The 2016 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. The NCAA Division I Football Championship Game was played on January 7, 2017, 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 ...

. The

James Madison Dukes The James Madison Dukes are the college sports in the United States, intercollegiate athletics teams that represent James Madison University (JMU), in Harrisonburg, Virginia. The name "Dukes" is derived from Samuel Page Duke, the university's se ...

defeated the Youngstown State Penguins, 28–14, to capture their second national championship in team history.

Notable headlines

* April 20 – The NCAA banned five schools from the 2016 postseason for failure to meet Academic Progress Rate criteria: Florida A&M, Howard, Morgan State, Savannah State, and Southern. * April 28 – Following the March 1 announcement by the

Sun Belt Conference The Sun Belt Conference (SBC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference that has been affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's NCAA Division I, Division I since 1976. Originally a non-football confe ...

that it would not renew its football-only membership agreements with

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...

and

New Mexico State New Mexico State University (NMSU or NM State) is a Public university system, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in Las Cruces, New Mexico, United States. Founded in 1888, it is the state's oldest public institution ...

when they expire at the end of the 2017 season, Idaho announced that it would return to FCS football in its all-sports league, the

Big Sky Conference The Big Sky Conference is a List of NCAA conferences, collegiate athletic conference, affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's NCAA Division I, Division I with college football, football competing in the Football Cha ...

, in 2018. The Vandals thus became the first team ever to voluntarily drop from FBS to FCS. * September 17 – East Tennessee State and Western Carolina played on a temporary fieldturf surface installed on the infield of the

Bristol Motor Speedway Bristol Motor Speedway (formerly known as the Bristol International Raceway from 1978 to 1996 and as the Bristol International Speedway from 1961 to 1978) is a oval Oval track racing#Short track, short track in Bristol, Tennessee. The track ha ...

. The same

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...

racetrack hosted a game between

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

and

Virginia Tech The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, commonly referred to as Virginia Tech (VT), is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States ...

one week earlier. * November 19 – Joe Thomas Sr., a 55-year-old walk-on at South Carolina State, appeared for one play in the first quarter of the Bulldogs' season finale against Savannah State, rushing for 3 yards. Although the NCAA does not keep statistics on player ages, the father of

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They ar ...

linebacker Joe Thomas Jr. is believed to be the oldest player ever to take the field in a Division I game.

FCS team wins over FBS teams

(FCS rankings from the STATS poll) September 2: Albany 22, Buffalo 16
September 3: #14

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 ...

45,

Washington State Washington, officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is often referred to as Washington State to distinguish it from the national capital, both named after George Washington ...

42
September 3: #5 Northern Iowa 25, Iowa State 20
September 3: #4 Richmond 37,

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

20
September 10: Eastern Illinois 21, Miami (OH) 17
September 10: #10 Illinois State 9, Northwestern 7
September 10: #23 North Carolina A&T 39, Kent State 36 ^4OT
September 17: #1 North Dakota State 23, No. 13 ( FBS)

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

21 OTE: NDSU became just the 4th FCS team to beat an AP ranked FBS team, and afterward received 74 votes for the AP top-25 rankings (No. 27 overall), the most votes ever received by an FCS team
September 24:

Central Arkansas Central Arkansas, also known as the Little Rock metro, designated by the United States Office of Management and Budget as the Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway Metropolitan Statistical Area, is the most populous metro area in the U.S. state ...

28, Arkansas State 23
September 24: #13 Western Illinois 28, Northern Illinois 23

Conference changes and new programs

Conference standings

Conference summaries

Championship games

Other conference winners

Note: Records are regular-season only, and do not include playoff games.

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 ...

– Princeton *

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 ...

– North Carolina Central *

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 ...

– Grambling State

Postseason

Bowl game

NCAA Division I playoff bracket

* ''Home team''
Winner
All times in

Eastern Standard Time The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, and the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico. * Eastern Standard Time (EST) is five hours behind ...

( UTC−05:00)

Awards and honors

Walter Payton Award

*The Walter Payton Award is given to the year's most outstanding offensive player. Finalists: ** Jeremiah Briscoe (QB), Sam Houston State ** Gage Gubrud (QB),

** Cooper Kupp (WR), Eastern Washington

Buck Buchanan Award

*The Buck Buchanan Award is given to the year's most outstanding defensive player. Finalists: ** Dylan Cole (LB), Missouri State ** P. J. Hall (DE), Sam Houston State ** Karter Schult (DE), Northern Iowa

Jerry Rice Award

*The Jerry Rice Award is given to the year's most outstanding freshman. ** Winner: A. J. Hines (RB), Duquesne

Coaches

* AFCA Coach of the Year: Mike Houston, James Madison * Eddie Robinson Award: K. C. Keeler, Sam Houston State

Updated stadiums

* South Dakota State debuted Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium (capacity 19,340). *

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 ...

debuted a major renovation of the renamed

Wildcat Stadium Wildcat Stadium may refer to one of the following sports stadiums in the United States: :''Entries are listed alphabetically by state'' * Wildcat Stadium (Fort Valley, Georgia), home football field of Fort Valley State University * Wildcat Stadium ( ...

, expanded to just over 11,000 from the previous capacity of 6,500. * William & Mary also debuted a major renovation and expansion to its Zable Stadium, which the saw the addition of an upper deck and an increase in capacity to 12,259. * Prairie View A&M opened its new Panther Stadium (capacity 15,000).

Coaching changes

In-season

This is restricted to coaching changes that took place on or after May 1, 2016. For coaching changes that occurred earlier in 2016, see 2015 NCAA Division I FCS end-of-season coaching changes.

End of season

Rule changes

The following rule changes were recommended by the NCAA Football Rules Committee for the 2022 season: * When players are disqualified for a targeting call in the second half or in overtime (which requires a carryover penalty of sitting out the first half of the next scheduled game), an appeals process will be available to allow the National Coordinator of Officials (currently Steve Shaw) to review tapes of the targeting penalty for consideration of not requiring the player to sit out the first half of the following game. * Injury timeouts awarded due to "deceptive actions" during a game will also be able to reviewed by the National Coordinator of Officials to determine what sanctions, if any, against teams who use this tactic, enforced at the conference or school level. * Blocking below the waist will only be permitted inside the tackle box by linemen and stationary backs. Blocks below the waist outside of the tackle box are not allowed. * Defensive holding will remain a 10-yard penalty but will always carry an automatic first down. * Codifying the rule change made shortly after the 2021 ACC Championship Game, ball carriers who simulate a feet-first slide will be declared down at that spot. * Uniform rules would require the sock/leg covering to go from the shoe to the bottom of the pants, similar to the NFL rule.

References

{{NCAA football season navbox