/r/fcs
The official, unofficial subreddit for the NCAA Division 1 Football Championship Subdivison!
/r/fcs
The Good
South Carolina State owns own Destiny. In what was practically the De Facto MEAC title game SC State showed out and looked the part using a dominant first half to win a crucial game for the Bulldogs. The best QB in FCS no one talks about, Eric Phoenix had 200+ passing yards in the first half against an NC Central team that had only allowed less than 150 a game. The Celebration Bowl seems a lock for the Bulldogs at this point as Morgan State seems to be the only true test left on the schedule. NC Central I think could sneak into the FCS Playoffs as a consolation prize but will need some bubbles to burst to truly have a chance. Them winning out doesn’t seem like a stretch.
UT Martin wins crucial road game. This team for whatever reason is always a danger this time of year. To either themselves or others. This year it is to others. With SEMO honestly looking like a top 8 seed and their only other FCS loss being a close game against a Missouri State(legit not even a single scholarship over 63) that’s technically in transition. I think it wouldn’t be too far of a stretch for the SkyHawks to make it to the FCS playoffs. Winning last Saturday against Tennessee State practically puts them past their final test. November Spoilers are a thing though so they need to keep pushing forward.
Big Sky & MVFC elite take care of business. In what will likely lead to the biggest seeding clusterf*ck in the history of the 24 team playoff era, November got off to a good start for North Dakota State, South Dakota State, UC Davis, Montana State, and Montana, and South Dakota. South Dakota even though they didn’t play, got a very crucial bye week to rest legs and take ice baths to prepare for the road ahead. The XDSU’s dominated both Murray State and Northern Iowa, Montana and UC Davis dominated the Big Sky Cellar, and Picks up emergency business phone
Honorable Mentions: Rhode Island cruising and bruising, Illinois State I guess, Duquesne improving to 6-0 in FCS, UIW cruising through the Southland, McNeese going to win the Spread Natty?
The Bad
Central Arkansas. WHAT. THE. F***. Utah Tech. 0-9 Utah Tech. Yeah if you even come remotely close to an at large the committee should be thrown in prison. I don’t care if you beat Tarleton, I don’t care if every playoff eligible team gets the whooping cough, you don’t deserve it. The haters below will probably say “It’s one game”, no guys this might be one of the worst regular season losses by a ranked FCS team in the last 20 years and I don’t think anyone understands the magnitude of how bad it is.
Grand Forks Frauds. Part 2. Bubba Schweigert is probably sitting in his office like every FCS coach does every Monday reading this shitpost, happy that Central Arkansas dropped arguably the turd of the century so that maybe we’d forget his team lost to Indiana F****** State. North Dakota who many including myself thought before the start of last month looked to be a solid contender had firmly made themselves into Frauds. Thank you for basically making all of SIU’s L’s become Quality 😂😂
Tarleton. Many say the reason Stephenville smells so bad this week is because of the cattle, I say it’s the stinking pile of horseshit you guys put out on to the field last week. Eastern Kentucky is no slouch but it’s still not a loss good. All I have to say is this. Please win out, so that Kayvon Britten can play in the playoffs. One of the best backs in FCS and no one will know about him if the mid performances continue.
Dishonorable Mentions: Every CAA team besides Rhode Island and Richmond, SoCon Cannibalism, Dartmouth’s Ivy Brunch Ball disaster.
The Bobby Hauck Tier presented by the Montana Drywall Association
The ugly tier will remain named the Bobby Hauck Tier for this week despite benchmarks being hit because it’s funny. It will return to being called the ugly if the Griz perform well again this week.
Brent Vigen. The hot streak has ended. With that spread loss to Eastern Washington, Vigen drops to 4-5 against the spread this season according to official sportsbooks. The haters will say that Brent is 9-0, but what I say is those 9 “nerd wins” are empty. Many are wondering is Montana State the worst unbeaten team in FCS? The haters will say they’re the only undefeated team in the subdivision. With 0 quality L’s do they even deserve a high seed? Like seriously though SIU has 7 more quality L’s than Montana State why are the Salukis not being considered. At the end of the day Elite teams cover. Brent did not. W’s are W’s. But Drywall Holes are also Drywall holes.
