The 2021 NCAA Division I FCS football season, part of

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

in the United States, was organized by the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

(NCAA) at the Division I

Football Championship Subdivision The NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly known as Division I-AA, is the second-highest level of college football in the United States, after the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, Football Bowl Subdivision (F ...

(FCS) level. After the prior season was impacted by the

COVID-19 pandemic in the United States On December 31, 2019, China announced the discovery of a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan. The first American case was reported on January 20, and United States Department of Health and Human Services, Health and Human Services Secreta ...

, resulting in some conferences canceling their seasons and significant rescheduling by other conferences, the 2021 season returned to its traditional fall scheduling. The season ended with a

single-elimination tournament A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, ...

, with the championship game held on January 8, 2022 at Toyota Stadium in

Frisco, Texas Frisco is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, located in Collin County, Texas, Collin and Denton County, Texas, Denton counties. It is part of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex (DFW) and about from both Dallas Love Field and Dallas/Fort Worth In ...

. North Dakota State won its ninth championship in eleven seasons, defeating Montana State, 38-10, for the title.

Notable headlines

* September 4 – In Kevin Kelley's debut as head coach of

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...

, Ren Hefley threw for 10 touchdowns in the Blue Hose's 84–43 win over NAIA member St. Andrews, breaking the previous FCS record of 9 first set in 1984 by Willie Totten of Mississippi Valley State and equaled in

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

by Drew Hubel of Portland State. Blue Hose backup quarterback Tyler Huff added 2 TD passes to set a new Division I team record (for both FCS and FBS) of 12, surpassing the previous record of 11 thrown by David Klingler of

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

against

Eastern Washington Eastern Washington is the region of the U.S. state of Washington located east of the Cascade Range. It contains the city of Spokane (the second largest city in the state), the Tri-Cities, the Columbia River and the Grand Coulee Dam, the H ...

in 1990. * November 12 – The Utah Legislature approved changing the name of FCS member Dixie State University to Utah Tech University, effective in the 2022–23 academic year.

FCS team wins over FBS teams

September 2:

UC Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...

19,

Tulsa Tulsa ( ) is the second-most-populous city in the state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tul ...

17
September 3:

35,

UNLV The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada, United States. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. ...

33
September 3: South Dakota State 42, Colorado State 23
September 4: Holy Cross 38, UConn 28
September 4:

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

13, No. 20 Washington 7
September 4: East Tennessee State 23, Vanderbilt 3
September 11: Duquesne 28,

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

26
September 11: Jacksonville State 20,

Florida State Florida State University (FSU or Florida State) is a Public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preeminent university in the s ...

17
September 18: Incarnate Word 42, Texas State 34
September 18: Northern Arizona 21,

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

19
November 6:

Rhode Island Rhode Island ( ) is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Connecticut to its west; Massachusetts to its north and east; and the Atlantic Ocean to its south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Is ...

35, UMass 22
November 13:

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

35, UMass 10

Conference changes and new programs

* The

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the Western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, Texas, Utah and Washington (state), Washington. Due to ...

(WAC), which had last played football in the 2012 season as an FBS league, reinstated football for the 2021 season at the FCS level. The

ASUN Conference The Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN) is a collegiate athletic conference operating mostly in the Southeastern United States. The league participates at the NCAA Division I level, and began sponsoring football at the Division I FCS level in 2022. ...

also announced in 2021 that it would sponsor FCS football in the future. * Because WAC and ASUN programs reclassifying from Division II could not be counted toward the minimum of six members required for a conference champion to be an automatic qualifier (AQ) for the FCS postseason, the two conferences pooled their seven members with active FCS programs in 2021 (four WAC, three ASUN) to form the WAC–ASUN Challenge, a temporary league also referred to as the AQ7.

Conference standings

Playoff qualifiers

Automatic berths for conference champions

At large qualifiers

Abstentions

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of eight Private university, private Research university, research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegia ...

– Dartmouth *

Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC ) is a List of NCAA conferences, collegiate athletic conference whose full members are historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and the Mid-A ...

– South Carolina State *

Southwestern Athletic Conference The Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, which is made up of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the Southern United St ...

– Jackson State

Postseason

After the prior season's playoffs were reduced to a 16-team

bracket A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. They come in four main pairs of shapes, as given in the box to the right, which also gives their n ...

, FCS returned to a 24-team bracket for this season: 11 of the teams were decided via automatic bids issued to conference champions (listed above) and 13 teams were determined via

at-large bids At large (''before a noun'': at-large) is a description for members of a governing body who are elected or appointed to represent a whole membership or population (notably a city, county, state, province, nation, club or association), rather tha ...

; the top eight teams were seeded.

Bowl game

NCAA Division I playoff bracket

Source:

Rankings

The top 25 from the Stats Perform and USA Today Coaches Polls.

