Current season, competition or edition: 2025 NCAA Division I FBS football season | |
 | |
| Sport | College football |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1978; 47 years ago (1978) |
| No. of teams | 134 |
| Country | United States |
| Most recent champion(s) | Ohio State Buckeyes (2024) |
| TV partner(s) | Various |
| Official website | ncaa.com/fbs |
TheNCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known asDivision I-A, is the highest level ofcollege football in the United States. The FBS consists of the largest schools in theNational Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). As of the 2024 season, there are 10 conferences and 134 schools in FBS.
College football is one of the most popular spectator sports throughout much of the United States. The top schools generate tens of millions of dollars in yearly revenue.[1][2] Top FBS teams draw tens of thousands of fans to games, and the fifteenlargest American stadiums by capacity all host FBS teams or games. Since July 1, 2021, college athletes have been able to receive payments for the use of theirname, image, and likeness. Prior to this date colleges were only allowed to provide players with non-monetary compensation such asathletic scholarships that provide for tuition, housing, and books.
Unlike other NCAA divisions and subdivisions, the NCAA does not officially award anFBS football national championship, nor does it sanction a playoff tournament to determine such a champion on the field. As theCollege Football Playoff did not exist until 2014, organizations such as theAssociated Press andAFCA have historically sought to rank the teams and crown a national champion, by taking a vote of sports writers and coaches, respectively. Various cities across the United States have created their own postseason contests, calledbowl games, in which they traditionally invite teams to participate. Historically, these bowl games were mostly considered to be exhibition games involving a payout to participating teams. However, in the modern era, some of the bowls serve as quarterfinal or semifinal games of the Playoff and the remainder constitute the de facto postseason for teams that fail to qualify for the Playoff. The decades preceding the advent of the Playoff also included attempts by the premier FBS conferences and bowl games to attempt to organize matchups so that the FBS national championship was decided on the field, such as theBowl Coalition from 1992 to 1994, theBowl Alliance from 1995 to 1997, and theBowl Championship Series from 1998 to 2013.
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The FBS is the highest level of college football in the United States, and FBS players make up the vast majority of the players picked in theNFLDraft.[4] For every sport but football, theNCAA divides schools into three major divisions:Divisions I,II, andIII. However, infootball, Division I is further divided into two sub-divisions: the Bowl Subdivision, abbreviated as the FBS, and theChampionship Subdivision, abbreviated as the FCS.[5] Divisions are themselves further divided up intoconferences, which are groupings of schools that play each other in contention for a conference championship. The FBS currently has ten conferences, which are often divided into the "Power Four conferences" – which consist of the most prestigious schools and enjoy a certain amount of autonomy from NCAA rules – and the less prominent "Group of Five".[a]
Although FCS programs can draw thousands of fans per game, many FCS schools attempt to join the FBS in hopes of increased revenue, corporate sponsorship, alumni donations, prestige, and national exposure.[6] However, FBS programs also face increased expenses in regards to staff salaries, facility improvements, and scholarships.[6] The athletic departments of many FBS schools lose money every year, and these athletic departments must rely on subsidies from the rest of the university.[7] In many states, the highest-paid public employee is the head coach of an FBS team.[8] FBS schools are limited to a total of 85 football players receiving financial assistance.[9] Nearly all FBS schools that are not on NCAA probation give 85 full scholarships. The threeUnited States service academies that are FBS members are technically subject to the 85-scholarship limit, but are effectively exempt because all of their students receive federally-funded full scholarships whether or not they play a varsity sport.[10]
In order to retain FBS membership, schools must meet several requirements.[11] Before 2023, FBS schools had to average at least 15,000 home attendance (over a rolling two-year period).[11] An FBS school must sponsor a minimum of 16 varsity intercollegiate teams (including football), with at least six men's or coeducational teams and at least eight all-female teams.[11] Across all sports, each FBS school must offer at least 200 athletic scholarships (or spend at least $4 million on athletic scholarships) per year, and FBS football teams must provide at least 90% of the maximum number of football scholarships (which is currently 85).[11]
