2008 NCAA Division I FBS football season

The 2008 NCAA Division I FBS football season, or the college football season, began on August 28, 2008, progressing through the regular season and bowl season, and (aside from all-star exhibition games that followed) concluded with the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) National Championship Game in Miami Gardens, Florida on January 8, 2009, where the #2 Florida Gators, defeated the #1 Oklahoma Sooners, 24–14, of which the teams were determined by the BCS Ranking. The Gators were declared national champions by the BCS and most major polls.

Western Kentucky University moves up from Division I-AA and becomes a I-A Independent.

Rule changes for 2008
The NCAA football rules committee made several rule changes for 2008, and includes the following:
 * The 25-second play clock was replaced by a 40-second version similar to one that was used in the NFL until 2005.
 * The penalty for kicking the ball out of bounds on the kickoff is increased, placing the ball at the 40-yard line, similar to the NFL.
 * All face-mask penalties result in a 15-yard penalty. Incidental contact with the face mask is no longer penalized.
 * All horse-collar tackles are now subject to a 15-yard penalty.
 * If a coach challenges a play, and he wins the challenge, then he is given a second challenge to use later in the game, but each coach has a maximum of two challenges per game even if both are decided in his favor.

Bowl games
If a conference does not have enough eligible teams to fill all of its contracted bowl slots, and an affected bowl does not have a contingency agreement with another conference (e.g., the Poinsettia Bowl, which has a contract with the WAC to take one of its teams if the Pac-10 does not have enough eligible teams), the bowl "left out" can select an at-large team. By NCAA rule, an at-large bowl slot must be filled by a team with at least 7 wins, if available. Two new bowl games were added for the 2008–09 post-season: the EagleBank Bowl, which was played at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C., and the magicJack St. Petersburg Bowl in the titular Florida city at Tropicana Field.

Bowl Championship Series
Ten teams played in the five BCS bowls. The top two teams in the final BCS ranking played in the BCS National Championship Game. The champions of the six BCS conferences who are not in the top two are given automatic berths into other BCS bowls. Unless playing in the championship game, the champions of the Big Ten and Pac-10 play in the Rose Bowl, the ACC champion in the Orange Bowl, the SEC champion in the Sugar Bowl and the Big 12 champion in the Fiesta Bowl. The Big East champion can play in any open BCS bowl games.

After the completion of the regular season and conference championship games, seven teams had secured BCS berths: Big Ten champion Penn State, Big East champion Cincinnati, ACC champion Virginia Tech, SEC champion Florida, Big 12 champion Oklahoma, Pac-10 champion USC, and Mountain West champion Utah, as the highest-ranked non-BCS conference champion. With Oklahoma and Florida being selected to play in the championship, Texas and Alabama were selected to assume their conference's spots in the Fiesta and Sugar Bowls. Cincinnati was selected for the Orange Bowl and Utah for the Sugar Bowl, with the remaining at-large spot awarded to Ohio State for the Fiesta Bowl. Ohio State was selected despite being ranked behind #9 Boise State at #10. #7 Texas Tech did not receive an at-large selection, as they were ineligible with the Big 12 already being awarded two BCS slots.

Other bowl games
Winners are bold

Bowl Challenge Cup standings
 *  Does not meet minimum game requirement of three teams needed for a conference to be eligible.

Heisman Trophy voting
The Heisman Trophy is given to the year's most outstanding player.


 * Winner: Sam Bradford, So. Oklahoma QB (1,726 pts)
 * 2. Colt McCoy, Jr. Texas QB (1,604 pts)
 * 3. Tim Tebow, Jr. Florida QB (1,575 pts)
 * 4. Graham Harrell Sr. Texas Tech QB (213 pts)
 * 5. Michael Crabtree, So. Texas Tech WR (116 pts)

Other major award winners
Top Player

Coaching

Offense

Defense

Lineman

Special Teams

Other

All-America selections
The Associated Press All-America team:

Offense
 * QB Sam Bradford (Oklahoma)
 * RB Shonn Greene (Iowa)
 * Javon Ringer (Michigan State)


 * WR Michael Crabtree (Texas Tech)
 * Dez Bryant (Oklahoma State)


 * OT Andre Smith (Alabama)
 * Michael Oher (Ole Miss)


 * G Duke Robinson (Oklahoma)
 * Herman Johnson (LSU)


 * C Antoine Caldwell (Alabama)
 * TE Chase Coffman (Missouri)
 * All-purpose Jeremy Maclin (Missouri)
 * K Louie Sakoda (Utah)

Defense
 * DE Aaron Maybin (Penn State)
 * Brian Orakpo (Texas)


 * DT Terrence Cody (Alabama)
 * Peria Jerry (Ole Miss)


 * LB James Laurinaitis (Ohio State)
 * Rey Maualuga (USC)
 * Brandon Spikes (Florida)


 * CB Alphonso Smith (Wake Forest)
 * Malcolm Jenkins (Ohio State)


 * S Taylor Mays (USC)
 * Eric Berry (Tennessee)


 * P Kevin Huber (Cincinnati)

Final rankings
 *  - The AFCA requires that their voters make the winner of the BCS Championship at the number one position in the final poll.

≠ - Kyle Whittingham, head coach of Utah, broke the agreement and voted his team number one on his ballot.