NCAA Football Teams and FBS and FCS Conferences

Because of the size of NCAA football, games air on a number of different channels. It’s best to go team by team, and we do have articles on the most popular ones. See below for details.

In a hurry? NCAA football games air on a lot of different channels. You will definitely want all the ESPN and Fox Sports channels. These services should provide you with access to a lot of games all season long:

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NCAA football is vast with hundreds of schools participating overall and 278 teams in the Division I alone.

The Division I is further subdivided as follows:

How to Watch the NCAA FBS Conferences

There are too many important games each year for all the games to air on the top channels. But this list will give you a good overview of the channel families that air each conference:

• American Athletic Conference (AAC): Most games air on ESPN channels. You will also see games on NBC, Fox, CBS Sports Network and channels associated with the opponent team’s conference. Less popular games usually stream on ESPN+.
• Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC): The two conference channels, ACC Network and ACCNX, focus on broadcasting these teams’ games. But you will also see games on other ESPN channels, ABC, The CW, Fox Sports, and CBS Sports Network.
• Big Ten Conference: The 4 channels of the Big Ten Network is where you will find most games. But there are also a lot of games on Fox and FS1. You will also find games on opponent channels as well as NBC, CBS Sports Network, ESPN, and others.
• Big 12 Conference: Fox Sports and ESPN channels air a lot of these games but you will also see them on many other channels including ABC, NBC, The CW, CBS Sports Network, and even NFL Network.
• Conference USA (C-USA): CBS Sports Network is where you can find most games but there are a number on ESPN channels and, of course, on opponent channels.
• Mid-American Conference (MAC): Games air on CBS Sports Network and to a lesser extent on ESPN channels. Many games are streaming-only on ESPN+.
• Mountain West Conference (MWC): Many games are on Mountain West Network with Fox Sports and CBS Sports Network filling in.
• Pac-12 Conference: Previously, Pac-12 Network aired many games, but it is shutting down. Games for the two remaining teams generally show on large sports channels like Fox, ESPN, CBS, and others.
• Southeastern Conference (SEC): Many games air on SEC Network and SECN+ but the biggest games are more likely on CBS or ESPN.
• Sun Belt Conference: Most games appear on ESPN channels although a notable number of games can be seen on NFL Network. Many of the less popular games appear on ESPN+.

NCAA FBS Conference Teams

Here are the teams in all the conferences for 2024. Links are two pages we have created for specific teams.

American Athletic Conference

SMU left the AAC for the ACC. They were replaced by Army, which was previously an independent. Army is only playing in the conference in football.

Atlantic Coast Conference

Starting in 2024, the ACC has 17 teams with the addition of Cal, Stanford, and SMU.

Big Ten Conference

The Big Ten Conference expanded to 18 teams after UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington joined from the Pac-12 Conference.

Big 12 Conference

One-third of the Pac-12 Conference (Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah) moved to the Big 12 this year to expand to a total of 16 teams.

Conference USA

Conference USA moves up to a nice round 10 teams with Kennesaw State moving up from the FCS.

Mid-American Conference

There have been no changes to the MAC since last season.

Mountain West Conference

The Mountain West Conference is the same as it was last year, but it is being combined to some extent with the remnants of the Pac-12 Conference.

Pac-12 Conference

The Pac-12 Conference has only two teams remaining and many are now calling it the Pac-2. This season, it will be combined with the Mountain West Conference as a kind of pseudo conference.

Southeastern Conference

The SEC has expanded to 16 teams with the addition of Texas and Oklahoma.

Sun Belt Conference

The Sun Belt consists of 14 teams in two divisions.

Independents

Last year, there were 4 Independent schools in the FBS but now there are only 3 since Army joined the American Athletic Conference.

• UConn Huskies
• Notre Dame Fighting Irish
• UMass Minutemen

Football Championship Subdivision

Most of the games featuring the FCS teams are not shown on the major sports channels except when they are playing teams from the FBS. So look at the channels for opponents.

Note however that in many cases, the smaller schools will stream their own games for free. Check out the schools

The Division 1 FCS features 14 conferences.

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Frank Moraes

I am a Senior Content Editor at Hotdog.com, specializing in sports streaming and regional programming issues. With a PhD in Atmospheric Physics from the Oregon Graduate Institute of Science and extensive experience in remote sensing technology, including early video streaming, I bring a unique technical perspective to the streaming industry.

My expertise in sports coverage, particularly for out-of-market games and regional sports networks, stems from years of hands-on experience as an early adopter of streaming services and my work addressing fans' viewing challenges. As a longtime cord-cutter and subscriber to multiple streaming platforms, I combine my technical knowledge with practical user experience, making me a leading expert in the field of sports streaming and entertainment technology.

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