Coaches pitch 4 changes to college football sked

The American Football Coaches Association is recommending changes to the college football calendar that would end the season by the second Monday in January, while also pushing for increased access to the College Football Playoff.

The AFCA board announced Tuesday four proposed calendar changes: ending conference championship games; reducing open weeks in seasons from two to one; preserving an exclusive window for the Army-Navy game in December but allowing postseason games to be played on the same day; and reducing the minimum number of days between games to no fewer than six.

The proposal comes two weeks after the NCAA’s Football Oversight Committee recommended that the regular season begin earlier, on the Thursday of what is now known as Week Zero, starting with the 2027 season.

The AFCA’s plan comes in response to a longer college season with the 12-team CFP, and the possibility of further playoff expansion. The most recent CFP championship game between Indiana and Miami took place Jan. 19, and the 2027 and 2028 title games are scheduled for Jan. 25 and Jan. 24, respectively.

“Structuring the season in this way will better support student-athletes by more closely matching the academic calendar and aligning with the single transfer portal window,” the AFCA said in its statement. “It also elevates the quality of play during the most meaningful stretch of the season by removing unnecessary breaks and preserving competitive rhythm.”

AFCA executive director Craig Bohl told ESPN that the board supports further CFP expansion but not a specific number, recognizing that 16- and 24-team models are both being discussed by league commissioners.

While it’s tricky but possible to have a 24-team playoff end that early, there historically has been a push to have the quarterfinals played on New Year’s Day, and that’s proven valuable from a viewership aspect.

“We’d like to have more access,” Bohl said. “Whatever that number is, the powers that be should find that. I do know some coaches supported 24. We just didn’t discuss that a great deal. But we felt like change is needed.”

Bohl said the transfer portal, which runs from Jan. 2 to Jan. 16, is a primary motivator to end the season earlier, so players can get to their new teams. Another factor is the lag time between postseason games, which Oregon coach Dan Lanning and others have pushed to reduce. National champion Indiana went 27 days between the Big Ten championship game and the CFP quarterfinal at the Rose Bowl, and then 10 more days until it faced Oregon in the semifinals.

“Every university is striving for more revenue, and so this potential plan would certainly need to secure revenue,” said Bohl, the former coach at Wyoming and North Dakota State. “But players want the ability to, if they want to transfer, to get to their new school and start as early as they can, to get acclimated to school, with coaches. We just saw it being problematic if your playoffs run real deep, so we feel like from a student-athletes’ perspective and the mentality of developing your squad, we would be better served by having the season end earlier.”

The most significant proposed change, along with moving the regular season start up a week, is eliminating league title games. Those have been in place for the SEC since 1992, the Big 12 since 1996 (with a break from 2011 to 2016), the ACC since 2005 and the Big Ten since 2011.

“We just think that conference championship games have kind of run their course, so why are we playing them?” Bohl said.

Although the AFCA does not control the college football calendar, Bohl said the board includes coaches from a range of conferences and backgrounds whose voices should resonate.

“Certainly they represent their conference, but they’re trying to do what’s best for college football,” he said. “We believe it’s going to spur some more dialogue and conversation about: Can we make improvement?”