FloSports. I don’t have nice a quip this week. I just want you to know that you suck.
Weird Scores. West Georgia won 88-12 and in the same week Robert Morris beat Merrimack 6-0. Both very ugly.
Hauck Tier Mentions: Bozeman Drywall Industry is so back baby, Bobby Hauck covering handily, whatever you submit below.
After signing in, click the link that says Current /r/FCS Poll. Poll will remain open until Tuesday morning, 10am CT
You now have the option to vote just for the HBCU Top 10 if you so choose! Otherwise, at the end of your FCS Top 25 (or Top 10) submission, you'll be given the opportunity to also submit a vote for you ranking of the top 10 HBCUs in the subdivision. This is completely optional and meant to be an additional fanbase voice within the Black College National Championship conversation.
Note, this does not prevent you from ranking the HBCUs in your standard FCS ranking submission
As a reminder, the /r/FCS poll is now part of the Massey Ratings Composite. As such, we highly recommend submitting a full top 25 vote if you think you can put one together. But we're leaving the option to submit just a top 10 for those who’d prefer that route.
Please don't vote for a team twice or your poll will be thrown out.
Joke votes will be thrown out. We don't have a problem with outlier votes, but be prepared to defend your poll if it raises eyebrows.
If you mess up on your poll, please resubmit a corrected one and leave a comment saying you submitted two and I'll delete the first one.
If you're unsure if you messed up your poll, make a note in the comments and we'll take a look for you and let you know.
Here are some useful links to help you with your submission:
STATS Poll (Updates on Mondays)
This may be a dumb question that may have been answered before but I couldn’t find it. How do the points work? Montana State is undefeated this season but they’re only number 2 behind North Dakota State because NDSU had more points. Can anyone ELI5 how the points are calculated?
(2)Montana State 42-28 Eastern Washington
Northern Arizona 27-6 Weber State
(5)UC Davis 59-7 Northern Colorado
Portland State 58-38 Sacramento State
Gardner-Webb 17-14 Charleston Southern
Tennessee Tech 52-10 Lindenwood
Eastern Illinois 45-38 Western Illinois
(21)UT Martin 28-21 Tennessee State
William & Mary 45-7 North Carolina A&T
(12)Rhode Island 37-28 Monmouth
(23)Harvard 31-27 (18)Dartmouth
South Carolina State 24-21 (25)North Carolina Central
Morgan State 38-37 Norfolk State
Indiana State 35-31 (14)North Dakota
(22)Illinois State 23-16 Youngstown State
Missouri State 38-17 Southern Illinois
(3)South Dakota State 52-6 Murray State
(1)North Dakota State 42-19 Northern Iowa
Central Connecticut State 24-14 Wagner
Morehead State 21-7 St. Thomas (MN)
Jackson State 41-3 Arkansas-Pine Bluff
Bethune-Cookman 24-21 Grambling
Prairie View A&M 17-16 Mississippi Valley State
Florida A&M 52-28 Texas Southern
Alabama State 21-17 Alcorn State
Western Carolina 38-34 (17)Chattanooga
(11)Mercer 37-31 (24)East Tennessee State
(8)Incarnate Word 45-20 Houston Christian
Southeastern Louisiana 30-27 Lamar
Stephen F. Austin 28-12 Nicholls
McNeese 31-3 Texas A&M-Commerce
West Georgia 88-12 Lincoln (CA)Lincoln (CA) (Independent)
Utah Tech 34-21 (13)Central Arkansas
(19)Abilene Christian 28-25 Southern Utah
Three weeks in the regular season remain, and now six teams apiece remain on the undefeated and winless categories, including the technical categories. Only Montana State remains truly undefeated while three teams still remain without a single win. Three truly winless teams have graduated from this category, with the biggest of these being Utah Tech making a massive upset against Central Arkansas. MVSU came so close to getting out too, but fell just short against Prairie View A&M.
