NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision

Sport	College football
Founded	1978; 47 years ago (1978)
No. of teams	136
Country	United States
Most recent champion(s)	Ohio State Buckeyes (2024)
TV partner(s)	Various

The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) is the top level of college football in the United States. It includes the largest schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). As of the 2025 season, there are 10 conferences and 136 schools in the FBS.

College football is a very popular sport in the United States. Top FBS schools earn millions of dollars each year. Their games attract huge crowds, with many stadiums holding tens of thousands of fans. Since July 1, 2021, college athletes can earn money from their name, image, and likeness (NIL). Before this, colleges could only offer things like athletic scholarships for tuition, housing, and books.

Unlike other NCAA sports, the NCAA does not officially give out an FBS national championship trophy. It also doesn't run a playoff to decide a champion on the field. Before 2014, groups like the Associated Press and AFCA would vote to pick a national champion. Many cities host special games called bowl games after the regular season. These games used to be just for fun and money, but now some are part of the College Football Playoff. The Playoff started in 2014 to help decide the national champion.

Understanding FBS Football

The FBS is the highest level of college football in the U.S. Most players chosen in the NFL Draft come from FBS teams. The NCAA usually divides schools into three main groups: Divisions I, II, and III. But for football, Division I is split into two parts: the FBS and the FCS.

How FBS Teams Are Organized

Teams in the FBS are grouped into conferences. These groups play against each other to win a conference championship. The FBS currently has ten conferences. These are often divided into the "Power Four conferences" and the "Group of Five". The Power Four conferences have the most famous schools and more freedom from NCAA rules.

Joining and Staying in FBS

Many FCS schools want to join the FBS. They hope to get more money, sponsorships, and national attention. However, FBS programs also have higher costs for staff, facilities, and scholarships. Some FBS athletic departments even lose money and need help from their universities. In many states, the head coach of an FBS team is the highest-paid public employee. FBS schools can give out up to 85 football scholarships. Most FBS schools give all 85 scholarships.

To stay in the FBS, schools must meet certain rules. Before 2023, schools had to average at least 15,000 fans at home games. An FBS school must also have at least 16 sports teams, including football. They must offer at least 200 athletic scholarships each year or spend $4 million on them. Also, FBS football teams must give at least 90% of the maximum 85 football scholarships.

In October 2023, the NCAA changed some FBS rules. The old rule about average home attendance was removed. Starting in 2027–28, schools must offer at least 210 athletic scholarships or spend $6 million on them. They must also provide at least 90% of the maximum scholarships across 16 sports, including football.

Playing the Game: FBS Schedule and Bowls

The FBS season starts in late August or early September. It ends in mid-January with the College Football Playoff National Championship game. Most FBS teams play 12 regular season games. Eight or nine of these games are against teams in their own conference. All ten active FBS conferences have a conference championship game to decide their winner.

After the conference championship games, 12 teams are chosen for the College Football Playoff. Other eligible teams are invited to bowl games. The top four teams in the Playoff get a first-round break. The other eight teams play their first-round games at their home stadiums. After this, the eight remaining Playoff teams play in the New Year's Six bowls. These bowls take turns hosting quarterfinal and semifinal Playoff games. The Playoff ends with the College Football Playoff National Championship.

The Hawaii Rainbow Warriors and teams playing at Hawaii can play an extra regular season game. This helps them cover travel costs. So, the longest possible FBS schedule is 18 games. This includes 13 regular season games, a conference championship, and four playoff games.

For games outside their conference, FBS teams can schedule games against any other FBS team. A few FBS teams are independent and control their own schedules completely. Non-conference games are often "home and homes," where teams take turns hosting. Stronger conferences often play non-conference games against weaker conferences or even FCS teams. FBS teams can play up to 40% of their games against FCS teams. However, only one win against an FCS team counts towards being eligible for a bowl game. Also, the FCS opponent must meet certain scholarship requirements.

An FBS team must schedule five home games each year. A "home game" is usually played at their main stadium. However, one neutral-site game against an FBS team can count as a home game. FBS-FCS games are often called "money games." The FBS team usually hosts, and if an FCS team wins, it's a big upset. FCS teams get a lot of money for playing in these games.

The Football Bowl Subdivision gets its name from the bowl games played at the end of the year. Other college divisions also have their own bowl games. FBS bowl games are played in December or January. During the 2024–25 bowl season, there were 46 FBS bowl games. This included four first-round College Football Playoff games and the National Championship. An FBS team usually needs a record of 6 wins and 6 losses or better to be eligible for a bowl game. Sometimes, if not enough teams qualify, teams with 5–7 or 6–7 records can also be chosen.

