NCAA Division I FBS independent schools

FBS independents

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 after entering the FBS 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.

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 an 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+.

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 2025 season.

Notes

References

References

1. Katz, Andy. (August 31, 2010). "BYU leaving MWC for 2011–12 season". [[ESPN.com]].
2. Hinnen, Jerry. (September 12, 2012). "New Mexico State makes it official, will go independent in 2013". CBS Interactive.
3. (March 27, 2013). "Idaho and New Mexico State to Join Sun Belt Conference As Football Members in 2014". Sun Belt Conference.
4. (January 24, 2012). "Navy sets sail with the Big East".
5. (January 24, 2012). "Big East officially adds Navy".
6. At the time Navy announced it would leave the independent ranks, its destination conference was known as the [[Big East Conference (1979–2013). Big East Conference]]. When [[2010–13 Big East Conference realignment#Catholic 7. that conference split]] into football-sponsoring and non-football conferences in July 2013, the non-football schools took the [[Big East Conference. Big East name]] with them. The football-sponsoring conference now operate as the American Athletic Conference.
7. "Independent football schedule taking shape for UMass">[http://www.gazettenet.com/home/13575896-95/matt-vautour-independent-football-schedule-taking-shape-for-umass]
8. (March 1, 2016). "Sun Belt Football to Be 10 Teams in 2018". Sun Belt Conference.
9. (February 16, 2017). "Liberty to become FBS independent in 2018". Fox Sports.
10. (July 26, 2019). "UConn will become an FBS independent in football & reaches agreement with American, will pay $17 million exit fee to leave league & join Big East In Olympic sports on July 1, 2020".
11. (September 10, 2021). "BYU to Join Big 12 Conference". BYU Cougars.
12. (2023-10-25). "Sources: Army approved to join AAC for football".
13. (February 29, 2024). "Mid-American Conference to Add University of Massachusetts as Full Member". Mid-American Conference.
14. "College Navigator". [[United States Department of Education]].
15. (February 12, 2025). "U.S. and Canadian 2024 NCSE Participating Institutions Listed by Fiscal Year 2024 Endowment Market Value, Change in Market Value from FY23 to FY24, and FY24 Endowment Market Values Per Full-time Equivalent Student". National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO).
16. (July 30, 2020). "ACC sets 11-game slate, includes Notre Dame".
17. (September 13, 2012). "Notre Dame Goes To ACC: Bowl Security, Football Scheduling Flexibility Key To Move". Street and Smith’s Sports Group.
18. Helliker, Kevin. (2013-01-03). "Notre Dame's Holy Line". The Wall Street Journal.
19. Gage, Jack. (2006-12-22). "The most valuable college football teams". newsinfo.nd.edu.
20. (2006-11-20). "Notre Dame Football Program Ranked Most Valuable In College Football". Forbes.com.
21. "Football".
22. (July 23, 2019). "Chasing Ghosts: Calhoun looms large, but clouds parting at UConn".
23. (June 22, 2019). "Sources: UConn expected to rejoin Big East".
24. Thamel, Pete. (June 22, 2019). "Sources: UConn move to the Big East inevitable". [[Yahoo Sports]].
25. (March 9, 2020). "No. 5 UConn beats Cincy 87-53, finishes perfect run in AAC".
26. (2019-06-23). "What UConn Football's Schedule Could Look Like in 2020 as Independent".
27. (August 5, 2020). "Without a conference, UConn cancels football in 2020". Yahoo! Sports.
28. Sandomir, Richard. (1991-08-25). "COLLEGE FOOTBALL; Notre Dame Scored a $38 Million Touchdown on Its TV Deal". The New York Times.
29. (2020-05-11). "UConn and CBS Sports Agree to Multi-Year Television Deal for Home Football Games".
30. (2022-08-18). "CW20, FOX61+ To Air UConn-CCSU Football Game".
31. (2023-07-27). "UConn Athletics Announces Partnership With WFSB & WWAX".