FCS Football Week 1 Preview

We’re previewing the key games and storylines each week throughout the 2024 college football season. Our FCS coverage is the home for the Top 25 media poll, FCS National Awards, predictive TRACR model and much more.

Be sure to tighten your seat belt, it’s go time with the 2024 FCS college season.

After a small, yet particularly entertaining Week 0 schedule last Saturday, Week 1 has the most games of the season, as 94 involve FCS programs, from Thursday night through Sunday.

Of course, it’s FC-yes against FBS opponents. Montana State already has the season’s first win over Big Brother. Overall, there are a record 121 FCS-vs.-FBS matchups in 2024, and 59, or nearly half, will be played in Week 1. Included are 17 teams ranked in the Stats Perform FCS Preseason Top 25 Poll.

Let’s span the nation with the FCS’ 47th season underway.

FCS Football Week 1 Preview

FCS Game of the Week

No. 2 North Dakota State (11-4 in 2023) at Colorado (4-8)

Kickoff: 8 p.m. ET Thursday (ESPN)

Notable: This is the first meeting between the two programs, with NDSU 9-4 all-time against FBS opponents, including 3-1 versus the Big 12. Tim Polasek is making his head coaching debut, matched against Colorado’s Deion Sanders, the 2021 Eddie Robinson Award recipient when he was at Jackson State. The Bison, roughly 9.5-point underdogs, will likely seek to control game clock with their rushing attack, behind starting quarterback Cam Miller (31-9 record as starter) with Cole Payton off the bench, and their running backs, including TK Marshall. Last season, Colorado ranked 101st out of 130 FBS teams in allowing 4.7 yards per carry and 107th while surrendering 176.4 rushing yards per game. If there’s another factor that could favor NDSU, it’s the pass rush up front with Dylan Hendricks and Eli Mostaert. The Buffaloes allowed the second-most sacks in the FBS – 56, including 52 against Shedeur Sanders, Coach Prime’s son and a leading QB candidate for the 2025 NFL Draft (he received the 2021 Jerry Rice Award, winning FCS freshman player of the year while directing Jackson State’s offense). NDSU is without two first-team All-Americans due to foot injuries – fullback/long snapper Hunter Brozio (career ruled over) and strong safety Cole Wisniewski.

The Pick: North Dakota State

Second-and-10 

1. South Dakota State, the two-time defending FCS champion, takes a 29-game winning streak – the third-longest in FCS history – into Saturday’s season opener at Oklahoma State (AP No. 17). The scenario is similar to the most-famous FCS vs. FBS game, when Appalachian State entered as the two-time champ before defeating No. 5 Michigan 34-32 to begin the Mountaineers’ national title three-peat. While Walter Payton Award-winning quarterback Mark Gronowski is the Jackrabbits’ headliner, coach Jimmy Rogers’ squad is coming off a season in which its 9.3 points allowed per game marked the lowest average in an FCS season since 2003 (Monmouth, 8.5).

2. Two FCS programs are seeking FBS wins for the third consecutive season. Sacramento State visits San Jose State and comes right back with a matchup at Fresno State next week. Southern Illinois, which visits BYU, extends the FBS success out even more with a win in three of its last four fall seasons.

3. Speaking of three straight seasons, FBS program Buffalo is trying to avoid losing to a Patriot League member once again, hosting defending co-champ and preseason favorite Lafayette after falling to Holy Cross in 2022 and Fordham last year. Lafayette’s last win against a current FBS team occurred in 1971, 13-7 over Rutgers.

4. The week’s lone game matching ranked FCS teams against each other is also a rematch from the 2023 FCS playoffs: No. 6 Villanova hosts No. 25 Youngstown State, just as the Wildcats did while winning 45-28 in a second-round game. Villanova QB Connor Watkins (331 yards of total offense, three total touchdowns) and linebacker Shane Hartzell (game-high 14 tackles, sack) hope to pick up where they left off against the Penguins.

5. Juicy matchups flow across CAA Football, which for one season will play as the new largest conference in FCS history (16 teams). In addition to Villanova, Monmouth visits Eastern Washington (over 2,600 miles away), Rhode Island hosts five-time defending Patriot League champion Holy Cross and Delaware welcomes in new CAA member Bryant, although it is considered non-conference and doesn’t count toward the conference standings. While William & Mary figures to extend a 25-game winning streak against VMI in that series’ first meeting since 2011, Danny Rocco is in his second season coaching the visiting Keydets, and he’s 7-3 against the Tribe, including 7-1 while guiding Delaware and another FCS program, Richmond.

6. Fresh off Florida A&M’s 24-23 rally past Norfolk State in the MEAC-SWAC Challenge, the HBCU inter-conference games continue in a big way, featuring the defending SWAC champion Rattlers again in their home opener against MEAC member South Carolina State, Morgan State (MEAC) traveling to Hampton (CAA), and Alabama State (SWAC) hosting North Carolina Central (MEAC) in Miami. But shoutout to Texas Southern at Prairie View A&M in the SWAC – the FCS season’s first conference game.