Many bowls have special agreements with conferences. For example, the Pop-Tarts Bowl matches teams from the ACC and the Big 12. Some older bowls were very important in the Bowl Championship Series (BCS). The BCS chose the national champion until 2013. These bowls are still important in the College Football Playoff. Besides money for playing, conferences get millions of dollars for each school that plays in the Playoff. Playing in other bowls is also very profitable. There are also special games like the Senior Bowl, which feature all-star players and those entering the NFL Draft.

History of FBS Football

Number of FBS teams per state/territory as of 2022:      Six or more FBS schools in the state      Five      Four      Three      Two      One      No FBS schools

College football has been played for over a hundred years. The game and its organization have changed a lot over time. The first college football game was played in 1869. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Walter Camp helped create important rules. These included the line of scrimmage, the system of downs, and the College Football All-America Team. The 1902 Rose Bowl was the first bowl game ever. It became an annual event starting in 1916. In the 1930s, other bowl games like the Sugar Bowl, Cotton Bowl Classic, and Orange Bowl began.

The 1906 college football season was the first played under the IAAUS (which later became the NCAA). It was also the first season where the forward pass was allowed. The IAAUS formed after President Theodore Roosevelt asked colleges to make football safer. This was because several players had died during games.

In 1935, the Heisman Trophy was first given out. It is still considered college football's most important individual award. In 1965, the NCAA allowed the platoon system. This meant different players could play offense and defense. Before this, teams had tried it in the 1940s. In 1968, freshmen were allowed to play in games. Before that, they had to take a redshirt year (sit out a year). In 1975, the NCAA limited the number of athletic scholarships schools could offer.

In 1968, the NCAA made all teams choose between the University Division (for larger schools) or the College Division (for smaller schools). In 1973, the NCAA split into three divisions. Division I-A was formed before the 1978 season. This was because larger schools wanted more freedom and common rules. The other Division I teams formed the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), then called Division I-AA.

In the 1992 season, the SEC split into divisions and played the first FBS conference championship game. Other conferences soon followed this trend.

The NCAA does not officially name an FBS football champion. However, many teams have claimed national championships. Other groups also rank teams and name a champion. The Dickinson System and other methods were used in the early 1900s to pick the best team. The AP Poll and the Coaches Poll started ranking teams in the mid-1900s. Often, different groups would pick different national champions. This happened because top teams didn't always play each other.

In 1992, five major conferences created the Bowl Coalition to help decide the FBS champion. In 1998, two more major conferences joined to form the Bowl Championship Series (BCS). The BCS used a ranking system to match the top two teams in the BCS National Championship Game. But even during the BCS era, there were still split national championships. For example, in 2003, the AP Poll and Coaches Poll picked different champions. The College Football Playoff replaced the BCS starting in 2014. It had four teams until 2023, when it grew to 12 teams.

Since 2021, FBS football players can earn money from their name, image, and likeness (NIL). This happened after the Supreme Court ruled in NCAA v. Alston that old rules on NIL payments were against antitrust law. However, there is still no single system for how players get this money.

Watching FBS Football: Television Coverage

College football was first broadcast on radio in 1921. It was first shown on television in 1939. TV became very profitable for schools and the NCAA. In the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, the NCAA strictly controlled which games were shown. Teams could only appear on TV six times over two years.

In 1981, a Supreme Court case, NCAA v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma & University of Georgia, changed this. It gave TV rights to individual schools, not the NCAA. This meant teams could show all their games. After this, schools and conferences started making their own TV deals. This led to many changes in conferences, especially in 1996, 2005, and the early 2010s. FBS games are still very popular on TV. Over 26 million people watched the 2014 BCS National Championship Game.

Major networks like CBS, ABC, NBC, ESPN channels, and Fox channels all cover FBS football. Since conferences make their own TV deals, each conference works with a network to show its home games. In the mid-2000s, colleges and conferences started their own TV networks. Examples include the Big Ten Network, BYUtv, and the SEC Network. In 2012, college football games had over 400 million viewers.

FBS Teams and Conferences

Most of the 134 FBS schools belong to an FBS conference. However, a few are independent schools. Since the Western Athletic Conference stopped sponsoring football before the 2013 season, there have been ten conferences in the FBS. Through the 2023 season, all FBS conferences had between ten and fourteen members. Independent Notre Dame has a special agreement to play games with the ACC.

The ten conferences are divided into two groups for the College Football Playoff. The "Power Four conferences" include most of the largest and best-known college sports programs. A school from a power conference (including the Pac-12, which was a power conference before 2024) won every BCS National Championship Game (1999-2014). They have also won every College Football Playoff National Championship. The other five conferences are known as the "Group of Five".

Any conference can split its teams into two divisions. However, as of the 2024 season, only the Sun Belt Conference uses divisions. Other conferences like the American, Big 12, and CUSA used to have divisions but stopped. This happened after they lost some member schools or the NCAA changed rules. Since the 2018 season, all conferences have held a championship game to decide their champion. The Sun Belt was the last conference to start a championship game and use divisions for football, both in 2018.

