NCAA football roster files

NCAA football roster files for Photo Mechanic and GalleryID Desktop

An FBS roster runs past a hundred players, you draw a different opponent every week, and the number you can actually read through a facemask belongs to two different people. Building that file by hand before every game is the worst hour of the week. SnapCaption builds it in about a minute, and the same file loads into both Photo Mechanic and GalleryID Desktop.

Free. No account required to build and download a file.

What makes NCAA football rosters painful by hand

Every sport breaks a roster file in its own way. These are the ones that bite in NCAA football.

Two-platoon numbering guarantees collisions

College football lets a team dress an offensive and a defensive player in the same number. Build the file by hand and one of them silently overwrites the other. SnapCaption resolves duplicates as it generates, so both players survive with distinct codes.

A new opponent every single week

Conference play means you are rebuilding for a team you have never shot before, roughly twelve times a season. Pick the two teams, set a prefix for home and away, export. The visiting roster is no more work than your own.

Rosters move all season

Redshirts come off, transfers become eligible, walk-ons get numbers. A file you built in September is wrong by November. Pull a current roster the morning of the game instead of maintaining a spreadsheet.

One file, both applications

The export is not locked to one program. The same NCAA football roster file loads into Photo Mechanic and into GalleryID Desktop, with identical shortcodes either way.

Photo Mechanic

Edit > Settings > Set Code Replacements > Load, then pick the file. The shortcodes are live in the caption fields immediately.

Code Replacement is the name Camera Bits, Inc. gives the feature in Photo Mechanic's own documentation, which is why this file is often called a code replacement roster file.

GalleryID Desktop

Attach the same file as a roster and the identical shortcodes expand while you caption. Nothing about the export changes.

GalleryID Desktop goes further than shortcodes — it identifies athletes by facial recognition and writes the names into the photo, so there is no code to type at all. See GalleryID Desktop

What a shortcode looks like

You type
h12
The caption field shows
Marcus Cole, #12, Quarterback, Riverdale Wolves

The h is the prefix you assigned the home team, 12 the jersey number. The visitors get their own prefix, so h12 and v12 never fight. Coaches use a separate code because they have no number.

What goes in your NCAA football file

You choose the columns. The export is a tab-separated file, so anything that reads a tab-delimited roster can use it.

  • Full name, first name and last name as separate columns if you want them
  • Jersey number written as 12, #12 or (12)
  • Position as an abbreviation, lowercase, or title case
  • Team name
  • Long-form caption strings, for example: Riverdale Wolves quarterback Marcus Cole (12)

NCAA football teams you can build a roster file for

135 teams, kept current from in-season sources. Pick any two and build one file for the whole game.

