NCAA recommends earlier start to football season in 2027

Beginning in 2027, college football could have an earlier official start to the season, as the NCAA’s Football Oversight Committee on Thursday recommended a standard start before Labor Day weekend.

Under the proposal, the regular season would begin on the Thursday of what is now called Week Zero, and still end on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Schools would have 14 weeks to schedule 12 games. This model would give teams two open dates and allow for “flexibility for potential changes to the postseason.”

That’s significant, as leaders of the College Football Playoff continue to discuss how and when to expand the current 12-team field. The proposed calendar change would also preserve standalone weekends for conference championship games and the Army-Navy game.

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Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea, who is a member of the Football Oversight Committee, told ESPN the football season calendar has been a “health and safety issue” that needed to be addressed.

“To go through a season without two bye weeks is challenging to a roster,” he said, “and in a time where we’ve imposed roster limits, and in our league where we’re playing nine league games now, on the off years where we weren’t able to get that second bye, we believe there’s a negative impact mentally, physically, emotionally, to the players, coaches, everyone involved. So from our vantage point, it was something we’ve supported and feel strongly about.”

Under the proposal, the NCAA would also eliminate exceptions for teams to play before the official start of the season. The sport has seen an uptick recently in schools applying for waivers to start their seasons earlier. In 2025, there were five games on Saturday, August 23. This season, there are eight games scheduled for Aug. 29, including North Carolina and TCU playing in Dublin, and NC State and Virginia in Rio de Janeiro.

For the proposal to become official, the Division I Cabinet still has to adopt the legislation, and that group is scheduled to discuss the recommendation in June.

Discussions about moving the official start of the season to Week Zero have been in the works long before President Donald Trump in March issued an executive order to establish an “exclusive window” to broadcast the Army-Navy game.