2011 NCAA Division I FBS football season

The 2011 NCAA Division I FBS football season, play of college football in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) level, began on Thursday, September 1, 2011. The season progressed through the regular season and bowl season, and, not counting all-star games that followed the bowl games, concluded with the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) National Championship Game on January 9, 2012 at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans. For the first time since 2007 (and for only the third time in the BCS era), no major team finished the season with an undefeated record.

Rule changes
Several rule changes took effect this season:
 * If a player is penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct for actions that occurred during a play ending in a touchdown, but before the goal line was crossed, the touchdown will be nullified and the fifteen-yard penalty enforced from the spot of the foul. This change was made the year after Georgia receiver A.J. Green was called for a personal foul after catching a pass for a touchdown against LSU. The fifteen-yard penalty was assessed on the resulting kickoff, which helped LSU's position for the winning score. In another game, North Dakota State defensive back Josh Gatlin pointed at the crowd at the seven-yard line before scoring a touchdown against South Dakota State. Gatlin received a penalty, but the touchdown was not taken back. A similar proposal that would have nullified touchdowns for taunting or excessive celebration after the score failed to pass the NCAA Football Rules Committee.
 * If a team commits a foul in the final minute of a half that results in a clock stoppage, the opposing team may choose one of the following three options: take the yardage penalty and the 10-second rundown; take the yardage penalty without the 10-second rundown; or decline both the 10-second rundown and the penalty yardage. Previously there was no option for a 10-second rundown. This rule change was made as a result of how the fourth quarter ended in the 2010 Music City Bowl. The new rule has been informally dubbed the "Dooley Rule", after Tennessee head coach Derek Dooley.
 * Video monitors will be allowed in coaches' booths to allow coaching staffs to determine whether they should challenge a call. The televisions will have access only to the live broadcast feed, with no video recorders. The technology, if made available at a stadium, must be provided to both teams.
 * Players lined up outside the tackle box—more specifically, those lined up more than 7 yards from the center—will now be allowed to block below the waist only if they are blocking straight ahead or toward the nearest sideline.
 * On placekicks, no offensive lineman can now be engaged by more than two defensive players. A violation will be a 5-yard penalty.
 * A three-man wedge is prohibited during kickoffs and punts. The penalty will be a fifteen-yard penalty from the spot of the foul, if non-contact, or from the end of the run, if contact.
 * Players will no longer be required to wear pants that always cover the knees.
 * The officials' uniforms were slightly changed. The shirt stripes are wider, they now wear black pants instead of white, and the initial of the official's role (ex. "R" for referee, "U" for umpire) is displayed on the front uniform pocket.

In addition, the NCAA recommends that conferences without a pregame warm-up policy should use a ten-yard, no-player zone between the 45-yard lines beginning 60 minutes before kickoff.

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 would take effect until at least July 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 accepted the next day. The conference name changed to Pacific-12 once Colorado and Utah officially joined on July 1, 2011.

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. Having already lost Utah to the Pac-10, the Mountain West decided to be proactive and in response the MWC invited WAC members Fresno State, Nevada, and Utah State on August 18 in an attempt to stop BYU's plan to go independent. Utah State declined the MWC offer, but the other two accepted later that day and attempted to join Boise by moving to their new home in the MWC the following year (Nevada will also greatly enhance its rivalry with the UNLV Rebels by joining the MWC). However after threats of legal action by the WAC, the two schools agreed to stay in the WAC through the 2011–12 season in exchange for greatly reduced exit fees. Just as things appeared to be stabilizing, BYU surprised everyone on August 31 by announcing that they would join the West Coast Conference and play as a FBS independent football team, starting in the 2011–12 season.

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 domino fell when TCU announced it would join the Big East in 2012. However, less than a year later on October 10, 2011, TCU announced it would not join the Big East and would instead join the Big 12 in 2012. The MWC replaced TCU for football only with Hawaii on December 10; Hawaii's other sports will join the Big West Conference.

On April 20, 2011, UMass announced that it would upgrade to FBS football and become a football-only member of the Mid-American Conference in 2012, with full FBS membership and eligibility for the conference championship coming in 2013.