Undefeated or technically undefeated (only lost to FBS teams):
No longer either of the above:
Winless or technically winless (no Division I victories):
Graduated from either category:
There’s plenty of big universities to choose from without football programs go join the fcs like Long Beach st, Grand Canyon, George mason, George Washington, Milwaukee, Santa Barbara, Chico state, cal st Fullerton, cal st northridge, uc San Diego, ut Arlington, Drexel, uc Irvine, utrgv
They can also go promote a few top dogs from division 2 like Ferris state or grand valley st is it time for some d3 powers like mount union to move up to D2?
The fcs can easily take advantage and have nationally televised top 25 games all week. Instead of taking the paycheck from Ohio st, Georgia etc week 0 top FCs teams should face off against each other or take the paycheck from Akron, New Mexico etc and try to start off with a win.
A ivy/ swac/ meac showdown would be awesome
GRAB YOUR FAVORITE BEVERAGE* AND LET'S WATCH SOME FOOTBALL
*FOR YOU UNDERAGED FANS, WE MEAN A COFFEE OR SOMETHING ಠ_ಠ
Today's Pick'em Games (all times listed in Central, the undisputed best time zone for football):
Away | Home | Time | Stream | /r/FCS Sportsbook Spread |
---|---|---|---|---|
Monmouth | Rhode Island | 12pm | FloSports | Rhode Island -0.5 (O/U 61.5) |
Harvard | Dartmouth | 12:30pm | ESPN+ | Dartmouth -0.5 (O/U 52.5) |
Chattanooga | Western Carolina | 1:30pm | ESPN+ | Chattanooga -4 (O/U 53) |
ETSU | Mercer | 2pm | ESPN+ | Mercer -7 (O/U 52) |
Southern | Alabama A&M | 2pm | HBCU GO | Alabama A&M -3 (O/U 54.5) |
Southeastern | Lamar | 3pm | ESPN+ | Southeastern -1 (O/U 49) |
Southern Utah | Abilene Christian | 3pm | ESPN+ | Abilene Christian -5 (O/U 62.5) |
Stephen F. Austin | Nicholls | 3pm | ESPN+ | Stephen F. Austin -5 (O/U 54.5) |
Alabama State | Alcorn State | 4pm | ESPN+ | Alabama State -8.5 (O/U 45) |
You can find the full schedule with up to the minute results over at the brand new /r/CFB Scoreboard.
Also seriously don't ask for "alternate" streams, because we don't want to deal with takedown notices. Plus most games can be listened to on streaming radio for free if you're really desperate.
So I just read that the MWC has decided to add Grand Canyon University? Never heard of them, do they even have a football team? Kind of hard to believe that they’d pass on the Montana and Dakota State schools for GCU!
If there's anything you want to talk about, celebrate, complain about, etc., go for it. Doesn't need to be FCS specific.
Note: Basic rules still apply
First of all, yes I know this is not a conventional idea, nor is it a terribly feasible one, and it's probably not a post for the r/fcs subreddit anyways, but I was looking for opinions and all of the other subreddits this would relate to are pretty dead.
My idea is as such: take the top half of the D2 GLIAC conference and the top half of the D2 NSIC conference (along with one or two others) and make them into a strong FCS conference. This conference would include some of the strongest D2 football programs in the country (GVSU, Ferris State, Minnesota State, Augustana, Sioux Falls, UIndy), some of the strongest D1 hockey programs in the country (Michigan Tech, Northern Michigan, St Cloud State, Duluth, Minnesota State), and some of the largest D2 schools by enrollment (Wayne State, GVSU, Minnesota State) all in one conference. The remainder of the schools from these two conferences could combine into one D2 conference and would benefit from no longer being uncompetitive in their conference, although travel would increase a bit.
I've made a table of all of the teams I'd move into this hypothetical FCS conference below with reasons for moving them up. Obviously not all of them would choose to move up (financial reasons mostly), and even if you could convince the NCAA to give a discounted rate (for lack of a better term) to create an entirely new D1 conference, I still doubt all of them would want to become D1 programs. However, I would think that at least 8-10 of these schools would happily move to D1 and invest the money in making that happen if they were joining a conference where they wouldn't be playing catch up.