Pre-season polls

Final rankings

Kickoff games

The regular season began with three games on Saturday, August 28: * Indiana State 26, Eastern Illinois 21 * MEAC/SWAC Challenge at Center Parc Stadium in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

: North Carolina Central 23, Alcorn State 14 * San Jose State (FBS) 45, Southern Utah 14

Regular season top 10 matchups

Rankings reflect the Stats Perform Poll. *Week 3 **No. 3

James Madison James Madison (June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison was popularly acclaimed as the ...

defeated No. 9 Weber State, 37–24 ( Stewart Stadium,

Ogden, Utah Ogden ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Weber County, Utah, Weber County, Utah, United States, approximately east of the Great Salt Lake and north of Salt Lake City. The population was 87,321 in 2020, according to the United States Census ...

) *Week 5 **No. 6

defeated No. 4

, 30–24 ( Roos Field, Cheney, Washington) **No. 5 North Dakota State defeated No. 10

North Dakota North Dakota ( ) is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota people, Dakota and Sioux peoples. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minneso ...

, 16–10 ( Alerus Center,

Grand Forks, North Dakota Grand Forks is a city in and the county seat of Grand Forks County, North Dakota, United States. The city's population was 59,166 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in North Dakota, third-most populous ...

) *Week 6 **No. 8 Southern Illinois defeated No. 2 South Dakota State, 42–41 ^OT ( Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium,

Brookings, South Dakota Brookings is a city in and the county seat of Brookings County, South Dakota, Brookings County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 23,377 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in South Dakota, fo ...

) *Week 10 **No. 4 Montana State defeated No. 5 Eastern Washington, 23–20 (Roos Field, Cheney, Washington) **No. 9 South Dakota State defeated No. 2 North Dakota State, 27–19 (Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium, Brookings, South Dakota) *Week 11 **No. 7 Eastern Washington defeated No. 6

, 38–20 ( UC Davis Health Stadium,

Davis, California Davis is the most populous city in Yolo County, California, United States. Located in the Sacramento Valley region of Northern California, the city had a population of 66,850 in 2020, not including the on-campus population of the University of ...

) *Week 12 **No. 6 Montana defeated No. 3 Montana State, 29–10 ( Washington–Grizzly Stadium,

Missoula, Montana Missoula ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Missoula County, Montana, United States. It is located along the Clark Fork River near its confluence with the Bitterroot and Blackfoot rivers in western Montana and at the convergence of five ...

)

Upsets

This section lists instances of unranked teams defeating ranked teams during the season.

Regular season

During the regular season, 33 unranked teams have defeated a ranked team. *September 4, 2021: ** Furman 29, No. 25 North Carolina A&T 18 *September 11, 2021: ** Merrimack 35, No. 24 Holy Cross 21 *September 25, 2021 **Holy Cross 45, No. 20

Monmouth Monmouth ( or ; ) is a market town and community (Wales), community in Monmouthshire, Wales, situated on where the River Monnow joins the River Wye, from the Wales–England border. The population in the 2011 census was 10,508, rising from 8 ...

15 ** Eastern Kentucky 35, No. 19 Austin Peay 27 ** UT Martin 34, No. 9 Jacksonville State 31 *October 2, 2021 ** Elon 20, No. 22 Richmond 7 ** The Citadel 35, No. 18 VMI 24 *October 9, 2021 ** Idaho State 27, No. 7

17 **

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state, state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Dakota people, Dakota Sioux ...

20, No. 13

13 ** Youngstown State 41, No. 16 Missouri State 33 *October 16, 2021 ** Dartmouth 38, No. 23

New Hampshire New Hampshire ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

21 **

Chattanooga Chattanooga ( ) is a city in Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located along the Tennessee River and borders Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the south. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, it is Tennessee ...

21, No. 10 East Tennessee State 16 ** Sacramento State 28, No. 5

27 ** Stony Brook 34, No. 14

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...

17 ** Towson 28, No. 12

7 *October 22, 2021 ** Columbia 19, No. 25 Dartmouth 0 *October 23, 2021 ** Weber State 35, No. 2

34 ** Illinois State 20, No. 15 South Dakota 14 ** McNeese State 28, No. 16 Incarnate Word 20 *October 30, 2021 ** William & Mary 31, No. 4 Villanova 18 **

45, No. 24 Rhode Island 24 *November 5, 2021 **Dartmouth 31, No. 20т Princeton 7 *November 6, 2021 ** Portland State 30, No. 24 Weber State 18 **Delaware 24, No. 20т William & Mary 3 **Illinois State 17, No. 13 Northern Iowa 10 ^OT ** Stephen F. Austin 31, No. 25 Eastern Kentucky 17 *November 13, 2021 ** Alcorn State 31, No. 24 Prairie View A&M 29 ** Furman 37, No. 21 VMI 31 ** Mercer 10, No. 22т Chattanooga 6 *November 20, 2021 ** Southeast Missouri State 31, No. 13 UT Martin 14 ** Nicholls 45, No. 15 Southeastern Louisiana 42 **Youngstown State 35, No. 17 Southern Illinois 18 **Elon 43, No. 25 Rhode Island 28

Coaching changes

Preseason and in-season

This is restricted to coaching changes that took place on or after May 1, 2021. For coaching changes that occurred earlier in 2021, see 2020 NCAA Division I FCS end-of-season coaching changes.

End of season

References

{{NCAA football season navbox