

The eight teams in this league are the legacy programs that helped college football grow in the 19th and early parts of the 20th century.
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The Ivy League doesn’t participate in the FCS playoffs due to academic concerns, so there is only conference pride on the line for these teams. No matter if their teams are seeded or not, the CAA is a danger to put a team in the national title game with eight appearances since taking over the league in 2008. The depth of this league is the strength with four or five teams consistently qualifying for the playoffs, and the lack of easy games is unique at the FCS level. The departing James Madison carried the load nationally at the top of the polls for much of the last six or seven years, but Delaware, Towson, and Villanova have all made deep playoff runs over the past decade. Kennesaw State had consecutive quarterfinals appearances as a seeded team, but otherwise, the results have been largely underwhelming for the conference champion.ĭating back to the days when the Atlantic 10 organized this conference, the CAA has always been one of the strongest conferences in the nation. It is historically a one-bid league with that champion oftentimes not even being seeded for the playoffs. The Big South is a conference still fighting for respect in FCS football as its champions have not found much success in the postseason.

It might not have the depth of the two premier conferences in FCS football, but the best of the Big Sky each season is among the best in the nation. Several others have made long runs in the postseason to the national semifinals or reached the top 10 in the FCS polls. Since 2000, four different Big Sky programs have played for a national championship, and two have even won the title over the past 22 seasons. The Big Sky has been a sneaky good conference for much of the past few years, not only having some success against FBS foes but also putting a team deep into the FCS playoffs. The three teams listed joined the ASUN in all sports this year but left their football programs in limbo for the year. There are several other schools that will join the ASUN for the 2022-23 academic year, but they played in their previous conferences this season. They weren’t eligible to win the WAC title, but they played their schedules as if they were members of the WAC. Technically, the ASUN as it will be known starting next year didn’t sponsor football in 2021, and instead these three teams played WAC schedules. Any changes will be made once schools officially join a new conference or officially join the list of FCS schools. It does not include the future realignment that is scheduled to take place gradually over the next few years within various conferences. This list of FCS football teams and FCS football conferences is current as of the 2022 season.

North Dakota State is the most successful FCS program of all time with nine national championships (all since 2011) while Georgia Southern has won six titles and Youngstown State has four championships.Īs of the 2022 season, seven programs have won FCS titles. The current bracket features eight seeded teams that receive byes with 11 conference champions earning automatic bids and 13 teams receiving at-large selections. The field grew to 20 teams for the 2010 season before settling on 24 in 2013 where it currently stands. The bracket slowly evolved to eight teams in 1981 then expanded to 12 teams in 1982 before settling into 16 teams from 1986-2009. The first FCS playoff in 1978 had just four teams with Florida A&M defeating UMass in the national championship game. FCS was called Division-IAA until 2006 when it was renamed the Football Championship Subdivision. The polls continued to dominate the championship selections until 1978 when the NCAA divided Division-I into the FBS and FCS subdivisions. However, most would consider the 1936 Associated Press national champion, Minnesota, as the first modern-era Division I championship because the 1937 AP poll was the first poll to officially name a champion. The first college football game dates back to the 19th century with Princeton and Rutgers both honored as the first official champions in 1869 by the National Championship Foundation.
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There are several schools currently making the transition to FCS football with full membership expected to be completed by 2025 for those beginning the process. It was formerly called Division I-AA and featured 128 teams for the 2021 college football season. FCS stands for the Football Championship Subdivision.