In October 2023, the NCAA announced major changes to FBS membership requirements. The average home attendance requirement, which had largely gone unenforced in the 21st century and was suspended in 2020 due toCOVID-19 impacts, was permanently eliminated, effective immediately. Effective in 2027–28, minimums on both the total number of, and spending on, athletic scholarships in all FBS programs will be enforced. The number of required athletic scholarships will increase to 210, and the annual spending requirement rises to $6 million. Also starting in 2027–28, FBS programs must not only provide at least 90% of the required number of football scholarships, but must provide at least 90% of the maximum number of scholarships across a total of 16 sports, including football.[12]
The FBS season begins in late August or early September and ends in mid-January with theCollege Football Playoff National Championship game. Most FBS teams play 12 regular season games per year, with eight or nine of those games coming against conference opponents.[13] All nine active FBS conferences hold aconference championship game to determine the winner of the conference.[14][b]
| Bowl | Location | Est. |
|---|---|---|
| Rose Bowl | Pasadena, CA[c] | 1902 |
| Orange Bowl | Miami Gardens, FL | 1935 |
| Sugar Bowl | New Orleans, LA[d] | 1935 |
| Cotton Bowl | Arlington, TX | 1937 |
| Peach Bowl | Atlanta, GA | 1968 |
| Fiesta Bowl | Glendale, AZ | 1971 |
Following the conference championship games, 12 teams are selected to compete in theCollege Football Playoff,[15] while othereligible teams are invited to bowl games. The top four seeds in the playoff receive a first-round bye, while the remaining eight teams compete in first-round games on campus sites.[15] After the first round, the eight remaining playoff teams compete in theNew Year's Six bowls, which rotate the responsibility of hosting quarterfinal and semifinal playoff games.[15][16] The playoff culminates in the College Football Playoff National Championship.
TheHawaii Rainbow Warriors[17] and teams that play at Hawaii[18] get a special exemption and are allowed to play an extra regular season game in order to defray travel costs.[13] Therefore, the longest possible FBS schedule is 18 games: 13 in the regular season, a conference championship game, and four playoff games.
For non-conference regular season games, FBS teams are free to schedule matchups against any other FBS team, regardless of conference. A small number of FBS teams areindependent and have total control over their own schedule. Non-conference games are scheduled by mutual agreement and often involve "home and homes" (where teams alternate ashosts) and long-establishedrivalries. In order to balance out the difficulty of their in-conference schedules, teams from thestronger conferences frequently play non-conference games against teams from the weaker conferences or, occasionally, againstFCS teams.[19][20] FBS teams are free to schedule up to 40% of their games against FCS teams,[11] but FBS teams can only use one win per season against an FCS team for the purposes ofbowl eligibility. Additionally, the FCS opponent must have averaged at least 80% of the FCS limit of 63 scholarship equivalents over a rolling two-year period.[21] (Before the 2022 season, this limit had been 90%.[22][e]) An FBS team must schedule a total of five home games per year; for the purposes of scheduling, a "home game" must take place at a venue in which the team plays 50% of its "home games", although a team is allowed to count one neutral-site game against an FBS team toward the "home game" requirement.[24] FBS–FCS games, known as "money games", are often home games for the FBS team, and victories by FCS teams are considered to beupsets.[19][20] FCS teams receive hundreds of thousands of dollars for their participation in these games.[20]
| Year | Bowls | Teams in bowls[26] |
|---|---|---|
| 1968 | 10 | ~17% |
| 1984 | 18 | ~34% |
| 1997 | 20 | ~35% |
| 2015 | 41[f] | 62.5% |
| 2024 | 46[g] | ~61% |
The Football Bowl Subdivision gets its name from thebowl games that many FBS teams play at the end of the year, although other college divisions also havetheir own bowl games. FBS bowl games are played at the end of the season in December or January. During the2024–25 bowl season, there were46 FBS bowl games, including four first-round College Football Playoff games and the College Football Playoff National Championship. An FBS team typically must have a record of 6–6 or better in order to be bowl eligible. In certain cases – usually if not enough teams have such records – 5–7 and 6–7 teams can also be selected to bowls.[27]
Many bowls have one or more conference tie-ins; for example, thePop-Tarts Bowl provides a matchup between teams fromACC and theBig 12. A small number of long-established bowls played a major role in theBowl Championship Series, which was used to select the national champion until the 2013 season, andthese bowls continue to play a major role in the College Football Playoff. In addition to payouts to participating teams, conferences receive millions of dollars for each school that appears in the playoff.[28] Appearances in other bowls are also quite lucrative.[29] In addition to the regular bowls, some postseason games, such as theSenior Bowl, match up teams of all-stars andNFL Draft entrants.
