After Western Kentucky’s schedule addition earlier today, every Football Bowl Subdivision team has completed their 2013 non-conference schedule. For most FBS teams, their slate includes a game against a school from the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS).
Of the 125 FBS teams, 106 (85%) will play at least one game against an FCS opponent in 2013. Two teams will play two games against FCS schools and one will play three games. Overall, there will be 110 FBS vs. FCS games (including Abilene Christian, see below).
FBS teams usually schedule FCS programs to fill out their home schedule and, in many cases, to aid in becoming bowl eligible. But in order to count towards a bowl, FCS schools must have “supplied financial aid for football averaging out to at least 90 percent of the 63 scholarships allowed over ‘a rolling two-year period’ that can include the current season.”
Wagner, a member of the NEC, faces Syracuse in 2013 but may not count towards bowl eligibility for the Orange because the Seahawks only offer 40 football scholarships. However, Syracuse deputy athletics director Herman Frazier was told by Wagner that they count.
There will also be a rare game against a Division II team when New Mexico State plays host to Abilene Christian. The ACU Wildcats will be in the first season of a transition to the FCS but will count as a D-II team for scheduling purposes.
Here are some FBS vs. FCS numbers for the 2013 football season:
Teams that Don’t Play FCS Schools in 2013 (19)
FAU, Hawaii, Miami (OH), Michigan, New Mexico, North Texas, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Penn State, Rice, Southern Miss, Stanford, Texas, Tulsa, UCF, UCLA, USC, UTEP, UTSA
BCS Teams that Don’t Play FCS Schools in 2013 (9)
Michigan, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Penn State, Stanford, Texas, UCF, UCLA, USC
Teams that Play Two FCS Schools in 2013 (2)
Clemson (South Carolina State, The Citadel), Georgia Tech (Alabama A&M, Elon)
Note: Clemson and Georgia Tech likely would not have scheduled two FCS teams, but the ACC switched from a 9-game to an 8-game schedule. That forced them to find extra opponents late in the process.
Teams that Play Three FCS Schools in 2013 (1)
Georgia State (Chattanooga, Jacksonville State, Samford)
Games vs. FCS Schools by Conference
- ACC – 16
- Big 12 – 8
- Big East – 9
- Big Ten – 10
- C-USA – 7
- Independents – 4
- MAC – 12
- MWC – 10
- Pac-12 – 9
- SEC – 14
- Sun Belt – 10
FBS vs. FCS Teams that finished in Top 100 of 2012 Sagarin Ratings
- Kansas State – vs. North Dakota State (35)
- Texas A&M – vs. Sam Houston State (63)
- Florida – vs. Georgia Southern (72)
- Nebraska – vs. South Dakota State (79)
- Oregon State, Toledo – vs. Eastern Washington (88)
- SMU – vs. Montana State (90)
- Iowa State – vs. Northern Iowa (92)
- Colorado – vs. Central Arkansas (94)
- Indiana, Purdue – vs. Indiana State (95)
- Baylor – vs. Wofford (96)
- Michigan State – vs. Youngstown State (97)
- Colorado State, Fresno State – vs. Cal Poly (99)
View Comments (37)
That Baylor/Wofford game is going to be crazy. Baylor throws the ball all over the field, while Wofford runs the triple option and very rarely throws. I can't wait to see what happens there.
Georgia State has every reason to schedule three FCS opponents, as there's no real penalty to doing it in their second transition year.
UTSA, who last year took the same approach, is playing a "big boy" schedule with no FCS games this year.
I can also confirm that Wagner does NOT count towards bowl eligibility for Syracuse.
(Also, none of Hawaii's home opponents are doubling up on FCSes this year, which is a bit odd.)
Wagner is saying they do count (story here). Who is correct?
ga. State might be ready for a full 1-A slate by 2017......
