FBS Oversight Committee Proposes Changes to Football Calendar

There are many aspects of college football that seem to be broken right now, one of which is the calendar.

But fear not, the FBS Oversight Committee on Thursday adopted some changes to the calendar to hopefully smooth some of the rough patches out. The Division-I Cabinet will meet on Oct. 6-7 to approve these changes, which would go into effect Jan. 1.

Here’s a look at what could change:

Transfer Portal: The transfer portal would be shortened from being open for a 15-day window to 10 days starting on Jan. 1. This marks when student-athletes are allowed to enter the portal. They don’t have to enter and find a new destination in that 10-day stretch.

Week 0: The season will begin on the Thursday of what is now Week 0 and end the Saturday after Thanksgiving, this means two bye weeks for all.

Offseason Practices: Replacing current rules surrounding spring practices and summer workouts, FBS schools would be allowed to conduct two out-of-season practice periods with a total of 21 on-field practices. The two periods combined could not exceed seven weeks and no single practice period could exceed five weeks.

Additionally, schools would designate a minimum of nine voluntary weeks for student-athletes when required athletic-related activities aren’t permitted.

Fall Camp: The preseason practice period, also known as fall camp, would be trimmed down to 27 days to hold 21 practices. This is down a bit from what it has previously been, with the justification being there is more time before fall to practice.

There are a few more minor changes you can read about here, but those were the highlights.

It’s tough to make a perfect college football calendar because football is played in the fall and the semester changing at the end of the calendar year means everyone has to try to get to their new place before the spring semester starts. The shortened window should help with that.

Then there’s the task of getting your new team up to speed as quickly as possible, which should be helped by the expanded offseason practice schedule.

The FBS Oversight Committee worked with the American Football Coaches Association to do the best they could.

“The new playing and practice schedule is a great step forward for our game,” said Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea, who is a member of the committee and president of the AFCA board of trustees. “This will allow for more flexibility for team building in the spring and summer and will benefit the development of our student-athletes. I am grateful for the partnership between the AFCA and the NCAA and look forward to continued collaboration to advance college football.”