Before the year turns over to the national championship game, let’s look back at what has shaped the 2025 FCS football season. Happy Holidays.
It started with the preseason No. 5 team (yeah, sorry, UIW) losing the 2025 season’s first game, and FCS football has been on a wild ride ever since.
It’s been so unpredictable that the kingpin, North Dakota State, has been on the sideline since Dec. 6 following the earliest exit of its 16 consecutive playoff appearances.
The FCS party is now headed to Nashville, Tennessee, as Montana State and Illinois State are set to meet in the national championship game the night of Jan. 5.
While so much more is deserving of the spotlight, here are 10 things to remember about the 2025 FCS football season.
(Can) Have Win. Will Travel.
“The Road to Nashville” is an appropriate slogan as the FCS championship game moves to Nashville for the first time.
In the first four rounds of the playoffs, road teams won nine times, matching the high for a 24-team field (since 2013). As a comparison, there were nine road wins in the three previous playoffs (2022 to ’24) combined.
Unseeded Illinois State set a record with four road wins, including at No. 12 seed Villanova, which hosted an unlikely semifinal after it had won two of its three previous playoff games on the road.
Best Games
Illinois State 29, North Dakota State 28: The unseeded Redbirds entered the second round of the playoffs with 14 straight losses to NDSU and overcame five interceptions, allowing a pick-6 and a punt return TD, and the defending national champion Bison’s 38-1 all-time home record in the FCS postseason.
Coach Brock Spack’s team rallied in the final three minutes on Tommy Rittenhouse’s two TD passes to Daniel Sobkowicz, Jake Anderson’s strip sack of Cole Payton deep in Bison territory, and Scotty Presson Jr. catching a two-point conversion with 1:00 left for their first lead. They eliminated the No. 1 seed in the round of 16 for the first time since 2004.
South Carolina State 40, Prairie View A&M 38, 4 OTs (Celebration Bowl): The MEAC champion Bulldogs overcame a 21-0 halftime deficit while beating SWAC champion Prairie View in a breathtaking cap to the HBCU season.
Tied 35-35 after regulation, both teams kicked field goals in the first overtime, each team had a chance for a walk-off over the next two overtimes, then SCSU’s Tyler Smith caught a two-point pass that was upheld after a long video review.
South Dakota State 30, Montana State 24, 2 OTs: The season’s best nonconference matchup exceeded expectations as No. 2 SDSU handed No. 3 MSU its first home defeat in the regular season since 2019.
After both teams exchanged TDs in the first overtime, SDSU opened the second extra session with Chase Mason’s 25-yard TD pass to Brayden Delahoyde. MSU gained a first down on its ensuing possession, but Julius Davis was stopped for no gain on 4th-and-1 just shy of the 5-yard line, ending the thriller.
Jackson State 38, Alabama State 34: First place in the SWAC East Division was on the line as JSU’s Homecoming crowd of 44,000 watched a slugfest. JaCobian Morgan connected on an 18-yard TD pass to Nate Rembert with 50 seconds left, lifting the Tigers from a 34-31 deficit. ASU quarterback Andrew Body moved the Hornets to the JSU 2 with 1 second left and flipped a pass to Jamarie Hostzclaw on a final-play roll-out, but linebacker Ashton Taylor swooped in for a tackle just outside the goal line.
Mercer 49, Western Carolina 47: Mercer clinched the Southern Conference’s automatic playoff bid only after there were five lead changes, a combined 1,167 offensive yards and 10 TD passes. Reice Griffith kicked a go-ahead 37-yard field goal with 1:30 left, but then the Bears had to survive the Catamounts’ missed attempt as time expired.
Down Goes FBS. FC-Yes!
Four FCS teams knocked off FBS programs.
Two from the United Athletic Conference gained their second all-time FBS wins. Tarleton State slipped past Army 30-27 on Brad Larson’s 37-yard field goal to end the second overtime, while Austin Peay allowed just 153 yards while dominating Middle Tennessee 34-14.
Posting their first-ever FBS wins were CAA member Bryant, which edged UMass 27-26 on Bryce Soli’s 25-yard, game-ending field goal, and NEC member LIU, which beat Eastern Michigan 28-23 as two different quarterbacks, Luca Stanzani and Ethan Greenwood, rushed for two TDs each.
Conference Success
The Missouri Valley Football Conference remains the top FCS conference with seven nationally ranked teams to end the regular season and twice as many playoff qualifiers as any other with six. The Big Sky is right behind and was the lone conference with two national semifinalists (coach Brent Vigen’s Montana State squad beat Montana in those bitter rivals’ first-ever meeting in the playoffs), and CAA Football did well with semifinalist Villanova in its final season before joining the Patriot League.
