The Power Five conferences make up five of the ten conferences in FBS ; the other FBS conferences are informally known as the Group of Five . The FBS consists of the Power Five , the Group of Five , and a small number of independent schools . Prior to the establishment of the College Football Playoff in 2014 , the Power Five conferences , as well as the old Big East Conference , were called Automatic Qualifying ( AQ ) conferences , because the champion of each conference received an automatic berth in one of the five Bowl Championship Series ( BCS ) bowl games . The final college football season for which the BCS was in effect was the 2013 season . With the split of the old Big East , there are now five power conferences
independent
NCAA Division I FBS independent schools
Power Five conferences