One of the strangest scheduling anomalies in all of sports is about to have its swan song this weekend in college football’s befuddling and charming Week 0.
The fact that a Week 0 even exists is quintessential college football in that it couldn’t really exist anywhere else and make any sense at all. However, it has been alive for years, allowing a select handful of teams an opportunity to begin the regular season a week before everybody else. The weekend is open to anyone playing an international game (TCU-UNC in Dublin, Ireland) and anyone playing an away game at Hawaii to compensate for their extra travel. The NCAA can also provide a waiver for games, although that is rare. This season, it was given to NC State and Virginia as they were originally scheduled to play their season opener in Brazil before it was moved back stateside.
However, 2026 will be the last year that the sport enjoys an appetizer before the regular season truly kicks off in full. The FBS Oversight Committee approved legislation on Friday that will move the calendar up one week so that all teams begin during the week that has served as Week 0.
“Earlier this year, the FBS Calendar Subgroup presented recommendations to the committee to amend the regular season and the off-campus recruiting model,” the NCAA briefing said. “In response to those recommendations, a new FBS first-contest date has been adopted and will take effect in the 2027 season. The season will begin on the Thursday of what is now designated Week 0 and end on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.”
This year’s Week 0 consists of eight games. And while none of them are true barnburners, it’s a nice, gentle way to start the regular season. And with American fans starved for any kind of football that matters, we will gladly sit down and watch New Mexico State travel to Florida State in primetime.
The switch allows for college football to have an extra full week during the NFL preseason, which will only serve to help get the sport more attention and higher ratings as it begins its campaign. Week 0 did provide some decent options for television windows, but the networks likely won’t complain about one more week of a full slate of games. It would also allow teams an extra bye week during the year to get more rest and spread out their schedules.
It’s a sensible change from the NCAA, which is really saying something considering that the governing body for college athletics hasn’t done much, as their world exists in a state of total chaos. To be sure, there are many other calendar issues to be sorted out, like the CFP going late into January and the ridiculousness of the transfer portal. But at least this is one step in the right direction, even if we will miss our quirky and beloved tradition of Week 0.
About Matt Yoder