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FBS independents
NCAA	Division I FBS
Schools	4
Region	Eastern United States Midwestern United States Mountain States
Locations

National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) 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 many fewer independent schools than in years past; many independent schools join, or attempt to join, established conferences, usually in order to gain a share of television revenue and access to bowl games that agree to take teams from certain conferences, and in order 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), or for the so-called "access bowls" associated with the CFP, if they are chosen by the CFP selection committee. Notre Dame has a potential tie-in with the Orange Bowl. Army has an agreement with the Military Bowl (formerly the EagleBank Bowl), and Notre Dame, in addition to its CFP agreement, has other bowl agreements as part of its affiliation with the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). (Notre Dame had similar agreements with its previous conference, the Big East.) BYU had an agreement with the Armed Forces Bowl for 2011.

The ranks of football independents increased by one starting with the 2011 season with the announcement that BYU would leave the Mountain West Conference to become a football independent starting with that season. The ranks increased by two in 2013 when the 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, and decreased by one more in 2015 with Navy joining the American Athletic Conference as a football only member. UMass became FBS independent in 2016.

FBS independents

Reasons for independence

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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. The four remaining independent FBS schools have unique circumstances that allow for freedom from conference affiliation.

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, reportedly 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 is 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 contacts, including annual rivalry games with USC, Navy, Michigan, Stanford, Michigan State, Boston College, and Purdue as well as 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 ACC does not sponsor ice hockey for either sex; the only other ACC member with a men's ice hockey varsity team is Boston College, which plays alongside Notre Dame in Hockey East until 2017, when Notre Dame is switching 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, 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 10 opponents from time to time.

Army

One of the remaining independent programs is the service academy Army. Whereas television and bowl appearances are important sources of revenue and advertising for most other universities and their football games, the United States federal government fully funds essential scholastic operations of the service academies (athletics are funded by non-profit associations), effectively rendering such income superfluous.

Army has annual games guaranteed with Navy and with Air Force. It also has a historic rivalry with Notre Dame; the Army game is semi-regular. Television rights for the longstanding Army–Navy Game, which is the last regular season game in the NCAA, serve as a significant revenue source for the program. The academy also uses its football program to do recruiting; without a conference schedule, the service academy is able to more easily schedule games around the country.

Navy was formerly an independent program, but joined the American Athletic Conference for college football in 2015, citing that it wanted to maintain competitiveness, had concerns about scheduling and wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to make more money. Navy's arrival in The American also brought the league's football membership to 12 schools, allowing it to play a conference championship game.

Brigham Young University

During the conference realignment that happened in August 2010, BYU, upset that their rival, the University of Utah, was invited to the PAC 12 conference, decided to burn bridges with the Mountain West Conference and, in a knee-jerk reaction, chose football independence while joining the WCC in all other sports. BYU fans thought that they could be the "Notre Dame of the west", but all reasonable people snickered at the notion. Notre Dame is the best-known Catholic university in the U.S., while BYU represents the Spirit, Tradition, and Honor of the LDS Church. The 1984 team's national championship is the most recent by a university that is not a current member of the College Football Playoff coalition, and BYU fans won't shut up about it, even though it happened 32 years ago.

BYU also signed a contract with ESPN, which pays them a nominal sum for every October game they play against a mediocre G5 opponent. However, not even ESPN 8, "the Ocho" is willing to broadcast the November games, because who outside of Provo wants to watch BYU vs UMass play each other in a meaningless game when they could instead watch real teams play for a shot at conference championship?

UMass

The University of Massachusetts football program historically played in the Football Championship Subdivision of NCAA Division I prior to 2011. 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 UMass 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. UMass announced that it would look for a "more suitable conference" for the team.In September 2014, UMass announced that they will be going independent in the 2016 and 2017 seasons.

Independent school stadiums

Former independent schools

The following is a complete list of teams which have been Division I-A (FBS) Independents since the formation of Division I-A in 1978.

