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. 

Former Michigan coach Sherrone Moore avoided a jail sentence and was sentenced to probation after previously agreeing to a plea deal over his actions after his firing from Michigan.

As part of the deal, Moore pled no contest to misdemeanor malicious use of a telecommunications device involving a domestic relationship and misdemeanor trespassing. He was sentenced to 18 months of probation, is subject to random alcohol and drug testing and cannot have a weapon while also continuing mental health treatment.

Moore was fired with cause from Michigan in December after an investigation into his romantic relationship with a now-former staffer. Moore, who is married with three children, then went to the staffer’s house after he was fired, and allegedly threatened to take his own life after grabbing butter knives and kitchen scissors from her residence.

Moore was initially charged with third-degree home invasion, stalking and breaking and entering or entering without breaking. The home invasion charge was a felony. Moore had pled no contest to the misdemeanor charges as part of a plea deal he reached with prosecutors in March. 

Judge Cedric Simpson said in his statements that Moore had previously been given the code to the door for the staffer’s apartment. He also said that Moore “had no right to spread your pain to her” for what he did that day.

Simpson also noted that what Moore’s wife Kelli had to deal with that day was “an incredible burden” and spoke glowingly of her. Moore and his wife hugged each other after Simpson read his sentence.

Moore’s attorney said ahead of his sentencing that he had “reset himself around his family” and had been in counseling before recommending probation and a deferred sentence for her client.

In his own brief statement, Moore said he had “taken this process very seriously.” He cannot have contact with the former staffer as part of his probation.

Michigan went 18-8 in Moore’s two-season tenure and had three seasons left on his five-year contract at the time of his firing. He had served a two-game suspension at the start of the 2025 season as part of punishments stemming from Michigan’s advance-scouting scandal. 

The school first started investigating the relationship between Moore and the staffer in October. Shortly before his firing, the woman came forward to school officials and admitted that the two had been in a relationship.