Current Conference | School | State | Public/Private | Enrollment | Stadium Capacity | D1 Hockey Conference | Main Reasons for Addition |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
GLIAC | Wayne State University (MI) | Michigan | Public | 23,788 | 6,000 | --- | Detroit Market, Size |
GLIAC | Grand Valley State University | Michigan | Public | 22,406 | 10,444 | --- | Football, Grand Rapids Market, Brand |
NISC | Minnesota State University | Minnesota | Public | 14,482 | 7,500 | NCHC | Football, Hockey, Brand |
NISC | St Cloud State University | Minnesota | Public | 10,093 | Non-Football | NCHC | Hockey, Size |
GLIAC | Ferris State University | Michigan | Public | 10,072 | 6,200 | CCHA | Football, Hockey |
NISC | University of Minnesota Duluth | Minnesota | Public | 9,675 | 4,000 | NCHC | Hockey, Duluth Market |
GLIAC | Saginaw Valley State University | Michigan | Public | 7,523 | 6,300 | --- | Size, Football, Potential |
GLIAC | Michigan Tech University | Michigan | Public | 7,074 | 3,000 | CCHA | Hockey, Brand |
GLIAC | Northern Michigan University | Michigan | Public | 6,970 | 8,000 | CCHA | Hockey, Football Stadium |
NISC | Bemidji State University | Minnesota | Public | 4,279 | 4,000 | CCHA | Hockey |
NISC | University of Mary | North Dakota | Private | 3,794 | 7,000 | --- | Recent Investment in Athletics |
GLIAC | Roosevelt University | Illinois | Private | 3,725 | 3,000 | --- | Chicago Market, Money |
GLVC | University of Indianapolis | Indiana | Private | 3,613 | 5,500 | --- | Indy Market, Size, Football |
NISC | Augustana University | South Dakota | Private | 2,086 | 6,500 | CCHA | Desire to move to D1, Hockey |
NISC | University of Sioux Falls | South Dakota | Private | 1,594 | 5,400 | --- | Football, Money |
I'd love to have some feedback on this, because I know it's controversial but also a new idea that really hasn't been proposed. A lot of these schools have been in conversations in the past about moving to D1, but this could be the most feasable option.
Please keep all comments positive. I'm obviously not trying to kill conferences, I just thought it was an interesting idea and wanted to share it to see what others thought.
YOU KNOW WHAT THIS THREAD IS FOR
CAPS LOCK: ON
BASIC RULES: STILL APPLY
YOUR OPINIONS: HOT GARBAGE, BUT WELCOME ALL THE SAME
MVFC By The Numbers Week 10 is now up on the Jackrabbit Illustrated blog
https://jackrabbitillustrated.com/mvfc-by-the-numbers-week-10-preview-2/
Time for another look around the FCS as we're starting down the home stretch.
Big Sky - Montana State and UC Davis are still on a collision course for their November 16th game in Davis, but there's a little someone who wants to crash the party... Montana. The Grizzlies host UC Davis on the 9th and the winner of that game decides which game becomes the de facto conference championship game - will it be the Montana State at UC Davis game on the 16th or will be the infamous Brawl of the Wild on the 23rd?
Big South/OVC - SE Missouri State now holds a game and a half lead on Tennessee State and UT Martin. Remember, the Redhawks already have a win over the Skyhawks and their game with the Tigers is on the 23rd. If nothing goes wrong, it might be smooth sailing for SEMO.
CAA - Everyone's favorite clusterfuck of a conference is down to two horses: Rhode Island and Richmond. Because they don't play each other (Stupid move, BTW), it's going to go down to common opponents and it turns out that the Rams and Spiders actually share 4 different conference foes... Bryant, Campbell, Delaware and Hampton. The Rams already have wins over Campbell and Hampton with games against Delaware (November 9th in Newark) and Bryant (November 23rd in Smithfield) coming up while the Spiders have back-to-back wins over Delaware and Bryant with games against Campbell and Hampton coming up after this week's game with Towson.
Ivy League - Dartmouth already took down the first challenger in Columbia last week and now comes the next challenger in Harvard. The final challenger is Brown, who the Big Green host on November 23rd.
MEAC - North Carolina Central holds a half game lead on South Carolina State as the two teams prepare for a clash on Halloween night that may go a long way to deciding who heads to Atlanta for the Celebration Bowl.
