The 2018 NCAA Division I FBS football season is the highest level of college football competition in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in 2018. The regular season began on August 25, 2018 and is scheduled to end on December 8, 2018. The postseason will conclude on January 7, 2019 with the 2019 College Football Playoff National Championship at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California.
Video 2018 NCAA Division I FBS football season
Rule changes
Game rules
The following rule changes were approved by the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel for the 2018 season:
- Allow players to fair catch the ball inside the 25 yard line on a kickoff and be awarded a touchback, placing the ball at the 25 yard line.
- Offensive players cannot block below the waist more than five yards past the line of scrimmage and, with the exception of interior linemen, all blocks below the waist must be from the front.
- The play clock will be set to 40 seconds between a touchdown and the PAT or two-point conversion and after a kickoff.
- Mirroring the NFL rule adopted in the 2010 season, a 10-second runoff will be applied within the final minute of each half if a replay review overturns the call on the field, and the correct ruling would not have stopped the game clock. As with any other 10 second runoff, teams can take a time out (if available) to avoid the runoff.
- Extending the "no leaping" rule on PATs and field goals adopted in the 2017 season to include the "shield" on a punt.
- Allowing penalties incurred on successful field goals to be enforced on the ensuing kickoff, which matches the rule for successful extra point attempts.
- Continuing the experiment of a collaborative instant replay decision making model not confined to the press box.
Eligibility rules
Major changes to redshirt rules in Division I football (both FBS and FCS) will take effect from this season forward after having been approved by the NCAA Division I Council on June 13, 2018. Players can now participate in as many as four games in a given season while still retaining redshirt status. The only exception to this new rule is that players who enroll at a school in midyear and participate in postseason competition that takes place during or before their first academic term at that school will lose a full year of athletic eligibility.
Recruiting rules
Maps 2018 NCAA Division I FBS football season
Conference realignment
Membership changes
New Mexico State left the Sun Belt Conference following the 2017 season and will compete as an FBS independent. Idaho also left the Sun Belt, dropping its football program from the FBS to FCS level, where it will compete in the Big Sky Conference.
Upcoming changes
Liberty began a two-year transition from FCS in 2017. The Flames will be counted as an FBS member for scheduling purposes in 2018, but will not be fully bowl-eligible until completing the 2019 season. However, they may participate in a bowl in 2018 if they have at least six eligible wins and there are not enough bowl-eligible teams to fill all the spots. Liberty will begin its FBS tenure as an independent.
Other headlines
- July 13 - Following the revelation that Papa John's Pizza founder John Schnatter had said the word nigger in an internal conference call, which led to his resignation both as company chairman and member of the University of Louisville board of trustees, university president Neeli Bendapudi announced that the company's name would be removed from the football stadium effective immediately, with the new name simply Cardinal Stadium.
- August 1 - Ohio State administrators placed head coach Urban Meyer on paid administrative leave while the school announced it was launching an investigation into claims by Courtney Smith that Meyer and several people close to him knew of a 2015 allegation of domestic violence against her former husband Zach Smith, who had been fired as an Ohio State assistant in July 2018.
- August 11 - Maryland placed head coach D. J. Durkin on paid administrative leave during the school's investigation of the death of Terrapins player Jordan McNair from heatstroke following an offseason practice, plus allegations of abuse and disparagement within the program. This came the day after the school had placed two trainers and the team's strength coach on administrative leave.
- August 14 - Maryland president Wallace Loh announced that the school "accepts legal and moral responsibility for the mistakes" that led to McNair's death. The university also parted ways with Rick Court, the strength coach widely blamed for establishing the alleged culture of abuse revealed in recent news reports. Court had resigned the previous day, and reached a financial settlement with the university shortly before Loh made his announcement.
