The 2025 NCAA Division I FCS football season, part of college football in the United States, was organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) level. The regular season began on August 23 and ended in November, with the exception of the SWAC Football Championship Game in early December. The postseason began on November 29 and ended on January 5, 2026, with the 2026 NCAA Division I Football Championship Game at FirstBank Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee.
Due to the structure of the calendar in 2025, FCS teams were allowed to play 12 regular-season games instead of the usual 11. This was the last season before the permanent expansion to a 12-game regular season (see "Notable headlines" below).
Conference changes and new programs Two schools played their first FCS seasons in 2025—one transitioning from NCAA Division II, and the other playing its first season of varsity football. One other school changed conferences within FCS after the 2024 season. Two others left FCS for the Football Bowl Subdivision.
School 2024 conference 2025 conference Delaware CAA Football CUSA (FBS) Missouri State MVFC CUSA (FBS) New Haven NE-10 (D-II) NEC Richmond CAA Football Patriot UTRGV New program Southland
Notable headlines December 12, 2024 – The Ivy League announced that starting with the 2025 football season; the Ivy League champion would compete in the FCS playoffs. This marked the first time that conference participated in postseason play since the 1945 signing of the Ivy Group Agreement, which initially governed football competition between Ivy schools but was extended to cover all sports in 1954. March 25, 2025 – Saint Francis announced that it would reclassify to NCAA Division III starting in 2026–27, when it will leave the Northeast Conference for the Presidents' Athletic Conference. April 25 – William & Mary announced that its football program would leave CAA Football for associate membership in the Patriot League starting in the 2026 season. W&M's non-football sports will remain in the multi-sports CAA, which is a separate entity from CAA Football. May 5 – The Missouri Valley Football Conference (MVFC) announced a new governance structure that formalized the decades-long informal ties between it and the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC), and created a formal relationship between the MVFC and the non-football Summit League. MVC commissioner Jeff Jackson replaced founding MVFC commissioner Patty Viverito following her June 30 retirement, and Summit commissioner Josh Fenton filled the new position of executive advisor at that time. Administrative operations are shared by the MVC and Summit, which were home to all but one of the MVFC's 10 members in the 2025 season. May 6 – New Haven announced that it accepted an invite to join the Northeast Conference effective July 1, 2025, and begin reclassification from NCAA Division II to be eligible for postseason play in 2028–29. June 5 – Villanova announced it would leave CAA Football after the 2025 season for the Patriot League, while otherwise remaining a member of the non-football Big East Conference. June 23 – The NCAA Division I Board of Directors announced that St. Thomas had met all the requirements to be fully instated as a Division I university starting with the 2025–26 academic year. The Tommies will now be eligible for all NCAA postseason tournaments, including the FCS playoffs. June 25 – The Big Sky Conference announced that Southern Utah and Utah Tech, Western Athletic Conference (WAC) members that play football in the United Athletic Conference (UAC), would join the Big Sky in 2026. June 26: The Division I Council approved the following measures, to take effect with the 2026 season, which the NCAA's FCS Oversight Committee had recommended on May 6: Permanent expansion of the FCS regular season from 11 to 12 games. Standardization of the regular season starting date as the Thursday 13 weeks before the FCS playoff bracket is released on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. (The normal start of the FCS regular season had been the Thursday preceding Labor Day.) Elimination of rule exceptions allowing contests that meet legislated criteria to be played as early as the second Saturday before Labor Day. Instead, all FCS teams will be able to play during what the Football Bowl Subdivision calls Week 0. The Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN) and WAC announced that their football alliance, the UAC, would become an all-sports conference in 2026. At that time, the WAC will rebrand as the UAC, with its membership including all seven remaining UAC members with scholarship FCS programs plus non-football UT Arlington (the conference would later add another non-football school, Little Rock). The ASUN membership going forward will consist of five non-football schools, Pioneer Football League member Stetson, and Bellarmine, which plays the non-NCAA variant of sprint football. July 22 — CAA Football announced that Sacred Heart would join the conference in 2026, ending the Pioneers' two-year stint as an FCS independent. Sacred Heart will remain a member of the non-football Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. August 13 – The Southern Conference announced that Tennessee Tech would join from the Ohio Valley Conference and the OVC–Big South Football Association in 2026. October 2 – The Northeast Conference adopted its longstanding abbreviation of NEC as its official name. October 8: The Division I Administrative Committee, which officially renamed itself the Division I Cabinet at its scheduled meeting, introduced a proposal to expand allowed logos on student-athletes' uniforms and equipment beyond those of the manufacturer. It also approved changes to the football transfer portal previously recommended by the FBS and FCS Oversight Committees: A single transfer window will run from January 2–16. This only affects entry into the portal; a player who enters the portal may transfer outside the window. The window for players undergoing a head coaching change was modified. The window for these players will open five calendar days after the hiring or public announcement of a new head coach, and run for 15 days. Should a school not hire or announce a new head coach after 30 days from the previous coach's departure, a separate 15-day window will open on the 31st day, provided that the 31st day is on or after January 3. The opportunity for such a window will exist through June 30. October 18 – Shortly before its homecoming game against Marist, Morehead State officially renamed its home of Jayne Stadium to Phil Simms Stadium. December 18 – Chicago State announced that it would play its first season of FCS football in 2026, initially as an independent before joining NEC football in 2027.
Kickoff games The regular season began on Saturday, August 23 in Week 0:
Regular season top 10 matchups
Upsets
This section lists unranked teams defeating STATS poll-ranked teams during the season. Regular season
Postseason upsets This section lists unseeded teams defeating seeded teams during the playoffs. Seed rankings appears in parentheses.
