In the Early days of football it was very popular on the collegiate level. The very first game played was Princeton vs. Rutgers in 1869. Rutgers defeated Princeton 6-4. After this game college football's popularity sparked. All across the country schools were starting their football programs. Some schools like Michigan, Notre Dame, Army, and Harvard had dominant teams. Michigan was considered the first dominant team in the West, winning the national championship from every year from 1901-1904.
Although collegiate football was growing in popularity it still had it's problems. In the season of 1905 18 college football players were killed while playing in a game. A committee met to address the problem and decided to institute new rules to lower the chances of injuries and fatalities. They introduced new rules like the forward pass as an alternative to just running the ball. The reason players were being hurt in games was because both teams would line up in a "wedge" formation. This formation consisted of both teams lined up in a "V" shape and run at each other.They also made the neutral zone and made it so first downs required 10 yards, up from 5.
In early college football there was no postseason play. But in the year 1901 James Wagner was elected as the president of the Tournament of Roses. James new that they were having trouble attracted a crowd so he came up with the idea to put on a postseason football game. He wanted Michigan and California to play but California refused, so Stanford took their place. The first postseason game was a huge success that gathered around 8,000 fans. The next Tournament of Roses game took place in 1916 when Washington State defeated Brown. After this many other cities started organizing postseason games too, creating the bowl game system.
During the early stages of football collegiate play was the most popular. But soon professional football started to rise. People thought that professional football would bring more excitement to fans. People also knew that many college football stars became unknown, so adding a professional league would bring them back into the spotlight. The selling point behind professional football was that it was going to be a gridiron battle between two teams full of All-American All stars.
