The 2024 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 regular season began on August 24 and ended in November. The postseason began in November and, aside from any scheduled all-star games, ended on January 6, 2025 with the

2025 NCAA Division I Football Championship Game The 2025 NCAA Division I Football Championship Game was a college football game played on January 6, 2025, at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas. The game determined the national champion of NCAA Division I FCS for the 2024 season, and featured t ...

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 ...

. Due to the structure of the calendar in 2024, FCS teams were allowed to play 12 regular-season games instead of the normal 11.

Notable headlines

* April 19 - The NCAA approved numerous technology rules such as teams having the option of using tablets to view in-game video for the 2024 season. ** Numerous conferences such as the

Missouri Valley Football Conference The Missouri Valley Football Conference (MVFC), formerly the Gateway Football Conference, is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. It participates in the National Collegiate A ...

(MVFC),

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 ...

United Athletic Conference The United Athletic Conference (UAC), also known as The United, is an NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) intercollegiate athletic conference. The conference is a merger of the existing football leagues of the Atlantic Sun Con ...

Patriot League The Patriot League is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference comprising primarily leading Private university, private institutions of higher education and two United States service academies based in the Northeastern United ...

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 ...

and the Mid Eastern Athletic Conference partnered with a company calle
GameStrat
for their teams to utilize in-game video technology. ** 7 out of the final 8 playoff teams leveraged GameStrat's in-game video technology. * April 25 – The NCAA approved an increase in the number of seeded teams in the FCS playoff bracket from 8 to 16, effective for the 2024 season. The number of qualifying teams and the bracket format will remain otherwise unchanged. * May 29 – Stephen F. Austin announced it would leave the

(UAC) on July 1 to rejoin the

Southland Conference The Southland Conference (SLC) is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the South Central United States (specifically Texas and Louisiana). It participates in the NCAA's Division I for all sports; for football, it participates in ...

(SLC) after a three-year absence. * October 9: ** The NCAA Division I Council approved the recommended reduction of the FBS and FCS

transfer portal The NCAA transfer portal is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) application, database, and compliance tool created to manage and facilitate the process for student athletes seeking to transfer between member institutions. It is in ...

to 30 days, though with a different schedule than recommended. The fall window, which opens on the Monday after the FBS conference championship games, will be open only for 20 days. A 10-day spring portal will open in mid-April. ** The Council also abolished the

National Letter of Intent The National Letter of Intent (NLI) is a document used to indicate a student athlete's commitment to participating in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) colleges and universities in the United States. The NCAA Eligibility Center manag ...

program effective immediately. Written offers of athletics aid will replace the NLI. ** The Council introduced a proposal that would shorten the transition periods for schools wishing to reclassify from Division II or Division III to Division I. The Council would approve this proposal at its January 2025 meeting, thereby reducing the transition periods for D-II and D-III schools by a year, respectively to three and four years. * November 7 – Texas A&M University–Commerce announced a name change to East Texas A&M University, effective immediately. * December 18 - The

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 ...

announced starting in the 2025 season, the league champion will participate in the NCAA Division I Championship.

Conference changes and new programs

Conference standings

Playoff qualifiers

Automatic berths for conference champions

At-large qualifiers

Abstentions

–

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

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 *

– Jackson State

Postseason

The FCS again features a 24-team postseason bracket: 10 teams decided via automatic bids issued to conference champions, and 14

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 ...

(see above). Where previously the top eight teams were seeded, the top 16 teams were seeded this year, a change from the 2023 season.

Bowl game

NCAA Division I playoff bracket

Hosted despite being the unseeded team (Illinois State unable to host due to facilities conflicts) :Source:

Rankings

The top 25 from the Stats Perform and AFCA Coaches Polls.

Pre-season polls

STATS source:
AFCA source:

Final rankings

Kickoff games

The regular season began on Saturday, August 24 with four games in Week 0: *

FCS Kickoff The FCS Kickoff is an annual college football game played on the Saturday before the opening weekend of the college football season. The game showcases teams from the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). For the game's first t ...

(

Cramton Bowl Cramton Bowl is a 21,000-seat stadium located in Montgomery, Alabama. Cramton Bowl opened in 1922 as a Baseball park, baseball stadium and has been home to Major League Baseball spring training and to minor league baseball. Today, however, its pr ...

Montgomery, Alabama Montgomery is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama. Named for Continental Army major general Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River on the Gulf Coastal Plain. The population was 2 ...

): Southeast Missouri State 37,

North Alabama North Alabama is a region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Several geographic definitions for the area exist, with all descriptions including the nine counties of Alabama's Tennessee Valley region. The North Alabama Industrial Development Associ ...

15 *

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

35,

Delaware State Delaware State University (DSU or Del State) is a privately governed, state-assisted historically black land-grant research university in Dover, Delaware. DSU also has two satellite campuses: one in Wilmington and one in Georgetown. The un ...

14 * No. 4

Montana State Montana State University (MSU) is a public land-grant research university in Bozeman, Montana, United States. It enrolls more students than any other college or university in the state. MSU offers baccalaureate degrees in 60 fields, master's d ...

