The FCS playoffs are full of dynasty programs that won national championships, but also underdogs that emerged from lower seeding. The 2025 playoffs will include at least one first-time qualifier that will seek to make waves, although more are hopeful of the same.
Football programs that earned their first bid to the FCS playoffs in recent seasons haven’t been just happy to be there.
In the last three years, four of the five first-time qualifiers have posted wins – Gardner-Webb in 2022, Mercer in 2023, and Abilene Christian and Tarleton State last season.
Who’s next?
That the 24-team FCS playoffs will have a new qualifier this year is guaranteed because the Ivy League will begin sending its champion, ending the league’s 80-year ban on participation in a postseason.
Programs in other conferences are hopeful of qualifying as well. The 2025 season will include 128 FCS programs, and 36 have yet to appear in the playoffs.
Seven of those programs were originally ineligible this season due to a transitional process to playoff eligibility, but NCAA legislation in January shortened the wait by one year, so Lindenwood (Big South-OVC), Stonehill (Northeast), St. Thomas (Pioneer) and East Texas A&M (Southland) would gain full Division I status and be eligible for the 2025 FCS playoffs as long as they meet all requirements.
2025 Programs to Never Qualify for FCS Playoffs
Big Sky: Northern Colorado
CAA: Bryant; Campbell
Independent: Merrimack
Ivy: Brown; Columbia; Cornell; Dartmouth; Harvard; Penn; Princeton; Yale
Northeast: Long Island; Mercyhurst (eligible in 2027); Stonehill
Ohio Valley: Lindenwood
Patriot: Bucknell; Georgetown
Pioneer: Marist; Morehead State; Presbyterian; Stetson; St. Thomas; Valparaiso
Southland: East Texas A&M; Houston Christian; UTRGV (eligible in 2028)
SWAC: Alabama A&M; Alabama State; Arkansas-Pine Bluff; Prairie View A&M; Southern; Texas Southern
UAC: North Alabama; Utah Tech; West Georgia (eligible in 2027)
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