Most Penalty Yards in a College Football Game

The FBS record for most penalty yards in a college football game is held by Arizona State. 

On Nov. 11, 1961, the Sun Devils were tagged with 13 flags for 238 penalty yards in a game at UTEP – a record that hasn’t been broken in the 60+ ensuing years of FBS college football.

For the record, Arizona State still won the game 48-28. 

Here’s the appropriate section from the current NCAA record book:

For a total game record involving both teams, wind the clocks to 1977, the lone year where both Grambling and Texas Southern played as Division I teams before they reclassified to I-AA. 

The dueling Tigers played an immensely sloppy game on Oct. 29, 1977, that resulted in a whopping 421 yards of total penalties. Grambling was responsible for 16 flags for 216 yards, while Texas Southern was penalized 17 times for 205 yards.