Atlantic Coast Conference
Big Eight Conference
Big Ten Conference
Pac-8 Conference
SEC
Southwest Conference
Western Athletic Conference
IndependentsCollege football has been played for over one hundred years, but the game and the organizational structure of college football have evolved significantly during that time. Thefirst college football game was played in 1869, but the game continued to develop during the late 19th and early 20th century. During this period,Walter Camp pioneered the concept of aline of scrimmage, the system ofdowns, and theCollege Football All-America Team.[30] The1902 Rose Bowl was the firstbowl game in college football history, and the event began to be held annually starting with the1916 Rose Bowl. In the 1930s, other bowl games came into existence, including theSugar Bowl, theCotton Bowl Classic, and theOrange Bowl. The1906 college football season was the first season played under the IAAUS (which would later change its name to theNCAA) and the first season in which theforward pass was legal. The IAAUS had formed after PresidentTheodore Roosevelt, responding to several deaths that had occurred during football games, requested that colleges find ways to make football a safer sport.[31]
| Conf. | 1983[32] | 1993[32] | 2003[33] | 2014[34] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SEC | 64,842 | 62,789 | 74,059 | 77,694 |
| Big Ten | 67,471 | 63,535 | 70,198 | 66,869 |
| Big 12 | — | — | 56,362 | 58,102 |
| Pac-12 | 47,248 | 47,919 | 51,608 | 52,702 |
| ACC | 42,608 | 44,056 | 51,938 | 50,291 |
| AAC[h] | — | 38,039 | 46,870 | 29,193 |
| MW | — | — | 32,809 | 25,254 |
| CUSA | — | — | 32,346 | 20,455 |
| Sun Belt | — | — | 14,352 | 18,294 |
| MAC | 17,351 | 14,252 | 17,820 | 15,431 |
| FBS | 42,162 | 41,281 | 44,877 | 44,603 |
| FCS | 10,844 | 8,599 | 7,739 | 8,310 |
In 1935, theHeisman Trophy was presented for the first time; the award is generally considered to be college football's most prestigious individual award.[35] In 1965, the NCAA voted to allow theplatoon system, in which different players played on offense and defense; teams had previously experimented with the concept in the 1940s.[36] In 1968, the NCAA began allowing freshmen to compete in games; freshmen had previously been required to take aredshirt year.[37] In 1975, after a growth of "grants-in-aid" (scholarships given for athletic rather than academic or need-based reasons), the NCAA voted to limit the number of athletic scholarships each school could offer.[38] In 1968, the NCAA required all teams to identify as members of either the University Division (for larger schools) or the College Division (for smaller schools), and in 1973, the NCAA divided into three divisions.[39] At the urging of several larger schools seeking increased autonomy and commonality, Division I-A was formed prior to the1978 season; the remaining teams in Division I formed theFootball Championship Subdivision or FCS (then known as Division I-AA).[40] In 1981, members of theCollege Football Association attempted to create a fourth division consisting solely of the most competitive schools, but this effort was defeated.[41] In the1992 season, theSEC split into divisions and played the firstFBS conference championship game. The Big 12 and Western Athletic Conference did the same for the1996 season, and most conferences eventually adopted divisions and championship games.
The NCAA does not officially award an FBS football championship,[42] but several teams haveclaimed national championships. Other organizations have also sought to rank the teams and crown a national champion. TheDickinson System and other methods were formed in the early 20th century to select the best team in the country, and theAP Poll and theCoaches Poll began rankings teams in the middle of the 20th century. In many seasons, selectors such as the AP and the Coaches Poll designated different teams as national champions. Often, more than one team would finishundefeated, as the top teams were not guaranteed to play each other during the regular season or in bowl games. In 1992, five major conferences established theBowl Coalition in order to determine the FBS champion. In 1998, the two remaining major conferences joined with the other five conferences to form theBowl Championship Series. The BCS used arankings system to match up the top two teams in theBCS National Championship Game.[43] However, even the BCS era sawsplit national championships, as in2003 the AP Poll and the Coaches Poll selected different national champions. TheCollege Football Playoff replaced the BCS starting with the 2014 season; it featured four teams through the 2023 season, after which it expanded to 12 teams.
Since 2021, when theSupreme Court unanimously held inNCAA v. Alston that restrictions onname, image, and likeness compensation violatedantitrust law, FBS football players have been able to make money from sources other than college scholarships. However, there remains no unified system to provide players with such compensation.
