The quality of college football at the FCS level has never been higher, and the Samford Bulldogs are a big part of that. Of course, becoming a Southern Conference powerhouse hasn’t been easy. Since the program’s first season in 1902, the Bulldogs have had a big mountain to climb. However, the days of cheap Samford football tickets being easy to find are coming to an end. The Bulldogs are now a quality FCS program with aspirations to be something more, which has led to last-minute Samford football tickets becoming a hot commodity in their corner of football-loving Alabama.

Kings of Dixie

For many decades, the Bulldogs were a small program, although they did experience several periods of success. Between 1931 and 1954, Samford (then known as Howard College) was a proud member of the Dixie Conference. Between 1933 and 1936, the Bulldogs captured three conference titles in four years, giving the program its first championships.

Alive Again

Unfortunately, there was no football at Samford between 1974 and 1983. However, the program was reborn in 1984 at the Division III level. It wasn’t easy to rebuild the program from scratch, but by 1989, the Bulldogs had moved their way up to the FCS level. Just two years later, the Bulldogs reached the FCS Playoffs for the first time, advancing to the semifinals, signaling that Samford was a program on the rise despite not even existing a decade earlier.

On the Rise Again

After finding some success in the 90s, Samford football took another big step forward after former NFL coach Pat Sullivan took over as the head coach. In 2013, Sullivan guided the Bulldogs to their first conference championship since 1936. He also took Samford back to the FCS Playoffs, which became a trend that would continue under Sullivan’s successor Chris Hatcher. Under Hatcher, the Bulldogs won another Southern Conference title in 2022 and an FCS Playoff game for the first time since 1991, signaling better days ahead for Samford football.