The 1997 Rhode Island Rams football team was an American football team that represented the University of Rhode Island in the Atlantic 10 Conference during the 1997 NCAA Division I-AA football season. In their fifth season under head coach Floyd Keith, the Rams compiled a 2–9 record (2–6 against conference opponents) and finished fourth in the New England Division of the conference.^[1]

Date	Opponent	Site	Result	Attendance	Source
September 6	Maine	Meade Stadium Kingston, RI	L 14–30	4,670	[2]
September 13	New Hampshire	Meade Stadium Kingston, RI	W 35–21	2,680
September 20	Northeastern	Meade Stadium Kingston, RI	L 13–41	2,639
September 27	at UMass	McGuirk Stadium Hadley, MA	L 14–18	8,218
October 4	Hofstra*	Meade Stadium Kingston, RI	W 20–17	5,178
October 11	at Boston University	Nickerson Field Boston, MA	W 20–17	1,281
October 18	at Brown*	Brown Stadium Providence, RI (rivalry)	L 15–23	4,922	[3]
October 25	at Connecticut	Memorial Stadium Storrs, CT (rivalry)	L 21–37	5,139
November 1	No. 1 Villanova	Meade Stadium Kingston, RI	L 15–37	2,297
November 8	at Richmond	UR Stadium Richmond, VA	L 11–27	5,918	[4]
November 15	at James Madison	Bridgeforth Stadium Harrisonburg, VA	L 37–39 3OT	6,800
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from The Sports Network Poll released prior to the game