NCAA D1 Council announces relaxed requirements for FBS football conference championship games

The NCAA announced Wednesday via social media that the Division I Council will relax restrictions for FBS football conference championship games. With more flexibility in choosing the participants, the door is open for a number of proposed scheduling changes and format shifts from conferences around the country.

The NCAA also announced that the actions taken are not final until Wednesday’s meeting officially closes, leaving the door open for more debate should a complaint arise in the coming hours.

Under the NCAA’s former division model, Alabama could not face LSU in the SEC championship game, Michigan could not face Ohio State in the Big Ten championship game and Clemson could not face Miami in the ACC championship game. However, those matchups and more could become possible if each conferences opts to take advantage of the loosened restrictions and create new structures.

More on conference scheduling

Continuing, the ACC has made headlines over recent days, as they’ve been at the forefront of possible scheduling and divisional changes throughout college football. To illustrate, Miami athletic director Dan Radokovich previously spoke about the possibility of an ACC scheduling change in 2023, providing many details about the new system.

According to David Teel’s prior report, the new conference leader revealed the ACC was moving closer to a 3-5-5 system, which eliminates football divisions.

With 14 current ACC members, the new scheduling change would provide each team with three annual opponents – allowing established rivalries to continue – while the other 10 opponents are split into two groups which rotate onto the schedule every other season.

According to the report, which used information given by Radakovich, the conference is hopeful that ESPN will approve the shift which now can go forward.

The new scheduling format would mark the first move away from the divisional format by a Power Five conference which holds more members than can play in every season. The Big 12 notably plays without divisions but the 10 teams face all nine opponents each year with just three non-conference games.