The breakout season was turned in by the non-scholarship Pioneer Football League, whose eight wins against FCS nonconference opposition were its most in 16 years. Included was St. Thomas reversing a 64-0 loss to Lindenwood last season with a 35-13 win and Presbyterian reversing a 63-10 loss to Mercer with a 15-10 upset on the way to gaining its first-ever FCS national ranking and the PFL’s first since 2018. But Drake earned its third straight outright league title.
It was a good year for the FCS conference preseason polls as 10 picked the eventual outright or co-champion, all but Drake (picked second in the PFL), Stephen F. Austin (second in the Southland) and Prairie View A&M (third in the SWAC West Division).Year of the Comeback Win
Maybe chalk the wackiness up to the Ivy League ending its postseason ban after 80 years and allowing its teams to participate in the FCS playoffs. But this year’s 10 comeback wins of at least 21 points are the most in seven years, with Yale matching the season high and also setting the playoff record by overcoming a 28-point deficit at Youngstown State in first round. Trailing 42-14, running back Josh Pitsenberger fueled the Ivy co-champ to 29 straight points in the final 17 minutes, 41 seconds for a 43-42 stunner.
UTRGV Opens to Rave Reviews
UT Rio Grande Valley went 9-3 in its debut, becoming the first FCS start-up program since the 1978 Division I split to win nine games. It included a 5-3 Southland mark, with losses only to the conference’s playoff teams – Stephen F. Austin, Southeastern Louisiana and Lamar.
Quarterback Eddie Lee Marburger led a high-flying offense. The Vaqueros were 7-0 at home, averaging 12,539 fans for a No. 15 ranking out of 129 FCS programs.
Da Pandas
To build interest in the following week’s home game against Montana, Sacramento State school president Dr. Luke Wood joked in a TV interview about the Grizzlies, even referencing their nickname as Pandas, and that the fan base would have to deal with an impending defeat.
To say the Griz were motivated was an understatement. Keali’I Ah Yat passed for three touchdowns and all-purpose threat Michael Wortham scored three times in their 49-35 win over Sac State.
Snap. Throw. Complete. Repeat.
Western Carolina’s Taron Dickens played a video game while taking on Wofford. He shattered NCAA and FCS single-game records with 46 straight completions to begin the Catamounts’ 23-21 victory – 17 more than the previous best start in a Division I game.
Dickens wound up going 53 of 56 for 378 yards and three touchdowns, with the 94.6 completion% also an FCS record for a quarterback with 30+ completions.
Jackrabbits Rise, Plummet, Level Off
South Dakota State went from hosting North Dakota State in a rare showdown of No. 1- and 2-ranked teams to enduring its longest losing streak since 2011.
The rival MVFC powers were both 7-0 when they squared off on Oct. 25, but Jackrabbits had lost No. 1 quarterback Chase Mason to injury one week earlier. The Bison’s 38-7 rout ended the Jackrabbits’ 33-game home winning streak (fourth-longest in FCS history) and sent them spiraling to an unfathomable four straight defeats.
Facing the prospect of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2011, the Jackrabbits forged their way in with an overtime walk-off at North Dakota. They hammered New Hampshire in the snow in the first round, then fell to Montana when those programs met in the postseason for the third straight season.
Stats Perform is proud to announce its 2025 FCS and Freshman All-America Teams. t.co/xUzHh7HWFf
— Opta FCS Football (@OptaAnalystFCS) December 17, 2025FCS Football National Awards
Like the national championship game, the Stats Perform FCS National Awards Show is Nashville-bound.
Already announced as awards recipients are Lehigh coach Kevin Cahill (Eddie Robinson Award), Mercer quarterback Braden Atkinson (Jerry Rice Award), Montana center Dillon Botner (Doris Robinson Scholar-Athlete Award) and Alabama State QB Andrew Body (HBCU National Player of the Year Award).
Some of the best seasons will be reflected in the announcements of the national players of the year: the Walter Payton Award with quarterbacks Beau Brungard (Youngstown State), Taron Dickens (Western Carolina) and Cole Payton (North Dakota State), and the Buck Buchanan Award with linebacker James Conway (Fordham) and defensive ends Joshua Stoneking (Furman) and Andrew Zock (Mercer).
Brungard became the third player in FCS history to surpass 3,000 passing yards and 1,000 rushing yards in the same season; Dickens is No. 1 nationally in passing yards per game (389.8), completion% (74.2), total offensive yards per game (425.4) and touchdown passes (38); and Payton guided NDSU’s perfect regular season and finished with a 71.9 completion%, 193.8 passing efficiency and 29 total TDs.
Conway has the FCS highs in tackles (159) and per-game average (13.3); Stoneking is No. 1 in sacks (14.5), TFLs (23.0) and TFL yards for loss (132); and Zock racked up 20.0 TFLs and 23 QB hurries.
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FCS Football Review: 10 Things to Remember About the 2025 Season Opta Analyst.
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