NCAA FCS Championship Explained

The NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly known as Division I-AA, is the second-highest level of college football in the United States, after the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). Sponsored by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the FCS level comprises 129 teams in 13 conferences as of the 2024 season. This article delves into the intricacies of the NCAA FCS Championship, exploring its history, structure, qualification process, and significance in the landscape of college football.

A Brief History of FCS

From 1906 to 1955, the NCAA had no divisional structure for member schools. Prior to the 1956 college football season, NCAA schools were organized into an upper University Division and lower College Division. Division I-AA was created in January 1978, when Division I was subdivided into Division I-A and Division I-AA for football only. The initial criteria for a program's admittance to I-A included (1) scheduling 60% of its games against other I-A teams, and either (2) having a 30,000-seat stadium and an average attendance of 17,000 for one year in the last four, or (3) drawing an average of 17,000 over the last four years. Division I football schools satisfying #1 and either #2 or #3 also had to maintain eight sports overall. Schools failing to meet either #2 or #3 could still qualify for I-A if they maintained twelve sports overall.

The creation of Division I-AA appeared to backfire; rather than serve as a home for the smaller or less competitive football programs of Division I, it created a pathway for football-playing Division II schools to join Division I without the burden of funding a major football program. The next big increase in Division I-AA membership came after the January 1991 NCAA convention voted to require an athletic program to maintain all of its sports at the same divisional level by the 1993 season. In order to comply, 28 Division I schools with football programs at the Division II and Division III levels were forced to upgrade their teams to the Division I level, and all of them (at least initially) chose Division I-AA as their new football home. At the same time, the number of football scholarships allowed in I-AA was reduced from the original 70 to 63, effective in 1994; it has remained at that number ever since. The subdivision stabilized thereafter, maintaining at least 120 members from 1997 onward.

FCS vs. FBS: Key Differences

For football recruits, choosing a college involves considering various factors. FBS schools are members of the Football Bowl Subdivision, the highest level of NCAA football. On the other hand, FCS schools compete in the Football Championship Subdivision. Although both types of schools offer a high-quality football experience, there are some key differences to keep in mind. For example, FBS schools can offer up to 85 scholarships, while FCS schools are limited to 63. Additionally, FBS schools must play in a bowl game if they are eligible, while FCS teams can only participate in their playoffs. FBS and FCS schools also vary greatly in size. FBS schools are typically much larger than FCS schools, both in terms of student population and their athletics budget. Because of this, FBS schools are able to offer additional scholarships and provide better facilities for their program.

There are some similarities between FBS and FCS football as well. Both levels of college football are overseen by the NCAA and must adhere to compliance guidelines set by the governing body. The Division I Football Bowl Subdivision was created by the NCAA in 1973. By dividing schools into these two divisions, the NCAA ensures that all member schools have a fair chance to compete for recruiting talent to their schools, as well as to compete for national championships. In the FBS, there are 131 schools, and each team is allowed 85 scholarships. There’s typically heavy competition for each recruit. There are 130 schools that comprise the FCS, but the schools are only allowed 63 scholarships. They are, however, allowed to split scholarships up and distribute them as partial scholarships to more players.

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The FCS Playoffs: A Path to the Championship

The FCS organizes a playoff bracket that consists of 24 teams. Eleven schools receive automatic bids as a result of winning their conference. The top eight teams in the bracket are seeded and receive byes. North Dakota State is the most recent champion of the FCS division. The FBS uses the CFB Playoffs to determine their national champion. From there, the #1 seed plays the #4 seed, and the #2 seed plays the #3 seed. Georgia is the most recent champion of the FBS division. There are 129 NCAA member institutions that sponsor Division I Football Championship Subdivision teams, but only 123 are eligible to compete in the National Championship. The NCAA Division I Football Championship provides for a field of 24 teams to compete in a single elimination tournament. Of the 24 teams, 10 conference champions will receive automatic qualifications with the remaining best 14 teams being selected on an at-large basis by the Division I Football Championship Committee. The top eight teams in the 24-team bracket for the championship are seeded and receive First Round byes. Team pairings are determined according to geographical proximity. Eight, first round games will be conducted at non-predetermined campus sites. The second round also features eight games at non-predetermined campus Sites. Four quarterfinals games will be conducted at non-predetermined campus sites. Two games will be conducted at non-predetermined campus sites.

Evolution of the FCS Playoffs Format

From the tournament's inception in 1978, the FCS Playoffs has marked the crowning of a champion. The 2024 edition at the conclusion of the 2023 Football Championship Subdivision season is the 46th, and in nearly a half-century of competition, the format has undergone plenty of changes. A constant, however, is that the winner of the FCS Playoffs - or Division I-AA Playoffs, as it was known prior to a 2006 rebrand - is recognized as the official NCAA Division I national champion. Reigning winner South Dakota State aims at the culmination of the 2023 season to join rival North Dakota State as a repeat winner. The only other programs to do so are Appalachian State (2005-2007), Georgia Southern (1985 and 1986; 1989 and 1990; 1999 and 2000) and Youngstown State (1993 and 1994).

Just four teams competed in the original Division I-AA Playoffs, capped when Florida A&M beat UMass in 1978. The field expanded to eight teams in 1981, then to 16 in 1986. The 16-team format lasted the longest, enduring through 2009, when Villanova legend Andy Talley added an especially meaningful bullet-point to his hall-of-fame resume, leading the Wildcats to the national championship. The field grew to 20 teams the next year and extended into January for the first time in its history, having previously wrapped before Christmas. A 20-team bracket didn't last long. The 2023 season marks the 10-year anniversary since the introduction of the 24-team format, which remains today.

