College football has always had an unusual postseason. For most of the sport’s history, there was no bracket and no championship game arranged by the NCAA. The regular season ended, conference champions went to bowl games, and voters decided the national champion after the bowls were played.
That system was imperfect, but the calendar made sense. The season built toward New Year’s Day, when the biggest bowl games were played across the country. By the end of the night, college football had usually reached its conclusion.
That is no longer the case. The sport has gradually turned a one-day showcase into a postseason that lasts for a month. The Bowl Championship Series pushed the title game beyond January 1. The four-team College Football Playoff added a separate championship game a week or more after the semifinals. The 12-team playoff added two more rounds and moved the end of the season into the middle or latter part of January.
Before explaining how I would change the FBS calendar, it is worth looking at how college football arrived at its current schedule.
When New Year’s Day Was the Destination
The connection between college football and New Year’s Day began with the game that became the Rose Bowl. Pasadena staged its first East-West football game on January 1, 1902. The matchup did not immediately become an annual event, but football returned to the Tournament of Roses in 1916 and became a permanent part of the celebration. The game moved into the Rose Bowl stadium in 1923.
Other cities eventually created their own New Year’s events. The Sugar Bowl and Orange Bowl began in 1935, and the first Cotton Bowl was played on January 1, 1937. By the late 1930s, the major bowls had established a pattern that would define the sport for decades: strong teams traveled to warm-weather destinations and finished their seasons on New Year’s Day.
These games were not originally rounds in a playoff. They were independent events with conference relationships and regional identities. The Rose Bowl became closely associated with the Big Ten and the conference now known as the Pac-12. The Sugar, Orange, and Cotton bowls developed their own conference ties and traditions.
The lack of a playoff sometimes produced disputed championships. The teams ranked first and second did not always meet, and a team could win its bowl while another team was voted national champion. That frustration eventually created pressure for a system that could match the leading contenders.
Still, the calendar had a natural ending. New Year’s Day was not merely another date in the postseason. It was the destination toward which the entire season moved. Fans could spend the day moving from one major bowl to the next, and the final polls would settle the championship soon afterward.
The BCS Moves the Championship Beyond New Year’s Day
The Bowl Championship Series began with the 1998 season. Its central purpose was straightforward: use polls and computer rankings to place the top two teams in a national championship game.
At first, the championship rotated among the Fiesta, Sugar, Orange, and Rose bowls. That improved the odds of getting a clear No. 1-versus-No. 2 matchup, but it also began separating the national championship from the traditional New Year’s Day schedule. The first BCS title game was played in the Fiesta Bowl on January 4, 1999.
The separation became more pronounced beginning with the 2006 season, when the BCS added a fifth game devoted solely to the national championship. One of the four major bowls would still host its traditional matchup, then the same site would host the championship several days later. Florida and Ohio State played for the title on January 8, 2007.
By the end of the BCS era, a January championship game no longer felt unusual. Auburn and Oregon played on January 10, 2011. The final BCS championship, between Florida State and Auburn, was played on January 6, 2014.
The BCS solved one problem better than the old bowl system: it usually brought the top two teams together. It did not eliminate controversy, because choosing only two teams meant another contender would almost always feel excluded. It also changed the rhythm of the postseason. New Year’s Day remained important, but it was no longer the conclusion. The sport’s biggest game now stood apart from the bowls that had once served as its grand finale.
The Four-Team Playoff Adds Another Step
The College Football Playoff replaced the BCS beginning with the 2014 season. A selection committee chose four teams, two major bowls served as semifinals, and the winners advanced to a separate national championship game.
The new format was a reasonable response to the BCS’s biggest weakness. Four teams had a chance to settle the championship on the field instead of leaving the entire decision to polls, computers, and a single title matchup. It also preserved the major bowls by rotating the semifinals among the Rose, Sugar, Orange, Cotton, Fiesta, and Peach bowls.
But the four-team format lengthened the season again. The first CFP semifinals were played on New Year’s Day 2015, and Ohio State defeated Oregon for the championship on January 12. During the ten seasons of the four-team playoff, the championship was generally played during the second week of January. The last title game of that era, Michigan against Washington, was played on January 8, 2024.
