Proposed college football calendar changes include Week 0 and transfer, recruiting windows
By Keith Farner
Published:
Commissioners across college sports have proposed changes to the college football calendar that would shift the regular season and bowl schedules.
Ross Dellenger of Sports Illustrated reported that the proposed calendar is a collaboration of the 10 FBS conferences and Notre Dame and would also create new dead periods, permit the off-campus recruitment of high school juniors, shift back the early signing date and provide more of a framework around the recruitment of transfers.
However, maybe the most significant item is the notion that officials need to “further explore potentially making Week 0 fully permissive,” the calendar notes. Under current rules, teams need a waiver to play a game during what’s termed “Week 0,” the weekend before the official start to the season. In another proposed change, bowl games would be permitted to start the second Saturday in December—a week earlier than normal.
The proposed calendar is being circulated around athletic departments for feedback and further examination of this draft proposal, and has not made its way through the NCAA legislative approvals process.
Eleven games involving FBS teams were played on Week 0 this year, including Northwestern’s win over Nebraska in Ireland, and Vanderbilt’s win over Hawaii.
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