Qualification for the FCS Playoffs

Expansion of the Playoffs opened more berths both for automatic-qualifying conference champions and at-large participants. In 2023, 10 conferences send an automatic qualifier to the FCS Playoffs:

Big Sky
Big South/Ohio Valley
Coastal Athletic Association
Missouri Valley Football Conference
Northeast
Patriot League
Pioneer Football League
Southern
Southland
United Athletic Conference

The Ivy League opts out of the postseason altogether, while the Mid-Eastern Athletic and Southwestern Athletic Conferences send their respective champions to face off in the Celebration. However, MEAC and SWAC teams are eligible for at-large consideration. Most recently, the winner of the first Division I-AA tournament, Florida A&M, represented the SWAC in the 2021 Playoffs. That leaves 14 at-large invitations to the FCS Playoffs.

The FCS Playoff Committee

The FCS Playoff Committee made up of representatives from each participating conference, determines at-large qualifiers and maps out the bracket. Bucknell athletic director Jermaine Truax chaired the committee in 2022, though his term expires in August 2023.

Seeding and Bracket Formation

The top eight teams in the FCS Playoffs receive opening-round byes, while the remaining 16 meet in eight games played over the first weekend. The Playoffs have kicked off on the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend consistently, predating expansion. The eight that receive byes also are seeded. The other 16 are not, which has been a point of contention. In summer 2023, the NCAA council voted against seeding the top 16 teams, a proposal that would have dictated opening-round matchups on seed, rather than regionality. As it stands, teams must be within 400 miles of each other (when possible) and did not play in the conference regular season that year for first-round matchups. Programs from the same league can meet in the first round, provided they didn't play in the regular season - as was the case for CAA members James Madison and Delaware in 2018. Determining the top eight teams, meanwhile, begins with the nomination of contenders into a pool, as long as they received 30% of the committee's vote. The pool then is ranked from No. 1-8.

Landing one of those top eight seeds is a decided benefit to a team's national championship hopes.

The NCAA Division I Football Championship Game

The NCAA Division I Football Championship is an annual post-season college football game, played since 2006, used to determine a national champion of the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). The game serves as the final match of an annual postseason bracket tournament between top teams in FCS. Since 2013, 24 teams normally participate in the tournament, with some teams receiving automatic bids upon winning their conference championship, and other teams determined by a selection committee.

The tournament culminates with the national final, played between the two remaining teams from the playoff bracket. Unlike earlier round games in each year's playoff, which are played at campus sites, the title game is played at a site predetermined by the NCAA, akin to how the NFL predetermines the site for each Super Bowl. The inaugural title game was played in 1978 in Wichita Falls, Texas. The 1979 and 1980 games were held in Orlando, Florida, and Sacramento, California, respectively, and the game returned to Wichita Falls for 1981 and 1982. The games played in Wichita Falls were known as the Pioneer Bowl, while the game played in Sacramento was known as the Camellia Bowl-both names were used for various NCAA playoff games played in those locations, and were not specific to the I-AA championship. In 1983 and 1984, the game was played in Charleston, South Carolina. The 1987 and 1988 games were played in Pocatello, Idaho; and from 1989 through 1991, in Statesboro, Georgia. From 2010 through the 2024 season, the title game was played in Frisco, Texas, a suburb north of Dallas, at Toyota Stadium, a multi-purpose stadium primarily used by FC Dallas of Major League Soccer. The stadium was known as Pizza Hut Park until the day after the final of the 2011 season, and then as FC Dallas Stadium until September 2013. There have been six instances where a team whose venue was predetermined to host the final game advanced to play for the championship on its own field. Georgia Southern won both title games it played at Paulson Stadium, while Marshall had a 2-2 record in four title games it played at Marshall University Stadium (now known as Joan C.

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The Importance of Seeding and Home-Field Advantage

Twenty-four teams make the FCS playoffs every year, but only eight teams receive a seed and a first-round bye. While getting a seed is an advantage by itself, there's a bigger advantage that comes with the seeds. Every seed in the FCS playoffs is guaranteed to host a second-round game, thanks to a first-round bye. With four seeded teams split on each side of the bracket, the No. 1 and No. Yet, in the case of the FCS playoffs, home-field advantage just means more. The No. 1 and No. Fifteen of the last 16 FCS championship game participants have only played home games through the FCS semifinal round. If you stretch that number out to 2015, it still becomes 17 out of 20. No. 1 and No. 2 seeds made up 13 of the possible 18 national championship participants over the last eight years. Three No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.

Since the FCS playoffs expanded in 2013, adding eight seeds, a team that only played on its home field in the playoffs has won 11 of 12 FCS Championships. 10 of those 11 were No. 1 or No.

Unique Aspects of FCS Conferences

The Ivy League has been at the FCS level since 1982 and prohibits its members from awarding athletic scholarships in any sport and plays a strict ten-game regular season. The MEAC and SWAC, two conferences consisting of historically black colleges and universities, opt to play the Celebration Bowl (which was established in 2015) instead of the FCS tournament. MEAC gave up its automatic spot in the tournament prior to the 2015 season, while the SWAC's regular season extends through the Turkey Day Classic and Bayou Classic at the end of November and the SWAC Championship Game is played in December. Teams from the MEAC and SWAC may accept at-large bids, so long as they aren't committed to other postseason games that would conflict with the tournament. Historically, conferences in FCS that did not offer athletic scholarships were not granted automatic bids into the tournament and, although in theory were eligible for at-large bids, never received any.

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