CUAFL organises Seven divisions as well as four cup competitions, 'Cuppers' and the Plate for first teams, the Shield for second teams and the Vase for lower teams. Cuppers is a knockout tournament with pairings drawn completely at random at the first captain's meeting of the season. There are no seeds and byes are only awarded if the number of entrants requires them. The final is contested the neutral venue of Grange Road. The competition starts in the fourth week of
Michaelmas term. In 2004–2005, 31 teams entered the competition, including 26 full colleges, one college affiliated to the university, two local schools, and Cambridge's other university,
ARU. To be eligible for entry, teams must be affiliated to CUAFL. Each club may only enter one team, which must be their 1st team. There are five rounds in total. Cuppers was first contested in 1882–1883. The first entrants included nine colleges (Caius, St. John's, Clare, St. Catharine's, Pembroke, Sidney, Jesus, King's and Trinity Hall) and three old boys sides (
Old Harrovians,
Trinity Etonians and Trinity Rest). The Plate competition is for teams that have been knocked out in the first round. In recent years, when St. Catharine's College has been victorious in Cuppers they have challenged the Oxford University Cuppers Champions to a one-off "Supercuppers" match. In 2007, they defeated Brasenose College Oxford 3–2 (after extra time) in a match held at St. Catharine's Sports Fields, Cambridge. In 2009, they played St. John's College Oxford at Iffley Road, Oxford, and again were victorious 3–2. Girton College went mixed in 1976 and the first male under-graduates arrived in October 1979. The college started playing in the college league, in division 5, for the first time in the 1980–81 season and won two successive promotions. In season 1986–87, with two blues players, Chris Elliott and Ian McKinnon, they made it through to the semi-finals of Cuppers, losing narrowly in extra time to Downing. By 1993–94, they made it to the top division and in 1997–98, they were crowned league champions for the first time, a feat they repeated in 2003–04. In 1995 they won Cuppers for the only time in their history, beating APU in the final. Since then they have been Cuppers Runners up on 5 occasions, in 1999, 2001, 2003, 2008 and 2018. Since 2014, Homerton College and Gonville & Caius College, the only two colleges with fourth teams that year, have competed for the Bucket in an annual informal 'cup' match. Homerton College won the inaugural contest 1–0. As of 2021, Gonville & Caius College hold the Bucket. Fitzwilliam established the greatest era of any college team in the mid 2010s, going on to win 7 successive cuppers and 7 league titles in 9 years with a series of dominant performances. Their cuppers run was ended by defeat to St John's in the 2023/24 semi-final, who subsequently lost on penalties to St Catharine's after a 0-0 draw in the final, giving a different cuppers winner for the first time since 2016. This was followed up by Jesus' third ever cuppers win in 2024/25, when they beat Trinity Hall on penalties after a goalless draw on a difficult pitch at Grange Road. Jesus' Cai La Trobe-Roberts scored 14 goals in the 2024/25 cuppers campaign to finish as top scorer.
Results The results of the principal competitions are shown below. The combined results of the Cuppers competition is shown below. The combined results of the Vase competition (since 2024) is show below. ==Board of directors==