College football was firstbroadcast on radio in 1921, and firstbroadcast on television in 1939.[44] Television became profitable for both schools and the NCAA, which tightly controlled the airing of games in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.[45] The NCAA limited each football team to six television appearances over a two-year period.[45] The 1981Supreme Court caseNCAA v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma & University of Georgia granted television rights to individual schools as opposed to the NCAA and allowed teams to televise all of their games.[46] After a period during which FBS schools negotiated collectively under theCollege Football Association,Notre Dame's 1991 television contract ushered in an era in which schools and conferences negotiate their own television contracts.[40][47] This new era of television led to several waves of conference realignment, most notably in1996,2005, andthe early 2010s.[48] FBS games continue to be a major draw on television, as over 26 million people watched the2014 BCS National Championship Game.[49]
National networks such as CBS, ABC, NBC, severalESPN networks, and severalFox networks have all covered the FBS, as have several regional and local networks. As conferences negotiate their own television deals, each conference isaffiliated with a network that airs its home games. In the mid-2000s, college and conferences began to create their own television networks;[50] such networks include theBig Ten Network,BYUtv, theLonghorn Network (which was folded into theSEC Network in 2024), and thePac-12 Network. In 2012, college football games drew over 400 million viewers.[51]
| Year | Conferences | Teams |
|---|---|---|
| 1980 | 13[52] | 138 |
| 1982[i] | 10[53] | 96 |
| 1990 | 9[54] | 107 |
| 2000 | 11[55] | 116 |
| 2010 | 11[56] | 120 |
| 2025 | 10 | 136 |
The Big Ten (then popularly known as the Western Conference) was founded in 1896, after which several other schools joined to form conferences, including thePacific Coast Conference, the MVIAA, the Southwest Conference, theSouthern Conference, theMountain States Conference (also known as the Skyline Conference), and theBorder Conference. In 1928, six schools seceded from the MVIAA to form the Big Six Conference, which later expanded to the Big Eight in 1957; the remaining schools formed the Missouri Valley Conference. In 1932, several Southern schools formed the SEC after breaking away from the Southern Conference, and in 1953 several more schools seceded from the Southern Conference to form the ACC. In 1946, several Midwestern schools formed the MAC. Several elite Northeastern schools had formed theEastern Intercollegiate Basketball League in 1901, and its members (plusBrown University, not an EIBL member at the time) signed the Ivy Group Agreement, which governed football competition between the signatories, in 1945; the Ivy League was formally founded in 1954, when the agreement was extended to cover all sports. In 1959, the Pacific Coast Conference dissolved, and most of its former members formed the new Athletic Association of Western Universities, which became the Pac-8 when more former PCC members joined. In 1962, several schools from the Mountain States Conference and the Border Conference formed the Western Athletic Conference. In 1969, the Pacific Coast Athletic Association (PCAA), later known as theBig West Conference, was formed by several Division II California schools that sought to join Division I.
Division I separated into Division I-A (the predecessor to the FBS) and I-AA (predecessor of theFCS) prior to the1978 season. At that time, there were severalindependent I-A schools and twelve Division I-A conferences: the Southeastern Conference (SEC), Big Ten,Pacific-10 (Pac-10),Big 8,Southwest Conference (SWC),Western Athletic Conference (WAC), PCAA (which later changed its name to the Big West),Missouri Valley Conference,Southern Conference, Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), Mid-American Conference (MAC), and theIvy League. The Ivy League and the Southern Conference left for Division I-AA prior to the 1982 season, while the Missouri Valley Conference stopped sponsoring football prior to the 1985 season. In 1991, theBig East recruited several independents and began sponsoring football, becoming a major conference. In 1996,Conference USA (CUSA), formed the previous year by the merger of the non-footballMetro andGreat Midwest Conferences, also began sponsoring football. That same year, the Southwest Conference dissolved, and four of its former members joined with the Big 8 to form the Big 12 Conference. In 1999, eight schools broke away from the WAC to form theMountain West Conference (MW). Prior to the 2000 season, the Big West stopped sponsoring football. TheSun Belt Conference (SBC) began sponsoring football in 2001. After periods of conference realignment in2005 andthe early 2010s that saw the expansion of the ACC, Big Ten, SEC, and Pac-10 (which changed its name to the Pac-12), the WACreorganized as a non-football conference and theBig East split into theAmerican Athletic Conference and anew non-football conference that retained the Big East name.[57]