Realignment continued to be a major story in the 2011 football season. On September 18, the ACC announced that Big East mainstays Pitt and Syracuse were officially accepted as members. However, the schools' departure date remains uncertain, as Big East bylaws require a 27-month notice period for departing members. As the Big East is currently holding these schools to the notice period, the earliest that Pitt and Syracuse can join the ACC, barring other developments, is July 2014. (TCU was not held to the notice period because it had never formally joined the Big East.) On September 26, the Southeastern Conference announced that Texas A&M would become the league's 13th member in July 2012.

On October 14, it was announced that the Mountain West Conference and Conference USA would merge their football operations to form a two-division, 22-team conference. The conferences were hoping that the merger would give them an automatic qualifier to a BCS bowl. The next move came on October 28, when the Big 12 formally accepted another Big East school, West Virginia. This paved the way for Missouri's official acceptance by the SEC on November 6, a move that had been in the works for several weeks. WVU's move led to a legal battle between the school and the Big East, with WVU filing suit to overturn the notice period, and the conference suing in another court to enforce it. In February 2012, the Big East and WVU reached a settlement that allowed WVU to join the Big 12 that July.

With the upcoming loss of three of its mainstays, the Big East announced on December 7 that five new schools would join its football conference in 2013. Houston, SMU, and UCF will join as all-sports members, while Boise State and San Diego State will join in football only. Both Boise State and San Diego State will rejoin former conferences for non-football sports. Boise State will return to the WAC, while San Diego State will rejoin the Big West after a 35-year absence. These developments eventually led the Mountain West and C-USA to announce plans to fully merge, under a new charter, as early as 2013.

Teams transitioning to FBS
Four schools began a two-year transition from the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) to FBS in July 2011. These schools were technically FCS members in 2011, and will be provisional FBS members in 2012 before becoming full FBS members in 2013.
 * The University of Massachusetts (UMass), currently a member of the non-football Atlantic 10 Conference and a football-only member of the Colonial Athletic Association, will move for football only to the Mid-American Conference effective in 2012. The Minutemen will be eligible for the conference championship upon completion of their FBS transition in 2013. As a part of this move, UMass will move its home games from its on-campus Warren McGuirk Alumni Stadium to Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, home of the New England Patriots, starting in 2012. In the meantime, McGuirk Stadium will undergo a major expansion, adding 8,000 seats to its current capacity of 17,000. UMass hopes to move some home games back to campus as early as 2014; it is contractually committed to play all 2012 and 2013 home games, plus at least four games in each season from 2014 to 2016, in Foxborough.
 * The University of South Alabama played its first complete NCAA season. The Jaguars, currently members of the Sun Belt Conference, played a 10-game schedule, although they were allowed to play as many as 12 as a transitional FBS program. South Alabama launched its program in 2009, playing seven games that season and 10 in 2010. The Jaguars play their home games at Ladd Peebles Stadium, home to the GoDaddy.com Bowl and Senior Bowl All-Star Game in their home city of Mobile, and are coached by Joey Jones.
 * Texas State University–San Marcos (Texas State) is one of two transitioning schools that will move from the Southland Conference (though it played the 2011 season as an FCS independent) to the Western Athletic Conference in 2012. In January 2011, the Bobcats brought back Dennis Franchione, who had coached the team in 1990 and 1991 before going on to head coaching jobs at New Mexico, TCU, Alabama, and Texas A&M, to oversee their FBS transition. Texas State is expanding its current on-campus Bobcat Stadium to an ultimate capacity of 34,800 for its official FBS debut.
 * The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) is the other transitioning school leaving the Southland Conference for the WAC. Like Texas State, UTSA also played as an FCS independent in 2011. The Roadrunners, coached by former Miami head coach Larry Coker, played their first-ever football season in 2011, and are using the Alamodome in downtown San Antonio as their home field.

