The Rice Owls football program represents Rice University in the sport of American football. The team competes at the NCAA Division I FBS level and compete in the American Athletic Conference. Rice Stadium, built in 1950, hosts the Owls' home football games. Rice has the second-smallest undergraduate enrollment of any FBS member, ahead of only Tulsa.

David Edward Bailiff is an American football coach and former player. He was most recently the head coach at Texas A&M University–Commerce from 2019 to 2022; prior to that he was the head coach at Rice University in Houston, Texas from 2007 to 2017. During his tenure as head coach, the Rice Owls played in four bowl games, winning three of them, and won the 2013 Conference USA football championship, the first outright conference title for Rice in 56 years. He also coached at his alma mater, Texas State University, where he led the Bobcats to the NCAA Division I-AA National Semifinals in 2005.