Most of the 134 FBS schools are members of an FBS conference, but there are also a small number ofindependent schools. Since theWestern Athletic Conference discontinued football sponsorship prior to the2013 season, there have been ten conferences in the FBS. Through the 2023 season, all of the FBS conferences have between ten and fourteen members, although independentNotre Dame has a scheduling agreement with the fourteen-member ACC. The ten conferences are split into two groups for the purposes of theCollege Football Playoff. The "Power Four conferences" consist of most of the largest and best-known college athletic programs in the country. A school from one of the power conferences (including the Pac-12, which was a power conference prior to 2024) won everyBCS National Championship Game (which operated from 1999 to 2014), and has won everyCollege Football Playoff National Championship. The remaining five conferences are known as the "Group of Five".[58] Any conference may split its teams into two divisions;[59] however, as of the 2024 season, the only FBS conference that uses divisions is the SBC. The American, the Big 12, and CUSA all previously utilized division systems before abandoning them after losing some of their member schools to realignment:UConn left The American in July 2020, andMarshall,Old Dominion, andSouthern Miss left CUSA in July 2022, leaving both those conferences with an odd number of members, while the Big 12 has not used divisions since theearly-2010s conference realignment left it with 10 members. The Pac-12, however, chose to abandon divisions entirely as a result of the NCAA Division I Council ruling that conferences would no longer be required to maintain divisions in order to hold a conference championship.[60] It was the first conference to entirely abandon divisions due to this, with the ACC and MW announcing similar intentions for 2023, and the Big Ten, MAC, and SEC doing the same for 2024. Since the2018 season, all conferences have held achampionship game that determines the conference champion. The Sun Belt was the last conference to launch a championship game, as well as the most recent to split into divisions for football, with both the title game and the divisional alignment debuting in 2018. That conference chose to form football divisions despite having only 10 football members;[14] it has since expanded to 14 members while maintaining its divisional alignment.
| Conference | Nickname | Founded | Football Members[i] | Sports[i] | Headquarters |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Athletic Conference | The American (official) AAC (unofficial) | 1979[ii] | 14[iii] | 20 | Irving, Texas |
| Atlantic Coast Conference† | ACC | 1953 | 17[iv] | 27 | Charlotte, North Carolina |
| Big 12 Conference† | Big 12 | 1996 | 16 | 25 | Irving, Texas |
| Big Ten Conference† | Big Ten, B1G | 1896 | 18 | 28 | Rosemont, Illinois |
| Conference USA | CUSA | 1995[v] | 10[vi] | 19 | Dallas, Texas |
| Mid-American Conference | MAC | 1946 | 12[vii] | 23[viii] | Cleveland, Ohio |
| Mountain West Conference | MW (official) MWC (informal) | 1999 | 12[ix][x] | 19 | Colorado Springs, Colorado |
| Pac-12 Conference | Pac-12 | 1915[xi] | 2[xii] | 24 | San Ramon, California |
| Southeastern Conference† | SEC | 1932 | 16 | 22 | Birmingham, Alabama |
| Sun Belt Conference | SBC (official) Sun Belt (unofficial) | 1976 | 14 | 20[xiii] | New Orleans, Louisiana |
| Independents[xiv] | — | 3[xv] | — | ||
† "Big Four" or "Power Four" conferences that enjoy "autonomy status" under NCAA rules
Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, Georgia joined the Sun Belt Conference upon transitioning to the FBS level in 2014. Prior to joining the Sun Belt, GASOU won six FCS (I-AA) national championships and have produced two Walter Payton Award winners. The Eagles first continuously fielded a football team in 1924; however, play was suspended for World War II and revived in 1981. The Eagles competed as an FCS independent from 1984 until 1992 as the Eagles' main conference at the time, the Trans America Athletic Conference (now known as the Atlantic Sun Conference, or ASUN), did not sponsor football, and as a member of the Southern Conference from 1993 until 2013, winning 10 SoCon championships.
TheGeorgia Southern Eagles finished their first FBS season 9–3 overall and was undefeated in Sun Belt Conference play at 8–0; winning the Sun Belt Conference championship outright in its first year as an FBS member. They were also the first team ever to go unbeaten in conference play in their first FBS season. Since the Eagles were under transitional status, the university filed for a postseason waiver to allow the Eagles to play in a bowl game; however, the NCAA denied Georgia Southern's waiver request and a subsequent appeal since enough full member FBS teams became bowl-eligible during the season.