Records

 * Several significant records were tied or broken on October 22:
 * East Carolina quarterback Dominique Davis set two FBS records for consecutive pass completions in the Pirates' 38–35 win over Navy.
 * Davis completed his first 26 pass attempts, breaking the single-game record of 23 first set in 1998 by Tee Martin of Tennessee against South Carolina and tied in 2004 by Aaron Rodgers of California against USC.
 * Since Davis had also completed his final 10 passes in the Pirates' game the previous week against Memphis, his streak against Navy gave him a total of 36 consecutive completions over two games, breaking the record of 26 set by Rodgers in 2004.
 * Boise State quarterback Kellen Moore led the Broncos to a 37–26 win over Air Force, giving him 45 career wins as a starter. This tied the FBS record of Texas' Colt McCoy (2006–2009); after a bye week, Moore could (and ultimately did) take sole possession of the record at UNLV on November 5. He finished his career 50-3.
 * In Houston's 63–28 win over Marshall, Cougars quarterback Case Keenum set a new FBS record for career total offense, surpassing the 16,910 yards amassed by Timmy Chang of Hawaii from 2000 to 2004. He also brought his career total of touchdowns accounted for (combined passing, rushing, receiving, and returns) to 150, tying the record set by Central Michigan's Dan LeFevour from 2006 to 2009.
 * Penn State head coach Joe Paterno, already the holder of the record for most career wins in FBS, tied Eddie Robinson of Grambling for the most wins in Division I history, with 408, when the Nittany Lions defeated Northwestern 34–24.
 * On October 27, Keenum's nine touchdown passes in Houston's 73–34 win over crosstown rival Rice gave him 139 for his college career, surpassing the previous record of 134 by Texas Tech's Graham Harrell from 2005 to 2008. He also took sole possession of the record for most touchdowns accounted for, with 159 (and counting).
 * On October 29, Paterno took sole possession of the record for most career wins by a Division I head coach when Penn State defeated Illinois 10–7. This would prove to be Paterno's final game, as he would be fired less than two weeks later in the midst of a sexual abuse scandal (more details below).
 * On November 5:
 * In Houston's 56–13 pasting of UAB, Keenum broke Chang's record for career passing yards, ending the game with 17,212.
 * Boise State defeated UNLV 48–21, giving Moore his 46th career win as a starter and sole possession of that record.
 * On November 19, Keenum added another major FBS record to his collection, surpassing Harrell's previous record of 1,403 career completions in the first quarter of Houston's 37–7 win over SMU. Keenum ended with 1,427 completions.
 * On November 26, Kentucky defeated Tennessee for the first time since 1984. The Wildcats' 10–7 win ended the longest current losing streak against an annual opponent in FBS at 26.

Expanded stadium

 * North Carolina: Renovations on Kenan Memorial Stadium will be completed in time for the start of the season. The renovations, which began last year, enclosed the stadium with what is called "The Blue Zone" and included an additional 1,836 seats (part in the form of private boxes and suites) bringing the total capacity to 61,836.

Temporary stadiums

 * California played this season at AT&T Park in San Francisco, home to the San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball. The move was necessary because the Golden Bears' normal home, California Memorial Stadium, is undergoing a major renovation, which includes a full seismic retrofit. The Bears will return to Memorial Stadium in 2012. Although AT&T Park is primarily a baseball venue, it has hosted several football teams and events; it is the current home of the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl.
 * Washington played almost all of its 2011 home schedule at its on-campus Husky Stadium, but began major renovations to the facility before the end of the season. As a result, the Apple Cup rivalry game with Washington State, hosted in odd-numbered years by the Huskies, was moved to CenturyLink Field, home to the Seattle Seahawks (NFL) and Seattle Sounders FC (MLS). The Huskies will play their entire 2012 home schedule at CenturyLink Field as well.

Ohio State
The Ohio State Buckeyes had five players and their head coach, Jim Tressel, suspended for the first five games of the 2011 season. The program was also under investigation by the NCAA, with the school going before the NCAA Committee on Infractions in August 2011, with findings and decisions following shortly thereafter. The players were alleged to have improperly traded dozens of items to the owner of a tattoo parlor, receiving tattoos, $14,000, and in one case a sport-utility vehicle. Tressel was under investigation for lying to the University and investigators regarding his knowledge of the incident. The scandal led to the resignation of Tressel on May 30. Then, on June 8, starting quarterback Terrelle Pryor, one of the five suspended players, announced that he would forego his final year of college eligibility.

Initially, Ohio State offered to vacate its entire 2010 season, return money received from the 2011 Sugar Bowl, impose two years of probation, and use five fewer football scholarships over the next three seasons. However, after the school went before the NCAA, further rules violations emerged. Three players were suspended before the start of the season for receiving $200 from a booster. Then, midway through the season, it was discovered that the same booster had overpaid several players for summer jobs. The NCAA announced its final penalties on December 20. While accepting Ohio State's initial penalties, it imposed extra sanctions. One extra year of both probation and scholarship reductions was added, running through the 2014 season. The Buckeyes will also be banned from a bowl in 2012. Tressel, who joined the staff of the Indianapolis Colts during the 2011 NFL season and has since taken a non-athletic position at his alma mater of the University of Akron, was hit with a five-year show-cause penalty, which effectively bars him from college coaching through the 2016 season. Finally, the school was required to disassociate itself from Pryor for five years.

