Our FCS football coverage is the home for the Top 25 media poll, FCS National Awards and much more. Here’s how the Week 5 action fit into a terrific first month.
Raise your hand if you had Holy Cross starting the season 0-5 on the heels of capturing six straight Patriot League titles.
OK, we’ll try again.
Surely then, you had West Georgia being the reverse at 5-0 in its second FCS season?
No.
Did you foresee Eastern Washington losing a conference game by 54 points? Or North Dakota State winning one over a fellow 2024 national semifinalist by 38.
All of this was just on Saturday as Week 5 wrapped up September action in a big way. (Here’s the Top 25 scoreboard.)
Add it all together with a month’s worth of excitement, and, yup, it’s been a September to remember for FCS football.
We go conference to conference to highlight scenarios:
Big Sky
Montana (4-0) is enjoying the cozy confines of Washington-Grizzly Stadium with eight home games, including Top 25 wins over North Dakota and Idaho. For coach Bobby Hauck’s squad, the development of quarterback Keali’I Ah Yat has been huge in a pairing with running back Eli Gillman.
Defending champ Montana State had looked a bit shaky until a 58-3 mauling of Eastern Washington. Northern Arizona has been anything but shaky, starting 4-1 for the first time since 2012.
And, no, Sacramento State (2-3) does not look FBS-worthy.
CAA Football
Monmouth only has a close FBS loss in a 3-1 start, averaging 560.5 yards and 44.3 points per game. While quarterback Derek Robertson (120-for-168, 1,662 yards, 18 touchdowns) grabs the headlines, he has a cast of offensive weapons, led by wide receiver Josh Derry (32 receptions, 534 yards, eight TDs) and running back Rodney Nelson (621 scrimmage yards, five TDs).
Winning on the road has been difficult across the CAA as Monmouth, Rhode Island and Towson are the only teams out of 14 to be above .500.
Ivy League
In the first season of the Ivy champion going to the FCS playoffs, it’s only right that Harvard, Dartmouth and Yale – the teams picked 1, 2, 3, respectively, in the league’s preseason poll – are off to 2-0 starts.
Harvard, behind fast-starting QB Jaden Craig, has outscored its opponents 100-14; Dartmouth has already defeated two 2024 playoff qualifiers (intrastate rival New Hampshire and CCSU); and Yale’s Jordan Pitsenberger has rushed for three TDs in back-to-back wins.
MEAC
North Carolina Central is 4-2 and Delaware State and Howard 3-2 each, all part of the strong out-of-conference results (nine wins over FCS opponents, including in all three matchups against the SWAC).
Defending champ South Carolina State has some work to do if it’s going to return to Atlanta for the Celebration Bowl.
Missouri Valley
It’s been a strong season in the MVFC, but North Dakota State (4-0) and South Dakota State (4-0) are 1-2 in the Top 25 – yeah, shocking – and appear on a collision course for the top spot on Oct. 25 in Brookings.
SDSU has raised its home winning streak to 34, tying for the fourth-longest in FCS history. But the biggest win in coach Dan Jackson’s first season was the Jackrabbits’ 30-24, double-overtime triumph at then-No. 2 Montana State.
The reigning FCS champion Bison have outscored opponents by a combined 189-30. Quarterback Cole Payton is putting himself in contention for a certain FCS award that shares his last name.
NEC Football
LIU is 1-4, but the win is against Eastern Michigan 28-23 – one of just four FCS-over-FBS wins this season, and just the third in NEC history. Sharks coach Ron Cooper was Eastern Michigan’s coach in 1993 and ’94.
CAA, beware: New Haven beat UAlbany and Stonehill topped Maine.
OVC-Big South
Which one doesn’t look like the others? Why it’s Tennessee Tech – off to a 4-0 start and a winner of nine straight games since last season, when it rallied to be part of a four-way share of the title.
The four champs opened conference play against one of the others, with Tennessee Tech routing Tennessee State 35-8. Meanwhile, UT Martin emerged from the fog of an 0-4 start to beat Southeast Missouri 34-10.
Patriot League
Lehigh is off to a 5-0 start for the first time since 2012, and that includes key league wins over Richmond and Bucknell.
Most surprising is Holy Cross at 0-5, including a 26-21 loss to Fordham, which was predicted last in the league’s preseason poll.
Fordham linebacker James Conway totaled 19 tackles against Holy Cross to surpass 500 in his career.Pioneer
The PFL has eight wins against FCS non-league opposition – its most since 2017 – and the story has been Presbyterian (5-0), spurred to its first-ever Top 25 ranking behind wins at Mercer and Furman, the two most-recent Southern Conference champions.
The title race runs deep, however, and preseason favorite San Diego got it going with a 30-27, walk-off win over St. Thomas on Saturday.
Southern
Taron Dickens’ return to Western Carolina’s lineup after being ineligible for the first three games has changed everything in the SoCon. Not only has Dickens guided back-to-back wins, but he’s passed for 1,009 yards and 10 touchdowns in them.
Defending champ Mercer, though, has the 3-0 jump on the rest of the conference, while 2023 champ Furman (3-1) is revived, having already matched last year’s win total.
Southland
The FCS start-up program UT Rio Grande Valley, or UTRGV, opened to big crowds and offensive fireworks, going 4-0 before dropping its conference opener at Southeastern Louisiana – but by a respectable 45-31. Transfer QB Eddie Lee Marburger has fueled the Vaqueros.
UIW, although down a conference loss to Nicholls, reminded everybody about its capability with a 38-7 drubbing of No. 12 Abilene Christian. Add in Lamar, Stephen F. Austin and Southeastern Louisiana, and, oh, there’s a title race at hand.
SWAC
Jackson State wins the 2024 SWAC and Celebration Bowl titles, improves it roster and runs off to another sweep.
Just hold off on that final storyline. Alabama State, behind QB Andrew Body, has beaten Southern (though not a conference game) and Florida A&M on the road by a combined 72-21. Jackson State may not even be capable of that.
The West Division? Why, yes, that race is wild seemingly every season.
UAC
Tarleton State, the first Division I team to start 5-0, jumped to the No. 3 national ranking – the first team outside the Big Sky and MVFC to be that high since 2023.
In one of the season’s bigger surprises, West Georgia – in its second FCS season – also is 5-0 against a strong schedule.
Top photo, from left, via the AP, Zachary Lucy/NDSU Athletics and Tennessee Tech Athletics. For more FCS football coverage, follow on social media at X, Facebook, Instagram and Bluesky.
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