Some P4 coaches feel the current college football calendar is an endurance test. Late August kickoffs bleeding into mid-to-late January title games. Five months for twelve regular-season games, conference title games, and the expanded playoffs. Travel and media. Sometimes we forget these players are still students trying to manage everything together. So, on Thursday, the NCAA officially recommended a proposal that could ease the schedule. 

“Under the proposal, future FBS regular seasons would be standardized to 14 weeks, during which teams could schedule 12 games,” the FBS Oversight Committee wrote in an April 16 statement. “The season would begin on the Thursday of what is now designated Week 0 and end on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.”

Moving the starting line provides some breathing room because right now, the structure is too tight. Teams only get two bye weeks if the calendar aligns and the first Saturday falls late in August. Otherwise, it’s a week-to-week sprint with very little time for recovery. But under this new model, with a consistent 14-week schedule, it guarantees two bye weeks every year.

Take recent examples. Miami played 16 games in 2025, and Ohio State did the same in 2024. That’s NFL-level workload for players who are, in most cases, still teenagers managing studies and physical wear-and-tear from one of the most violent sports. This comparison highlights why an extra bye week is a necessity, a point the NCAA seems to understand.

By shifting the season earlier, potentially as soon as August 26 in 2027, the sport creates space without sacrificing any games. Currently, Week 0 games require waivers or special exemptions, like the North Carolina vs. TCU in Dublin. But if this proposal comes through, it will normalize it. It may not fix everything, but it will ease a schedule that conference championships, expanded playoff rounds, and bowl games currently define.

It will also preserve standalone weekends for the Army-Navy rivalry and conference games, which have been under pressure. SEC commissioner circles have floated the idea of eliminating the conference championship, while Army coach Jeff Monken has suggested moving the rivalry game to Thanksgiving. This change could directly address the scheduling concerns raised by P4 coaches.   

Oregon and Texas have been waiting for this change

One of the most honest pieces of feedback on the current system came from Oregon head coach Dan Lanning. Ahead of last season’s Orange Bowl, he didn’t sugarcoat it.

“Ultimately, in my mind, the vision for this should be every playoff game should be played every single weekend until you finish the season,” he said. “Ideally, the season, even if it means we start Week 0 or you eliminate a bye, the season ends Jan. 1. This should be the last game. This should be the championship game.”

That’s the dream scenario for a lot of coaches. They want to wrap it up early and give players and staff a clean transition into recruiting cycles, transfer portal movement, and offseason planning. Right now, everything overlaps as the portal opens while teams are still playing big games and coaches are juggling playoff prep with roster management. 

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian felt it was enough to cancel the Longhorns’ spring game altogether last year because he felt the system was asking too much.

“I just don’t know if rolling the ball out, playing the game, when we only get 15 practices, is the best for us to maximize the opportunities that we get,” he said.

The FBS Oversight Committee’s proposal now heads to the Division I Council in June. If approved, it would take effect in 2027, giving schedules some flexibility while players get one extra week to recover.