Most of these are going to really, really bad games. Only games against quality opponents should count towards going to a bowl game. We continue to dumb down schedules so that overpaid coaches can pad there W/L record with a gimme win or two. Bravo to those schools that do not dilute their records and insult their fans with shit games.
Article updated to include the following line:
Overall, there will be 110 FBS vs. FCS games (including Abilene Christian, see below).
Also, corrections were made to the numbers for C-USA and MAC.
Hate to be a nit-picker, but it's also 14 FCS games in the SEC and 109 total FCS games including Abilene Christian.
My mistake, it is 110.
No BCS conference team should play FCS teams. Plenty of FBS teams who are not BCS conference teams would love to play in these games. Let the non BCS FBS teams schedule down to give those FCS teams a chance to make some money. This would make all the games a bit more competitive.
A MAC payout to a 1-AA opponent might be $260K.......same for Sun Belt.......most all ACC and Big East payouts are $400K+, and SEC and Big-12 payouts are north of $500K.
Beg do differ, as the better FCS teams can and DO beat those FBS teams that "would love to play in these games" every year. Last year, in the Big Sky Conference alone: Cal Poly beat Wyoming, Sac State beat Colorado, Northern AZ beat UNLV, Eastern WA beat Idaho, and nearly WA State. So... yeah...
On the other hand, one FCS team, Western Carolina, is playing THREE FBS teams. Middle Tennessee, Virginia Tech, and Auburn.
Also ODU (Maryland, UNC, Idaho)
Old Dominion plays five FBS schools:
East Carolina, Idaho, Maryland, North Carolina, and Pittsburgh
Old Dominion is transitioning to FBS.
Old Dominion is considered a FCS team this year though
I like the FBS vs FCS matchups when they are in the same state.
I dont mind seeing FAMU or Bethune-Cookman Give me something to watch at halftime
I agree. As a UVA fan I find matchups vs JMU, Richmond, or W&M to be quite enjoyable.
San Jose State will host Sacatomatoes State,at first glance you think that will be a easy "W" but with two wins over 2 Pac 12 teams in 2011,2012....the Spartans won't be overlooking the Hornets!
I simply will say this, if FBS schools play one or more FCS schools in 2014 then I hope the committee that picks the four teams for the playoffs looks at that very closely and penalizes those teams. Honestly, the non-conference portion of FBS teams' schedules is mostly a joke.
I also find it interesting that the two conferences that play the most FCS schools are the ACC and SEC ... the schools from the south. Yeah, like I said that selection committee better not give so much credit to the SEC. OK, Alabama was very good, but the other SEC schools generally lost or struggled in their bowl games. LSU lost, Florida lost, SC barely won, Georgia barely won. SEC a tad overrated.
I can give the SEC a slight pass since they do play a very difficult in conference schedule, and they like to schedule non-conference later in the season. I would rather see them schedule Sunbelt teams instead, but I can somewhat forgive them. The ones I do not understand is the ACC teams. Did they not see multiple two-loss teams jump their top two teams, Florida St and Clemson, during the season in the BCS ranking when they both only had one loss ( before playing Florida and South Carolina). Did they not realize that the rest of their conference is barely above Big East level talent (most of it is former Big East talent) and that they might need the bump up to rise in the rankings. So they go out and all schedule one FCS team and Clemson and Georgia Tech schedule two ( I understand the circumstances, but when the Sunbelt needed more scheduling partners they should have both dropped one of these teams or negotiated a later date for the game)? The ACC seems to only care about bowl eligibility and that is why they are slowly getting poached into obscurity, just like the Big East.
Pathetic to see this many of these games. Well glad to see the ACC is leading in something (16 of these games). I hope strength of schedule component comes in to play soon so we see these games go away.
The reason behind the ACC playing 16 FCS teams was because the ACC changed the conference schedule from 9 games to 8 at the last possible minute to accommodate Noter Dame which left everyone in the conference scrambling to find one more game to add to their schedule. Adding FCS teams were there only option.