The 2012 NCAA Division I FBS football season was the highest level of college football competition in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).
The regular season began on August 30, 2012 and ended on December 8, 2012. The postseason concluded on January 7, 2013 with the BCS National Championship Game, where Alabama repeated as national champions by defeating Notre Dame.
Although Ohio State finished the regular season as the only undefeated team from an automatic-qualifying ("Power 5") BCS conference, they were ineligible to play in the postseason due to sanctions imposed earlier in the year.
Rule changes
The NCAA Rules Committee approved the following rule changes for the 2012 season, mostly for safety reasons: Kickoffs will be moved up to the 35-yard line from the 30, mirroring a similar change by the NFL in the 2011 season and rescinding a rule change made in the 2007 season. The kicking team will only have a five-yard running head start on kickoffs, again mirroring the NFL changes in 2011. Touchbacks will move from the 20-yard line to the 25-yard line only on kickoffs and free kicks after a safety. Touchbacks on punts rolling into the end zone, fumbles into the end zone, and interceptions in the end zone will remain at the 20-yard line. Players will be forbidden to leap over other players when blocking punts. Players who lose their helmets during a play (except when caused by fouls such as grabbing the facemask) will have to leave the field for one play. When a helmet is lost during play by the ball carrier, the play is dead immediately. Any action made by or against a helmetless player is penalized as a personal foul for 15 yards. Offensive players in the tackle box at the snap who are not in motion are allowed to block below the waist legally without restriction. All other players are restricted from blocking below the waist with some exceptions (i.e., blocking straight-on), modifying a rule change from the 2011 season.
Conference realignment
Membership changes
The following list includes schools transitioning from FCS to FBS.
On March 7, Temple was admitted back into the Big East Conference after having been expelled from it a decade earlier for failing to maintain a competitive football program. Temple joined from the Mid-American Conference, where it had competed since 2007.
Teams transitioning to FBS
On April 9, 2012, Georgia State University, a member of the Colonial Athletic Association, announced that it would rejoin the Sun Belt Conference effective in July 2013. Georgia State had been a charter Sun Belt member when the conference formed in 1976, but left in 1981. The Panthers began their FBS transition during the 2012 season and started playing a full Sun Belt schedule upon joining the conference in 2013. Full FBS membership, along with bowl eligibility, followed in 2014. The Panthers, who had been coached by Bill Curry since starting a football program in 2010, played home games at the Georgia Dome near the school's campus in downtown Atlanta. The Panthers remained at the Georgia Dome until its closure and demolition after the 2016 season; they have since taken over the venue formerly known as Centennial Olympic Stadium and Turner Field and converted it into the football-specific venue originally known as Georgia State Stadium and now as Center Parc Stadium.
Georgia State followed four other schools that were in the second and final years of FBS transitions— UMass, South Alabama, Texas State, and UTSA.
Future changes
The conference realignment period that began in 2010 continued for a third consecutive off-season.
The Mountain West Conference continued to raid the rapidly-collapsing Western Athletic Conference by adding San Jose State and Utah State on May 4. The additions allowed the Mountain West, which was anticipating the looming departures of Boise State and San Diego State to the Big East, to keep its football membership at ten teams for the 2013 season.
On September 12, the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) announced the addition of Notre Dame in all sports except football. Under the agreement, Notre Dame's football team would play five games against ACC opponents per season but remain classified an FBS independent, while its other sports would be fully integrated into the ACC. The arrangement is effectively a stronger version of the affiliation Notre Dame had had with the Big East since 1995.