Jump to content

List of NCAA Division I FBS conference championship games

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Vince Young (with football) about to score a touchdown in the 2005 Big 12 Championship Game

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 9 active FBS conferences now have championship games.

History

[edit]

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]

Twelve-team conferences

[edit]

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.

To date, the Big 12 is the only conference to discontinue and restart its scheduling of championship games.

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.

Smaller conferences

[edit]

At the conclusion of the 2015 season, only the Big 12 and the Sun Belt Conference (SBC) 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 SBC grew to 12 members with the addition of Coastal Carolina.[8] At that time, the SBC 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. The Big Ten,[16] MAC,[17] and SEC[18] all eliminated football divisions after the 2023 season, leaving the SBC as the only FBS conference using a divisional alignment in football.

Beginning in the 2024-25 season the top 5 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. (Especially for teams in the power 4.)

Championship games

[edit]

Rankings are pre-game and from the AP Poll.

Conference Inaugural year Most recent Venue
Date Winning team Losing team
AAC Championship Game 2015 December 2, 2023 SMU 26 17 Tulane 14 Yulman Stadium – New Orleans, LA
ACC Championship Game 2005 December 2, 2023 4 Florida State ^ 16 15 Louisville 6 Bank of America Stadium – Charlotte, NC
Big Ten Championship Game 2011 December 2, 2023 2 Michigan † 26 18 Iowa 0 Lucas Oil Stadium – Indianapolis, IN
Big 12 Championship Game 1996[a] December 2, 2023 7 Texas † 49 19 Oklahoma State 21 AT&T Stadium – Arlington, TX
Conference USA Championship Game 2005 December 1, 2023 20 Liberty ^ 49 New Mexico State 35 Williams Stadium – Lynchburg, VA
MAC Championship Game 1997 December 2, 2023 Miami (OH) 23 23 Toledo 14 Ford Field – Detroit, MI
Mountain West Championship Game 2013 December 2, 2023 Boise State 44 UNLV 20 Allegiant Stadium – Paradise, NV
SEC Championship Game 1992 December 2, 2023 8 Alabama † 27 1 Georgia ^ 24 Mercedes-Benz Stadium – Atlanta, GA
Sun Belt Championship Game 2018 December 2, 2023 Troy 49 Appalachian State 23 Veterans Memorial Stadium – Troy, AL
† - Denotes team subsequently received a CFP berth
^ - Denotes team subsequently received a non-CFP NY6 berth
  1. ^ Discontinued after the 2010 edition; reinstated for 2017 and beyond.

Discontinued games

[edit]
Conference Inaugural year Final year
WAC Championship Game 1996 1998
Pac-12 Championship Game 2011 2023

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "NCAA vote allows Big 12 to hold football championship game". Longview News-Journal. Longview, Texas. AP. January 14, 2016. p. B1. Retrieved December 8, 2019.
  2. ^ McEwen, Tom (December 6, 1992). "Langham's pickoff energized low Tide". The Tampa Tribune. p. 38. Retrieved December 8, 2019 – via newspapers.com.
  3. ^ Dame, Mike (January 29, 1992). "Citrus Bowl, SEC closing in on deal". Orlando Sentinel. p. 19. Retrieved December 8, 2019 – via newspapers.com.
  4. ^ "Big 12, WAC, SEC title games set for Dec. 7 TV tripleheader". Sun-Sentinel. Fort Lauderdale, Florida. February 2, 1996. p. 28. Retrieved December 8, 2019 – via newspapers.com.
  5. ^ Stone, Jason (March 19, 1996). "Big Sky should take look". Arizona Daily Sun. Flagstaff, Arizona. p. 7. Retrieved December 8, 2019 – via newspapers.com.
  6. ^ Dan Wolken (January 13, 2016). "NCAA members OK football championship games for all conferences". USA Today. Retrieved May 28, 2017.
  7. ^ "Bowlsby feels good about Big 12 despite negative perceptions". The Danville News. Danville, Pennsylvania. AP. July 18, 2017. p. B6. Retrieved December 8, 2019.
  8. ^ "Coastal Carolina to Join Sun Belt Conference" (Press release). Sun Belt Conference. September 1, 2015. Retrieved September 7, 2015.
  9. ^ Buckley, Tim (March 1, 2016). "Sun Belt drops football members Idaho, New Mexico State". The Daily Advertiser. Retrieved December 7, 2019.
  10. ^ "Inaugural Sun Belt Football Championship to be played in 2018" (Press release). Sun Belt Conference. June 8, 2016. Retrieved September 16, 2016.
  11. ^ "Sun Belt Concludes Spring Meeting as Upward Rise Well-Displayed" (Press release). Sun Belt Conference. May 23, 2017. Retrieved June 9, 2017.
  12. ^ "DI Council lifts football signing, initial counter limits for two years" (Press release). NCAA. May 18, 2022. Retrieved May 19, 2022.
  13. ^ Wilner, Jon (May 18, 2022). "Pac-12 adjusts football champ game selection process: It's all about playoff bids". The Mercury News. Retrieved May 18, 2022.
  14. ^ "Mountain West Announces Elimination of Football Divisions in 2023" (Press release). Mountain West Conference. May 20, 2022. Retrieved May 20, 2022.
  15. ^ "ACC Announces Football Schedule Model for 2023-26" (Press release). Atlantic Coast Conference. June 28, 2022. Retrieved June 28, 2022.
  16. ^ "Big Ten Conference Announces Future Football Schedule Formats for 2024-28" (Press release). Big Ten Conference. October 4, 2023. Retrieved October 30, 2023.
  17. ^ "MAC Announces Future Football Schedule Formats for 2024-26" (Press release). Mid-American Conference. January 25, 2024. Retrieved February 27, 2024.
  18. ^ "SEC Establishes 2024 Football Schedule Format" (Press release). Southeastern Conference. June 1, 2023. Retrieved April 15, 2024.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_NCAA_Division_I_FBS_conference_championship_games&oldid=1255210581"