FCS Football

Nicholls State leaves no doubt against UIW at home. Tarleton State Dominates Portland State on the road and UC Davis gets a boxing result . Idaho State gave UNLV a shock however the Bengals came up short in Las Vegas. 

UIW 6 Nicholls 20

Idaho St 31 UNLV 38

Tarleton St 42 Portland St 0

NCCU 31 Southern 14

UC Davis vs Mercer No Contest

Who will be the first IVY League school to participate in the FCS playoffs ?

https://thefcsnation.blogspot.com/2025/07/ivy-league-quick-preview-2025.html

After media days earlier this week the SWAC is ready to get underway.

https://thefcsnation.blogspot.com/2025/07/swac-preview-2025.html

The MEAC will host its Media Day in late July in Baltimore.

This is always a competitive conference it will be interesting to see who gets the celebration Bowl bid this season.

https://meacsports.com/news/2025/5/23/MEAC_FBMD_2025.aspx

Will NDSU bring home another title ?

How will South Dakota be with a New Head Coach at the helm. 

https://thefcsnation.blogspot.com/2025/06/mvfc-quick-preview-2025.html

The NEC came down to C. Connecticut and Duquesne last season. In the last game of the regular season C. Connecticut state pulled off the upset and secured the automatic bid to the playoffs.  Will Duquesne get their  revenge in 2025 ?

https://thefcsnation.blogspot.com/2025/06/the-nec-conference.html

The UIW Cardinals have dominated the  Southland for the past couple  seasons with their explosive offense. This year the conference adds another team in UTRGV. Who will win the Southland Conference  this year ?

https://thefcsnation.blogspot.com/2025/06/the-southland-2025.html

The Bison beat the undefeated Bobcats of Montana State in this year's FCS championship game.

South Dakota 17 Montana State 31 

SDSU 21 NDSU 28

CCSU 17 Rhode Island 21

 Illinois State 35 SEMO 27 

UT Martin 41  New Hampshire 10 

Lehigh 20 Richmond 16 

EKU 17 Villanova 22 

Northern Arizona 0 Abilene Christian 24 

Drake 29 Tarleton St 43 

Tennessee State 27 Montana 41

This is the last official weekend of the FCS regular season. Sunday, November 24th, ESPNU will host the FCS selection show at 12:30 est. FCS teams who did not win their conference will be hoping to secure an at large bid. 

2024 has been a great season - congrats to all the coaches, players and athletic departments for all their hard work! 

Early in the 1st quarter Utah Tech junior DB Jagger Williams  intercepted Quincy Casey's pass to set up a Trailblazers touchdown. Utah Tech would take a 14-0 lead early.  Reggie Graffe would throw for 2 touchdown passes in the first half.  UWG would respond with Davin Wydner on a 1 yard touchdown run - then finding TJ Locksley for a 38 yard touchdown to make it 14 -21. Utah Tech would respond with a drive that lead to a field goal and would head into halftime with a 24-14 lead. In the second half UWG would take advantage of the momentum, scoring 10 points in the 3rd quarter, while Utah Tech scored 0 in the third. UWG would also score 10 in the 4th quarter and this would be the difference in the game. Utah Tech would score 7 points in the 4th to make it interesting, however UWG controlled the ball the last few minutes of the game and forced the Trailblazers to use all of their timeouts. A UWG interceception by Jay Carter would also be a key factor in the outcome of the game. UWG totals 4 wins in their first year in the FCS. Utah Tech will travel to Cedar City next week for the Battle of the Axe - the Trailblazers will take on their rival SUU in the final contest of the season. 

Harvard 31 Penn 28

Columbia 21 Brown 12

Yale 42 Princeton 28

Dartmouth 22  Cornell 39

On Southern Utah's first possession they put together a 7 minute Drive that went 13 plays for 84 yards and took a 7-0 lead. The next drive would be 12 plays for 72 yards;  on their next scoring drive SUU would go 9 plays for 79 yards to make it 21-0. Targhee Lampson was clutch all game for the Thunderbirds, rushing for 173 yards on 31 carries with three touchdowns. However as soon as it looked like the Thunderbirds would put this game away easy - Northern Alabama had  some quick scores! TJ Smith found Dakota Warfield  for the UNA touchdown with just 1:17 left in the second quarter. Southern Utah would make a 50 yard field goal early in the 3rd and take a 24-7 lead. Northern Alabama would reply with a quick score: 2 plays for 75 yards as TJ Smith found Justin Luke for a 70 yard touchdown. Southern Utah turns right around and goes 4 plays for 60 yards and makes the ball game 31-13. Once again North Alabama responded quickly  going 1 play for 75 yards where this time TJ Smith would find Takairee Kenebrew for a 75 yard touchdown!  The Lions would score once more before the end of the 3rd quarter and make the game 31-26 . Despite all the momentum on Northern Alabama's side, the the Thunderbirds would close the show with two huge interceptions in the 4th quarter - one by Kameron Roacha that went 48 yards for a touchdown and anther one by Raymond Crump who made a reallly athletic play on the ball. SUU travels to Central Arkansas next week to try to get above .500 and keep their FCS Playoff hopes alive.

