College football could shift start of season to ‘Week 0’ by 2027

The 2027 college football season could start one week before we’re all accustomed to.

According to a report by Seth Emerson and Ralph D. Russo in The Athletic, administrators and coaches are “moving toward making a recommendation” to shift the start of the college football season up by one week, to what is now colloquially called Week 0, within the next couple of months.

Per The Athletic, members of the NCAA football oversight committee “strongly support” the move to increase scheduling flexibility and ensure each team has at least two idle weeks in a 12-game slate. There is “urgency” within the committee to pass the resolution this spring or summer so teams can begin planning for the 2027 season.

It is important to note that the change is not directly tied to any College Football Playoff expansion. Under the new schedule, the regular season would still be scheduled to end on Thanksgiving weekend. And as The Athletic notes, the change actually would not impact every season. In years where there are only 13 weeks between Labor Day and Thanksgiving, college football would start the week prior to Labor Day. In years where there are 14 weeks between Labor Day and Thanksgiving, Week 1 would begin on Labor Day weekend as normal.

Week 0 has already become a somewhat meaningful date on the college football calendar. This year, eight Week 0 games will involve FBS teams, including two international games: North Carolina-TCU in Dublin and NC State-Virginia in Rio de Janeiro.

In addition to moving the start of the season to Week 0, the committee is also reportedly discussing switching from the current spring practice format to “NFL-style offseason workouts,” which would include OTAs and staggered workout sessions in both the spring and summer.

Both that and the schedule shift seem like low-hanging fruit for the committee, which has much bigger fish to fry in the form of CFP expansion.