1. ^ This school remained in the conference that includes the FBS members of the pre-2013 Big East Conference, which began operating as the American Athletic Conference in July 2013.
2. The A10 sponsored football through the 2006 season, after which its football conference was effectively absorbed by the Colonial Athletic Association. UConn was an A10 member only in football.
3. UConn was a founding member of the original Big East Conference in 1979, but did not join for football until 2004.
4. ^ In 1985, the Gateway Collegiate Athletic Conference, a women's sports conference parallel to the Missouri Valley Conference, added football as its only men's sport by taking in the MVC's I-AA football teams. In 1992, the women's portion of the Gateway merged with the MVC; the football conference kept the Gateway charter, changing the conference name to Gateway Football Conference. The current name was adopted in 2008.
5. ^ The CAA football conference did not exist under that name until 2007, but has a continuous history dating back to 1938. It started with the formation of the New England Conference, which folded in 1947, with its member schools joining the newly formed Yankee Conference under a separate charter. In 1997, the Yankee Conference merged with the Atlantic 10 Conference. After the 2006 season, the A10 football conference disbanded, with all of its members joining a new CAA football conference. The automatic berth of the Yankee Conference in the I-AA/FCS playoffs passed in succession to the A10 and the CAA.
6. Rutgers remained in the American Athletic Conference for the 2013 season before leaving for the Big Ten Conference in 2014.
7. Since dropping football after the 2014 season, UAB has announced that football will return in 2017 and resume play in Conference USA.

See also

• College football national championships in NCAA Division I FBS
• NCAA Division I FCS independent schools
• NCAA Division I independent schools (basketball)
• NCAA Division I independent schools (ice hockey)
• NCAA Division II independent schools
• NCAA Division III independent schools
• NAIA independent schools

External links

• Army
• BYU
• Massachusetts
• Notre Dame

References

1. Tenorio, Paul. "Bowl Game Brings Football Back to RFK". The Washington Post. September 11, 2008. Retrieved October 5, 2008.
3. Katz, Andy (August 31, 2010). "BYU leaving MWC for 2011–12 season". ESPN.com. Retrieved August 31, 2010. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
4. Hinnen, Jerry (September 12, 2012). "New Mexico State makes it official, will go independent in 2013". CBSsports.com. CBS Interactive. Retrieved June 17, 2014.
5. "Idaho and New Mexico State to Join Sun Belt Conference As Football Members in 2014" (Press release). Sun Belt Conference. March 27, 2013. Archived from the original on July 3, 2013. Retrieved March 28, 2013. {{cite press release}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
6. ^ Navy sets sail with the Big East
7. ^ Big East officially adds Navy
8. At the time Navy announced it would leave the independent ranks, its destination conference was known as the Big East Conference. When that conference split into football-sponsoring and non-football conferences in July 2013, the non-football schools took the Big East name with them. The football-sponsoring conference now operate as the American Athletic Conference.
9. "Independent football schedule taking shape for UMass">
10. "Notre Dame Goes To ACC: Bowl Security, Football Scheduling Flexibility Key To Move". Sports Business Daily. Street and Smith’s Sports Group. September 13, 2012. Retrieved September 9, 2013.
11. ^ Helliker, Kevin (2013-01-03). "Notre Dame's Holy Line". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved January 7, 2013.
12. Gage, Jack (2006-12-22). "The most valuable college football teams". Forbes. newsinfo.nd.edu. Archived from the original on August 28, 2007. Retrieved 2008-04-06. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
13. "Notre Dame Football Program Ranked Most Valuable In College Football". Forbes.com. und.cstv.com. 2006-11-20. Retrieved 2008-04-06. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
14. http://www.umassathletics.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/032614aaa.html. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
15. "UMass football, MAC to part ways following 2015 season".
16. http://www.masslive.com/umassfootball/index.ssf/2014/09/umass_football_announces_games.html. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
17. http://mobile.gazettenet.com/home/13575896-108/matt-vautour-independent-football-schedule-taking-shape-for-umass. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

• NCAA Division I FBS football independents
• NCAA conferences