MVFC - North Dakota State holds a half game lead on Missouri State, a game lead on South Dakota and a game and a half lead on South Dakota State. All of these teams will be running into each other very soon as the Bison will be meeting the Bears and Coyotes to end their season after a bye week and the Bears face off with the Jackrabbits on that same day.
NEC - The round robin got spoiled as Long Island stunned Central Connecticut State, meaning that it's now a two horse race between Robert Morris and Duquesne with those two teams meeting on the 9th in Pittsburgh. Be careful of Wagner though. The Seahawks get the Dukes a week after the Robert Morris game.
Patriot League - Holy Cross is up by a game over Georgetown and the two teams meet on November 23rd, but for this week? The Crusaders get to sit back and watch chaos potentially happen if Lehigh can beat Georgetown.
Pioneer League - Drake and St. Thomas are at 4-0 with Morehead State and Dayton a full game back. While the Bulldogs and Tommies meet next week, the Minnesota boys have bigger birds to deal with in the form of Morehead State, who already took down Dayton on their quest to take down all the other conference contenders.
Southern - Mercer and Chattanooga are tied at 4-1, but the Bears have the tiebreaker over the Mocs. After beating Western Carolina, there's no rest for these Bears as ETSU comes calling this week.
Southland - Incarnate Word's win over SE Louisiana means that the Cardinals might be on the fast track to a conference title with the only potential road block being a date with Lamar on the 9th.
SWAC - In the East Division, Jackson State holds a game lead on Alabama State with those two teams meeting on November 16th. Over in the West Division, it's a dogfight as Southern and Alcorn State are tied at 3-1, but the Jaguars have the head-to-head win over the Braves. Behind them are Texas Southern and Arkansas-Pine Bluff at 2-2.
UAC - Tarleton State is up by a half game on Abilene Christian and a full game on Central Arkansas and Southern Utah. November 16th will be the day to look for here as Tarleton State hosts Abilene Christian while Central Arkansas hosts Southern Utah, which a week before their date with Tarleton State. Oh, and Southern Utah faces Abilene Christian this week.
Something about brackets? Week 10 CCS is up on the Jackrabbit Illustrated blog!
The FCS Playoff Committee did a mock selection this week and the their Top 10 will be released at 1pm during the College Football Live Broadcast.
Let's hear your hot take FCS opinions. The ones that you know in your heart of hearts are right, but for some reason aren't embraced with the FCS community (or particular fanbases) en masse!
Could be controversial (the Ivy League on the whole was a better conference than the CAA in 2018), unpopular but you know is true (Sam Houston was at least as good a team as JMU from 2011 through the "2020" season), or even somewhat popular but still liable to rankle some folks (the Walter Payton award should go to the "best" offensive player, not just the offensive player with the best stat line because they played a weak schedule).
Sorted by controversial for maximum spiciness
Rules
Keep it somewhat relevant to the FCS
Takes are welcome whether they're looking back historically or in reference to current games/rankings/polls/etc.
Try to keep it civil (basic /r/CFB and /r/FCS rules still apply)
Welcome to a new season of FCS Pick Em! I will post this each week!
Please remember to check your total every week to verify they were input correctly.
•1 point is given per correct pick.
I have a notification that goes out to everyone. Please let me know if you would like me to add you to the list or take you off the list if you are getting notifications and you do not want them.
Voter Breakdown
Dropped from Top 25: William & Mary, Western Carolina
Others Receiving At Least 2 Votes: William & Mary (68), Jackson State (34), Duquesne (32), Tennessee State (22), Northern Arizona (21), Western Carolina (20), Stephen F. Austin (18), Drake (12), Florida A&M (4), Maine (4), Towson (3)
The full list of responses can be found here.
Congratulations to /u/seamoose08-nerd for having the Top 25 submission that best correlated with the final /r/FCS poll this week!
As a reminder, the /r/FCS poll is also now part of the Massey College Football Ranking Composite. Results of this poll will update under the column with header 'RDT'.
Dropped from Top 10: N/A
Others Receiving At Least 2 Votes: Texas Southern (119), Morgan State (111), Norfolk State (50), Alabama A&M (37)
No matter what happened, it's not all bad. Say something nice about your team or their performance.
