We’re previewing the key games and storylines each week throughout the 2025 college football season. The Week 1 schedule is stuffed with 87 games.
Most FCS college football teams are just starting their engine, but don’t be mistaken, the 2025 season is motoring along already.
All it took was the first game for a major surprise last Saturday, Nicholls upsetting No. 5 UIW behind a dominating defense. Most teams, though, will kick off in Week 1, beginning Thursday night.
There are 87 games that involve FCS teams, and over half – a whopping 47 – offer big opportunities against FBS opponents (six FCS teams pulled off wins last season). Additionally, there are two FCS Top 25 matchups and many of the first-year head coaches are in action.
Optimism basically flows everywhere.
Let’s span the nation as the FCS’ 48th season shifts into a higher gear.
FCS Football Week 1 Preview
FCS Game of the Week
No. 25 Richmond (10-3 last season) at No. 14 Lehigh (9-4)
Kickoff: Noon ET Saturday at Goodman Stadium in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (ESPN+)
Series: Tied 2-2 (last meeting: Lehigh won 20-16 at Richmond in the 2024 FCS playoff first round)
Notable: Coming off a CAA Football title last season, Richmond debuts as a Patriot League member at defending champion Lehigh, and it’s one of just two games during the 2025 FCS regular season that is a rematch from last year’s national playoffs (also North Dakota State at South Dakota State on Oct. 25). The Mountain Hawks erased a 16-7 deficit in the fourth quarter with touchdowns of 65 (Jaden Green run) and 54 (Hayden Johnson-to-Geoffrey Jamiel pass) yards. Green (777 yards, 10 TDs) and Luke Yoder (1,014, 10) return to the Lehigh offense that ranked 12th in the FCS in rushing yards per game (201.8), but Richmond’s run defense was formidable, as it would have ranked second in the Patriot League (127.3). Spiders quarterback Carter Wickersham is a 69.4% career passer, and they’re particularly strong in the trenches and with leading tackler Carter Glassmyer returning at linebacker. The Mountain Hawks, who have lost six consecutive season openers, boast the PL’s preseason defensive player of the year in D-end Matt Spatny (11.5 sacks).
The Pick: Lehigh
Second-and-10
1. The other Top 25 matchup besides Richmond at Lehigh is No. 3 South Dakota State hosting No. 15 Sacramento State. In their head coaching debuts, Dan Jackson (SDSU) and Brennan Marion (Sac State) will unveil vastly different lineups from what their programs had last year. SDSU, the 2022 and ’23 FCS national champion, enters with a 29-game home winning streak, and will seek to establish its usual dominance in the trenches, although the visiting Hornets can attack with transfer running backs Jamar Curtis (Lafayette), Rodney Hammond (Pitt) and Savion Red (Nevada), who have a combined 5,428 career rushing yards. The Jackrabbits won the only previous meeting, 24-19 at Sac State in the 2021 playoff second round.
FCS Longest Active Winning StreaksOverall10 – Jackson State5 – Tennessee Tech4 – Elon, North Dakota State, Presbyterian, San DiegoHome29 – South Dakota State16 – Villanova13 – North Dakota State10 – MercerRoad6 – Montana State5 – Richmond4 – Jackson State
— Opta FCS Football (@OptaAnalystFCS) August 25, 20252. Separated by just three points in the 2024 national championship game, No. 1 North Dakota State and No. 2 Montana State will be nearly 3,000 miles apart for their season-opening matchups. The champion Bison will be in Charleston, South Carolina, for a first-time meeting with The Citadel. The Bison will have a different quarterback (Cole Payton) after Cam Miller made 54 starts in a row since the middle of the 2021 season. Montana State will take on No. 7 Oregon in Eugene. Idaho had a mere 49 rushing yards while putting a major scare into the Ducks last September. Montana State has ranked second in the FCS in rushing yards in three consecutive seasons.
3. Speaking of Idaho, the Big Sky program is the only one in the FCS that has defeated an FBS opponent in each of the last two seasons. In another matchup of new coaches, Thomas Ford Jr. debuts with the Vandals against the Cougars and Jimmy Rogers, who went 27-3 the last two seasons at South Dakota State. Idaho has a second FBS matchup at San Jose State on Sept. 20.
Graphic by Graham Bell.4. Juicy matchups flow among HBCU teams, particularly with the coaching debuts of former NFL players Michael Vick (Norfolk State vs. Towson), DeSean Jackson (Delaware State at Delaware) and Terrell Buckley (Mississippi Valley State vs. Southern). Plus, 2024 Celebration Bowl champion Jackson State begins its back-to-back quest by hosting Hampton; Florida A&M vs. Howard in Miami Gardens, Florida, is a repeat of the 2023 Celebration Bowl matchup (won by FAMU); and North Carolina Central, fresh off winning the MEAC/SWAC Challenge in Week 0, seeks another resume-builder against CAA Football member New Hampshire (the Eagles won the lone previous meeting in 2022).
5. It was hard to foresee what Nicholls (just 4-8 last season) did to No. 5 UIW in the Southland Conference opener last Saturday. In the Colonels’ 20-6 upset, they kept UIW to their lowest point total since 2019 and fewest yards (204) since 2017. First-year coach Tommy Rybacki’s squad is off to Troy to try to nab the program’s first FBS win since 2018 (Kansas). Some of the luster is lost from UIW’s matchup against Eastern Washington, but it’s between the FCS programs with the most passing yards and TD passes during the 2020s decade (UIW, 19,347 and 197; EWU, 16,043 and 139).