Liberty University began its FBS transition process on July 1, 2017. The NCAA granted the school a waiver from its normal transition rules that require an invitation from an FBS conference before beginning the transition. TheFlames played in theBig South Conference in 2017 but were not eligible for the FCS playoffs. For 2018 to 2022, the Flames became an FBS independent. The school initially intended to remain a Big South member in other sports until it received an invitation to an FBS conference,[61] but instead joined the non-footballASUN Conference in 2018.[62]Conference USA (CUSA) eventually announced in November 2021 Liberty's future addition to that conference, with Flames football moving to CUSA starting in the 2023 season.[63]
Three schools began FBS transitions on July 1, 2022,James Madison University,Jacksonville State University, andSam Houston State University. James Madison joined the Sun Belt after meeting the NCAA minimum of five FBS opponents at its home stadium, as required and scheduled.[64] This happened after James Madison's FCS conference, the all-sportsColonial Athletic Association (CAA),[j] barred theDukes from competing in or hosting team championships in any sport for that conference during the 2021–22 season according to then-current CAA bylaws. (The CAA football league, branded asCAA Football, is technically a separate entity from the all-sports CAA.) However, the Dukes were eligible for at-large bids to all NCAA team championships in 2021–22.[65] By meeting FBS scheduling requirements in 2022, JMU played an FBS schedule in year one of their transition process, which normally only occurs in the 2nd year of two-year transition process. Due to that, JMU tried to become bowl eligible in 2023, but the NCAA refused it.[66] However, when only 79 non-transitional FBS teams were available to fill the 82 FBS bowl slots for that season, JMU, which had finished its regular season with an 11–1 record, was allowed to fill one of the vacant slots.[67] On July 1, 2023, the two other outgoing FCS teams,Jacksonville State andSam Houston joined Conference USA.[68]
The most recent program to complete an FBS transition is theKennesaw State University Owls, which started its transition in 2023[69] ahead of its 2024 move to Conference USA.[70]
The next programs scheduled to complete an FBS transition are theDelaware Fightin' Blue Hens and theMissouri State Bears,[71] which began their transitions in 2024 and will join Conference USA for the 2025 season.[72]
The following table shows revenue for each conference reported by theKnight Commission for the 2021–22 academic year.[73]
Note: Values from some universities are not reported here. The only conferences made up entirely of state-supported universities are the MAC and SBC.
| Conference | 2021–22 Total Revenue | 2021–22 Total Expenses | 2021–22 Reporting Members | 2021–22 Total Revenue / Reporting Member | 2021–22 Total Expense / Reporting Member | 2021–22 Members Not Reporting |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Athletic Conference | $423,910,145 | $397,404,448 | 6 | $70,651,691 | $66,234,075 | SMU,[i] Temple,[ii] Tulane,[i] Navy,[iii] Tulsa[i] |
| Atlantic Coast Conference | $1,072,193,980 | $1,028,501,053 | 8 | $134,024,248 | $128,562,632 | Boston College,[i] Duke,[i] Syracuse,[i] Miami,[i] Pitt,[ii] Wake Forest[i] |
| Big 12 Conference | $1,066,493,140 | $1,016,951,340 | 8 | $133,311,643 | $127,118,918 | Baylor,[i] TCU[i] |
| Big Ten Conference | $2,041,265,014 | $1,927,764,454 | 13 | $157,020,386 | $148,289,573 | Northwestern[i] |
| Conference USA | $496,221,144 | $493,252,353 | 13 | $38,170,857 | $37,942,489 | Rice[i] |
| Mid-American Conference | $288,033,509 | $282,855,157 | 9 | $32,003,723 | $31,428,351 | Ball State, Eastern Michigan, Buffalo |
| Mountain West Conference | $570,792,144 | $555,080,056 | 11 | $51,890,195 | $50,461,823 | Air Force[iii] |
| Pac-12 Conference | $1,144,504,032 | $1,163,840,847 | 10 | $114,450,403 | $116,384,085 | Stanford,[i] USC[i] |
| Southeastern Conference | $2,168,587,358 | $2,044,850,233 | 13 | $166,814,412 | $157,296,172 | Vanderbilt[i] |
| Sun Belt Conference | $335,515,775 | $329,574,687 | 9 | $37,279,531 | $36,619,410 | Louisiana–Monroe |
