r/fcs

Fresh off an incredible FCS Title run in 2025, the Illinois State Redbirds look to stay among the Missouri Valley elite under Brock Spack, who may have the greatest mustache in the game.

How will they follow up on last year’s phenomenal season?

Below is a quick snapshot, full preview is attached

2026 at a glance:

📌 Strong returning core even after losing stars Tommy Rittenhouse & Daniel Sobkowicz

📌 Elite LB Tye Niekamp (FCS All-American, Buck Buchanan favorite) leads the defense

📌 Workhorse RB Victor Dawson + FCS Title Game star WR Dylan Lord

📌 QB battle: USC transfer Gage Roy vs. Beckham Pellant

📌 Schedule features in-state battles vs Northern Illinois, Eastern Illinois & Western Illinois, plus MVFC grind including home games vs South Dakota State & South Dakota. Road tests at North Dakota & Youngstown State

Can the Redbirds use last year’s momentum + returning leaders to make another deep playoff run?

Let's hear your hot take FCS opinions. The ones you know in your heart of hearts are right, but for some reason aren't embraced by the FCS community (or particular fanbases) en masse!

Could be controversial (the Ivy League very well might be the best FCS conference on the East Coast), unpopular but you know is true (Sam Houston was at least as good a team as JMU from 2011 through the "2020" season), or even somewhat popular but still liable to rankle some folks (the Walter Payton award should go to the "best" offensive player, not just the offensive player with the best stat line because they played a weak schedule).

Sorted by controversial for maximum spiciness

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Rules

• Keep it somewhat relevant to the FCS

• Takes are welcome whether they're looking back historically or in reference to current games/rankings/polls/etc.

• Try to keep it civil (basic /r/CFB and /r/FCS rules still apply)

No matter what happened, it's not all bad. Say something nice about your team or their performance.

1. Montana State

2. Illinois State

3. South Dakota State

4. Montana

5. Youngstown State

6. Tarleton State

7. North Dakota

8. SFA

9. Rhode Island

10. UC Davis

11. Tennessee Tech

12. South Dakota

13. Mercer

14. Villanova

15. Southeastern

16. Abilene Christian

17. Lehigh

18. UT Martin

19. New Hampshire

20. Lamar

21. ETSU

22. Yale

23. South Carolina State

24. Southern Illinois

25. Delaware State?

George Washington University Football?

Yes, GWU did have a football team. I was as surprised as you. The Revolutionaries were formerly the "Hatchetites" before becoming the "Colonials" and they existed from 1881 to 1966. Below are a few brief facts I learned while going down this rabbit hole, which I thought I'd share since I always thought it would be cool if Washington D.C. was properly represented in College Football.

🝙🝙🝙HISTORY🝙🝙🝙

1930s and 1950s they regularly played top-level competition. The team's home field in the final 6 seasons was the District of Columbia Stadium. Two notable years include 1932 and 1956.

In 1932 they played several notables games including, a victory over Iowa, 21–6, a 7-7 tie against Oklahoma, 7–7, and then a loss against Alabama 28–6.

1956 was their most successful and memorable season. GW made and won their only ever Bowl Game in 1956: The Sun Bowl. The 17th-ranked Colonials took on the 9–1 Texas Western aka UTEP. The Colonials shut out UTEP 13–0, on New Year's Day to finish their most successful season with an 8–1 record. GW ended the season 8–1–1. the lone defeat came against WVU

In 1967, the board of trustees sadly voted to end the football program. GW decided to use the football program's funding to build a new field house for the basketball team. Poor game attendance and the expense of the program contributed to the decision. A former GW player, Harry Ledford, believed that most people were unwilling to commute into Washington, D.C., which did not have metrorail at the time, on Friday nights to D.C. Stadium (later RFK), was perceived as an unsafe area. Additionally, Maryland and Virginia were nationally competitive teams that drew potential suburban spectators away from GW.

All-Time Record: 217–252–37 (.465) and 1-0 in bowl games.

🝙🝙🝙CONFERENCE🝙🝙🝙

GW was part of the "Southern Conference" from 1941 to 1966. GW joined when most of the SEC teams left to join the SEC, but the Southern Conference still included Clemson, UNC, NC State, Maryland, Washington and Lee, Virginia Tech, South Carolina, WMI, Duke, Wake Forest, Furman, Richmond, W&M, Citadel, Davidson. This existed for some time until many of the members joined the new ACC. However, GW remained in the conference, which saw West Virginia and ECU join.

