Independents
| Division 1 Independents (Independents) | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Association | NCAA |
| Division | Division I FBS |
| Members | 5 |
| Sports fielded | 1 (men's: 1; women's: 0) |
| Region | Eastern United States Midwest United States Mountain States |
| Locations | |
 | |
Independent schools are four-year institutions whose football programs are not part of an affiliated conference. This means that FBS independents are not required to schedule each other for competition like conference schools do. Many independent schools join, or attempt to join, established conferences, usually in order to gain a share of television revenue and access to bowl games that agree to take teams from certain conferences, and in order to help deal with otherwise potentially difficult challenges in scheduling opponents to play throughout the season.
All Division I FBS independents are eligible for the CFBHC playoff if they finish as the highest ranked Independent and obtain a 9-3 record during the regular season, or for other bowls associated with the CFP, if they are chosen by the CFP selection committee.
Georgia State withdrew from the American Athletic Conference in 2017 and began playing as an Independent in 2018. Georgia State then joined the Sun Belt Conference in 2021.
Navy was an Independent program before joining the American Athletic Conference for the 2018 season.
UMass became FBS independent in 2020.
Liberty became FBS Independent in 2021
New Mexico State became Independent in 2021
Independents' stadiums
| Institution | Football Stadium | Capacity |
|---|---|---|
| Army | Michie Stadium | 38,000 |
| BYU | LaVell Edwards Stadium | 63,470 |
| Liberty | Williams Stadium | 25,000 |
| New Mexico State | Aggie Memorial Stadium | 30,343 |
| Notre Dame | Notre Dame Stadium | 80,795 |
| UMass | Gillette Stadium/Warren McGuirk Alumni Stadium | 68,756/17,000 |
All Time Independent Records
| All-Time Independents football records | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Conf | Overall | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Team | W | L | W | L | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Army | 0 | – | 0 | 31 | – | 54 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| BYU | 0 | – | 0 | 46 | – | 40 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Georgia State | 0 | – | 0 | 20 | – | 17 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Liberty | 0 | – | 0 | 0 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Navy | 0 | – | 0 | 15 | – | 34 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| New Mexico State | 0 | – | 0 | 0 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Notre Dame | 0 | – | 0 | 68 | – | 36 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| UMass | 0 | – | 0 | 0 | – | 12 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| *Navy left Independent status 2018 *Georgia State became Independent 2018 *UMass became Independent 2020 *Georgia State left Independent status 2021 *Liberty became Independent 2021 *New Mexico became Independent 2021 Records through end of 2020 season | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rankings from Coaches Poll | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Independent Award Winners