The FBS has experienced severalrealignments since its formation in 1978, with many teams changing conferences, dropping out of the FBS, or moving up from the FCS. In 1982, the size of the division was cut considerably, and theSouthern Conference and theIvy League were demoted to the FCS.[75] In 1985, theMissouri Valley Conference stopped sponsoring football.[57] In the 1980s and 1990s, severalindependentsjoined conferences, dropped football, or joined the FCS. In the1996 NCAA conference realignment, theSouthwest Conference dissolved, and four Texas teams from that conference joined with theBig 8 schools to form theBig 12 Conference. TheWestern Athletic Conference expanded to sixteen members, but half of the schools left in 1999 to form theMountain West Conference. Conference USA (CUSA) formed from a merger of theMetro Conference and theGreat Midwest Conference, two conferences which had not sponsored football. TheBig West stopped sponsoring football after the 2000 season, and was essentially replaced by theSun Belt Conference, which added former Big West members and began sponsoring football in 2001. In the mid-2000s, the Big East added former basketball-only member Connecticut, while Temple left the conference (before eventually returning in 2013). During anotherphase of realignment in 2005, three schools jumped from theBig East to the ACC. The Big East responded by adding schools from Conference USA.[57]
College football underwent anothermajor conference realignment in the first half of the 2010s. Members of theBig East left the conference to join the Big 12 and ACC. The Big 12 lost members to the SEC, the Pac-12, and the Big Ten, while the Big Ten also gained one former ACC member. The remaining members of the Big East split into two conferences: theAmerican Athletic Conference ("The American") and a new conference that assumed theBig East name but does not sponsor football. The American added several schools from CUSA, but lost one school each to the ACC and Big Ten after its first season. In turn,CUSA added FCS schools and schools from theSun Belt Conference. The Sun Belt Conferencereplenished its membership by adding FCS schools and schools from theWestern Athletic Conference. The Mountain West lost schools to the Big 12, Pac-12, and the FBS independent ranks, andadded several schools from the WAC. After several defections, leaving the conference with only two football-sponsoring schools remaining, the WACdropped its sponsorship of football.[57]
The early-2010s realignment cycle also affected the FBS independent ranks.BYU left the MW in 2011 for football independence and the non-footballWest Coast Conference. In 2013,Idaho andNew Mexico State, the last two football-sponsoring schools in the WAC, became FBS independents, but would return to their former football home of the Sun Belt Conference as football-only members the following year. Also in 2013,Notre Dame became a full but non-football member of the ACC, entering into a scheduling agreement with that conference that calls for theFighting Irish football team to play five games each season against ACC schools, and to play each other ACC school at least once every three years. Finally, in 2015,Navy became a football-only member of The American, ending more than a century of football independence.[57]
Realignment continued at a lower level through the rest of the 2010s and into the early 2020s. Georgia Southern joined the Sun Belt Conference upon transitioning to the FBS level in 2014. The Eagles won the Sun Belt Conference championship outright in their first year as an FBS member. The 2016 season saw FCSCoastal Carolina join the Sun Belt Conference for non-football sports while beginning a transition to FBS football; thefootball team joined the Sun Belt in 2017. That season was also the last forIdaho andNew Mexico State as Sun Belt football members. After 2017, New Mexico State returned to independent status, while Idaho downgraded to FCS football—becoming the first program ever to voluntarily do so without extenuating circumstances[k]—and added football to its all-sports membership in theBig Sky Conference. Also in 2016,UMass went independent after turning down an offer of full membership in theMid-American Conference. Most recently,UConn went independent in 2020 when the school left The American to rejoin many of its historic basketball rivals in the current Big East Conference. Notre Dame competed under a full ACC schedule only also in 2020 in response to logistical concerns that arose from the effects ofCOVID-19.
