Donnel Pumphrey is recognized as the career record holder in rushing yards.
The NCAA Division I FBS rushing leaders are career, single-season, and single-game leaders in rushing yards and rushing touchdowns in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision.[1] These lists are dominated by more recent players for several reasons:
Since 1955, seasons have increased from 10 games to 11 and then 12 games in length.
The NCAA didn't allow freshmen to play varsity football until 1972 (with the exception of the World War II years), allowing players to have four-year careers.
Bowl games only began counting toward single-season and career statistics in 2002.[2] This affects many players from before that time period, most notably Ron Dayne.
In recent decades, starting with the Southeastern Conference in 1992, FBS conferences have introduced their own championship games, which have always counted fully toward single-season and career statistics.
The NCAA ruled that the 2020 season, heavily disrupted by COVID-19, would not count against the athletic eligibility of any football player. This gave every player active in that season the opportunity for five years of eligibility instead of the normal four.
Only seasons in which a team was considered to be a part of the Football Bowl Subdivision are included in these lists.
The NCAA recognizes San Diego State's Donnel Pumphrey as the career leading in rushing yards.[1] Pumphrey set the record in the fourth quarter of his final game, the 2016 Las Vegas Bowl, ending with 6,405 total yards.[3] However, this is controversial as Wisconsin's Ron Dayne actually rushed for 7,125 in his career, but all four of Dayne's seasons came before the NCAA recognized bowl statistics (doing so only in 2002) as part of season and career totals. Dayne officially is listed as having eight yards less than of Pumphrey despite only one player having their bowl statistics included. This has been seen as controversial by many fans and writers, who feel that the NCAA should count all pre-2002 bowl statistics as official if post-2002 ones are.[4][5] Dayne himself congratulated Pumphrey but agreed that counting Pumphrey's bowl stats but not his own was unfair.[6]
Additionally, Pittsburgh's Tony Dorsett would be ahead of Pumphrey if his bowl statistics were counted.
All players on the career list are running backs. The career leader in rushing yards by a quarterback is Navy's Keenan Reynolds, who rushed for 4,559 yards in his career.
The single-game rushing record belongs to Oklahoma's Samaje Perine, whose 427 yards in a 2014 game against Kansas broke a record set just the week before by Wisconsin's Melvin Gordon. Prior to Perine and Gordon, the only player to rush for 400 yards in a game was LaDainian Tomlinson. All players on the career list are running backs. The single-game leader for a quarterback is Arizona's Khalil Tate, who rushed for 327 yards in a 2017 game against Colorado.
The single-game record of 8 is shared by Howard Griffith and Jaret Patterson. Five players have rushed for 7 touchdowns in a game, and many more have rushed for 6.
