’s. I’m assuming they still have them since USMSPS (Army’s prep school) plays Army’s JV and Princeton’s JV this year.

They also have sprint football (150 lbs or less) as a club sport.

I think that would be cool as shite, have a no frills game in TS the night before a home game.

Only open up the gold seats on one side. Charge like $10 a ticket general admission, have cheap basic concessions. Cokes, popcorn, and hotdogs.

#40 would have 87 sacks in freshman ball

I think Alan Risher may have been the last about for freshman team.

Freshman became varsity-eligible for the first time in 1973. It wasn't long after that.

I remember George Shaheen (Ascension Catholic) playing on the LSU freshman team around 1979.

A result of title IX. Schools introduced scholarship limits in ‘73 (105) to free up money for women’s sports and set targets for women’s participation. Scholarships were limited to 95 in late ‘70s and 85 in the early ‘90s. These limitations resulted in schools not having the number of players to field jv or freshman teams. Before the limits schools could bring in 60 first years and keep the best 30. That would mean 90 players in the top three classes for a varsity game. The drop in players is what drove freshman being allowed to play - though the Marshall crash accelerated it. Now Ivy League and military schools with no athletic scholarships, as they don’t have to worry about scholarship numbers, would be the most likely to still play. I would guess that the teams faded at differing times in different regions as schools decided they could no longer field teams.

This is cool as shite. Its a roster from an LSU vs Ole Miss freshman game in 1958. What is weird is it was played on Sat Oct 11. We had played on the road against Miami the night before (on a Friday night??) and didn't play the Ole Miss varsity until Nov 1st.

Anyone know why we played Miami FLA on a friday night? Moved for up for a pending hurricane?






Photo of game action against Miami on a Friday night in 1958.

Freshmen used to not be eligible for the varsity. I would go to the LSU-Tulane freshman games on a regular basis. When the varsity game was in Tiger Stadium on a Saturday, the freshmen used to play in Tulane Stadium the night before, and vice versa. I would go to the game in New Orleans every year and even went to the ones in BR a couple of times.

The most memorable one was 1973. Even though the varsity game was in N.O. so was the freshman game because a scheduling oddity forced the varsity to play in New Orleans 2 years in a row. I was in high school at the time and went to the game with a group of friends, a few of whom were big Tulane fans. LSU jumped out to a comfortable lead. In the second half the Tulane varsity stood on the Tulane sidelines to give them moral support. This fired them up and they made a comeback. In the last seconds, the score was LSU 20 - Tulane 14. Tulane scored a touchdown, and my Tulane friends were celebrating obnoxiously. Then LSU blocked the extra point and the game ended in a 20-20 tie.

The next night was December 1, 1973. We would rather forget what happened that night.