2017 NCAA Division I FBS football season
The 2017 NCAA Division I FBS football season will be the highest level of college football competition in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in 2017. The regular season will begin on August 26, 2017 and is scheduled to end on December 9, 2017. The postseason will conclude on January 8, 2018 with the 2018 College Football Playoff National Championship in Atlanta. This is the fourth season of the College Football Playoff championship system.
Rule changes
The following rule changes were recommended by the NCAA Football Rules Committee for the 2017 season:[1]
- Prohibiting defensive players running toward the line of scrimmage from leaping or hurdling any offensive lineman on field goal or PAT attempts (15 yards). Previously defensive players were allowed to leap or hurdle offensive linemen as long as they do not land on another player. The NFL also adopted this rule for the 2017 season.
- Requiring players to wear knee pads and pants that cover the knees. Currently this is only a recommendation.
- Include the nameplate on the back of the jersey in the definition of a "horse-collar tackle".
The committee left the current targeting rules unchanged for the 2017 season, despite discussions to modify the rule to eject a player for targeting only if the call is confirmed, not if the call stands due to lack of "indisputable video evidence" to overturn the ruling on the field.
Points of emphasis this season include speeding up games by:
- Promptly starting the second half when the halftime clock reaches 0:00.
- Penalizing coaches for coming on the field to argue a call (15 yards, unsportsmanlike conduct).
- Starting the game clock immediately upon spotting the ball after a ball carrier goes out of bounds (outside of the last 2:00 of each half).
Conference realignment
Membership changes
Coastal Carolina will be in the second year of its FBS transition. It will be counted as an FBS opponent for scheduling purposes but will not become a full bowl-eligible member until the 2018 season.
The UAB football team returns after a two-year absence. The program was shut down by school administrators following the 2014 season but was reinstated less than a year later. UAB will retake its place in Conference USA.
Upcoming changes
Idaho and New Mexico State will play their final seasons as football members of the Sun Belt Conference. Idaho will also be playing its last season at the FBS level; following the decision of the Sun Belt to not extend its football membership agreements with the two schools after their expirations in 2017, Idaho announced that it would downgrade to FCS and add football to its standing membership in the Big Sky Conference. New Mexico State will tentatively revert to FBS Independent status for 2018 and beyond.
Other headlines
- April 14 – The NCAA Division I Council approves a suite of rule changes affecting the recruiting process. The most significant of these are:[2]
- Effective with the 2017–18 school year, a national early signing period for high school players will be introduced, at a time in December to be announced later.
- The current limit of 25 new scholarships (or financial aid agreements) per academic year will become an absolute limit (with only narrowly defined exceptions). This has been seen by media as ending the phenomenon of oversigning.
- May 1 – The University of Kentucky and its marketing partner JMI Sports announce that the school's football stadium, known as Commonwealth Stadium since its opening in 1973, will be renamed Kroger Field per a 12-year naming rights deal with the Cincinnati-based supermarket company. This makes UK the first Southeastern Conference school to enter into such a deal for its football stadium.[3]
- May 3 – The University of New Mexico announces a 10-year naming rights deal with Albuquerque-based construction firm Dreamstyle Remodeling. Under this deal, the football stadium, known since its 1960 opening as University Stadium, becomes Dreamstyle Stadium.[4]
- May 8 – The Collegiate Commissioners Association, which controls the letter of intent program, approves the recruiting changes approved last month by the Division I Council. The early signing period for high schoolers is fixed as the first three days of the midyear signing period for junior college players; in 2017, this window will fall on December 20–22.[5]
- July 20 – The University of Mississippi announces that head football coach Hugh Freeze has resigned, effective immediately. Ole Miss athletic director Ross Bjork told ESPN that school officials discovered evidence that Freeze had made at least one call from a university-issued cell phone to a number linked to a female escort service, and that the school would have fired Freeze had he not resigned.[6]
Kickoff games
"Week Zero"
- A recent rule change allows Hawai'i, and teams that have a scheduled game at Hawai'i, to play during the "Week Zero" kickoff weekend in late August:[7]
- Stanford and Rice will play in Sydney on August 26 (August 27 local time) for the second Sydney Cup.[8] This is the second straight year a Pac-12 team has gone to Australia, as California defeated Hawai'i in the first Sydney Cup to open the 2016 season.
