NCAA Division I FBS Independent Schools

National Collegiate Athletic Association Football Bowl Subdivision independent schools are four-year institutions whose football programs are not part of an NCAA-affiliated conference. This means that FBS independents are not required to schedule each other for competition like conference schools do.

There are fewer independent schools than in years past; many independent schools join, or attempt to join, established conferences. The main reasons to join a conference are to gain a share of television revenue and access to bowl games that agree to take teams from certain conferences, and to help deal with otherwise potentially difficult challenges in scheduling opponents to play throughout the season.

All Division I FBS independents are eligible for the College Football Playoff (CFP), though under the current playoff format they are not eligible for an automatic bid reserved for conference champions and thus must qualify through one of the seven at-large bids. This also prevents an independent school from earning a bye to the quarterfinals of the playoffs as they are reserved to the 4 highest ranked conference champions and thus they must enter the playoff in the first round as a 5-12 seed.

Independents historically had eligibility for the so-called "access bowls" (the New Year's Six bowls that issue at-large bids: Cotton, Peach, and Fiesta), if they were chosen by the CFP selection committee. Notre Dame also had a potential tie-in with the Orange Bowl, along with other bowls via its affiliation with the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). Historically, Notre Dame had similar agreements with its previous conference, the Big East.

The ranks of football independents increased by one starting with the 2011 season with the announcement that BYU would leave the Mountain West Conference (MW) to become a football independent starting with that season. The ranks increased by two in 2013 when the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) dropped football and New Mexico State and Idaho did not have a conference for football. The ranks of football independents decreased by two in 2014 with the return of Idaho and New Mexico State as football-only members of the Sun Belt Conference (SBC) and decreased by one more in 2015 with Navy joining the American Athletic Conference (The American) as a football-only member. UMass became an FBS independent in 2016. Two further teams joined the ranks of FBS independents for the 2018 season: New Mexico State, whose membership in the Sun Belt Conference was not extended beyond the 2017 season, and Liberty, which transitioned from the Big South Conference of the Football Championship Subdivision in 2018. The UConn Huskies became an FBS independent team.

The most recent changes to the independent ranks came in 2023 when BYU joined the Big 12 Conference, and Liberty and New Mexico State joined Conference USA. A year later, Army joined Navy as a football-only member of The American. In 2025, UMass will become a full member of the Mid-American Conference.

FBS independents

Institution joining the Mid-American Conference on July 1, 2025.

Reasons for independence

In recent years, most independent FBS schools have joined a conference for two primary reasons: a guaranteed share of television and bowl revenues, and ease of scheduling.

In addition it may be possible that a new school leaves, is forced out from a conference, or has reclassified themselves from a different NCAA division and are not able to join a new conference immediately thus forcing them to be an independent school.

Notre Dame

Notre Dame unsuccessfully attempted on three occasions to join an athletic conference in the early 20th century, including the Big Ten in 1926, but was turned down in part due to anti-Catholicism. Notre Dame is now one of the most prominent programs in the country. Because of its national popularity built over several decades, Notre Dame was the only independent program to be part of the Bowl Championship Series coalition and its guaranteed payout. These factors help make Notre Dame one of the most financially valuable football programs in the country, thus negating the need for Notre Dame to secure revenue by joining a conference.

Previously, Notre Dame had filled its annual schedule without needing conference games to do so. It had longstanding rivalries with many different programs around the country, many under long-term contracts, including annual rivalry games with USC, Navy, Michigan, Stanford, Michigan State, Boston College, Purdue, and Pitt. All Notre Dame home games and most away games are on national television, so other teams have a large financial incentive to schedule the university. Nonetheless, Notre Dame joined the ACC in 2013 for all sports except football and men's ice hockey (the only other ACC member with a men's ice hockey varsity team is Boston College, which played alongside Notre Dame in Hockey East until 2017, when Notre Dame switched to the Big Ten). As part of this agreement, Notre Dame plays five of its football games each season against ACC members. This arrangement required Notre Dame to eliminate or reduce the frequency of several rivalries: the Michigan, Michigan State, and Purdue series were canceled (with a renewal of the latter in 2024), while Boston College and Pitt, ACC members themselves, now play Notre Dame every three or four years. On the other hand, the move has allowed Notre Dame to resume old rivalries with ACC members Georgia Tech and Miami, while still scheduling Big Ten opponents from time to time. Due to many historic rivalries with ACC teams, most fans remain unaware of this, as scheduling changes turned out to be small.

In 2020, after several non-ACC games were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Notre Dame opted to play a full ACC football schedule for just the 2020 season. The Irish were eligible for the conference championship game ( which they lost to Clemson) and the conference's automatic bowl bids. Notre Dame's football program returned to independence in 2021, with its schedule including the usual five games against ACC schools.

University of Connecticut

The University of Connecticut was a founding member of the original Big East Conference in 1979, but that conference split along football lines in 2013. As noted previously, Notre Dame remained an FBS independent but placed its other sports in the ACC, and Pittsburgh and Syracuse followed Notre Dame into the ACC, also joining ACC football. The seven members without FBS football teams left to form a new non-football Big East Conference, while the remaining FBS schools (among them UConn) joined with several new members to reorganize the Big East corporate entity as the American Athletic Conference (which would lose Louisville to the ACC and Rutgers to the Big Ten a year later).

