The FCS will adopt 12-game football seasons beginning with the 2026 season, it was announced Wednesday.
Per the accepted proposal, FCS games will be able to schedule 12 games per season beginning in 2026. Each regular season will begin 13 weeks before the FCS playoff selection date.
“At the recommendation of the Football Championship Subdivision Oversight Committee, the council adopted expedited legislation to change the first contest date for FCS football, starting in the 2026 season,” the release reads. “Moving forward, FCS programs will be able to compete in 12 regular-season games every year, with the regular season starting 13 weeks before the FCS championship selections date. The move provides programs greater scheduling flexibility and eliminates the first contest date exceptions.”
Below is more on the change from the NCAA proposal last month:
The recommendation also would standardize the start date of the FCS season as the Thursday 13 weeks before the FCS championship bracket is released, which is the Saturday before Thanksgiving. If the proposed change is adopted, in 2026, FCS teams could begin competing on Thursday, Aug. 27.
As part of standardizing the start date for all FCS programs, the proposal eliminates first contest date exceptions in the FCS. Currently, those exceptions allow contests that meet legislated criteria to take place as early as the Saturday before the Thursday prior to Labor Day (which would be Aug. 29 in 2026).
With the those changes, FCS programs can begin their seasons in Week Zero without any other requirements, such as playing Hawaii or the game being nationally televised.
This means that FCS football will ALWAYS start on the last Saturday of August.
THANK GOD!!!! It’s about time!!!
As per previous discussions, this says the teams will be able to schedule 12 games. This is not a requirement, and if anyone wants to schedule 10 games, that still works as well, they just need to meet the established requirements for at large bids into the playoffs.
Will this affect Week Zero at all ?
“Moving forward, FCS programs will be able to compete in 12 regular-season games every year, with the regular season starting 13 weeks before the FCS championship selections date. The move provides programs greater scheduling flexibility and eliminates the first contest date exceptions.”
Based on that, there is no more week 0 for FCS because that is the first date exception.
FCS playing 12 games Fantastic.
This is great news—12 is the better number. I know JM will get on me for this and at my core I agree with him and believe that Ivy League teams will stay with 10 games, but I have to root for the Ancient 8 to, at the very least, add an 11th game and start their season a week earlier.
Ivy League schools still need three nonconference games and in 2026, Cornell could be playing game #1 on Sept. 19 against a team that has played three games.
Competitive balance?
I have my two teams nearby–Marist and Albany. This helps Albany because they like that money game (0-1). As for Marist, I hope they schedule 6 home and 6 away rather than 5 and 7.
This is great news for FCS football and their fans.
John, I don’t disagree with you on this in principle.
I can say that teams that make a lot of money from their football programs will play 12 MOST years. That doesn’t bother me one bit, there will a great many of them to do this and it’s probably all due to NIL.
What I would be bothered by is that the NCAA coming in and telling schools, ‘You have to play 12.’ I want to say I have seen a team here and there where teams have scheduled only 10 games in different years, but I have nothing to prove that, and I am not speaking of weather-related cancellations or the game that Portland State and South Dakota lost due to illness last year. This is why I say the qualifier is that you have to win 6 to be eligible or the selection committee will not let you in the playoffs. Northern Iowa did this in 2021 when they put them in at 6-5 but they lost at Eastern Washington and I am well aware the MVFC is loaded, but what is the regular season for if you’re going to let a team in at 6-5 when there are other at large teams that are more deserving.
I am still in shock, but very happy with the Ivy League participating in the post season at last. I don’t believe they should have to add another game, their bylaws are pretty strict. A few years back, I think I remember one of the teams playing a game in the Ivy preseason, but it was strictly and quietly out there as a scrimmage and not an actual game. As you point out, you get better by playing more and the three game head start the Ivy League lays out puts their teams at a disadvantage for sure.
I love the Ivy League and what they do. Even in basketball, once league play starts, most of the games are Friday and Saturday and the students are actually in class Monday thru Thursday.
I’m fine with 10 games. The champ won’t get a bye, but we’ll get to see how good they come FCS playoff time.
I just think 12 is good for recruiting. Kids want to play games. Now if you get a kid that’s deciding between Akron and Youngstown State, he may choose the latter.
Akron is so bad, I might choose to go to Tiffin instead.
I’m curious on if this effects FBS vs FCS games or FCS vs non D1 games in the long run. I would assume it would st least guarantee at least 1 FBS team per school now. Even if they were already doing so. I wonder if teams use the extra game to go for a “easy” win by trying to go after non scholarship Pioneer league teams or let’s say a D2 or 3 team.
Lamont, my feeling on this from watching the FCS since it started as I-AA in 1978 is that it is more likely to add more D-II games to the schedule.
If you look at the MVFC and Big Sky, they play MOST of their OOC games first and then all of their conference games with an open date (not a bye week, you’re not advancing to a next round) in there somewhere. This year, you see Montana is off on week 1 and they used what was there open week to meet Sacred Heart in week 8, I believe it is. The point here is scheduling in that short of a window makes getting two teams together difficult and the conferences let the teams know the dates they have open to set these up around the conference schedules. All of this facilitates a lot of FBS and lower division games to fill out the schedule
D-II and lower wins don’t count toward the 6 D-I wins that an FCS team needs to go to the playoffs, so you don’t want to pile on a bunch of those. A few FCS teams in this 12 game season have 2 FBS teams on their schedule, I think Idaho State is one. While this brings in a lot of money to a program, it is also more often than not another loss, but the money they get is what they are depending on.
I know in the Big Sky, the conference puts the schedule out for teams to fill in their OOC 4 or 5 years in advance, which helps some to set these up a lot like the FBS teams well in advance. Not all of the FCS conferences do this, so it puts the schools in more of a bind.
With all this realignment mess too, I think you will see teams either add lower division games or just play 11 in 2026.
Good points JM. Richmond and James Madison gave a resounding yes to playing 12 games
I think more will play 12 than not. I think a D2 FCS matchup is more competitive than a FBS FCS one so perhaps we will see more of those going forward.
That said, I wonder if FCS conferences will play nine conference games. I think the Patriot League will.
I don’t like the money games, but I get them. But with 12 games, selling six home games to your fan base can’t hurt