SDSU 38 

vs

North Dakota 7

Youngstown St 33 

vs

SIU 37

Indiana  St 0 

vs

South Dakota 49

Missouri State 59 

vs

Murray State  31

Illinois State 31 

vs

Northern Iowa 9

Idaho  39  Portland State 30

UC Davis 30 Montana 14

Sacramento St 7 Montana St 49

NAU 31 Cal Poly 14

Idaho State 43 Weber State 35

Eastern Washington 43 Northern Colorado 15

 Another Rivalry Game this week that will have a sold out crowd. 

 This is a Rivalry Game with national championship Implications. SDSU vs NDSU has become the Georgia vs Alabama in FCS football. It's that simple. 

Big time rivalry game!  I guarantee you this one will be a sellout. This  is why people love FCS  Football games like this ,the atmosphere will be amazing.

RIVALRY GAME ! If you are a fan of FCS  Football this is a must see game.

Idaho gets the win on the road over the cowboys. Idaho defeated FBS Wyoming 17-13.The Program continues to thrive under heacd Coach Jason Eck. Although Idaho lost some players to  the transfer portal and the NFL ,the vandals still look ready to compete.

Maverick Mclvor is our FCS Nation Player of the week.

Montana State says thank you New Mexico for the mishaps. Montana State Started off rough ,but in the second half finally got the running game going. New Mexico Jumped out to an early lead however two missed Field goals a dropped pass by a receiver and blown assignment by a safety not filling his gap lead to the Montana State Come back.

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The SoCon is a tough competitive conference. In 2023 Furman went 7-1 in the conference. They would make it  to the third round of the playoffs  losing to Montana on the road. Mercer Finished the year  9-4 overall and   6-2 in conference. The Bears would win a home playoff game against  Gardner Webb and eventually lose to national Champ South Dakota State in the next round.  Chattanooga went 6-2 in the Conference and 8-5 overall but can the mocs replace Ailym Ford and Gino Appleberry on the offensive side of the ball. WCU went 5-3 in conference and was the most improved team overall. Samford and VMI went 4-4 in conference, while ETSU and WOFFORD both went 2-6 . The Citadel finished 0-11. It was a very rough year in 2023. Maurice Drayton will have his hands full this year trying to get this program back on track.

UTMartin won the newly Formed conference last year with a 5-1 record. What impressed me was the road win early in the season vs Missouri State. Bryant ,Eastern Illinois ,and Gardner Webb all put together good seasons in 2023. In the Middle of the pack SEMO had the best conference record finishing 3-3 in conference. Tennessee Tech ,Robert Morris ,Charleston Southern and  Tennessee State all finished 2-4. Lindenwood finished 1-5 not bad the Lions are relatively new to the FCS level. 

Notable week 1 Games

EIU @ Illinois

Lindenwood @Kansas

WIU @ NIU

UTMartin @ Kansas State

Tennessee Tech @ MTSU

SEMO @ New Mexico State

Last year in the Southland Conference UIW led in all offensive categories. However, Nicholls State led the conference in wins.  Lamar and Houston Christian (Formerly Houston Baptist) stayed around the middle of the pack. Southeastern finished 3-8 and Texas A&M Commerce, who is relatively new to FCS, finished with one conference win, like McNeese State, who went 0-10 outside of that.  Northwestern State cancelled their season in October 2023 after losing a player to gun violence. Hopefully they can get things back on track in 2024. 

WEEK 1
HCU@SMU
Lamar@Texas State
McNeese@Tarleton
Nicholls  @ Louisiana Tech
Northwestern State @ Tulsa
SFA vs North American
Southeastern @ Tulane
Texas A&M Commerce @ SDSU
UIW vs No. Colorado

Florida A&M won the SWAC last year however they lost coach Willie Simmons to Duke. Grambling State fired head coach Hue Jackson after just 2 seasons.  Well FAMU won the east and Alcorn State won the west. Prairie View finished 2nd in the west . Jackson State and Alabama State tied for 2nd in the east. Alabama A&M ,Southern and Grambling State all had decent conference records in 2023. Bethune Cookman got a New Coach after the 2022 season which saw them make multiple moves after hurricanes hit Daytona Beach. Another Exciting season awaits, full of classics and rivalries in the SWAC. I can't wait !

 The MEAC Conference went as follows in 2023:  NCCU 4-1, Howard 4-1, South Carolina State 3-2, Morgan State 3-2, Norfolk State 1-4, Delaware State 0-5. NCC lost to University of Richmond in the first round of the FCS Playoffs.  Howard accepted the Celebration Bowl bid but would lose to Florida A&M. Overall it was a good year for the MEAC. The favored this 2024 season is obviously NCCU, however, this is anybody's conference - anything can happen in this fall!