Greg McKee, 18, surrendered to state police a day after the school announced that he had been indefinitely suspended from the team but did not say why.
McKee, a 6-foot-6, 290-pound offensive lineman from Chicago, has not played for the Huskies and was sitting out his freshman year in order to have four years of eligibility left.
UConn spokesman Mike Enright said the school would have no comment on the arrest. An e-mail message left Wednesday for McKee seeking comment wasn't immediately returned.
McKee made an initial court appearance in Rockville Superior Court on charges of obscenity, importing child pornography and promoting a minor in an obscene performance. A judge set his bond at $75,000.
McKee was represented in court by a public defender. She did not immediately return an after-hours phone message seeking comment.
Lt. J. Paul Vance, a state police spokesman, said the state's computer crime's unit received information that led the seizure of some computer equipment from McKee's dorm room last month.
"We're part of a national network, if you will," Vance said. "The information was credible, so we initiated a criminal investigation, identified a target and executed a search warrant."
According to the arrest warrant affidavit, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children sent authorities a tip in September about child pornography being posted on the social network platform ning.com.
Police were able to trace the Internet Protocol address to UConn and eventually to McKee.
McKee told police he was supposed to be paid by a man named "Feinmann" for uploading several videos of child pornography to a social network platform, but he could not contact the man after he uploaded the videos, according to the affidavit. The affidavit didn't say who "Feinmann" was or whether authorities believe he exists.
McKee also admitted that he had downloaded child pornography from the Internet using links obtained from people he contacted using his MSN messenger account, and that he may have received child pornography using another e-mail address, the affidavit said. He told police he had about 20 videos and 20 images of child porn on his laptop.
Police say the children in the pornography appear to be between 8 and 15 years old.
Vance said no other members of the football team are believed to be involved. But he said the investigation was ongoing and more arrests are possible.
A second UConn student, Seven Lewis, 21, of Plainville, was arrested on Wednesday on federal child pornography charges. Tom Carson, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office said the cases are unrelated.
McKee's arrest comes four days after the Huskies beat South Florida to secure a share of the Big East championship and a berth in the Fiesta Bowl, where they will play Oklahoma on Jan. 1.
