The following is a list of conference championship games in NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college football. With the Sun Belt Conference holding its first championship game in 2018, all 10 active FBS conferences now have championship games.
Before the 2016 season, the NCAA required that a conference have a minimum of 12 teams and play in two divisions in order to hold a football championship game that did not count against the limit of 12 regular-season games per team. [1]
The first post-regular season conference championship game played in Division I-A football (what is now Division I FBS) was the 1992 SEC Championship Game, won by Alabama over Florida. [2] The SEC had gone from being a 10-team conference in 1991, to being a 12-team conference—divided into two six-team divisions—in 1992. [3] The next championship games to debut were that of the Big 12 Conference and Western Athletic Conference (WAC), starting in 1996. [4] That year, the Big Eight Conference and Southwest Conference dissolved and were essentially replaced by the Big 12, [5] with twelve teams divided into six-team divisions; while the WAC expanded to sixteen teams, divided into eight-team divisions. This was followed in 1997 by the Mid-American Conference, which expanded from ten to twelve teams, divided into six-team divisions. Prior to the 1999 season, eight schools left the WAC to form the Mountain West Conference (MW); the WAC thus discontinued its championship games (the conference would stop sponsoring football after 2012; it reinstated football in 2021 in Division I FCS). New championship games were next added in 2005, when both the Atlantic Coast Conference and Conference USA expanded from eleven teams to twelve teams and implemented six-team divisions.
The requirement for a conference to have 12 teams in order to stage a championship game caused the Big 12 to discontinue its championship game after the 2010 season, as the conference contracted to 10 members in 2011 (while retaining its name).
In 2011, the Big Ten Conference added its twelfth team (while retaining its name), split into six-team divisions, and added a championship game. That same season, what had been the Pacific-10 Conference added two teams, split into six-team divisions, renamed itself the Pac-12 Conference, and initiated its own championship game. The MW grew to twelve teams in 2013, as did the American Athletic Conference in 2015; both structured themselves into six-team divisions and began staging championship games.
At the conclusion of the 2015 season, only the Big 12 and the Sun Belt Conference did not have championship games, as neither conference had the required minimum of 12 teams. In January 2016, the NCAA approved championship games for smaller conferences, provided the championship game features either (1) the top two teams at the end of a full round-robin conference schedule, or (2) the winners of each of two divisions, with each team playing a full round-robin schedule within its division. [6] Following that change to NCAA rules, the Big 12 reinstated its championship game in 2017, [7] operating with 10 teams in a single division while playing a full round-robin schedule.
In 2017, the Sun Belt Conference grew to 12 members with the addition of Coastal Carolina. [8] At that time, the Sun Belt operated with all teams in a single division but did not play a full round-robin schedule and did not hold a championship game. The conference dropped to 10 football members after the football-only memberships of Idaho and New Mexico State were not extended following the 2017 season. [9] The conference announced that it would begin playing a championship game in 2018, [10] which it facilitated by splitting into two five-team divisions. [11] Thus, 2018 was the first season that all FBS conferences held a championship game.
Prior to the 2022 season, the NCAA gave conferences full freedom to determine the participants in their championship games. [12] The Pac-12 scrapped its football divisions, effective immediately, on the very same day that the NCAA passed this rule change, [13] soon followed by the MW [14] and ACC [15] effective in 2023.
Beginning in the 2024-25 season the top 6 ranked winners of conference receive automatic bids to the College Football Playoff with the top 4 ranked conference champions receiving a bye to the second round. Since every conference champion is decided by a championship game as of that season, the games can serve as de-facto playoff qualification games. (Espically for teams in the power 4.)
Rankings are pre-game and from the AP Poll.
| Conference | Inaugural year | Final year |
|---|---|---|
| WAC Championship Game | 1996 | 1998 |
| Pac-12 Championship Game | 2011 | 2023 |
Conference USA is an intercollegiate athletic conference whose current member institutions are located within the Southern United States and Western United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. CUSA's offices are located in Dallas, Texas.
The Mountain West Conference (MW) is one of the collegiate athletic conferences affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The MW officially began operations on January 4, 1999. Geographically, the MW covers a broad expanse of the Western United States, with member schools located in California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. Gloria Nevarez took over as Commissioner of the MW on January 1, 2023, following the retirement of founding commissioner Craig Thompson.
The Sun Belt Conference (SBC) is a collegiate athletic conference that has been affiliated with the NCAA's Division I since 1976. Originally a non-football conference, the Sun Belt began sponsoring football in 2001. Its football teams participate in the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The 14 member institutions of the Sun Belt are distributed across the Southern United States.
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Mid-major is a term used in American college sports at the NCAA Division I level, particularly men's basketball, to refer to athletic conferences that are not among the ACC, AAC, Big East, Big 10, Big 12, Pac-12, and SEC, which are alternatively referred to as "high majors".
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The teams that participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision earn the right to compete in a series of post-season games called bowl games. As of 2023, there are 42 bowl games, and all are contractually obligated to offer bids to specific conferences, a situation known as a "tie-in". The "top" six bowl games in the nation select their teams as part of the College Football Playoff (CFP), which was put into place for a minimum of 12 years, beginning with the 2014 season. Prior to 2014, the top five games in the country were chosen under the system known as the Bowl Championship Series. The bowls outside of the CFP have individual contracts with the conferences to offer preferential bids to teams from those conferences. As long as teams are bowl eligible, they may be selected by these bowls to meet these contracts.
The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the highest level of college football in the United States. The FBS consists of the largest schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). As of the 2023 season, there are 10 conferences and 133 schools in FBS.
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