Under this format, New Year’s Day became a gateway instead of an ending. A playoff team could win a semifinal in the Rose or Sugar Bowl and still have another game—and another long wait—ahead of it.
The 12-Team Playoff Stretches the Season Across Four Rounds
The playoff expanded from four teams to 12 beginning with the 2024 season. The format created four first-round games on campus, four quarterfinals played through major bowls, two bowl semifinals, and a national championship game.
That structure gives more teams access to the championship and creates home playoff games that college football had never previously staged at the FBS level. It also requires four separate postseason weekends.
The first expanded playoff began on December 20, 2024. Its quarterfinals were played on December 31 and January 1, the semifinals followed on January 9 and 10, and Ohio State beat Notre Dame for the championship on January 20. The second 12-team playoff followed nearly the same pattern, running from December 19, 2025, through the championship game on January 19, 2026.
The calendar is scheduled to stretch even further. The national championship games following the 2026 and 2027 seasons are set for January 25, 2027, and January 24, 2028. What was once a postseason centered on New Year’s Day can now continue for more than three additional weeks.
| Postseason format | First season | Championship date for first season | Games needed to win title after regular season* |
|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional bowl system | — | Usually January 1 | 1 |
| BCS | 1998 | January 4, 1999 | 1 |
| Four-team CFP | 2014 | January 12, 2015 | 2 |
| 12-team CFP | 2024 | January 20, 2025 | 3 or 4 |
*The 12-team total depends on whether a team receives a first-round bye under the format used that season.
A Season Without a Clean Ending
Each change can be defended on its own. The BCS tried to guarantee a championship matchup. The four-team playoff allowed more contenders to participate. The 12-team playoff widened access again and gave conference champions and at-large teams a clearer path.
Taken together, however, those changes have produced a calendar that college football never fully redesigned. The sport kept the regular season, rivalry week, conference championship games, bowl traditions, and long holiday gaps, then layered a multi-round playoff on top of all of them.
The result is a season with no clean boundary. Some teams begin playing in late August while the national champion may not be crowned until the final week of January. Players on the two finalists can participate in 16 or 17 games, depending on their schedule and playoff path. The championship now arrives when the NFL playoffs are already commanding most of the country’s attention and when the college basketball season is well underway.
This is not an argument against deciding the championship on the field. A playoff is better than a system in which an unbeaten contender can finish its season without any opportunity to play for the title. The problem is that college football expanded the postseason without making enough room for it.
The postseason cannot be fixed by moving one or two games. The entire calendar needs a structure built around the playoff instead of a playoff stacked on top of everything that came before it.
My Plan for Fixing the FBS Calendar
My solution has five parts: establish a firm 15-week regular-season window, eliminate conference championship games, expand the playoff to 16 teams, protect the Army–Navy game, and return the semifinals to New Year’s Day.
The proposal would preserve a 12-game regular season. It would also give every playoff team the same path to the championship and finish the season weeks earlier than the current calendar.
1. Play the Regular Season Over 15 Weeks
The season would begin on the weekend before Labor Day weekend and last 15 weeks. Schools would still play no more than 12 regular-season games.
This would give each program three open weeks during the regular-season window. Schools could use those weeks for rest, recovery, rescheduled games, or the logistical demands created by coast-to-coast conferences. The season would not begin earlier than it already does, and the players would not be asked to play additional regular-season games.
Most importantly, the 15-week window would establish a firm end to the regular season. College football needs to work backward from the date it wants to crown a champion. It cannot keep adding postseason rounds while allowing every existing part of the calendar to occupy the same space.
2. Eliminate Conference Championship Games
Conference championship games made more sense when conferences were smaller and their members played nearly identical schedules. That is no longer the reality of major college football.
Today’s largest conferences contain so many schools that teams can finish with the same conference record after playing substantially different opponents. Some contenders do not play one another at all. The participants in the championship game may then be decided by a chain of tiebreakers involving common opponents, opponents’ winning percentages, rankings, or other formulas few fans understand.
A deserving team can be excluded from the game because of an obscure tiebreaker, while the two selected teams must play a 13th game before entering an expanded national playoff. The championship game can also punish its loser for qualifying: a team that was safely in the playoff before the game could fall in the rankings or suffer injuries while another contender sits at home.
