NCAA approves 14-week college football season, opens bowl path for FCS movers
North Dakota State and Sacramento State could reach bowls immediately after moving up, while the NCAA's 14-week model preserves two open dates and championship weekends.
The NCAA moved college football toward a 14-week regular season, a calendar that keeps teams at 12 games but protects two open dates and leaves championship weekends and the Army-Navy game on their own stage. The Division I FBS Oversight Committee backed the standard start for 2027, and the calendar change would take effect Jan. 1, 2027 if it clears the remaining approvals.
The NCAA Division I FBS Oversight Committee also advanced a proposal to end the two-year waiting period for schools leaving the FCS for the FBS, which would let future transition teams become bowl eligible in their first FBS season if they finish 6-6 and can satisfy a bowl commitment. The proposal also opens the door to a conference championship game and the College Football Playoff.
North Dakota State and Sacramento State are set to move to FBS in 2026. If a first-year transition team can land at 6-6, it can be part of the bowl picture immediately instead of spending the opening chapter of its FBS life locked out of it.
The NCAA also adjusted the bowl-alternate system for 5-7 teams. If a conference has an unfilled bowl tie-in, it can choose among its own 5-7 teams as long as the school meets the NCAA’s 930 multiyear APR threshold.
On the FCS side, the NCAA had already approved a permanent 12-game regular season beginning in 2026, with the schedule starting 13 weeks before the FCS championship selections date. The schedule would allow competition to begin on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026 and eliminate first-contest-date exceptions.
The newer FCS proposals would replace spring practice and summer activities with two out-of-season practice periods totaling 21 on-field practices, allow a joint spring practice with another four-year school, cut preseason practice from 25 sessions to 21, and shorten the January transfer notification window from 15 days to 10.
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