This is a list of the 129 schools in the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. By definition, all schools in this grouping have varsityfootball teams.
Schools in Division I FBS are distinguished from those in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision(FCS) by being allowed to provide scholarship aid to a total of 85 players, and may grant a full scholarship to all 85. FCS schools are limited to financial assistance amounting to a maximum of 63 full scholarships, although some conferences voluntarily place further restrictions on athletic aid. The NCAA classifies FBS football as a "head-count" sport, meaning that each player receiving any athletically-related aid from the school counts fully against the 85-player limit. By contrast, FCS football is classified as an "equivalency" sport, which means that scholarship aid is limited to the equivalent of a specified number of full scholarships. In turn, this means that FCS schools can freely grant partial scholarships, but are also limited to a total of 85 players receiving assistance. Another NCAA rule mandates that any multi-sport athlete who plays football and receives any athletic aid is counted against the football limit, with an exception for players in non-scholarship FCS programs who receive aid in another sport. The three service academies that play in Division I FBS — Air Force, Army, and Navy — are theoretically subject to this rule, but are exempt in practice because all students at these schools receive full scholarships from the federal government.
Starting in 2014, the FBS began playing a four-team tournament culminating in a National Championship Game to determine its national champion, a system that will be in place from the 2014-2025 seasons by contract with ESPN, broadcaster of the games. Formerly, Division I FBS football was the only NCAA sport without a formal tournament to determine an undisputed national champion, with the FBS schools instead playing in a series of postseason bowl games, culminating in the BCS National Championship Game, which attempted to crown a single national champion. Other organizations, most notably the Associated Press, crowned their own champions via polling. The BCS and AP have not always agreed on a single champion. Before the BCS, the AP was considered to be the deciding body for crowning a Champion, but it was started as a regional voting body, much like every other organization before the BCS. Most of the years preceding the BCS era, the Championships were claimed by more than one school.
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