  • Air Force Falcons
  • Akron Zips
  • Alabama Crimson Tide
  • App State Mountaineers
  • Arizona State Sun Devils
  • Arizona Wildcats
  • Arkansas Razorbacks
  • Arkansas State Red Wolves
  • Army Black Knights
  • Auburn Tigers
  • Ball State Cardinals
  • Baylor Bears
  • Boise State Broncos
  • Boston College Eagles
  • Bowling Green Falcons
  • Buffalo Bulls
  • BYU Cougars
  • California Golden Bears
  • Central Michigan Chippewas
  • Charlotte 49ers
  • Cincinnati Bearcats
  • Clemson Tigers
  • Coastal Carolina Chanticleers
  • Colorado Buffaloes
  • Colorado State Rams
  • Delaware Blue Hens
  • Duke Blue Devils
  • East Carolina Pirates
  • Eastern Michigan Eagles
  • Florida Atlantic Owls
  • Florida Gators
  • Florida International Panthers
  • Florida State Seminoles
  • Fresno State Bulldogs
  • Georgia Bulldogs
  • Georgia Southern Eagles
  • Georgia State Panthers
  • Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
  • Houston Cougars
  • Illinois Fighting Illini
  • Indiana Hoosiers
  • Iowa Hawkeyes
  • Iowa State Cyclones
  • Jacksonville State Gamecocks
  • James Madison Dukes
  • Kansas Jayhawks
  • Kansas State Wildcats
  • Kennesaw State Owls
  • Kent State Golden Flashes
  • Kentucky Wildcats
  • Liberty Flames
  • Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns
  • Louisiana Tech Bulldogs
  • Louisville Cardinals
  • LSU Tigers
  • Marshall Thundering Herd
  • Maryland Terrapins
  • Massachusetts Minutemen
  • Memphis Tigers
  • Miami (OH) RedHawks
  • Miami Hurricanes
  • Michigan State Spartans
  • Michigan Wolverines
  • Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders
  • Minnesota Golden Gophers
  • Mississippi State Bulldogs
  • Missouri State Bears
  • Missouri Tigers
  • Navy Midshipmen
  • NC State Wolfpack
  • Nebraska Cornhuskers
  • Nevada Wolf Pack
  • New Mexico Lobos
  • New Mexico State Aggies
  • North Carolina Tar Heels
  • North Texas Mean Green
  • Northern Illinois Huskies
  • Northwestern Wildcats
  • Notre Dame Fighting Irish
  • Ohio Bobcats
  • Ohio State Buckeyes
  • Oklahoma Sooners
  • Oklahoma State Cowboys
  • Old Dominion Monarchs
  • Ole Miss Rebels
  • Oregon Ducks
  • Oregon State Beavers
  • Penn State Nittany Lions
  • Pittsburgh Panthers
  • Purdue Boilermakers
  • Rice Owls
  • Rutgers Scarlet Knights
  • Sam Houston Bearkats
  • San Diego State Aztecs
  • San José State Spartans
  • SMU Mustangs
  • South Alabama Jaguars
  • South Carolina Gamecocks
  • South Florida Bulls
  • Southern Miss Golden Eagles
  • Stanford Cardinal
  • Syracuse Orange
  • TCU Horned Frogs
  • Temple Owls
  • Tennessee Volunteers
  • Texas A&M Aggies
  • Texas Longhorns
  • Texas State Bobcats
  • Texas Tech Red Raiders
  • Toledo Rockets
  • Troy Trojans
  • Tulane Green Wave
  • Tulsa Golden Hurricane
  • UAB Blazers
  • UCF Knights
  • UCLA Bruins
  • UConn Huskies
  • UL Monroe Warhawks
  • UNLV Rebels
  • USC Trojans
  • Utah State Aggies
  • Utah Utes
  • UTEP Miners
  • UTSA Roadrunners
  • Vanderbilt Commodores
  • Virginia Cavaliers
  • Virginia Tech Hokies
  • Wake Forest Demon Deacons
  • Washington Huskies
  • Washington State Cougars
  • West Virginia Mountaineers
  • Western Kentucky Hilltoppers
  • Western Michigan Broncos
  • Wisconsin Badgers
  • Wyoming Cowboys

NCAA football roster file questions

How do I load an NCAA football roster file into Photo Mechanic?

In Photo Mechanic, go to Edit > Settings > Set Code Replacements, click Load, and select the file you downloaded. The shortcodes are live in the caption fields immediately. In GalleryID Desktop, attach the same file as a roster and the identical shortcodes expand while you caption.

Does it handle two players wearing the same number?

Yes. College football rosters routinely put an offensive and a defensive player in the same jersey number. SnapCaption detects the collision while generating and gives each player a distinct shortcode rather than letting one overwrite the other.

Can I build both teams into one file?

Yes, and that is the normal way to work a game. Assign the home team one prefix and the visitors another, then export both into a single file so you never swap files at halftime.

Is this the same as a code replacement file?

Yes. Code Replacement is the name Photo Mechanic gives the feature in its own documentation, which is why the file is often called a code replacement roster file. SnapCaption builds the file; the feature belongs to the captioning software. The same file also works as a roster in GalleryID Desktop.

Does SnapCaption cover FCS, Division II or Division III football?

Not from a synced source. League coverage is FBS. You can still build a custom roster by hand for any team or event, but there is no automatic roster behind it.

Build your NCAA football roster file

Pick your teams, set your codes, download the file. Free, and no account required.

Open the roster builder