Key Points
Bullet point summary by AI
- The NCAA Football Oversight Committee has recommended starting the college football regular season in Week 0, a week before Labor Day.
- This change would allow all schools to play their regular season games over 14 weeks, giving teams two bye weeks and more rest.
- The proposal aims to mitigate the strain of a potential College Football Playoff expansion, ensuring players have adequate recovery time.
The college football regular season could be in full swing a whole week earlier than in previous years. The NCAA's Football Oversight Committee recommended Thursday that the weekend before Labor Day — better known as Week 0 — should be the official standard start for the regular season.
According to the proposal, all schools would begin their regular season campaigns in Week 0 and end the Saturday after Thanksgiving. That essentially extends the season by one week in reverse by giving schools 14 weeks to schedule 12 games. The plan, if adopted, would take effect in 2027.
The NCAA aims to provide more opportunity for rest while allowing "flexibility for potential changes to the postseason." That caveat is the underlying motivation for the proposal.
NCAA finds solution to CFP expansion problem without slashing conference championships
This proposal gives schools two open dates which was a rarity for the last decade or so. Coaches and players have publicly made it known that rest is hard to come by in an already grueling schedule but it was thought that adding an extra bye would come at the expense of a non-conference game or butchering the first couple weeks of December reserved for conference championships and — just as importantly — the Army-Navy game.
Instead, the NCAA figured out a way to massage the early section of the year so that teams get rest and the sport maintains the ability put on conference championships and continue the traditional service academy rivalry game.
While the NCAA has lobbied the federal government for assistance in regulating the fast-evolving landscape of college sports, this plan was reportedly long in the works before President Donald Trump issued his executive order in March to establish an exclusive broadcasting window for the Army-Navy game.
This plan also comes in the wake of constant discussions about expanding the College Football Playoff from 12 teams to potentially 14 or 16. To do so would mean more games in the first round and, therefore, adding to the number of weeks teams are playing deep into winter. The 2025-26 national championship wasn't played until January 19 and an expansion of the tournament could push it to the weekend before the Super Bowl.
But by starting the regular season earlier, the NCAA has minimized the damage CFP expansion would do to the length of time players are having to lay their bodies on the line and potentially risk season — or God forbid career — ending injuries.
"To go through a season without two bye weeks is challenging to a roster," Vanderbilt head coach and NCAA Football Oversight Committee member Clark Lea told ESPN, "We believe there's a negative impact mentally, physically, emotionally, to the players, coaches, everyone involved. So from our vantage point, [this proposal] was something we've supported and feel strongly about."
The only potential downside to the plan is there will no longer be games played before the start of what will now be the new Week 1. Effectively, Week 0 will go away. The eight contests scheduled for Aug. 29 this summer could be the last Week 0 we ever get to enjoy.
More college football news and analysis:
Add us as a preferred source on Google