NCAA committee recommends ditching Week Zero and officially moving up the start of college football season in 2027

The college football season could officially begin earlier in the year starting in 2027.

The NCAA announced Thursday that the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision Oversight Committee had recommended the elimination of Week Zero from the calendar and officially give teams 14 weeks to play 12 games.

If approved, the decision would mean that Week 1 would begin the weekend before Labor Day weekend.

Week Zero has been the unofficial start to the college football season and has grown in popularity in recent seasons as more teams have applied for waivers to start their seasons earlier. In 2026, there are eight games scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 29, including North Carolina vs. TCU in Dublin and NC State vs. Virginia in Rio de Janeiro. Week 1 then officially begins on Thursday, Sept. 3.

As part of the recommendation, Week 1 would “begin on the Thursday of what is now designated Week 0 and end on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.” To be ratified, the recommendation has to be approved by the Division I Cabinet in June.

Crucially, the recommendation also provides “flexibility for potential changes to the postseason and preserves standalone weekends for conference championships and the Army-Navy game.” It seems a matter of when, not if, the College Football Playoff will expand beyond 12 teams, and President Donald Trump recently issued an executive order in an attempt to keep the annual football game between the two service academies as a standalone event. The game, typically played after the regular season has concluded for the rest of college football, could need to move if the playoff expands.

Because of how late Labor Day is this year, the 2026 season provides teams just 13 weeks to play 12 games. In 2024 and 2025, the early Labor Day meant that teams had 14 weeks to play 12 games by the Thanksgiving weekend.