Kickoff games
"Week Zero"
Week Zero took place on Saturday, August 25, several days before the season began. The FBS portion of Week Zero was composed of four games:
- UMass defeated Duquesne, 63-15
- Rice defeated Prairie View A&M, 31-28
- Hawaii defeated Colorado State, 43-34
- Wyoming defeated New Mexico State, 29-7
"Week One"
Five kickoff games will be played:
- Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game (Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta): Auburn Tigers vs Washington Huskies
- Belk Kickoff Game (Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte): Tennessee Volunteers vs West Virginia Mountaineers
- Camping World Kickoff (Camping World Stadium, Orlando): Alabama Crimson Tide vs Louisville Cardinals
- Advocare Classic (AT&T Stadium, Arlington): LSU Tigers vs Miami Hurricanes
- Texas Kickoff (NRG Stadium, Houston): Ole Miss Rebels vs Texas Tech Red Raiders
Updated stadiums
- Louisville - The Cardinals will debut an expansion of the venue now known as Cardinal Stadium, specifically the filling in of the north end zone. Two new video scoreboards are also set to be installed. While Louisville had long publicized the most recent expansion project as adding 10,000 seats, bringing the capacity to 65,000, it admitted in February 2018 that the final capacity would instead be about 61,000.
- Arizona State is expecting to complete its four-phase renovation of Sun Devil Stadium. The fourth and final phase, scheduled for completion prior to the 2018 season, includes reconstruction of the east sideline. The new capacity will be 55,000, down from 71,706 just prior to the renovation.
- Georgia will debut its $63 million new west end zone project at Sanford Stadium, which will relocate the locker room from the east side to the west side, as well as the addition of a new plaza and recruiting pavilion. The project will increase the stadium's capacity by 500 seats.
- Arkansas will debut its $160 million expansion of the north end zone of Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium. The expansion will add 4,800 seats and new premium seating to the north end zone, boosting the capacity of the stadium from 76,000 to 80,800.
- Iowa is currently rebuilding the north end zone of Kinnick Stadium. The $89.9 million upgrade will feature the addition of box seating, outdoor club seating and a new scoreboard. Some seating will open for the 2018 season, while the entire project is scheduled to be complete in 2019.
- Indiana will debut its $50 million south end zone complex at Memorial Stadium. The project will include: a new rehabilitation and treatment facility for athletes, additional academic and life skills support facilities, a multi-use outdoor terrace on the roof of the structure, an entry plaza and green space at the south end of the stadium. A new 20 x 68 foot video board was installed in the North Endzone for the 2017 season, with a 42 x 91.3 foot video board excepted to be installed for the 2018 season in the completed south end zone.
Renamed stadiums
Colorado State announced on April 19, 2018 that an area financial institution, Public Service Credit Union, had paid $37.7 million over 15 years to place its name on the venue then known as Colorado State Stadium. The new stadium name was not revealed at that time because PSCU was in the process of changing its name, with the new name expected to be announced in June 2018. The deal did not affect the playing surface, which continues to be named after former Rams head coach Sonny Lubick. On June 5, the former PSCU announced its new name of Canvas Credit Union, with the CSU venue becoming Canvas Stadium.
Kansas renamed their stadium to David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium in honor of alumnus David Booth who donated $50 million to the school for renovations to the stadium.
As noted above, Louisville removed the Papa John's name from Cardinal Stadium in the wake of the controversy over founder John Schnatter's racial slur.
Conference standings
Coaching changes
Preseason and in-season
This is restricted to coaching coaches taking place on or after May 1, 2018. For coaching changes that occurred earlier in 2018, see 2017 NCAA Division I FBS end-of-season coaching changes.
End of season
This list includes coaching changes around during the season that did not take effect until the end of the season.
See also
- 2018 NCAA Division I FBS football rankings
- 2018 NCAA Division I FCS football season
- 2018 NCAA Division II football season
- 2018 NCAA Division III football season
- 2018 NAIA football season
Television viewers and ratings
Most watched regular season games
Notes
References
Source of article : Wikipedia
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