6. Also down in the Southland – way down in Edinburg, Texas, at the FCS’ new southernmost program – UTRGV plays its inaugural game under coach Travis Bush by hosting Sul Ross State. New Haven, the other new FCS program in the Northeast Conference, will visit Marist. Interim head coach/defensive coordinator Mark Powell guides a team that ended its Division II era with 10 straight winning seasons.
7. This time, the games will count (at least they hope so). The FCS Kickoff was declared a “no contest” for No. 8 UC Davis and No. 11 Mercer after their matchup was delayed, then canceled due to inclement weather midway through the fourth quarter (UCD led 23-17) Saturday night in Montgomery, Alabama. New UC Davis QB Caden Pinnick played well while replacing last year’s FCS passing yardage leader Miles Hastings, next set to lead the Aggies to Utah Tech for what would become a Big Sky matchup next year. Mercer will host Presbyterian one year after a 63-10 win, when the Bears dropped the Blue Hose for negative-7 yards on the ground on the way to having the FCS’ top rushing defense.
8. FBS drop-down quarterbacks – particularly the accomplished versions – get a lot of attention and face high expectations. First-year ETSU coach Will Healy signed a pair to upgrade the position, and both signal-callers are expected to play against Murray State. Cade McNamara passed for 4,703 passing yards and 31 touchdowns in 34 career games at Michigan and Iowa. Jacolby Criswell had two stints at North Carolina and became the starter after Max Johnson was injured in last year’s opener, passing for 2,459 yards and 15 TDs.
9. If quarterback is the most important position in football, then Monmouth stands out. Preseason All-American Derek Robertson is the only returning FCS quarterback who passed for at least 3,000 yards last year, and he nearly reached 4K (3,937). He finished sixth in the Walter Payton Award voting – he’s this year’s only returnee who was in the top 18 – and the Hawks return their top six pass catchers. Colgate ranked 122nd out of 129 FCS team in allowing 268.1 passing yards per game a year ago.
10. Duquesne’s opener at Pittsburgh ranks with the shortest road trips in FCS history. The Northeast Conference power will make the 2.2-mile “trek” between campus and Acrisure Stadium for the matchup (OK, it’s 2.6 miles if you’re measuring from Rooney Field on campus). The Dukes won the most-recent meeting in 1939. Wide receiver Joey Isabella comes in with a TD catch in eight straight games – the FCS‘ longest active streak.
(We’ve previewed the 2025 season. Here’s an index to all 13 FCS football conference previews.)
FCS Football Top 25 Schedule – Week 1
All times ET; All games Saturday unless noted; Predicted winner in boldface
No. 1 North Dakota State: at The Citadel, noon (ABC North Dakota/Nexstar/ESPN+)
No. 2 Montana State: at Oregon, 4 p.m. (Big Ten Network)
No. 3 South Dakota State: No. 15 Sacramento State, 7 p.m. (ESPN+)
No. 4 South Dakota: at Iowa State (1-0), 3:30 p.m. (FOX)
No. 5 UIW (0-1, 0-1 Southland): Eastern Washington, 7 p.m. (ESPN+)
No. 6 Illinois State: at Oklahoma State, 6 p.m. (SECN+/ESPN+)
No. 7 Montana: No game
An ironic twist to FCS Week 1: The two teams with the FCS' longest active win streaks in season openers are on byes.No. 7 Montana (10-game streak) opens vs. Central Washington on Sept. 6.No. 13 Villanova (8-game streak) opens vs. Colgate on Sept. 6.
— Craig Haley (@CraigHaley) August 24, 2025No. 8 UC Davis: at Utah Tech, 10 p.m. (ESPN+)
No. 9 Rhode Island: Campbell, 6 p.m. Friday (FloFootball)
No. 10 Tarleton State (1-0): at Army, 6 p.m. Friday (CBS Sports Network)
No. 11 Mercer: Presbyterian, 6 p.m. (ESPN+)
No. 12 Idaho: at Washington State, 10 p.m. (The CW)
No. 13 Villanova: No game
No. 14 Lehigh: No. 25 Richmond, noon (ESPN+)
No. 15 Sacramento State: at No. 3 South Dakota State, 7 p.m. (ESPN+)
No. 16 Abilene Christian: at Tulsa, 8 p.m. (ESPN+)
No. 17 Jackson State: Hampton, 3 p.m. (HBCU GO)
No. 18 Western Carolina: Gardner-Webb, 6 p.m. (ESPN+)
No. 19 Northern Arizona: at Arizona State, 10 p.m. (ESPN+)
No. 20 Southern Illinois: Thomas More, 7 p.m. (ESPN+)
No. 21 Tennessee Tech: Cumberland, 2:30 p.m. (ESPN+)
No. 22 Monmouth: at Colgate, 7 p.m. Friday (ESPN+)
No. 23 Stephen F. Austin: at Houston, 8 p.m. Thursday (ESPN+)
No. 24 Stony Brook: at San Diego State, 10 p.m. Thursday (KUSI/Mountain West Network)
No. 25 Richmond: at No. 14 Lehigh, noon (ESPN+)
Top photo, from left, from Dave Eagen/South Dakota State, Lehigh and Nicholls Athletics.
For more FCS football coverage, follow on social media at X, Facebook, Instagram and Bluesky.
FCS Football Week 1 Preview: 2025 Season Jumps Right Into a Banner Schedule Opta Analyst.
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