The 2011 NCAA Division I FBS football season, play of college football in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) level, began on Thursday, September 1, 2011. The season progressed through the regular season and bowl season, and, not counting all-star games that followed the bowl games, concluded with the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) National Championship Game on January 9, 2012 at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans in which the #2 Alabama Crimson Tide defeated the #1 LSU Tigers 21-0. For the first time since 2007 (and for only the third time in the BCS era), no major team finished the season with an undefeated record.