2020 NCAA Division I FBS football season

The following playing rule changes were approved by the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel for 2020:[1]

• Players ejected for targeting will now be permitted to remain in the bench area. Previously, players ejected for targeting had to return to the locker room.
• Restricting the number of players on a team wearing the same uniform number to two; such players still cannot be on the field at the same time and must play different positions.
• Including the number "0" as a legal uniform number.
• Extending the official's jurisdiction prior to kickoff from 60 to 90 minutes, requiring a coach from each team be on the field during warm-ups, and identifying each player by number.
• Adopting as a guideline a maximum of 2 minutes for instant replay reviews. Exceptions will be allowed in "exceptionally complicated" or end-of-game situations.
• If the game clock expires at the end of a half, replay determines that time was remaining, and the game situation calls for the clock to start on the referee's signal, the half ends unless the replay determines that the clock should have stopped with 3 or more seconds left.

• February 18 – The NCAA announced that it was considering a proposal that would allow student-athletes in all sports a one-time waiver to transfer to a new school without having to sit out a season. This would place all NCAA sports under the same transfer rules; currently, first-time transfers are only required to sit out a season in baseball, men's and women's basketball, football, and men's ice hockey. The existing criteria for the waiver would be extended to these five sports—namely, a player must receive a transfer release from his or her previous school, leave that school academically eligible, maintain academic progress at the new school, and not be under any disciplinary suspension.[2]
• February 20 – Pitt's football program has been placed on three years' probation as part of a series of violations announced by the Division I Committee on Infractions on Thursday, which also included violations from their men's basketball team and former head coach Kevin Stallings. The football infractions stem from when coach Pat Narduzzi was found to have been present at a football practice when three former quality control staff members performed coaching duties, which also exceeded the number of permissible coaches. The violation went undetected in part because the football program used a system to play music when outside parties were present at practice, triggering the quality control staffers to stay clear of the student-athletes. Coach Narduzzi was handed a show-cause order that will withhold him from two days of team practice in August. Along with the probation and Stallings' punishment, Pitt received a $5,000 fine from the men's basketball and football budgets and a three-year show-cause order for the former director of basketball operations. The men's basketball program will also have a reduction in the number of countable coaches by one at a regular practice for 16 hours during the 2019–20 academic year, while the football program will have a reduction of one countable coach for four days of practice, and two quality control staff members must be removed from practice for three days.[3]
• February 26 – The new LA Bowl was announced on February 26, matching the Mountain West's No. 1 team against the Pac-12's No. 5. Beginning in December, the game will be held at SoFi Stadium, the new 70,240-seat home of the Los Angeles Chargers and Rams in Inglewood, California. The LA Bowl is locked in at SoFi from 2020 to 2025.[4]
• March 4 – Senior Bowl officials announced that the postseason all-star game would move within Mobile, Alabama from its longtime home of Ladd–Peebles Stadium to the new Hancock Whitney Stadium on the University of South Alabama campus effective with the game's next edition in January 2021.[5]
• March 13 – In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the collegiate and professional sports associations and leagues cancelled or suspended athletic activities, including cancelling the 2020 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament and Women's tournament, suspending all spring sports, suspending the 2019-2020 NBA season and NHL season, and others. On March 13, the NCAA announced a suspension of all Division I on-campus and off-campus recruiting until April 15. Multiple universities and conferences had already cancelled their spring football games.[6]
• May 12 – Timothy White, chancellor of the 23-campus California State University system, announced that it would remain in a virtual learning model for the 2020 fall term. Because NCAA president Mark Emmert publicly stated that athletics could not take place on a campus without students, this left the 2020 season in doubt for the system's three FBS schools, all Mountain West Conference members—Fresno State, San Diego State, and San Jose State. No decision on any school's football season has been made.[7]

Due to a sponsorship change, what had been the Camping World Bowl played in Florida was renamed the Cheez-It Bowl, and the former Cheez-It Bowl played in Arizona reverted its name to Cactus Bowl. Also due to a sponsorship change, what had been the Belk Bowl was renamed as the Duke's Mayo Bowl. Three new bowls are planned to be played for the first time: Myrtle Beach Bowl (Conway, South Carolina), Fenway Bowl (Boston, Massachusetts), and LA Bowl (Inglewood, California).

• 2020 NCAA Division I FCS football season
• 2020 NCAA Division II football season
• 2020 NCAA Division III football season
• 2020 NAIA football season