College football is back. The 2026 NCAA Division I FBS season — the 157th in the sport's history — kicks off Saturday, August 29, when North Carolina and TCU square off at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland, for the Aer Lingus College Football Classic. It is the first game of a 138-team season that will run through a College Football Playoff National Championship at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on January 25, 2027.
Ohio State opens the year as the preseason AP No. 1, and the sport enters the third season of the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff with a conference map, rulebook and eligibility system that have all been rewritten since Indiana completed a perfect 16-0 run to the 2025 national title in January. Here is everything to know as a new era of college football begins.
A Conference Map Redrawn for 2026
The biggest structural story of the offseason is realignment, and no league changed more than the Pac-12. After playing the 2025 season with only two football members, Washington State and Oregon State, the conference rebuilds to eight football programs in 2026 by adding Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State, Utah State and Texas State. Gonzaga joins as a ninth full member, though it does not field a football team.
The Mountain West, which lost five schools to the Pac-12, reloaded with four additions: UTEP arrives from Conference USA, Hawaii upgrades from a football-only arrangement to full membership, Northern Illinois joins as a football-only affiliate, and North Dakota State — a 10-time FCS national champion — moves up as a football-only member in a deal confirmed February 9, 2026. Elsewhere, Louisiana Tech completed a move to the Sun Belt after a legal fight with Conference USA ended in an April buyout agreement, and Sacramento State joined the MAC as a football-only member.
For fans tracking the shuffle, the result is a sport where conference lines matter more than ever: the Pac-12 reclaimed FBS standing with a full eight-team football lineup, while the Mountain West preserved its own by aggressively backfilling with established and rising programs.
Where We Left Off: Indiana's Historic Title
Before looking ahead, it is worth remembering how the last chapter ended. Indiana defeated Miami 27-21 on January 19 at Hard Rock Stadium to win its first national championship in program history, finishing 16-0 and becoming the first FBS team since the 1894 Yale Bulldogs to complete a perfect season. The Hoosiers beat Ohio State 13-10 in the Big Ten Championship Game, then won the Peach Bowl semifinal to set up the final against a Miami team that had captured the Fiesta Bowl.
Quarterback Fernando Mendoza won the Heisman Trophy and shared player-of-the-game honors in the championship, while head coach Curt Cignetti was voted Big Ten Coach of the Year. The title game, which drew 30.1 million viewers on ESPN, marked the third consecutive national championship won by the Big Ten. Miami, meanwhile, became the first team in the modern era to play for a national title at its own home stadium.
New Rules That Will Change the Game
On the field, the 2026 season introduces a series of rule changes approved by the NCAA's FBS Oversight Committee. The most significant is a one-year trial reworking the targeting penalty: a player's first targeting foul of the season will no longer carry a suspension into the following game, while a second offense triggers the carryover penalty and a third results in a one-game suspension, unless overturned on appeal.
College football also adopts the NFL-style fair catch kick, reduces offensive pass interference from 15 yards to 10, and gives teams two replay challenges, with a third available if one challenge succeeds. Officials will place fresh emphasis on taunting, sideline control and five specific automatic unsportsmanlike-conduct penalties, and the play clock will now freeze during replay reviews inside the final two minutes.
The changes extend beyond the field. In January, the NCAA approved commercial sponsorship logos on uniforms, allowing teams to place two logos of up to four inches each on jerseys. In June, Division I adopted an age-based eligibility model giving athletes a five-year eligibility clock — a sweeping change that was immediately challenged in court and partially blocked by July injunctions for the high school class of 2022. The FBS also announced a standardized 14-week regular season beginning in 2027.
Week 0 and Week 1: The Games to Watch
The opening weekend is headlined by North Carolina against TCU in Dublin on August 29, a matchup that continues college football's growing tradition of international showcases. A week later, the schedule delivers a string of marquee neutral-site games: Baylor meets Auburn in the Aflac Kickoff Game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on September 5, while September 6 features Wisconsin against No. 4 Notre Dame in the Shamrock Series at Lambeau Field and No. 24 Louisville against No. 9 Ole Miss in the Music City Kickoff at Nissan Stadium in Nashville.
The international slate does not stop in Dublin. On September 19, Arizona State and Kansas meet at Wembley Stadium in London for the Union Jack Classic, giving college football two overseas showcases in the season's first month.
The Road to Las Vegas
All of it builds toward a championship game in a new city. The 2026 national title will be decided January 25, 2027, at Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nevada — the first time the College Football Playoff championship has been staged in Las Vegas. The field will again be 12 teams for the third consecutive season.
Ohio State begins the chase as the preseason favorite, a year after the Buckeyes lost the Big Ten title game to Indiana and watched the Hoosiers complete their historic run. Northwestern, meanwhile, will open its new Ryan Field on October 2 against Penn State, a long-awaited milestone for a program that has played away from its traditional home since 2023.
The Bottom Line
As the 157th season of college football begins, the key points to remember are:
- The 2026 season starts August 29 in Dublin and ends January 25, 2027, in Las Vegas.
- Ohio State is the preseason AP No. 1; 138 teams will compete in the third year of the 12-team playoff.
- The Pac-12 rebuilt to eight football members, while the Mountain West, Sun Belt and MAC all added programs.
- Indiana enters as defending champion after a perfect 16-0 season, the first unbeaten FBS champion since 1894 Yale.
- New rules target player safety and game flow, including a reworked targeting penalty and the NFL-style fair catch kick.