In the years after the split, UConn's flagship men's and women's basketball programs faced significant issues. Jim Calhoun, the coach who had largely built the UConn men into a national powerhouse, had retired after the 2011–12 season. While his successor Kevin Ollie had led the Huskies to a national title in the first season after the split, the team faded noticeably in later seasons, and Ollie was fired after the 2017–18 season amid an NCAA investigation. Ollie's final season saw UConn men's attendance reach its lowest level in 30 years. The women faced a severe lack of competition in The American. In their seven seasons in that league, the Huskies went unbeaten in conference play, both in the regular season and the conference tournament, with all but two of their 139 conference wins being by double-digit margins.

The Huskies received and accepted an invitation to join the reconfigured Big East in 2019, with a July 2020 entry date. Due to the Big East not sponsoring football, UConn was willing to stay in The American as a football-only member. After leaving the conference in all other sports, the American Athletic Conference was unwilling to allow UConn to remain as a football-only member, leading to UConn's independence in football beginning in 2020. Ironically, the football program's poor record in recent seasons may make it easier to find FBS opponents to fill out the schedule.

UConn opted not to field a team in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting disruption to college football schedules. Specifically, as many other programs moved to conference-only schedules due to the pandemic, several of UConn's scheduled matches were canceled, and the program's status as an independent made it very difficult to schedule replacement games.

UMass Amherst

The University of Massachusetts Amherst football program played in the Football Championship Subdivision of NCAA Division I before 2011, including a national championship season in 1998. The Minutemen began a two-year Football Bowl Subdivision transition period in 2011, with the support of the Mid-American Conference playing in their conference as a football-only member. In March 2014, the MAC and UMass announced an agreement for the Minutemen to leave the conference after the 2015 season due to declining an offer to become a full member of the conference. In the agreement between the MAC and the university, there was a contractual clause that had UMass playing in the MAC as a football-only member for two more seasons if UMass declined a full membership offer. Massachusetts announced that it would look for a "more suitable conference" for the team. In September 2014, Massachusetts announced that they would be leaving the MAC and would compete as an independent beginning with the 2016 season.

In late February 2024, it was announced that the 2024 season for UMass will be the last season competing as an independent. The Minutemen will rejoin the Mid-American Conference (MAC) as a full member beginning in 2025.

Independent school stadiums

Television rights

University of Notre Dame

Since 1991, Notre Dame home games have aired on NBC, and since 2021, are also simulcast on NBCUniversal's streaming service, Peacock. In February 1990, Notre Dame broke away from the College Football Association, which Notre Dame was a part of since 1976, and signed a 5-year contract worth $38 million with NBC that began in 1991. The last regular season Notre Dame home game to be televised outside of NBC was against Penn State on ESPN in 1990.

One Notre Dame home game exclusively streams on Peacock since 2021, which was a home opener against Toledo. Previously, some Fighting Irish home games aired on the now-defunct NBCSN, and in 2020, which Notre Dame was a temporary football member of the Atlantic Coast Conference, the home opener against South Florida aired on USA Network. A portion of the game against Clemson aired on USA Network due to NBC News' coverage of Joe Biden's victory speech, before returning to NBC for the remainder of the game. Some home games can be moved to CNBC in case of a overrun into Big Ten Saturday Night, similar to Fox Business occasionally being an overflow channel for some Fox College Football telecasts in the event of programming conflicts.

University of Connecticut

Since 2021, UConn home games have aired on CBS Sports Network. The deal between CBS and UConn was made in 2020, initially only including four home games, with all home games televised from 2021 to 2023, but their season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, therefore starting in 2021 against Holy Cross, and the final season being in 2024, although it has been confirmed home games will continue to air on CBS Sports Network in 2025. No home game has aired on the CBS network during their deal.

In 2022, UConn's home opener against Central Connecticut was televised on The CW affiliate WCCT-TV and streaming on WTIC-TV's streaming app, FOX61+. The following year, UConn's athletic department announced a partnership with Hartford-licensed CBS affiliate WFSB and sister independent station WWAX-LD. The 2023 home finale against Sacred Heart and the 2024 home opener against Merrimack were televised on WFSB, and streaming for free on UConn's streaming service, UConn+.

University of Massachusetts Amherst

In August 2022, UMass and ESPN announced a three-year rights agreement, providing live coverage of home games on ESPN's platforms. These games have primarily streamed on the ESPN+ streaming service, with two home games airing on a linear ESPN channel. Those games being in 2023 against Toledo on ESPNU and 2024 against Missouri on ESPN2, respectively. Only two home games were exclusive to ESPN+ in 2022, while the three others were streaming on ESPN3, but by 2023, all streaming-exclusive home games were only on ESPN+.

Prior to the ESPN agreement, UMass home games were exclusively streaming on FloSports's FloFootball service from 2019 to 2021. Those games were simulcast on regional sports network NESN+br>
Former independent New Mexico State had a similar agreement with FloSports, with simulcasts on KVIA-TV and now-defunct Bally Sports Arizona until they left for Conference USA in 2023.

UMass will join the Mid-American Conference as a full member in 2025. The conference has television agreements with CBS Sports Network and ESPN.

List of current and past independent schools

The following is an incomplete list of teams which have been Division I-A (FBS) Independents since the formation of Division I-A in 1978. School names reflect those in current use by their athletic programs, which may not reflect names used when those schools were independents. Conference alignments reflect those in place for the 2024 season.

See also

* NCAA Division I FCS independent schools
* NCAA Division I independent schools
* NCAA Division II independent schools
* NCAA Division III independent schools
* NAIA independent schools

Notes

References

External links

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{{College football

1978 establishments in the United States
NCAA conferences
Sports organizations established in 1978