35,

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

31 * MEAC/SWAC Challenge (

Center Parc Stadium Center Parc Stadium (also commonly referred to as Georgia State University or GSU Stadium) is an outdoor stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. The stadium is the home of the Georgia State Panthers football team as of the 2017 season, replacing the Geor ...

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 ...

): Florida A&M 24, Norfolk State 23

Regular season top 10 matchups

Rankings reflect the Stats Perform Poll. *Week 6 **No. 2

North Dakota State North Dakota State University (NDSU, formally North Dakota State University of Agriculture and Applied Sciences) is a public land-grant research university in Fargo, North Dakota, United States. It was founded as North Dakota Agricultural Colle ...

defeated No. 7

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 ...

, 41–17 (

Fargodome Fargodome is an indoor athletic stadium and convention center in the West North Central states, north central United States, located on the campus of North Dakota State University (NDSU) in Fargo, North Dakota. It opened in 1992 and is owned and ...

Fargo, North Dakota Fargo is the List of cities in North Dakota, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Dakota and the county seat of Cass County, North Dakota, Cass County. The population was 125,990 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, which was e ...

) *Week 7 ** No. 3

defeated No. 7

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), ...

, 38–7 ( Bobcat Stadium,

Bozeman, Montana Bozeman ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Gallatin County, Montana, United States. The 2020 United States census put Bozeman's population at 53,293, making it Montana's fourth-largest city. It is the principal city of the Bozeman, Montan ...

) *Week 8 ** No. 2 North Dakota State defeated No. 1

South Dakota State South Dakota State University (SDSU or SD State) is a public land-grant research university in Brookings, South Dakota, United States. Founded in 1881, it is the state's largest university and is the second oldest continually operating universit ...

, 13–9 (

Dakota Marker The Dakota Marker is the trophy awarded to the winner of the annual football game played between the rival Division I Championship Subdivision North Dakota State University Bison and the South Dakota State University Jackrabbits. Both schools ...

– Fargodome, Fargo, North Dakota) *Week 9 ** No. 3 South Dakota State defeated No. 4

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 ...

, 20–17^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 11 ** No. 4

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 ...

defeated No. 7

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 ...

, 30–14 (

Washington–Grizzly Stadium Washington–Grizzly Stadium is an outdoor college football stadium in the western United States, located on the campus of the University of Montana in Missoula, Montana. Opened in 1986, it is home to the Montana Grizzlies, a member of the Big ...

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 ...

) *Week 12 ** No. 2 Montana State defeated No. 4 UC Davis, 30–28 (

UC Davis Health Stadium UC Davis Health Stadium is a 10,743-seat multi-purpose stadium located on the campus of the University of California, Davis in unincorporated Yolo County, California. Opened as Aggie Stadium on April 1, 2007, it replaced Toomey Field and is th ...

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 13 ** No. 4 South Dakota defeated No. 1 North Dakota State, 29–28 (

DakotaDome The DakotaDome is an indoor multi-purpose stadium in the north central United States, located on the campus of the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, South Dakota. Opened in 1979 at a cost of $8.2 million, the 9,100-seat venue is ...

Vermillion, South Dakota Vermillion (; "The Place Where Vermilion is Obtained") is a city and the county seat of Clay County. It is in the southeastern corner of South Dakota, United States, and is the state's 12th-most populous city. According to the 2020 census, the ...

) ** No. 2 Montana State defeated No. 9 Montana, 34–11 ( Brawl of the Wild – Bobcat Stadium, Bozeman, Montana)

Upsets

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

Regular season

During the regular season, thirty-four unranked teams defeated ranked teams. * September 7, 2024 ** Wofford 26, No. 14

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

19 ** Charleston Southern 24, No. 15 Furman 20 ** Campbell 24, No. 17 Western Carolina 16 * September 14, 2024 ** Lamar 17, No. 20 Weber State 16 **

Duquesne __NOTOC__ Duquesne or Duchesne ( , ; old spelling Du Quesne, American spelling DuQuesne) is a family name derived from a northern dialectal form of French (Norman and Picard) meaning ''du chêne'' in French ("of the oak"). The anglicization of t ...

28, No. 21 Youngstown State 25 ** Western Carolina 24, No. 22 Elon 17 * September 21, 2024 ** Columbia 31, No. 18 Lafayette 20 * September 28, 2024 **

Northern Arizona Northern Arizona is an unofficial, colloquially defined region of the U.S. state of Arizona. Generally consisting of Apache, Coconino, Mohave, Navajo, and Yavapai counties, the region is geographically dominated by the Colorado Plateau, the ...

34, No. 10 Sacramento State 16 **

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 ...

34, No. 21 Albany 20 ** McNeese 28, No. 25 Weber State 26 * October 4, 2024 **

28, No. 21

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 ...

23 * October 5, 2024 ** Weber State, 55, No. 8

48^OT **

Towson Towson () is an Unincorporated area, unincorporated community and a census-designated place in Baltimore County, Maryland, Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. The population was 59,533 in the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is t ...

