CHARLOTTE, N. C. -- One topic. Four hours. The result?
Possibly more games in the careers of college athletes, specifically college football players as it pertains to this meeting.
Here on the final day of the AFCA 2026 Convention, the event's most significant scene -- the Football Bowls Subdivision head coaches meeting -- ultimately addressed just one topic, several FBS head coaches told FootballScoop: lengthening the playing careers of student-athletes by expanding redshirting guidelines.
Per multiple Power Conference and Group of Five head coaches who spoke with FootballScoop Tuesday, the coaches collectively favor pushing for a player to be able to preserve a redshirt year while appearing in up to nine games.
"I think what we settled on is nine games, that's the preference," a head coach told FootballScoop.
"As many as we can get and still keep the redshirt option, I think nine games. We'll see," added another head coach. "But the things we voted on here last year got pushed through, so hopefully this will, too."
The conversation is a slight variation of the discussions surrounding the so-called "five to play five" idea; the original concept to that discussion was to just grant a blanket five-year calendar for a student-athlete's collegiate career that starts upon freshman enrollment and could include up to five full seasons of competition.
However, sources told FootballScoop that conversation veered to the expanded redshirt guidelines due to concerns of potential issues that could surround a five-year calendar; i.e., what's to stop the next wave being "six, seven or eight years. So, nobody's saying that five (for five) anymore."
Per sources, the FBS coaches tended to favor maintaining the current single-window NCAA Transfer Portal for another year. A discussion had been expected about moving the portal to spring -- "like April 1-30," a head coach told FootballScoop -- and changing the format of offseason to the more traditional NFL OTA (Organized Team Activity) model.
"We need to give it two years, let it breathe, get a fuller picture," added another FBS head coach.
Virtually nothing else was broached in the FBS meeting, sources told FootballScoop.
"I've never been a part of anything like that," added a head coach. "We literally discussed one topic for four hours."
In the NCAA's Division II and Division III head coaches' meetings, sources told FootballScoop that one of the primary topics was the clearance to begin using coach-to-player in-helmet communications.
That technological advancement emerged at the FBS level in 2024 and expanded to the FCS most recently.
Now, it's set to filter to the NCAA's D-II and D-III levels beginning in the upcoming 2026 season -- for programs that can afford to implement the equipment. It will remain having a coach able to speak to a single designated player on offense, the quarterback, and a single player on defense, with most schools using a linebacker for the communications but some electing to utilize a safety.
An interesting topic in the D-III meetings was the support to grant those student-athletes a redshirt opportunity.
"Really, it's about the best interests of the players," a head coach told FootballScoop. "Guys can develop a year and if they're really good after their junior season, they've probably got a chance to graduate, maybe go somewhere and make some money at the higher level and get a graduate degree that many of our schools might not have."