List of NCAA Division I FCS football programs
This is a list of schools in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) that play football in the United States as a varsity sport and are members of the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), known as Division I-AA from 1978 through 2005. There will be 127 FCS programs in the upcoming 2020 season. Conference affiliations are current for the 2020 season. The teams in this subdivision compete in a 24-team playoff for the NCAA Division I Football Championship. All leagues allow scholarships with the exception of the Ivy League and Pioneer Football League.
FCS programs
- Florida A&M will move to the Southwestern Athletic Conference in 2021.
- Although the academic core of the Harvard campus, including the university administration, is located in Cambridge, the school's athletic complex, including the football stadium, is within the city limits of Boston.
- This is Idaho's second stint in the grouping now known as FCS; it had been a member of what was then known as Division I-AA from the group's creation in 1978 through 1995, after which it moved to the league then known as the Pacific Coast Athletic Association (now the Big West Conference). At that time, the PCAA sponsored FBS (then Division I-A) football.
- Effective in 2019–20, Long Island University merged its two athletic programs—the Division I non-football LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds and Division II football-sponsoring LIU Post Pioneers—into a single D-I athletic program under the Sharks name. The LIU Post football team became the new LIU football team, playing at its current home on the Post campus and joining the Northeast Conference. LIU was immediately eligible for the playoffs, as it was treated as a new football program of an existing D-I institution, but lost all its Division I games in the 2019 season and failed to qualify.
- First season of the LIU Post program that became the LIU program in 2019.
- North Carolina A&T will move to the Big South Conference in 2021.
- The 2019 season was North Dakota's last as a football independent, playing a full Big Sky Conference schedule to honor contractual commitments to its former league.
- Presbyterian began a transition to non-scholarship football in 2017. It left Big South Conference football after the 2019 season (though it remains a member in other sports), will play as an FCS independent in 2020, and then join the Pioneer Football League in 2021.
- Robert Morris is leaving the football-sponsoring Northeast Conference for the non-football Horizon League in July 2020. It will play the 2020 season as an FCS independent before joining Big South Conference football in 2021.
Transitioning from Division II
The following programs are transitioning from NCAA Division II to FCS. Under current NCAA rules, they must have an invitation from a Division I conference to begin the transition. During the four-year transition period, they are ineligible for the FCS playoffs.
| Team | School | City | State | Founded | First played | Conference | Full membership |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dixie State Trailblazers | Dixie State University | St. George | Utah | 1911 | 2006 | Independent | 2024[lower-alpha 1] |
| Merrimack Warriors | Merrimack College | North Andover | Massachusetts | 1947 | 1985 | Northeast | 2023[lower-alpha 2] |
| North Alabama Lions | University of North Alabama | Florence | Alabama | 1830 | 1912 | Big South | 2022[lower-alpha 3] |
| Tarleton State Texans | Tarleton State University | Stephenville | Texas | 1899 | 1961 | Independent | 2024[lower-alpha 1] |
- Dixie State and Tarleton State will start transitions from Division II to Division I in July 2020, with both joining the non-football Western Athletic Conference. Both schools will be FCS independents for the foreseeable future.
- Merrimack began a transition from Division II to Division I in 2019, joining the Northeast Conference as a full member, including football.
- North Alabama began a transition from Division II to Division I in 2018, joining the non-football ASUN Conference. The Lions joined Big South football under the terms of an agreement between the ASUN and Big South that guarantees a home in Big South football to any school in either conference that awards football scholarships.
Map
Cal Poly
E. Washington
Idaho
Idaho St.
Montana
Montana St.
N. Arizona
N. Colorado
Portland St.
Sac. St.
S. Utah
UC Davis
Weber St.
Campbell
Charleston S.
Gardner-Webb
Hampton
Kennesaw St.
Monmouth
UNA
Albany
Delaware
Elon
JMU
14
Maine
Merrimack
New Hampshire
Rhode Island
Richmond
2
9
Villanova
W&M
Brown
4
Cornell
Dartmouth
Harvard
Penn
8
Yale
Bethune-Cookman
Del. St.
FAMU
Howard
Morgan St.
Norfolk St.
NC A&T
NCCU
SCS
Illinois St.
Indiana St.
Missouri St.
N. Dakota
ND St.
N. Iowa
South Dakota
SD St.
S. Illinois
W. Illinois
Youngstown St.
Bryant
12
11
1
10
5
Peay
E. Illinois
EKU
JSU
Murray St.
SE Missouri St.
TSU
Tenn. Tech
UTM
Bucknell
Colgate
3
Georgetown
13
6
7
Butler
Davidson
Dayton
Drake
Marist
Morehead St.
San Diego
Stetson
Valparaiso
Chattanooga
Citadel
ETSU
Furman
Mercer
Samford
VMI
W. Carolina
Wofford
ACU
C. Arkansas
HBU
Incarnate Word
Lamar
McNeese St.
Nicholls
NSU
Sam Houston
SE Louisiana
SFAU
AAMU
Alabama St.
Alcorn St.
UAPB
Grambling St.
Jackson St.
MVSU
PVAMU
Southern
Texas S.
Dixie St.
Presbyterian
Tarleton
RMU
All FCS programs during the 2020 season. Conferences (clockwise from Northeast): purple pog: NEC, cyan pog: CAA, green pog: Ivy League, red marker: Pioneer League, red pog: Big South, orange marker: Patriot League, orange pog: MEAC, magenta marker: Southern Conference, light green marker: SWAC, dark green marker: Ohio Valley, blue marker: Southland, brown pog: Big Sky, yellow pog: Missouri Valley, white pog: Independent. Labels: 1: Sacred Heart, 2: Stony Brook, 3: Fordham, 4: Columbia, 5: Wagner, 6: Lafayette, 7: Lehigh, 8: Princeton, 9: Towson, 10: Saint Francis, 11: Duquesne, 12: Central Connecticut State, 13: Holy Cross, 14: LIU.
Notes
See also
- List of NCAA Division I FCS football stadiums
- List of NCAA Division I non-football programs
- List of NCAA Division I institutions
- List of NCAA Division II institutions
- List of NCAA Division III institutions
- List of NCAA Division I FBS football programs
- List of NCAA Division II football programs
- List of NCAA Division III football programs
- List of NAIA football programs
- List of community college football programs
- List of NCAA Institutions with club football teams
- List of NCAA Division I schools that have never sponsored football
- List of defunct college football teams
References
External links
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