Sprint Football: The College Football You Didn’t Know You Needed
By: Christopher Williams
Special To The MSFL
College football is a beautiful but brutal game with big guys in the trenches and quick guys on the edges. Imagine if the twenty two players on the sward were all basically the same size. Imagine if the guys protecting the quarterback were no bigger than the quarterback himself. Imagine if the defensive tackles might look like a punter on any other team. Allow me to introduce you to collegiate sprint football.
The Collegiate Sprint Football League (CSFL) requires that all players weigh 178 pounds or fewer during weigh-ins two and four days prior every game. Any player that does achieve that weight limit on either weigh-in is ineligible for that week’s game. Outside of the weight limit, all in-game NCAA college football game rules are in place. The roster cannot exceed 70 players. All the same is required in the Midwest Spring Football League (MSFL) except those players have to weigh 190 pounds or fewer on gameday.
Collegiate sprint football has been around since 1934 in what was then called The Eastern 150-pound Football League (it became the Eastern Lightweight Football League in 1967 and then the CSFL in 1998). Twenty-one schools have had sprint teams over the years, but currently the CSFL consists of just nine: Army, Caldwell University, Chestnut Hill College, Cornell University, Mansfield University, Molloy University, Navy, University of Pennsylvania, and St. Thomas Aquinas College. it was announced in September 2025 that D’Youville University (Buffalo, NY) has joined the CSFL and will begin play in 2026. A second sprint league was formed in 2021, the MSFL, and it is made up of six private schools in the midwest: Bellarmine University, Calumet College of St. Joseph, Midway University, Oakland City University, Quincy University, and Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College.
Of the fifteen schools with active sprint league teams, only five also have full-size football squads: Army (FBS), Navy (FBS), Cornell (FCS), Penn (FCS), and Quincy University (Division II). The rivalry between Army and Navy isn’t just heavy on the FBS level, by the way, as Navy has won 40 sprint football championships (along with 7 shared titles) and Army has won 37 sprint football championships (along with 9 shared titles). Former president Jimmy Carter played for the Naval Academy sprint squad. Two members of the College Football Hall of Fame, Jack Cloud and Eric Tipton, became sprint football coaches at Navy and Army respectively after their playing careers (at Williams & Mary and Duke respectively) concluded. Calumet College of St. Joseph (the Crimson Wave) has won back-to-back championships.
Sprint football is the land of opportunity for men who love college football and who dreamed of one day playing the game for their school, but may not have the physique or the 40 times to play with the big boys. Just about every player in the MSFL played either “quarterback, wide receiver or defensive back on their high school team per Ron Prettyman, the commissioner MSFL. Furthermore, teams in the CSFL are likely to have the chance to play at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, the same stadium where the FBS Navy team plays. Not only do these players get the opportunity to play the game they love with their school’s name on their chest, but they get to play in the same stadium as Roger “Captain Comeback” Staubach and that has hosts one of the best rivalries in college sports.
The CSFL plays an eight-week regular season between September and early November with each team playing seven regular season games with one bye week. Unfortunately, Sprint Football doesn’t have a broadcasting deal and isn’t televised. However, the games are sometimes streamed as was the case for the CSFL Championship Game this past season between Army and Navy. You can find several games, such as that one, on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/live/4lyfRYaRUD4). According to the Commissioner of the MSFL, “Each school provides a streaming service for all of their home games. If you log onto their websites you should be able to view most of our MSFL games this season.” The teams’ websites are easily found from the “teams” tab at (https://midwestsprintfootball.com/landing/index). I’ve subscribed to the four teams that have a YouTube channel, found a streaming website for another, and created a Hudl account for the team that uses Hudl to stream their games. The approach to the 9 CSFL teams should work the same way (https://sprintfootball.com/) although a request from the league went unanswered.
If you enjoy college football, I have zero doubt you’ll enjoy the Sprint version of the game. It’s faster and there are certainly different strategies employed occasionally, but the bottom line is that it’s hard-fought pigskin football. The proverbial playing field is leveled due to the weight restriction, but the actual play on the field is a joy to watch.
The 2025 CSFL season starts this weekend (September 19th and September 20) with two games on each day.
This weekend is Week 2 of the MSFL season (all three games on Saturday).