2024 FCS Imperialism Map - Week 9
Top Land Grabs in Week 9:
Our New Top 5:
Just one land consolidation game in Week 10:
Snapshot of Conference Land Standings:
Credit to u/2Pollaski2Furious for the idea. Same sets of rules from the original FBS series apply here for the FCS teams. This is an award for FCS teams that humiliate themselves, whether it's a choke job, a crushing blow with everything to prove, or they have no business losing the match-up.
PAST RECIPIENTS
Week 0: McNeese Cowboys (against Tarleton State 26-23)
Week 1: St. Thomas Tommies (against Sioux Falls 34-13)
Week 2: Eastern Washington Eagles (against Drake 35-32 OT)
Week 3: Dayton Flyers (against Indiana State 24-13)
Week 4: Bethune-Cookman Wildcats (against Clark Atlanta 38-37)
Week 5: Harvard Crimson (against Brown 31-28)
Week 6: Montana Grizzlies (against Weber State 55-48 OT)
Week 7: Weber State Wildcats (against Northern Colorado 21-17)
Week 8: Villanova Wildcats (against Maine 35-7)
LAST WEEK: Wow that was a close vote, and both Mercer and Villanova made valid cases for the week's ineptitude. Squeaking by is the second consecutive Wildcats team. A program with a decent pedigree, a decent record up to this point, and firmly established in the top ten. Doing that. Against a spotty, unranked team. While literally nobody's watching because FloSports. And don't let the 7 fool you, because that was a garbage TD.
And now for this week.
A few honorable mentions:
Cornell Big Red (against Brown 23-21)
Cornell had gone up 21-3 in the third quarter, didn't allow much offense from Brown and picked off QB Jake Wilcox three times. And after that third touchdown, they've done jack while allowing a comeback, capped off with an easy last second field goal.
Howard Bison (against Norfolk State 21-20)
It's a bit of a rough start in conference play for the defending MEAC champions, who not only allowed a 97-yard kickoff return, but did so right after getting to a 10-0 start. And towards the end of the game, with minutes to go and a comeback on the line, they've allowed Spartans RB Kevon King to run all over them to kill the clock and didn't get it back until it's way late and they're back in their own 25.
North Dakota Fighting Hawks (against Youngstown State 41-40 OT)
Well, so much for that Dakotas immortality, at least for the Fighting Hawks. It clearly was a down year for Youngstown State, whose best win up to that point was a struggle against Indiana State. And yet the game gets brought to overtime and North Dakota failed their attempt to go for two.
Sacramento State Hornets (against Idaho State 30-27 OT)
The Hornets ran over the Bengals at this away game, but those two fumbles bit. One of them was a game-tying scoop and score in the middle of the second quarter, and the other wasted a perfect interception opportunity by being stripped just before the end zone. Not a great look this year, but hey, at least Sac-12 is still coming along.
Southern Illinois Salukis (against Indiana State 20-17)
The wheels have really fallen off. It's one thing to lose to the conference elites, but to limp against Indiana State doesn't inspire confidence, especially if they were up 17-0 at the half. The nightmare began with two consecutive turnovers: a pick-six and a fumble deep in the opposing 2.
Western Illinois Leathernecks (against Lindenwood 49-38)
713 yards of offense. 564 in the air without a single interception. Five passing touchdowns. Sounds like a win in most contexts. This is why three fumbles (of which one of those was at 3rd and goal) and 90 yards of penalties hurts that much.
William & Mary Tribe (against Stony Brook 35-13)
With Delaware ineligible for postseason given their FBS transition, the Coastal Athletic Conference consists of Rhode Island and apparently a bunch of jobbers. Getting clocked by an up-to-this-point unranked Stony Brook certainly does not help William & Mary's case. A staggering four interceptions - one of which a pick six - wasn't as bad as what happened to Syracuse this past week, but it's hardly inspiring for a top 20 team on the road. Especially if nobody can watch it (thanks, FloSports).
Like last time, mark your votes with a <>, and feel free to nominate whatever you think I missed and I'll possibly make note of it. Thank you!