The most recent realignment iscurrently ongoing, with the majority of conference changes in this cycle taking place in 2023 and 2024. It started with the announcements byOklahoma andTexas that they would leave the Big 12 for the SEC no later than 2025.[76] The Big 12 and its departing members later announced a 2024 departure date.[77] The first actual conference changes came in 2022, with the Sun Belt gainingMarshall, returningOld Dominion, andSouthern Miss from CUSA,[64][78] and FCS upgraderJames Madison. The following year saw CUSA addJacksonville State,Sam Houston (both from FCS),New Mexico State andLiberty (FBS independents) but loseCharlotte,Florida Atlantic,North Texas,Rice,UAB, andUTSA to The American. In turn, The American lostCincinnati,Houston, andUCF to the Big 12, which also added former football independent BYU.[79] In 2024, Oklahoma and Texas joined the SEC, while 10 of the 12 members of the Pac-12 left for other power conferences—UCLA,USC, Oregon, and Washington for the Big Ten; Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah for the Big 12;[80][81] and California and Stanford for the ACC. In addition,Kennesaw State upgraded to FBS and joined CUSA,[82] SMU left The American for the ACC,[83][84] andArmy left the independent ranks to become a football-only member of The American.[85] 2025 will also see two new teams transition from FCS to FBS asDelaware andMissouri State will join CUSA, respectively fromCAA Football[86] and theMissouri Valley Football Conference,[87] and also the departure of UMass from the independent ranks to become a full member of the MAC.[88] In September 2024, the Pac-12 started a rebuilding process by raiding the Mountain West Conference, with five MW members (Boise State,Colorado State,Fresno State,San Diego State, andUtah State) set to join the Pac-12 in 2026.[89][90] The MW first responded by announcing thatUTEP would join from CUSA in 2026,[91] soon followed byHawaiʻi upgrading its MW membership from football-only to all-sports in 2026[92] andNorthern Illinois joining from the MAC as a football-only member in 2026.[93]
Several awards are given each year to players and coaches in the FBS. Although all college football players are eligible for many of these awards (such as theHeisman Trophy), FBS players usually win these awards, and other awards (such as theWalter Payton Award) exist to honor players in other divisions and the FCS. In addition to the national awards listed below, FBS conferences also have their own awards, and several organizations release a yearlyCollege Football All-America Team. In 1951, theNational Football Foundation established theCollege Football Hall of Fame. Notable individual awards include:
The NCAA does not officially name a national champion, but several other organizations namenational champions and all conferences participate in theCollege Football Playoff in order to determine a champion. The winner of the College Football Playoff receives theCollege Football Playoff National Championship Trophy. The AP awards theAP National Championship Trophy, while theAmerican Football Coaches Association awards theAFCA National Championship Trophy. The AFCA trophy was previously awarded to the winner of theBCS National Championship Game (a predecessor of the College Football Playoff National Championship game), which operated from 1999 to 2014. TheFootball Writers Association of America awarded theGrantland Rice Trophy until after the 2013 season, and theNational Football Foundation awards theMacArthur Bowl. Since the disputed end of the2003 season, the various organizations have been able to agree on a single national champion.
Many of the school names on the maps below are abbreviated in order to save space.
The following is a list of such abbreviations along with each school's full name:
Big Ten ConferenceMissouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association (before six teams left to form theBig 6 which grew into the Big 8)[95]Pacific Coast Conference (which grew into the Pacific-10)
Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference
Southern ConferenceSouthwest Conference Independents
Atlantic Coast ConferenceBig 7 Conference (which grew into the Big 8)Big Ten Conference
Border Intercollegiate Athletic AssociationIvy League
Missouri Valley ConferencePacific Coast Conference (which grew into the Pacific-10)
Skyline ConferenceSouthern ConferenceSECSouthwest Conference Independents
Atlantic Coast ConferenceBig Eight ConferenceBig Ten ConferenceIvy League
Mid-American ConferenceMissouri Valley ConferencePac-8 ConferencePCAA (aka Big West Conference)Southern ConferenceSECSouthwest ConferenceWestern Athletic Conference IndependentsAtlantic Coast ConferenceBig Eight ConferenceBig Ten ConferenceBig West ConferenceMid-American ConferenceMissouri Valley ConferencePacific-10 ConferenceSoutheastern ConferenceSouthwest ConferenceWestern Athletic Conference IndependentsAtlantic Coast ConferenceBig East Conference (1979-2013)Big Eight ConferenceBig Ten ConferenceBig West ConferenceMid-American ConferencePacific-10SECSouthwest ConferenceWestern Athletic Conference Independents other than those indicated below Independents that joined anAQ conference by theBCS's inaugural1998 season (plus Notre Dame, which also automatically qualified for the BCS under certain conditions).
Atlantic Coast Conference
Big East Conference (1979-2013)Big 12 ConferenceBig Ten ConferenceConference USAMid-American ConferenceMountain West ConferencePacific-10SECSun Belt ConferenceWestern Athletic Conference IndependentsAmerican Athletic ConferenceAtlantic Coast ConferenceBig 12 ConferenceBig Ten ConferenceConference USAMid-American ConferenceMountain West ConferencePac-12 ConferenceSECSun Belt Conference Independents Schools that transitioned before 1990 Schools that transitioned between 1990 and 1999 Schools that transitioned between 2000 and 2009 Schools that transitioned between 2010 and 2019 Schools that transitioned in 2020 or later Idaho, a school that has transitioned from FCS to FBS (1997) and back to FCS (2018).In addition to the list of FBS football programs in the Main article, there is also aList of NCAA Division I FBS football stadiums.
