College athletics is a big business industry. Universities and colleges are benefiting from increased revenue, television licensing deals, and apparel sponsorship, for revenue generating sports. Football alone, nearly generates the same amount of revenue as the other collegiate sports combined. This primary purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to ascertain the influential factors of college choice, for NCAA FBS D1 football student athletes, attending a Pac12 university. The research questions investigated in this encompassed: What compels a football NCAA D1 SA to sign an athletic scholarship with one university over another and why do college coaches lose a PSA’s enrollment commitment? This study used football players currently active on roster that was provided by the Study School Site athletic staff. Adopting a qualitative research methodology alongside a phenomenological semi-structured interview focus group research design for theme analysis, produced four themes as to why football student athletes chose this specific university to play at, amongst the other scholarship offers they were entertaining. These themes were categorized in order beginning with the top, most influential factor for choosing this Pac 12 University: atmosphere, communication, athletics, and academics. These results can inform future PSAs and their families on viewpoints to consider when selecting a school. Furthermore, they can inform university administration and college coaching staff on practices to make their recruiting of PSAs more efficient. These results also have substantial impacts on individual conferences within the NCAA and can further fill the desire to develop a profile of the school’s typical, most desired, recruit.