† "Big Four" or "Power Four" conferences that enjoy "autonomy status" under NCAA rules

Teams Changing Divisions

Some teams move between the FCS and FBS. This is called transitioning.

Teams That Recently Joined FBS

Georgia Southern University joined the Sun Belt Conference and the FBS in 2014. Before this, the Eagles won six FCS national championships. In their first FBS season, they went 9–3 overall and won the Sun Belt Conference championship with an 8–0 record. They were the first team to go undefeated in conference play in their first FBS season. However, the NCAA did not allow them to play in a bowl game that year because they were still transitioning.

Liberty University started its FBS transition on July 1, 2017. The Flames played as an FBS independent from 2018 to 2022. They joined Conference USA (CUSA) for football starting in the 2023 season.

Three schools began FBS transitions on July 1, 2022: James Madison University, Jacksonville State University, and Sam Houston State University. James Madison joined the Sun Belt. They were allowed to play an FBS schedule in their first year, which is usually done in the second year. This helped them become bowl eligible in 2023. When there weren't enough bowl-eligible teams, JMU, with an 11–1 record, was allowed to play in a bowl game. On July 1, 2023, Jacksonville State and Sam Houston joined Conference USA.

The most recent team to finish its FBS transition is the Kennesaw State University Owls. They started their transition in 2023 and moved to Conference USA in 2024.

Teams Currently Transitioning

The next teams set to complete their FBS transition are the Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens and the Missouri State Bears. They began their transitions in 2024 and will join Conference USA for the 2025 season.

Money in FBS Football

The table below shows the money earned and spent by each conference, reported by the Knight Commission for the 2021–22 school year.

Note: Some university values are not included here. Only the MAC and SBC conferences are made up entirely of public universities.

Conference Changes and Realignment

The FBS has seen many changes in its conferences since 1978. Many teams have switched conferences, left the FBS, or moved up from the FCS. In 1982, the division became much smaller. The Southern Conference and the Ivy League moved down to the FCS. In 1985, the Missouri Valley Conference stopped sponsoring football.

In the 1980s and 1990s, several independent schools joined conferences, stopped playing football, or joined the FCS. In the 1996 NCAA conference realignment, the Southwest Conference broke up. Four Texas teams from that conference joined with the Big 8 schools to form the Big 12 Conference. The Western Athletic Conference grew to sixteen members, but half of those schools left in 1999 to form the Mountain West Conference.

Conference USA (CUSA) formed from a merger of two conferences that didn't have football. The Big West stopped sponsoring football after the 2000 season. It was mostly replaced by the Sun Belt Conference, which added former Big West members and started sponsoring football in 2001. In the mid-2000s, the Big East added Connecticut. Temple left the conference but later returned in 2013. During another realignment phase in 2005, three schools moved from the Big East to the ACC. The Big East then added schools from Conference USA.

College football had another big conference realignment in the early 2010s. Teams left the Big East to join the Big 12 and ACC. The Big 12 lost teams to the SEC, Pac-12, and Big Ten. The Big Ten also gained a former ACC member. The remaining Big East members split into two conferences: the American Athletic Conference ("The American") and a new conference that kept the Big East name but does not have football. The American added several schools from CUSA. CUSA then added FCS schools and schools from the Sun Belt Conference. The Sun Belt Conference added FCS schools and schools from the Western Athletic Conference. The Mountain West lost schools to the Big 12, Pac-12, and became FBS independents. It also added several schools from the WAC. After many teams left, the WAC stopped sponsoring football.

The early 2010s realignment also affected independent FBS teams. BYU left the MW in 2011 to become a football independent. In 2013, Idaho and New Mexico State, the last two football schools in the WAC, became FBS independents. They later returned to the Sun Belt Conference as football-only members. Also in 2013, Notre Dame joined the ACC as a full member (but not for football). They made a deal to play five games each season against ACC schools. Finally, in 2015, Navy became a football-only member of The American. This ended over a century of being a football independent.

Realignment continued at a slower pace through the rest of the 2010s and into the early 2020s. Georgia Southern joined the Sun Belt Conference in 2014. The Coastal Carolina joined the Sun Belt Conference for other sports in 2016 and started its FBS football transition. The football team joined the Sun Belt in 2017. That season was also the last for Idaho and New Mexico State as Sun Belt football members. After 2017, New Mexico State became independent again. Idaho moved down to FCS football, becoming the first program to do so on purpose. Also in 2016, UMass became independent. Most recently, UConn became independent in 2020.