FCS team wins over FBS teams Italics denotes FBS teams.
Non-DI team wins over FCS teams Italics denotes non-DI teams.
Conference standings
Playoff qualifiers Automatic berths for conference champions
ConferenceTeam RecordAppearanceLast bidResult of last appearance Big Sky Conference Montana State 10–2 15th 2024 Lost to North Dakota State in National Championship CAA Football Rhode Island 10–2 5th 2024 Lost to Mercer in the second round Ivy League Yale 8–2 1st – – Missouri Valley Football Conference North Dakota State 12–0 16th 2024 Won National Championship against Montana State Northeast Conference Central Connecticut 8–4 4th 2024 Lost to Rhode Island in the first round OVC–Big South Tennessee Tech 11–1 2nd 2011 Lost to Central Arkansas in the first round Patriot League Lehigh 12–0 13th 2024 Lost to Idaho in the second round Pioneer Football League Drake 8–3 3rd 2024 Lost to Tarleton State in the first round Southern Conference Mercer 9–2 3rd 2024 Lost to North Dakota State in quarterfinal Southland Conference Stephen F. Austin 10–2 9th 2021 Lost to Incarnate Word in first round United Athletic Conference Abilene Christian 8–4 2nd 2024 Lost to North Dakota State in second round
At-large qualifiers
ConferenceTeam RecordAppearanceLast bidResult of last appearanceBig Sky ConferenceUC Davis8–34th2024Lost to South Dakota in the quarterfinalsMontana11–130th2024Lost to South Dakota State in second roundCAA FootballNew Hampshire8–419th2024Lost to UT Martin in first roundVillanova9–217th2024Lost to Incarnate Word in second roundIvy LeagueHarvard9–11st––Missouri Valley Football ConferenceIllinois State8–410th2024Lost to UC Davis in second roundNorth Dakota7–56th2023Lost to Sacramento State in first roundSouth Dakota8–45th2024Lost to Montana State in semifinalsSouth Dakota State8–415th2024Lost to North Dakota State in semifinalsYoungstown State8–414th2023Lost to Villanova in second roundSouthland ConferenceLamar8–42nd2018Lost to Northern Iowa in first roundSoutheastern Louisiana9–36th2022Lost to Samford in second roundUnited Athletic ConferenceTarleton State11–12nd2024Lost to South Dakota in second round
Abstentions Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference – South Carolina State Southwestern Athletic Conference – Prairie View A&M and Jackson State
Postseason NCAA Division I playoff bracket
Rankings
The top 25 from both the AFCA Coaches and STATS Perform polls.
Preseason polls AFCA CoachesTeam 1 North Dakota State (26) 650 2 Montana State 612 3 South Dakota State 581 4 Incarnate Word 541 5 South Dakota 521 6 Illinois State 466 7 UC Davis 456 8 Tarleton State 454 9 Montana 447 10 Rhode Island 416 11 Mercer 396 12 Idaho 371 13 Villanova 338 14 Sacramento State 265 15 Lehigh 207 16 Abilene Christian 203 17 Jackson State 200 18 Northern Arizona 168 19 Western Carolina 147 20 Southern Illinois 132 21 Monmouth 116 22т Richmond 111 Tennessee Tech 24 Stephen F. Austin 82 25 Stony Brook 69 Source: STATS PerformTeam 1 North Dakota State (54) 1,398 2 Montana State (1) 1,335 3 South Dakota State 1,266 4 South Dakota (1) 1,227 5 Incarnate Word 1,138 6 Illinois State 1,015 7 Montana 1,004 8 UC Davis 938 9 Rhode Island 928 10 Tarleton State 912 11 Mercer 824 12 Idaho 747 13 Villanova 737 14 Lehigh 493 15 Sacramento State 492 16 Abilene Christian 436 17 Jackson State 336 18 Western Carolina 335 19 Northern Arizona 312 20 Southern Illinois 310 21 Tennessee Tech 284 22 Monmouth 274 23 Stephen F. Austin 183 24 Stony Brook 181 25 Richmond 154 Source: Final rankings AFCA CoachesTeam 1 Montana State (21) 525 2 Illinois State 504 3 Montana 472 4 Villanova 427 5 North Dakota State 426 6 Tarleton State 419 7 Stephen F. Austin 369 8 UC Davis 359 9 Lehigh 358 10 Rhode Island 304 11 South Dakota 295 12 Abilene Christian 257 13 Yale 235 14 South Dakota State 209 15 Tennessee Tech 206 16 North Dakota 192 17 Youngstown State 190 18 Mercer 186 19 Southeastern Louisiana 172 20 Monmouth 112 21 Lamar 105 22 Jackson State 103 23 Harvard 78 24 West Georgia 68 25 South Carolina State 59 Source: STATS PerformTeam 1 Montana State (56) 1,400 2 Illinois State 1,327 3 Montana 1,271 4т North Dakota State 1,181 Villanova 6 Tarleton State 1,112 7 Stephen F. Austin 992 8 UC Davis 985 9 South Dakota 947 10 Lehigh 902 11 Rhode Island 816 12 Abilene Christian 711 13 South Dakota State 686 14 North Dakota 633 15 Yale 628 16 Tennessee Tech 607 17 Mercer 584 18 Youngstown State 433 19 Southeastern Louisiana 358 20 Harvard 242 21 South Carolina State 206 22 Monmouth 187 23 New Hampshire 165 24 Lamar 159 25 Southern Illinois 147 Source:
Coaching changes Preseason and in-season