GW is now part of the Atlantic-10 for Basketball. The A-10 stopped sponsoring football in 2006. The A-10 members/affiliates playing basketball in the conference, are now in other conferences for football:

UMass (MAC as a full member in 2025)

Duquesne (Northeast, FCS)

Davidson (Pioneer Football League, FCS)

Dayton (Pioneer Football League, FCS)

Fordham University (Patriot League, FCS)

Rhode Island (Coastal Athletic Association, FCS)

Richmond (Coastal Athletic Association, FCS)

🝙🝙🝙BEST FORMER PLAYERS/COACHES🝙🝙🝙

- QB: Andy Davis. 1948 to 1951 recorded 3,587 passing yards and 1,416 rushing yards.

- QB/RB: Garry Lyle 1964 - 1966.... starting as tailback but switching to QB....one of the first African Americans to play QB at a mostly white school... After injury, he continued as placekicker. All Conference Player....went on to play safety in NFL for the Bears... after being a 3rd round pick.... played for seven years. was GW's last NFL draftee.

- RB: Alphonse "Tuffy" Leemans. 1933 to 1935, set school records with 1,054 single-season rushing yards, 2,382 career rushing yards, 207 single-season carries, and 490 career carries. After college, he became a two-time All-NFL player for the New York Giants and was eventually inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame

- C: Steve Korcheck was named 1953 Southern Conference Player of the Year

- HC Eugene "Bo" Sherman was named Southern Conference Coach of the Year in 1953

-RB: Dick Drummond 1961 - 1963, rushed for 1,814 yards and was 2x All-Southern Conference.

The highly regarded Indiana signal caller led the state in passing yards and committed to the Mountain Hawks on May 4, choosing them over offers from Miami (OH), Illinois State, and Butler.

6’4 300 lb defensive lineman Seven Cloud announced his commitment to Tarleton today.

Cloud previously was committed to Georgia.

It's officially preview season! We will be doing multiple individual team previews weekly from now until the season begins!

Let's hear your hot take FCS opinions. The ones you know in your heart of hearts are right, but for some reason aren't embraced by the FCS community (or particular fanbases) en masse!

Could be controversial (the Ivy League very well might be the best FCS conference on the East Coast), unpopular but you know is true (Sam Houston was at least as good a team as JMU from 2011 through the "2020" season), or even somewhat popular but still liable to rankle some folks (the Walter Payton award should go to the "best" offensive player, not just the offensive player with the best stat line because they played a weak schedule).

Sorted by controversial for maximum spiciness

---

Rules

• Keep it somewhat relevant to the FCS

• Takes are welcome whether they're looking back historically or in reference to current games/rankings/polls/etc.

• Try to keep it civil (basic /r/CFB and /r/FCS rules still apply)

If there's anything you want to talk about, celebrate, complain about, etc., go for it. Doesn't need to be FCS specific.

Note: Basic rules still apply

Interesting article that indicates that the private equity group that tried pitching taking the FCS playoffs out of the hands of the NCAA is still actively pursuing those goals.

My thoughts here:

1. There is probably some truth to the idea that the FCS playoffs are under-monetized. There is plenty of television inventory in December to get eyeballs on your product.

2. The idea that they would produce a playoff placed in the hands of the conferences, similar to the CFP is a complete non-starter to me. That’s a slippery slope to an FCS version of the CFP with the MVFC and the Big Sky playing the roles of the SEC and the Big Ten.

3. It mentioned that Sequence Equity (who is pitching the idea) is talking to conferences about deals and I really want to know which ones are listening.

The Sumner HS offensive lineman committed to the reigning FCS national champions after taking his official visit to Bozeman over the weekend.

I hope this is alright to post here, I just thought there would be some shared interest and that users here might be a great asset...

I help run Project FCS, working to bring accurate representations of all FCS teams to EA's College Football games via their Team Builder site. Last year (the first year of the project) we nearly hit 50% of teams created, but expect the project to grow going into its 2nd year.

We are, of course, always looking for other creators to build teams on the Team Builder site, but we are also looking for great FCS Football minds who can help provide detailed information to help creators make teams as accurate as possible, this might be helping figure out depth charts, suggesting playbooks to match the team's on-field play calling, and whatever else they can provide.

You can check out more detailed information at r/ProjectFCS or the Project FCS Discord

No matter what happened, it's not all bad. Say something nice about your team or their performance.

The C.E. King HS defensive back committed to the Bobcats while he was in Bozeman over the weekend for his official visit.