Conferences can recognize their regular-season champion using their standings and published tiebreakers. If multiple teams finish tied, they can recognize co-champions as they did for much of college football history. The national playoff—not an extra conference game—should settle which team is best on the field.
Removing conference championship weekend creates the space the playoff needs. It also ensures no contender has to play an additional game merely because its conference operates differently from another league.
3. Expand the Playoff to 16 Teams
If college football is committed to an expanded playoff, 16 teams produce a cleaner bracket than 12. Every team would enter in the same round, and no team would receive a bye based on a ranking or conference designation.
The first round would consist of eight games hosted by the higher seeds. The top eight teams would earn a home playoff game, giving the regular season and seeding real value. A No. 1 seed would host No. 16, No. 2 would host No. 15, and so on.
After the first round, eight teams would remain for the quarterfinals. Those games could use four of the major bowls if bowl organizers insist on remaining part of the playoff. The semifinals could then rotate among the other major bowls on New Year’s Day.
This arrangement offers a reasonable compromise. Campus games would bring playoff football directly to students and season-ticket holders, while the bowls would retain prominent quarterfinal and semifinal matchups. More importantly, every national champion would have to win four playoff games. The bracket would be easy to understand and the competitive path would be the same for every seed.
4. Reserve Week 16 for Army–Navy
No playoff games would be played during Week 16. Every team would receive a week off after the regular season, and Army–Navy would remain a standalone game.
The Army–Navy game deserves its own national window. It is one of the sport’s best traditions, and it should not have to compete with playoff games or be moved into the middle of the regular season to accommodate the bracket.
The open week would also give the playoff selection process time to conclude and allow teams to recover, make travel plans, and prepare for the first round. Under my proposal, eliminating conference championship games does not create an empty weekend. It creates a needed break and protects a game that should stand by itself.
5. Start the Playoff in Week 17 and Play the Semifinals on New Year’s Day
The 16-team playoff would begin in Week 17 with eight first-round games on campus. The quarterfinals would follow the next week.
The four quarterfinal winners would advance to two semifinal games on New Year’s Day. That would restore January 1 as the centerpiece of the college football postseason. Instead of serving as the beginning of another three weeks of playoff games, New Year’s Day would determine the two teams playing for the national championship.
The championship could then be played on the Monday following the next full week. Depending on how New Year’s Day falls on the calendar, the title game would generally land during the first half of January instead of January 19, 20, 24, or 25.
My preference would be to play the national championship on Saturday night. A Saturday championship would feel more natural for a sport whose biggest games have always been weekend events. It would also be easier for fans who travel to the game or want to stay up through the trophy presentation.
The obstacle is the NFL, which controls the most valuable Saturday television windows once its regular season ends. College football and its broadcast partners would have to negotiate for that space. If a Saturday night cannot be secured, the following Monday remains a workable option—and it would still bring the season to a close much earlier than the present system.
What the Proposed Calendar Would Look Like
| Week | Event |
|---|---|
| 1–15 | Twelve-game regular season beginning the weekend before Labor Day weekend |
| 16 | Open week for FBS teams; Army–Navy played as a standalone game |
| 17 | 16-team playoff first round at the higher seeds’ home stadiums |
| 18 | Playoff quarterfinals, potentially using four major bowls |
| New Year’s Day | Two national semifinal games |
| Following Monday | National championship game |
This plan would not make every argument disappear. The selection committee would still have to choose and seed 16 teams. Conferences would have to accept that a regular-season title can sometimes be shared. Bowl organizers and television networks would have to adjust schedules they have spent years protecting.
But the calendar itself would finally make sense. Teams would know the regular-season window before the year began. Every playoff participant would receive a week off and enter the same four-round bracket. Higher seeds would be rewarded with home games. Army–Navy would keep its standalone stage. New Year’s Day would regain its importance, and the national champion would be crowned before the season drifts deep into January.
College football does not need fewer meaningful games. It needs its meaningful games arranged in the right order. A 15-week season followed by a 16-team playoff would preserve the sport’s best traditions while giving the postseason a clear beginning and a sensible ending.