College football is gearing up to kick off earlier in the year.
The Division I FBS Oversight Committee made a recommendation Thursday that would push Week 1 back to what’s traditionally been Week 0, starting in 2027. It’s a move that would clean up the messy system of waivers and special exemptions that’s been around for years. The DI Cabinet will look at the proposal in June.
Under the new setup, the FBS regular season would run 14 weeks with two bye weeks built into a 12-game schedule. Games would start on the Thursday of what’s currently Week 0 in late August and wrap up the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
Conference championship games stay put. So does the exclusive window for Army-Navy in early December.
Player Safety Driving the Change
Health and safety concerns are behind the push. Coaches and athletic directors have been lobbying for an earlier start for a while now; they’re looking for more scheduling flexibility and better recovery time with those two bye weeks.
The FCS actually beat them to it. Starting this season, all FCS programs can open in Week 0 under a rule change that went into effect in 2026. FBS is now following that same path, just a year behind.
There’s a catch though. Moving the season opener up means training camp shifts back into July, which has traditionally been partial downtime for coaches and staff.
Streamlining the rulebook has become a priority for the NCAA, and getting rid of waivers is a big part of that effort. The organization’s most aggressive campaign right now is switching player eligibility to an age-based system capped at five years with no waivers or “redshirt” seasons allowed.
While this proposal creates the kind of flexibility that could eventually support an earlier College Football Playoff (the national title game for the 2027 season isn’t scheduled until Jan. 24, 2028), it doesn’t actually move the postseason. That’s a different conversation involving the CFP, conferences and the TV networks.
