Tracing the colorful history of a nation's most popular spectator sport, this unique volume encapsulates football's hazy beginnings to most recent events.

Continuing its series of spectacular coffee-table books for the holiday season, Sports Illustrated presents The College Football Book, the ultimate gift for America's most passionate fans. SI launched this series in 2005 with The Football Book, devoted to the professional game. A New York Times best-seller that year, the book has taken root as a perennial, selling more than 200,000 copies to date. Now the editors of Sports Illustrated return to the gridiron, this time to serve the most avid football fans of all. With the best words and pictures SI has to offer, The College Football Book, brings to life the game's unparalleled excitement and pageantry, its legendary players, historic teams and epic rivalries. In 288 pages of the greatest photography and writing available anywhere, The College Football Book spans the sport's history, from its infancy in the 1800s right up to the postseason showdowns of 2008. The book is packed with stunning pictures, award-winning stories, original stats, decade-by-decade all-star teams and iconic artifacts photographed exclusively for this book at the College Football Hall of Fame--the same exciting mix of elements that makes each book in the SI series a must-have for sports fan.

Nestled on a picturesque spot near the banks of the Mississippi River, Louisiana State University is a photographer's dream. From the red pantile roofs and honey-colored stucco of its Italian Renaissance architecture to the "stately oaks and broad magnolias" hailed in the alma mater, the distinct beauty of the campus is unrivaled. Few, however, realize that the history of the state's flagship university is as colorful as the azaleas that adorn its landscape every spring. Through an entertaining marriage of photographs and text, Under Stately Oaks showcases over 140 years of LSU's past and follows the evolution of the tiny Seminary of Learning of the State of Louisiana, founded near Pineville in 1853, into a university of well over thirty thousand students for the twenty-first century. Thomas F. Ruffin sets the images in historical context and offers fascinating information that will enlighten even the most ardent LSU fan. From the first LSU students in 1860 to the 75th anniversary celebrations of the current Baton Rouge campus in 2001, Under Stately Oaks captures the spirit of the university as never before.

College football in the South, it has been said, is like a religion, and nowhere is the passion and dedication more evident than at the twelve universities that make up the Southeastern Conference. The SEC is one of the most storied associations in all of collegiate sports. Its intense rivalries, historic programs, iconic coaches, and championship traditions are felt every autumn, from Gainesville to Little Rock, Baton Rouge to Lexington. The competition among the schools is as fervent as ever, fomenting rivalries within states (Alabama vs. Auburn and Mississippi State vs. Ole Miss) and across borders (Florida vs. Georgia and LSU vs. Arkansas). Many legends of the game have graced the SEC gridiron, including Fran Tarkenton, Joe Namath, Reggie White, Herschel Walker, Bo Jackson, Emmitt Smith, and Peyton, Archie, and Eli Manning---to name just a few. Celebrating three-quarters of a century of incomparable football, this lavishly illustrated book celebrates the stars, heroes, characters, and games that have made the SEC a force beyond reckoning. The book explores the players and the coaches, the teams and the traditions, and the great games and individual performances that have defined each decade of SEC football. Vintage and modern photography bring the world of the Southeastern Conference, past and present, brilliantly to life, and complete this timely tribute to an exceptional football legacy.

Photographs and text profile the 117 stadiums of Division 1-A college football, with information about each stadium's history, teams, and trivia.