34, No. 12 William & Mary 27 ** Houston Christian 43, No. 22 McNeese 22 **

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 ...

17, No. 23 East Tennessee State 10 * October 12, 2024 **

47, No. 10 Abilene Christian 34 ** Missouri State 41, No. 16 Illinois State 7 **

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 ...

35, No. 18 Sacramento State 28 **

Northern Colorado Northern Colorado is the name for a region in the state of Colorado and a proposed state in the northeastern portion of Colorado. Region Northern Colorado is a region in the northern portion of Colorado. It borders northwestern Colorado, nort ...

21, No. 20 Weber State 17 ** Stephen F. Austin 27, No. 22 Lamar 20 * October 19, 2024 ** Maine 35, No. 5 Villanova 7 ** Samford 55, No. 7

Mercer Mercer may refer to: Business * Mercer (automobile), a defunct American automobile manufacturer (1909–1925) * Mercer (consulting firm), a human resources consulting firm headquartered in New York City, US * Mercer (occupation), a merchant or tra ...

35 ** Jackson State 35, No. 25т Florida A&M 21 * October 26, 2024 ** Youngstown State 41, No. 7

40^OT ** Stony Brook 35, No. 16 William & Mary 13 * October 31, 2024 ** South Carolina State 24, No. 19 North Carolina Central 21 * November 2, 2024 ** Utah Tech 34, No. 11

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 ...

21 **

Eastern Kentucky Eastern or Easterns may refer to: Transportation Airlines *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai * Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways *Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 192 ...

17, No. 13 Tarleton State 13 ** Indiana State 35, No. 15 North Dakota 31 ** Western Carolina 38, No. 18 Chattanooga 34 ** Harvard 31, No. 22 Dartmouth 27 ** UT Martin 28, No. 25 Tennessee State 21 * November 9, 2024 ** Lindenwood 24, No. 6 Southeast Missouri State 12 **

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 ...

24, No. 11

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 ...

21 ** Eastern Kentucky 31, No. 16 Central Arkansas 24 ** Elon 40, No. 20 William & Mary 36 ** East Tennessee State 24, No. 22 Western Carolina 21 * November 16, 2024 **

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 ...

40, No. 9 Villanova 33 ** New Hampshire 31, No. 16 Stony Brook 30 **

Tennessee Tech Tennessee Technological University (commonly referred to as Tennessee Tech) is a public research university in Cookeville, Tennessee. It was formerly known as Tennessee Polytechnic Institute, and before that as University of Dixie, the name unde ...

10, No. 18 UT Martin 9 ** Samford 36, No. 19 Chattanooga 13 ** Furman 24, No. 21 East Tennessee State 21 **

Southern Utah Dixie is a nickname for the populated, lower-elevation area of south-central Washington County, the southwest corner of the State of Utah, bordering nearby Arizona to the south, and Nevada to the west. The area lies in the northeastern Mojave ...

38, No. 24 Central Arkansas 31 * November 23, 2024 ** Stephen F. Austin 32, No. 11 Abilene Christian 19 ** Tennessee State 28, No. 12 Southeast Missouri State 21 **

Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...

34, No. 17 Harvard 29 ** Monmouth 55, No. 18 Stony Brook 47 ** Central Connecticut 21, No. 19 Duquesne 14

Postseason

FCS team wins over FBS teams

*August 24: ** No. 4

35,

31 *September 7: ** Saint Francis (PA) 23,

Kent State Kent State University (KSU) is a public research university in Kent, Ohio, United States. The university includes seven regional campuses in Northeast Ohio located in Ashtabula, Burton, East Liverpool, Jackson Township, New Philadelphia, ...

17 ** No. 7

17,

Wyoming Wyoming ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States, Western United States. It borders Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho t ...

13 **

27,

UTEP The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a public research university in El Paso, Texas, United States. Founded in 1913 as the State School of Mines and Metallurgy, it is the third oldest academic component of the University of Texas Syste ...

24^OT *September 21: **

45,

FIU Florida International University (FIU) is a public research university with its main campus in Westchester, Florida, United States. Founded in 1965 by the Florida Legislature, the school opened to students in 1972. FIU is the third-largest uni ...

42 *September 28: ** UT Martin 24, Kennesaw State 13

Coaching changes

Preseason and in-season

This is restricted to coaching changes that took place on or after May 1, 2024, and will include any changes announced after a team's last regularly scheduled games but before its playoff games. For coaching changes that occurred earlier in 2024, see 2023 NCAA Division I FCS end-of-season coaching changes.

End of season

This list includes coaching changes announced during the season that did not take effect until the end of the season.

References

{{NCAA football season navbox

Notable headlines

Conference changes and new programs

Conference standings

Playoff qualifiers

Automatic berths for conference champions

At-large qualifiers

Abstentions

Postseason

Bowl game

NCAA Division I playoff bracket

Rankings

Pre-season polls

Final rankings

Kickoff games

Regular season top 10 matchups

Upsets

Regular season

Postseason

FCS team wins over FBS teams

Coaching changes

Preseason and in-season

End of season

See also

References