07-06-2026, 07:23 AM
Yet to coach a game, much less a win in the SEC, but...only he knows the solutions 
Florida coach Jon Sumrall called for the shortening of the college football season knowing what the current calendar looks like. With CFP expansion on the horizon, the season could go even later than it already does.
For the upcoming college football season, the CFP National Championship takes place on January 25th. Heck in February is when fans gear up for the Super Bowl and college basketball, among other things on the calendar.
Source: On3 | Rivals national coverage
College football is too long for Sumrall’s liking, but it is what it is. He’d prefer to see an overhaul on the calendar to make sure the season ends right after New Year’s.
“But we still have this thing here in college football called school, all right,” Sumrall said on Next Up with Adam Brenneman. “Like, our guys, some of them are in class right now. I think the transfer portal window, when we finish the season first, when the second semester starts, is all kind of off. So, I think the counter, maybe move the start of the season up, maybe amend what the season looks like.
“Whether that’s less regular season games, if you want to extend the playoffs, great. But to me it’s more about why can’t we end on, let’s say, January 5th or 6th, not January 26th.”
Jon Sumrall wants major change to college football calendar
This isn’t the first time Sumrall called out the calendar structure in the sport. Once the dates for the CFP were announced, he called it “asinine.”
“I would love for us to move the season up a week or two,” Sumrall said in part. “I think it’s asinine. I get it that it’s for TV and money, but the college football championship game next year is on the (January) 24th (actually the 25th). That’s absurd to me. That means the mid-point of the football season is like mid-late November. We could take for an hour on this, but there’s some other parts to this too.
“We moved up the high school signing date to early Dec., and we did that to protect the high school kids from losing their spots to transfers. But then, right after we did that, we moved the Transfer Portal window back. So it’s like ‘why did we move high school signing day from the middle of Dec. to the beginning?’ So we fix a problem, but then we change the other part of it. It just seems a bit scattered. There’s still this thing called school. These guys still have to go to school… allegedly.”
As far as Sumrall’s current calendar is concerned, fall camp is right around the corner. Florida also opens the 2026 season, the first of his Gators’ tenure, with a home game against Florida Atlantic on September 5th.
Florida coach Jon Sumrall called for the shortening of the college football season knowing what the current calendar looks like. With CFP expansion on the horizon, the season could go even later than it already does.
For the upcoming college football season, the CFP National Championship takes place on January 25th. Heck in February is when fans gear up for the Super Bowl and college basketball, among other things on the calendar.
Source: On3 | Rivals national coverage
College football is too long for Sumrall’s liking, but it is what it is. He’d prefer to see an overhaul on the calendar to make sure the season ends right after New Year’s.
“But we still have this thing here in college football called school, all right,” Sumrall said on Next Up with Adam Brenneman. “Like, our guys, some of them are in class right now. I think the transfer portal window, when we finish the season first, when the second semester starts, is all kind of off. So, I think the counter, maybe move the start of the season up, maybe amend what the season looks like.
“Whether that’s less regular season games, if you want to extend the playoffs, great. But to me it’s more about why can’t we end on, let’s say, January 5th or 6th, not January 26th.”
Jon Sumrall wants major change to college football calendar
This isn’t the first time Sumrall called out the calendar structure in the sport. Once the dates for the CFP were announced, he called it “asinine.”
“I would love for us to move the season up a week or two,” Sumrall said in part. “I think it’s asinine. I get it that it’s for TV and money, but the college football championship game next year is on the (January) 24th (actually the 25th). That’s absurd to me. That means the mid-point of the football season is like mid-late November. We could take for an hour on this, but there’s some other parts to this too.
“We moved up the high school signing date to early Dec., and we did that to protect the high school kids from losing their spots to transfers. But then, right after we did that, we moved the Transfer Portal window back. So it’s like ‘why did we move high school signing day from the middle of Dec. to the beginning?’ So we fix a problem, but then we change the other part of it. It just seems a bit scattered. There’s still this thing called school. These guys still have to go to school… allegedly.”
As far as Sumrall’s current calendar is concerned, fall camp is right around the corner. Florida also opens the 2026 season, the first of his Gators’ tenure, with a home game against Florida Atlantic on September 5th.
