The year was 1894. Yale put together a football schedule that was daunting: Games on Wednesdays and Saturdays, basically every week from late September to late November, 16 contests in all. No major college football team — what we now call the FBS level — had a 16-game season since.
Until now. Welcome to yet another new part of this rapidly changing college football world. Seasons, at least for some teams, will be longer than ever. Texas and Penn State just played their 16th and final games of this 2024 season. And on Jan. 20 in the College Football Playoff championship game, Notre Dame and Ohio State will be playing their 16th and final games of this season in a matchup to decide the national title.
“How we got ready for the season, how we’re adapting, is you have a plan, you have a team, you have a sports performance team that you listen to, and you talk through some different scenarios and you’ve got to be adaptable,” Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said. “You’ve got to be willing to adapt based off the unpredictable things that can happen, and that’s what we’ve been able to do — and I feel like our guys will be physically ready to roll.”.
The 16-game season didn't come out of nowhere. Expanding the CFP to 12 teams meant that the teams in the national championship game would have to play either three or four games — depending on whether they got a first-round bye or not. With a 12-game regular season and then a conference championship game for some schools, it's almost certain that the national finalists in this system will have to play at least 16 games along the way.