North Carolina
The North Carolina Tar Heels, in the midst of an NCAA investigation into improper benefits and academic misconduct within the football program, fired head coach Butch Davis on July 27.

Miami
On August 16, Yahoo! Sports broke a story in which former Miami Hurricanes booster Nevin Shapiro, currently imprisoned for running a Ponzi scheme, stated that from 2002 through 2010 he had given massive amounts of improper benefits to Miami players and coaches, mostly in football but also in men's basketball. Shapiro indicated that the benefits included cash, various goods, prostitutes, and even an abortion.

Penn State
On November 5, former Penn State assistant Jerry Sandusky was indicted on multiple felony charges of sex abuse against minors. Two other high-ranking Penn State administrators—athletic director Tim Curley and vice president for business and finance Gary Schultz (whose job includes supervision of the university police department)—were charged with perjury in the case. The day after the indictments, the university Board of Trustees held an emergency meeting, at which Curley requested to be placed on administrative leave and Schultz stepped down. Paterno, who had received notice of inappropriate behavior by Sandusky in 2002 and had reported the allegations to university administrators (though not to police), was not charged or implicated in any wrongdoing. On November 9, he announced his retirement effective at the end of the season, stating he was "absolutely devastated by the developments in this case." However, hours later, the Penn State Board of Trustees fired Paterno, effective immediately.

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

Other overall

 * AP Player of the Year: Robert Griffin III, Baylor
 * Maxwell Award (top player): Andrew Luck, Stanford
 * Walter Camp Award (top player): Andrew Luck, Stanford
 * Campbell Trophy ("academic Heisman", formerly the Draddy Trophy): Andrew Rodriguez, Army
 * Wuerffel Trophy (humanitarian-athlete): Barrett Jones, Alabama
 * Paul Hornung Award (most versatile player): Brandon Boykin, Georgia
 * Burlsworth Trophy (top player who began as walk-on): Austin Davis, Southern Miss

Offense
Quarterback
 * Davey O'Brien Award (quarterback): Robert Griffin III, Baylor
 * Johnny Unitas Award (senior/4th year quarterback): Andrew Luck, Stanford
 * Manning Award (quarterback): Robert Griffin III, Baylor
 * Sammy Baugh Trophy (quarterback, specifically passer): Case Keenum, Houston

Running Back
 * Doak Walker Award (running back): Trent Richardson, Alabama

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

Tight End
 * John Mackey Award (tight end): Dwayne Allen, Clemson

Lineman
 * Dave Rimington Trophy (center): David Molk, Michigan
 * Outland Trophy (interior lineman): Barrett Jones, Alabama

Defense

 * Bronko Nagurski Trophy (defensive player): Luke Kuechly, Boston College
 * Chuck Bednarik Award (defensive player): Tyrann Mathieu, LSU
 * Lott Trophy (defensive impact): Luke Kuechly, Boston College

Defensive Line Linebacker
 * Ted Hendricks Award (defensive end): Whitney Mercilus, Illinois
 * Rotary Lombardi Award (defensive lineman): Luke Kuechly, Boston College
 * Dick Butkus Award (linebacker): Luke Kuechly, Boston College

Defensive Back
 * Jim Thorpe Award (defensive back): Morris Claiborne, LSU

Special teams

 * Lou Groza Award (placekicker): Randy Bullock, Texas A&M
 * Ray Guy Award (punter): Ryan Allen, Louisiana Tech

Coaches
Assistant
 * AP Coach of the Year: Les Miles, LSU
 * Paul "Bear" Bryant Award: Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State
 * The Home Depot Coach of the Year Award: Les Miles, LSU
 * Walter Camp Coach of the Year: Les Miles, LSU
 * Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year: Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State
 * Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award: Dabo Swinney, Clemson
 * Bobby Bowden National Collegiate Coach of the Year Award: Nick Saban, Alabama
 * Broyles Award (assistant coach): John Chavis, LSU

Preseason and in-season
This is restricted to coaching changes that took place on or after May 1, 2011. For coaching changes that occurred earlier in 2011, see 2010 NCAA Division I FBS end-of-season coaching changes.