The NCAA Division I FBS field goal leaders are career, single-season, and single-game leaders in field goal kicking. 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. Players who have played since then often have an extra game each year to accumulate statistics.
- 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.
- Since 2018, players have been allowed to participate in as many as four games in a redshirt season; previously, playing in even one game "burned" the redshirt. Since 2024, postseason games have not counted against the four-game limit. These changes to redshirt rules have given very recent players the opportunity for several extra games to accumulate statistics.
- Only seasons in which a team was considered to be a part of the Football Bowl Subdivision are included in these lists. In particular, Cole Tracy kicked 97 field goals across his career, which would be tied for the career record, but 68 of them were at Division III Assumption, and only 29 in the FBS.
All statistics are current through the completion of the 2025 NCAA Division I FBS football season.
Field goals
Career
Single season
Under NCAA rules in 1984, bowl game statistics were not counted toward a player's season totals. John Lee, the placekicker for the 1984 UCLA Bruins, finished that season with 29 field goals in the regular season. He then kicked three field goals in the 1985 Fiesta Bowl, but those were excluded from his official total. If his Fiesta Bowl performance were included under modern NCAA statistical rules, Lee's 32 field goals would make him the outright single-season FBS field goal leader.
Single game
Field goal percentage
Career
Minimum 50 field goal attempts.
Single season
Many players have made 100% of their field goals in a single season, but Cairo Santos holds the FBS record with 21 field goals without a miss, set while playing for Tulane during the 2012 season.
Minimum 15 field goals made.
References and notes