2010 NCAA Division I FBS football season

The 2010 NCAA Division I FBS football season, or the college football season, began on Thursday, September 2, 2010. The season progressed through the regular season and bowl season, and (aside from all-star exhibition games that follow the bowl games) concluded with the Tostitos BCS National Championship Game on Monday, January 10, 2011.

Rule changes for 2010

 * Wedge blocks are now banned on kickoffs.
 * Messages on eye-black, such as those worn by Tim Tebow, Reggie Bush, and Case Keenum are no longer allowed.

Conference realignment
During the first half of 2010, and especially starting in May of that year, several conferences were widely speculated to be considering expansion, and a number of schools were believed to be seriously considering conference moves. Due to conference notice requirements, no changes announced in 2010 will take effect until at least 2011.

The first change to be officially announced came on June 10, when the Pacific-10 Conference announced that Colorado had accepted that conference's invitation to join. At the time, it was not yet known whether Colorado would officially join the Pac-10 in 2011 or 2012; in September 2010, it was confirmed for 2011.

The following day saw two schools change conferences:
 * The Mountain West Conference announced that Boise State had accepted the conference's invitation to join from the Western Athletic Conference, effective with the 2011-12 academic year.
 * Nebraska applied for membership in, and was accepted by, the Big Ten Conference, in a move to take effect in 2011.

In the following days, it was widely speculated that the five public schools in the Big 12 South Division (Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State) would leave as a unit for the Pac-10. A&M was also reported to be flirting with the SEC. However, a last-minute deal announced on June 14 saw Texas cast its lot with a truncated Big 12, with the remaining schools also pledging their support for the conference. Rebuffed by the Big 12 schools, the Pac-10 shifted its focus to the Mountain West, extending an invitation to Utah on June 16 to join effective in 2011. Utah officially accepted the next day. When Utah and Colorado join, the Pac-10 will officially become the Pac-12.

Two months later, reports surfaced indicating that Brigham Young would leave the Mountain West Conference to become an independent in football, with its other sports rejoining the school's former conference, the WAC. On August 31, BYU pulled a surprise, indeed becoming an independent football team, but instead joining the West Coast Conference for the 2011-12 season. The MWC responded on August 18 by inviting current WAC members Fresno State, Nevada, and Utah State. Utah State declined the MWC offer, but the other two accepted later that day. After threats of legal action by the WAC and the Fresno State-Nevada pairing, the two schools agreed to stay in the WAC through the 2011-12 season in exchange for a greatly reduced exit fee.

Realignment activity then shifted to Division I FCS for several weeks, although rumors continued to swirl regarding potential movement in several conferences. The Big East Conference also announced that it had extended an invitation to Villanova, a founding non-football member, to upgrade its football program to FBS level and join in that sport. On November 11, the WAC announced that Texas State, currently a member of the FCS Southland Conference, and UTSA, which planned to launch an FCS program in that conference in 2011, would upgrade their football programs to FBS level, join the WAC in 2012, and become full FBS members in 2013. On November 29, the next major domino fell when TCU announced it would join the Big East in 2012 (less than a year later, on October 10, 2011, TCU announced that it would not join the Big East and would join the Big 12 in 2012 instead). The MWC replaced TCU for football only with Hawaii on December 10; Hawaii's other sports will join the Big West Conference.

Records

 * Penn State football coach, Joe Paterno, in his 45th season, has achieved a feat that no coach in major college football history has ever reached: the 400-win mark. Paterno already holds records for the most wins in major college football history as well as the most bowl wins (24) in college football history.
 * Kyle Brotzman of Boise State set a new Division I record for most career points by a kicker. His 439 career points surpassed the former record of 433 by Art Carmody of Louisville.
 * Miami (Ohio) became the first team in FBS history to win 10 or more games after losing 10 or more games in the previous season.

New and expanded stadiums
No new stadiums opened in the 2010 season. However, expansion projects at several stadiums were completed in time for the season:
 * Alabama: The seventh major expansion of Bryant–Denny Stadium increased the capacity from 92,138 to 101,821.
 * East Carolina: The east end zone at Dowdy–Ficklen Stadium was enclosed, increasing capacity from 43,000 to 50,000.
 * Louisville: A second deck was added to the east side of Papa John's Cardinal Stadium, increasing capacity from its original 42,000 to over 56,000.
 * Michigan: Michigan Stadium once again claimed the title of largest college football stadium. The new capacity was officially announced on July 14 as 109,901.
 * Texas Tech: Renovations to Jones AT&T Stadium increased the capacity to 60,454 and a new building on the stadium's eastern side added an additional 26 suites and 500 club seats.