Week 1
Updated stadiums
Two schools will move to new stadiums for the 2017 season:
- Colorado State will open Sonny Lubick Field at Colorado State Stadium. The on-campus facility, with a capacity of 41,200, replaces the off-campus Hughes Stadium, which had been home to the Rams since 1968.
- Georgia State will move from the Georgia Dome, set to be demolished during the 2017 season, to Georgia State Stadium. This will be the third incarnation of a stadium that opened in 1996 as the Centennial Olympic Stadium, built for the 1996 Summer Olympics. The stadium was planned from the beginning to be retrofitted into a baseball park for the Atlanta Braves, and opened in that form as Turner Field in 1997. After the Braves vacated Turner Field following their 2016 season to move into SunTrust Park, Georgia State bought Turner Field and adjacent property for a major campus expansion project. In its football form, the stadium will initially seat 23,000 with possible future expansion to 33,000.
Several other schools plan to debut major improvements to their existing venues for 2017:
- Arizona State is continuing a four-phase renovation of Sun Devil Stadium. The third phase, slated for completion in time for the 2017 season, includes the addition of a new video board above the north end zone.
- Coastal Carolina will make its FBS debut in an expanded Brooks Stadium. The expansion project began immediately after the 2015 season, a few months after Coastal announced it would join the Sun Belt Conference in 2016 for non-football sports and 2017 for football. The venue, which previously held 9,200 people, will now have a capacity of 15,000 for the 2017 season, and will be further expanded to 20,000 in 2018.[9]
- West Virginia is nearing completion of approximately $50 million in renovations to Milan Puskar Stadium. Work on the west and south side gates and concourses, including renovations to concessions, restrooms, and additional space for EMS and police operations, is expected to be complete for 2017, mirroring similar work on the north and east sides completed for 2016.
- Louisiana Tech will open a new pressbox and suite complex on the west side of Joe Aillet Stadium which includes new ticketing facilities and restrooms. Also included in the renovations are, new LED stadium lighting fixtures.
- Notre Dame will debut the Campus Crossroads project, which will add three new 8-story structures to the on the South, West and East sides of Notre Dame Stadium. The expansion will add new premium stadium seats on the East and West sides of the stadium and feature more than 750,000 square feet of teaching, research, and performance space.
Conference standings
Coaching changes
Preseason and in-season
This is restricted to coaching changes taking place on or after May 1, 2017. For coaching changes that occurred earlier in 2017, see 2016 NCAA Division I FBS end-of-season coaching changes.
See also
References
- ↑ ncaa.org (March 3, 2017). "Football Rules Committee Recommends Proposals to Enhance Player Safety". ncaa.org. Retrieved March 3, 2017.
- ↑ Kercheval, Ben (April 14, 2017). "NCAA DI Council approves early signing period for football, prohibits oversigning". CBSSports.com. Retrieved April 27, 2017.
- ↑ Smith, Jennifer (May 1, 2017). "After 44 years, Commonwealth Stadium has a new name: Kroger Field". Lexington Herald-Leader. Retrieved May 1, 2017.
- ↑ Dyer, Jessica (May 3, 2017). "Dream deal for UNM nets $10 million over 10 years". Albuquerque Journal. Retrieved May 3, 2017.
- ↑ Rittenberg, Adam (May 8, 2017). "Collegiate Commissioners Association approves early signing period for football". ESPN.com. Retrieved May 9, 2017.
- ↑ Schlabach, Mark (July 20, 2017). "Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze resigns; escort-service calls cited". ESPN.com. Retrieved July 21, 2017.
- ↑ "2017 Hawaii at UMass football game moved to Aug. 26". FB Schedules. Retrieved January 24, 2017.
- ↑ "Stanford to open 2017 season in Australia against Rice". USA TODAY. Retrieved January 30, 2017.
- ↑ "Coastal Has Football Stadium Expansion Groundbreaking Ceremony" (Press release). Coastal Carolina University Athletics. Retrieved June 11, 2017.
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