The Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) will move to a standardized 14‑week regular‑season format beginning in fall 2027, following Cabinet approval of a proposal advanced by the FBS Oversight Committee.
Under the new structure, the FBS season will begin in Week Zero (i.e. the weekend prior to Labor Day weekend) and conclude the week after Thanksgiving, and programs will continue to be permitted to schedule up to 12 regular‑season games.
In years when the stretch from the Thursday before Labor Day through the final Saturday in November includes 14 Saturdays, FBS programs are expected to open their seasons in the traditional Week 1 window. The next time that calendar alignment occurs is in 2030 and again in 2031.
The Cabinet also signed off on two postseason policy changes that will take effect sooner, beginning with the 2026 football season. Most notably, teams reclassifying from the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) to the FBS will become eligible for bowl participation during the transition period, provided they meet all FBS sport‑sponsorship and reclassification requirements and otherwise qualify as a “deserving team.”
That new rule applies to North Dakota State, which joined the Mountain West Conference, and Sacramento State, which joined the Mid-American Conference.
In addition, the Cabinet approved a revision to the process used when there are not enough bowl‑eligible teams to fill all postseason slots. In those cases, teams with between five wins and seven losses may be selected as alternates. The Academic Progress Rate (APR) will no longer determine the order in which those teams are chosen, though programs must still maintain at least a 930 APR to be considered.
The changes mark one of the most significant adjustments to FBS scheduling and postseason access in recent years, aligning the regular season across conferences while expanding opportunities for transitioning programs.
