The Rouge et Or football program was first conceived of by Mike Labadie, a local physical education teacher, and Jacques Tanguay, a wealthy alumnus and avid sports fan. They had noted an exodus of French-speaking football players to English speaking schools because there was no Francophone option for them to continue their football careers. Tanguay invested heavily into the football program as the Rouge et Or began their first season in 1996, one year after the
National Hockey League's
Quebec Nordiques had left
Quebec City to relocate to
Colorado. The following year,
Jacques Chapdelaine was hired to become the team's head coach. The Rouge et Or were the first
Canadian collegiate team to feature full-time, paid assistant coaches and the first to use video editing, further giving them a heightened competitive advantage. Chapdelaine left the program following the
2000 season to continue his coaching career in the
Canadian Football League. In
2001, current head coach
Glen Constantin was promoted from his
defensive coordinator position and led the team to 5–3 record and another
Dunsmore Cup. at Laval in 2012. For the following season in
2002, the Rouge et Or finished 6-2 and lost to the
Concordia Stingers in the QUFL semi-final. This is notable because, as of 2024, it is the last time that the Rouge et Or failed to qualify for the
Dunsmore Cup. The
following season, the Rouge et Or began their conference dominance, scoring a school record 481 points in eight regular season games (over 60 points on average per game), en route to their second Dunsmore Cup. The Rouge et Or finished that season with their second Vanier Cup victory, also against Saint Mary's, in the
39th Vanier Cup which was Constantin's first as head coach. In
2004, the Rouge et Or repeated as Vanier Cup champions for the first time in school history by defeating the
Saskatchewan Huskies in the
40th Vanier Cup. Laval became the fourth program in Canadian collegiate history to repeat as Vanier Cup champions. It was the lowest scoring game in Vanier Cup history as Laval won by a score of 7-1 and it was the first Vanier Cup held outside of
Toronto as the game was played at
Ivor Wynne Stadium in
Hamilton, Ontario. The team claimed the rubber match by defeating the Saskatchewan Huskies 13–8, in a game played in temperatures below −20 °C. It was the eighth time that Laval had finished their season paying in a national final or semi-final and, oddly, the first of those occurrences where the opposing team was not nicknamed the "Huskies." The
2008 season also saw the program produce its first
Hec Crighton Trophy winner as
Benoit Groulx was named the
CIS football's
most valuable player. Laval University hosted the
Vanier Cup game for the first time in
2009, but the Rouge et Or lost to the eventual champion
Queen's Golden Gaels in the Mitchell Bowl played at
Richardson Memorial Stadium in
Kingston, Ontario. However, Laval was hosting back-to-back Vanier Cup games and the Rouge et Or qualified for the
46th Vanier Cup in
2010. There, the Rouge et Or dominated the
Calgary Dinos 29–2 to win their sixth Vanier Cup championship. They were the first team in CIS history to win 13 straight games in 13 weeks of play after they played nine regular season games in 2010 (The QUFL extended the regular season to nine games in 2010). This game was played at
BC Place and was the first Vanier Cup to be played in
Vancouver. The team won a Canadian collegiate record seventh Vanier Cup championship in front of an also record crowd of 37,098 fans at the
Rogers Centre in
Toronto by a score of 37–14. The game was again played at
Telus Stadium on the campus of Laval University in front of 18,543 fans. Proving that 2014 was no fluke, the Carabins again defeated the Rouge et Or the
following year in Quebec City in the Dunsmore Cup and would again represent the RSEQ in the Vanier Cup. In
2016, the Rouge et Or finished in second place in the RSEQ after losing the head-to-head tie-breaker to the Carabins. Nonetheless, they defeated those Carabins in Montreal in the Dunsmore Cup and advanced to their tenth Vanier Cup appearance in the
52nd Vanier Cup. In that game, the Rouge et Or came back on top by squeezing a narrow 31–26 victory against the Calgary Dinos in Hamilton at
Tim Hortons Field. The Rouge et Or qualified for the
53rd Vanier Cup the
following year, but were soundly defeated by the Western Mustangs by a score of 39–17. It was their most lopsided loss since they were defeated by the Saint Mary's Huskies by a similar 22-point margin in their 24–2 loss in the 2007 Uteck Bowl. In
2018, the Rouge et Or would exact a measure of revenge by returning to the national championship game and defeating the Mustangs by a score of 34–20 in front of a home crowd in the
54th Vanier Cup. The win capped the fourth undefeated season in program history. On October 20, 2019, a record 19,381 fans attended the Rouge et Or game against the
Montreal Carabins as the program celebrated their 25th anniversary. The team finished in first place in 2019, but were defeated by the Carabins at home in the Dunsmore Cup, ending their three-year Vanier Cup appearance streak. In
2022, the Rouge et Or ended a 3 years championship drought (one of these years being the
2020 season, canceled due to the
COVID-19 pandemic) by winning both their 16th
Dunsmore Cup, against the
Carabins, and their 11th
Vanier Cup, against the
Saskatchewan Huskies. In
2023, the Rouge et Or finished in second place and lost the conference championship to the Carabins. In the second game of the
2024 season, the Rouge et Or hosted the Carabins and broke their previous attendance record as 20,903 fans attended the game. ==Season-by-season record==