After Clemson’s Push, Week 0 Season Opener Gains National Momentum

Clemson is once again the trend setter, with other schools beginning to look for a Week 0 opponent before beginning difficult Week 1 games.

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney looked for a Week 0 matchup last fall; now other schools are falling in line. | Ken Ruinard / USA Today Network South Carolina / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

In the fall of 2025, Clemson filled out various waivers and requests in an attempt to move their week seven matchup against Charleston Southern to Week 0, citing concerns about rest and recovery — and they weren’t the only school with such a grievance.

A week after news broke of Clemson’s failed attempt to tweak their schedule, the idea of a unilateral Week 0 season-start is beginning to gain some momentum. 

Josh Brooks, Georgia’s athletic director and the co-chair of an NCAA calendar committee, said there has “been a lot of discussion” about making Week 0 the new opener, per The Athletic. 

Labor day is generally recognized as college football’s opening weekend, outside of the handful of teams who are granted Week 0 matchups. 

In 2026, the confirmed week zero-ers include UNC vs TCU in Ireland, NC State vs Virginia in Brasil, New Mexico at Florida State and Hawaii at Stanford. 

For the above teams, playing in Week 0 opens a weekend down the line, ultimately equating in two in-season bye weeks, as opposed to one. Obviously, the trade-off for a week zero matchup is one less week of offseason prep, but bye weeks are becoming increasingly “more valuable” as teams take on “more grueling schedules,” per The Athletic’s Seth Emerson.

When Clemson requested a Week 0 matchup, they cited concerns over their West Coast trip to play Cal in week four. With an opener against LSU, a home date with Miami and a tough ACC slate through late November, an additional bye week would have gone a long way to break up the Tigers grueling schedule. 

"My view is we should have a consistent start date," SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said during an interview with Yahoo Sports. "The adage is, teams make their most substantial improvement between Games 1 and 2. I think we should have a consistent start date. Labor Day weekend has been a good start date for college football.”

So while Sankey isn’t necessarily a proponent for week zero, his ultimate conclusion revolves around fairness league-wide. 

Three of Clemson’s 2026 ACC opponents — Virginia Tech, UNC and Florida State — will benefit from an extra bye week tied directly to their games against the Tigers. Virginia Tech has a bye before its Oct. 24 matchup with Clemson, while both UNC (Sept. 19 at Clemson) and Florida State (Oct. 31 at FSU) receive an additional week of rest immediately after facing the Tigers.

A CFB-wide Week 0 season-opener would also mean two weeks of college football action before the NFL’s season opener, ultimately directing more attention to the NCAA competition. 

Concerns about the heat of August are valid, especially for Southern schools. But Clemson requested a Week 0 game regardless, and the NCAA saw no problem placing New Mexico in Tallahassee in Week 0 in 2026. 

The college football offseason is typically more than seven months — week zero readiness should not be a concern. 

“That’s one I think that’s got a lot of traction,” Brooks said about the concept of opening on Week 0.