The most recent realignment is still happening. Most conference changes in this cycle took place in 2023 and 2024. It began with Oklahoma and Texas announcing they would leave the Big 12 for the SEC by 2025. They later moved their departure date to 2024. The first actual changes happened in 2022. The Sun Belt gained Marshall, Old Dominion, and Southern Miss from CUSA. It also added FCS upgrader James Madison.

In 2023, CUSA added Jacksonville State, Sam Houston (both from FCS), New Mexico State, and Liberty (FBS independents). But CUSA lost Charlotte, Florida Atlantic, North Texas, Rice, UAB, and UTSA to The American. In turn, The American lost Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF to the Big 12. The Big 12 also added former football independent BYU.

In 2024, Oklahoma and Texas joined the SEC. Ten of the twelve Pac-12 members left for other power conferences. UCLA, USC, Oregon, and Washington joined the Big Ten. Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah joined the Big 12. California and Stanford joined the ACC. Also, Kennesaw State moved up to FBS and joined CUSA. SMU left The American for the ACC. Army left the independent ranks to become a football-only member of The American.

In 2025, two new teams will move from FCS to FBS. Delaware and Missouri State will join CUSA. UMass will also leave the independent ranks to become a full member of the MAC. In September 2024, the Pac-12 began rebuilding. Five MW members (Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State, and Utah State) are set to join the Pac-12 in 2026. The MW responded by announcing that UTEP would join from CUSA in 2026. Soon after, Hawaiʻi upgraded its MW membership to all-sports in 2026. Northern Illinois will also join from the MAC as a football-only member in 2026.

FBS Awards and Championships

Many awards are given each year to players and coaches in the FBS. While all college football players can win many of these awards (like the Heisman Trophy), FBS players usually do. Other awards exist for players in other divisions and the FCS. Besides national awards, FBS conferences also have their own awards. Several groups also release a yearly College Football All-America Team. In 1951, the National Football Foundation created the College Football Hall of Fame.

Some important individual awards include:

• Best/Most Valuable Player: Heisman Trophy, Maxwell Award, Walter Camp Award, Archie Griffin Award, AP Player of the Year, SN Player of the Year, Lombardi Award (now for all players)
• Defensive Player of the Year: Chuck Bednarik Award, Bronko Nagurski Trophy, Lott Trophy
• Awards for Specific Positions: Dave Rimington Trophy (Center), Davey O'Brien Award and Manning Award (Quarterback), Dick Butkus Award (Linebacker), Doak Walker Award (Running back), Fred Biletnikoff Award (Wide receiver), Jim Thorpe Award (Defensive back), John Mackey Award (Tight end), Lou Groza Award (Placekicker), Outland Trophy (Interior lineman), Ray Guy Award (Punter), Ted Hendricks Award (Defensive end), Jet Award (Return Specialist)
• Other Player Awards: Paul Hornung Award (most versatile player), Burlsworth Trophy (top player who started as a walk-on), Jon Cornish Trophy (top Canadian player)
• Coaching Awards:
  • Head Coaches: AFCA Coach of the Year, Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year, SN Coach of the Year, Walter Camp Coach of the Year Award, Paul "Bear" Bryant Award, Home Depot Coach of the Year Award, AP Coach of the Year
  • Assistants: Broyles Award, AFCA Assistant Coach of the Year
• Other Awards: William V. Campbell Trophy, Wuerffel Trophy, Rudy Award, Amos Alonzo Stagg Award, Walter Camp Man of the Year, Theodore Roosevelt Award

The NCAA does not officially name a national champion. However, several other groups name national champions. All conferences take part in the College Football Playoff to decide a champion. The winner of the College Football Playoff gets the College Football Playoff National Championship Trophy. The AP gives the AP National Championship Trophy. The American Football Coaches Association gives the AFCA National Championship Trophy. This AFCA trophy was previously given to the winner of the BCS National Championship Game (1999-2014). The Football Writers Association of America gave the Grantland Rice Trophy until 2013. The National Football Foundation gives the MacArthur Bowl. Since the disputed end of the 2003 season, the different groups have agreed on a single national champion.

Images for kids

• 1927 college football season map.png

  College football teams in 1927

• 1956 college football season map.png

  College football teams in 1956

• 1976 NCAA Division I football season map.png

  College football teams in 1976

• 1982 NCAA Division I-A football season map.png

  NCAA Division I-A football in 1982

• 1991 NCAA Division I-A football season map.png

  NCAA Division I-A football in 1991

• 2010 NCAA Division I FBS football season map.png

  NCAA Division I-A football in 2010

• 2023 NCAA Division I FBS football season map.png

  NCAA Division I FBS football in 2023

• FBS schools that have transitioned from FCS.png

  Schools that have transitioned to the FBS since 1978

Many of the school names on the maps above are shortened to save space. Here is a list of those abbreviations and their full names:

More About FBS Football

• Power Four conferences
• Group of Five conferences
• NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision
• List of NCAA Division I non-football programs