The Samford Bulldogs football program is the intercollegiate

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

team for

Samford University Samford University is a Private university, private Christian university in Homewood, Alabama, United States. It was founded by Baptist Church, Baptists in 1841 as Howard College and located until 1887 in Marion, Alabama. It is governed by an in ...

located in Homewood, Alabama. The team competes at the

NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision The NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly known as Division I-AA, is the second-highest level of college football in the United States, after the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). Sponsored by the National Collegiate ...

(FCS) level as a member of the

Southern Conference The Southern Conference (SoCon) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I. Southern Conference College football, football teams c ...

(SoCon). Samford's first football team was fielded in 1902. The team was known as the Howard Bulldogs through the 1965 season when Howard College was renamed as Samford University. Howard was located in

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Jefferson County, Alabama, Jefferson County. The population was 200,733 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List ...

prior to 1957. Since 1958, the Bulldogs have played their home games at Pete Hanna Stadium, which now has a seating capacity of 6,700, in Homewood. Chris Hatcher has served as Samford's head coach since the 2015 season.

History

Classifications

* 1937–1971: NA * 1972: NCAA College Division * 1973:

NCAA Division III NCAA Division III (D-III) is the lowest division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-III consists of athletic programs at colleges and universities that do not offer athletic scholarships to student- ...

* 1974–1983: no program * 1984–1988: NCAA Division III * 1989–present: NCAA Division I-AA/FCS

Conference memberships

1902–1905: independent * 1906–1931: Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association * 1931–1954: Dixie Conference * 1955–1972: independent * 1973: NCAA Division III independent * 1974–1983: no program * 1984–1988: NCAA Division III independent * 1989–2002: NCAA Division I-AA independent * 2003–2007:

Ohio Valley Conference The Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States. It participates in Division I of the NCAA; the conference's football programs compete in partnership with ...

* 2008–present:

Conference Championships

The Bulldogs have won 4 conference championships, with three coming in the Dixie Conference and two in the

. † Co-champions

NCAA Division I-AA/FCS playoff results

The Bulldogs have appeared in the

NCAA Division I Football Championship The NCAA Division I Football Championship is an annual post-season college football game, played since 2006, used to determine a national champion of the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). From 1978 to 2005, the game was ca ...

playoffs six times with an overall record of 3–6.

Notable former players

* Michael “The Steel” Deen * Bobby Bowden * James Bradberry * Cortland Finnegan * Jimbo Fisher * Scott Fountain * Jeremy Towns * Ahmad Gooden * Devlin Hodges * Michael Pierce * Nate Schenker * Jaquiski Tartt * Montrell Washington * Corey White * Nick Williams

Future non-conference opponents

Announced schedules as of February 17, 2025.

References

External links

* {{Southern Conference football navbox American football teams established in 1902 1902 establishments in Alabama