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The quarterback, Jordan Johnson, 21, a native of Eugene, Ore., maintained that the sex with another student on Feb. 4, 2012, was consensual.

The woman claimed that after they kissed and took their shirts off, she said no to sex. Then, she said, the athlete took off her leggings and underwear, pinned her to the bed and forced her to have sex. "He just changed — changed into a totally different person," she said on the stand.

The following day, she went to the university's Student Assault Resource Center and had a medical exam.

The prosecution alleged that she suffered injuries to her head, clavicle, chest and genitals, and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, which the defense refuted. The woman said she did not scream to friends in the house for help, because she was "terrified and in shock."

The 6-foot-1, 200-pound Mr. Johnson took the stand to assert his innocence. "I would never do that to anyone," he said. "If somebody says no, you stop. You respect that."

One of his defense lawyers, Kirsten Pabst, said that the woman wanted to be with the "star quarterback," and when she realized that a relationship was not part of the deal, she turned on him. "The fact that he didn't give her a relationship does not make what happened that night a crime," Ms. Pabst said.

After three weeks of testimony, the seven-woman, five-man jury deliberated for two and a half hours. Mr. Johnson faced up to 100 years in prison for one count of sexual intercourse without consent.

The verdict comes seven weeks after the team's former running back, Beau Donaldson, was sentenced to 30 years for raping a childhood friend as she slept in his apartment.

The Johnson trial was held against the backdrop of a federal investigation into how officials at the University of Montana, as well the city and county of Missoula, handled sexual assault allegations, several of which involved members of the football team.