7. West Georgia is in a spotlight game as it breaks into the FCS, hosting Samford. The Wolves, now United Athletic Conference members under new coach Joel Taylor, have posted a winning record in every season since 2013. New Northeast Conference member Mercyhurst, the other Division II-to-FCS transitioning program, travels to sub-FCS Wheeling, then steps it up at defending MEAC champ Howard next week.

8. New coaches abound in the FCS this season, with 24 making debuts this week. Like FAMU’s James Colzie III last week, defending conference champions with new coaches include Austin Peay from the UAC (Jeff Faris, debuting at Louisville), Gardner-Webb from the Big South-OVC (Cris Reisert, Wofford) and Holy Cross from the Patriot League (Dan Curran, at Rhode Island).

9. Their South Carolina campuses separated by only 17 miles, Charleston Southern visits The Citadel as that series resumes from a three-year break. This summer, the two teams had multiple players work in conjunction on a Charleston-area service project. The winners of the newly renamed “Lowcountry Boil Bowl” will receive a trophy filled to the brim with lowcountry boil, which is a local food specialty.

10. Quarterback is called the most important position in football, and it’s highly experienced among the Preseason Top 25 teams. Ten of the top 14 teams and 16 of the 25 ranked teams returns last year’s main starter. Among the nine exceptions, four could open the season with a QB who made at least one start last season. Two exceptions are national runner-up Montana (redshirt freshman Keali’i Ah Yat and Fresno State transfer Logan Fife may both see playing time against Missouri State) and national semifinalist UAlbany (Wisconsin transfer Myles Burkett is set for the LIU opener).

FCS Football Week 1 Top 25 Schedule

All Times ET

1. South Dakota State (0-0, 0–0 MVFC): at Oklahoma State (2 p.m. Saturday, ESPN+)

2. North Dakota State (0-0, 0-0 MVFC): at Colorado (8 p.m. Thursday, ESPN)

3. Montana (0-0, 0-0 Big Sky): Missouri State (9 p.m. Saturday, Scripps/ESPN+)

4. Montana State (1-0, 0-0 Big Sky): at Utah Tech (10 p.m. Saturday, ESPN+)

5. South Dakota (0-0, 0-0 MVFC): Northern State (8 p.m. Thursday, ESPN+)

6. Villanova (0-0, 0-0 CAA): No. 25 Youngstown State (6 p.m. Thursday, FloFootball)

7. Idaho (0-0, 0-0 Big Sky): at Oregon (7:30 p.m. Saturday, Big Ten Network)

8. Sacramento State (0-0, 0-0 Big Sky): at San Jose State (10 p.m. Thursday, truTV/Max)

9. Chattanooga (0-0, 0-0 SoCon): at Tennessee (12:45 p.m. Saturday, SEC Network)

10. Southern Illinois (0-0, 0-0 MVFC): at BYU (8 p.m. Saturday, ESPN+)

11. Central Arkansas (0-0, 0-0 UAC): at Arkansas State (7 p.m. Saturday, SEC Network+/ESPN+)

12. Furman (0-0, 0-0 SoCon): at Ole Miss (7 p.m. Saturday, ESPN+)

13. Richmond (0-0, 0-0 CAA): at Virginia (6 p.m. Saturday, ACC Network Extra)

14. UIW (0-0, 0-0 Southland): Northern Colorado (7 p.m. Saturday, ESPN+)

15. William & Mary (0-0, 0-0 CAA): VMI (7 p.m. Thursday, FloFootball)

16. UAlbany (0-0, 0-0 CAA): LIU (7 p.m. Saturday, FloFootball)

17. Lafayette (0-0, 0-0 Patriot): at Buffalo (7 p.m. Thursday, ESPN+)

18. UC Davis (0-0, 0-0 Big Sky): at California (5 p.m. Saturday, ACC Network Extra)

19. Illinois State (0-0, 0-0 MVFC): at Iowa (noon Saturday, Big Ten Network)

20. Western Carolina (0-0, 0-0 SoCon): at NC State (7 p.m. Thursday, ACC Network)

21. Tarleton State (1-0, 0-0 UAC): at Baylor (7 p.m. Saturday, ESPN+)

22. Weber State (0-0, 0-0 Big Sky): at Washington (11 p.m. Saturday, Big Ten Network)

23. Nicholls (0-0, 0-0 Southland): at Louisiana Tech (8 p.m. Saturday, ESPN+)

24. North Dakota (0-0, 0-0 MVFC): at Iowa State (3:30 p.m. Saturday, FS1)

25. Youngstown State (0-0, 0-0 MVFC): at No. 6 Villanova (6 p.m. Thursday, FloFootball)