College football is American football played between the colleges, universities and military academies of the United States that are members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The colleges are divided into many conferences across the nation and play in a 12 week regular season. Following this, the winners of the four major conferences and 12 other at large bids are seeded in into a playoff tournament, culminating in the National Championship. Each game is hosted by a "bowl", and while these playoffs are occurring other, smaller bowl games occur between teams that didn't make the playoffs.