Ten most watched regular season games in 2010

 * 1. November 26 - Iron Bowl - CBS - 2 Auburn vs 9 Alabama - 12.5 Million viewers
 * 2. December 4 - 2010 SEC Championship - CBS - 1 Auburn vs 19 South Carolina - 10.1 Million viewers
 * 3. September 6 - ESPN - 3 Boise State vs. 5 Virginia Tech - 9.9 Million viewers
 * 4. December 4 - 2010 Big 12 Championship - ESPN on ABC - 13 Nebraska vs 10 Oklahoma - 8.98 Million viewers
 * 5. October 2 - CBS - 7 Florida vs 1 Alabama - 8.6 Million viewers
 * 6. November 13 - Deep South's Oldest Rivalry - CBS - Georgia vs 2 Auburn - 8.3 Million viewers
 * 7. September 25 - CBS - 1 Alabama vs 10 Arkansas - 8.2 Million viewers
 * 8. November 26 - ESPN - 21 Arizona vs 1 Oregon - 7.8 Million viewers
 * 9. October 9 - CBS - 1 Alabama vs 19 South Carolina - 7.7 Million viewers
 * 10. September 11 - ESPN - 18 Penn State vs 1 Alabama -7.2 Million viewers

7 of 10 games involved with SEC teams - All seven involved a team from the State of Alabama

Final BCS rankings

 * Despite not being in the BCS rankings, Connecticut (8–4) played in the Fiesta Bowl by virtue of being the Big East Conference Champion.

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

Overall

 * AP Player of the Year: Cameron Newton, Auburn
 * Maxwell Award (top player): Cameron Newton, Auburn
 * Walter Camp Award (top player): Cameron Newton, Auburn

Niche
 * Campbell Trophy ("academic Heisman", formerly the Draddy Trophy): Sam Acho, Texas
 * Wuerffel Trophy (humanitarian-athlete): Sam Acho, Texas
 * Paul Hornung Award (most versatile player): Owen Marecic, Stanford
 * Burlsworth Trophy (top player who began as walk-on): Sean Bedford, Georgia Tech

Offense
Quarterback
 * Davey O'Brien Award (quarterback): Cameron Newton, Auburn
 * Johnny Unitas Award (senior quarterback): Scott Tolzien, Wisconsin
 * Manning Award (quarterback): Cameron Newton, Auburn
 * Sammy Baugh Trophy (quarterback, specifically passer): Landry Jones, Oklahoma

Running Back
 * Doak Walker Award (running back): LaMichael James, Oregon

Wide Receiver
 * Fred Biletnikoff Award (wide receiver): Justin Blackmon, Oklahoma State

Tight End
 * John Mackey Award (tight end): D.J. Williams, Arkansas

Lineman
 * Dave Rimington Trophy (center): Jake Kirkpatrick, TCU
 * Outland Trophy (interior lineman): Gabe Carimi, Wisconsin

Defense

 * Bronko Nagurski Trophy (defensive player): Da'Quan Bowers, Clemson
 * Chuck Bednarik Award (defensive player): Patrick Peterson, LSU
 * Lott Trophy (defensive impact): J. J. Watt, Wisconsin

Defensive Line Linebacker
 * Ted Hendricks Award (defensive end): Da'Quan Bowers, Clemson
 * Rotary Lombardi Award (defensive lineman): Nick Fairley, Auburn
 * Dick Butkus Award (linebacker): Von Miller, Texas A&M

Defensive Back
 * Jim Thorpe Award (defensive back): Patrick Peterson, LSU

Special teams

 * Lou Groza Award (placekicker): Dan Bailey, Oklahoma State
 * Ray Guy Award (punter): Chas Henry, Florida

Coaches
Assistant
 * AP Coach of the Year: Chip Kelly, Oregon
 * Paul "Bear" Bryant Award: Gene Chizik, Auburn
 * The Home Depot Coach of the Year Award: Gene Chizik, Auburn
 * Walter Camp Coach of the Year: Chip Kelly, Oregon
 * Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year: Chip Kelly, Oregon
 * Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award: Chris Petersen, Boise State
 * Bobby Bowden National Collegiate Coach of the Year Award: Gene Chizik, Auburn
 * Broyles Award (assistant coach): Gus Malzahn, Auburn

Preseason and in-season
This is restricted to coaching changes that took place on or after May 1, 2010. For coaching changes that occurred earlier in 2010, see 2009 NCAA Division I FBS end-of-season coaching changes.

End of season
Note:
 * All dates in November and December are in 2010; all January dates are in 2011.
 * The "resigned/fired" listing indicates that a coach technically resigned, but at least one media report has stated that he was effectively fired.