2023 NCAA Division I FCS football season

The 2023 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 26 and ended in November. The postseason began in November and ended on January 7, 2024, with the 2024 NCAA Division I Football Championship Game at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas. South Dakota State repeated as champions, defeating Montana, 23–3.

Notable headlines

• October 4 – The NCAA announced several major changes to Division I football recruiting and governance rules:
  • The window for athletes to enter the transfer portal was reduced. For FCS players, the portal now opens on the Monday after the selection of the playoff field, and stays open for 30 days. For players participating in the FCS playoffs or the Celebration Bowl, there will be an additional 5-day window after the players' final game.
  • The limit on "initial counters"—i.e., players who are receiving athletically-related financial aid for the first time—was permanently eliminated. The previous FCS limit of 30 had been suspended due to COVID-19 impacts.
  • The application fee for transitioning from FCS to FBS increased from $5,000 to $5 million, effective immediately.
• October 12 – Northwestern State junior safety Ronnie Caldwell died after being shot multiple times near the school's Natchitoches, Louisiana campus. Two weeks after the shooting, Northwestern State canceled the remainder of its season, and head coach Brad Laird resigned.

FCS team wins over FBS teams

September 9: Southern Illinois 14, Northern Illinois 11
September 9: Fordham 40, Buffalo 37
September 9: Idaho 33, Nevada 6
September 16: Sacramento State 30, Stanford 23

Conference changes and new programs

• The Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN) and Western Athletic Conference, which had created the WAC-ASUN Challenge in 2021, merged their football leagues effective in 2023. In April 2023, the partnership was formally rebranded as the United Athletic Conference (UAC), a football-only league separate from the two conferences. The NCAA denied the UAC's request to be classified as a single-sport FCS football conference, but continued to recognize the organization as an extension of the WAC-ASUN Challenge.
• The Big South Conference and Ohio Valley Conference also merged their football leagues effective in 2023, but without attempting to create a new independent league, instead adopting the name Big South–OVC Football Association. Like the ASUN and WAC, both conferences were in danger of falling below the minimum six members required to remain an automatic qualifier (AQ) for the FCS postseason.
• The Colonial Athletic Association, along with its (technically-separate) FCS football league, adopted the name Coastal Athletic Association, a change that did not affect the CAA branding.

Conference standings

Playoff qualifiers

Automatic berths for conference champions

At large qualifiers

Abstentions

• Ivy League – Harvard, Yale
• Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference – Howard
• Southwestern Athletic Conference – Florida A&M

Postseason

The FCS again featured a 24-team postseason bracket: 10 teams decided via automatic bids issued to conference champions, and 14 at-large bids (see above). The top eight teams were seeded.

Bowl game

NCAA Division I playoff bracket

Source:

Rankings

The top 25 from the Stats Perform and USA Today Coaches Polls.

Pre-season polls

Kickoff games

The regular season began on Saturday, August 26 with three games in Week 0:

• FCS Kickoff (Cramton Bowl, Montgomery, Alabama): No. 20 Mercer 17, North Alabama 7
• Albany 34, Fordham 13
• MEAC/SWAC Challenge (Center Parc Stadium, Atlanta): Jackson State 37, South Carolina State 7

Regular season top 10 matchups

Rankings reflect the Stats Perform Poll.

• Week 2
  • No. 1 South Dakota State defeated No. 3 Montana State, 20–16 (Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium, Brookings, SD)
• Week 4
  • No. 7 Idaho defeated No. 4 Sacramento State, 36–27 (Kibbie Dome, Moscow, ID)
  • No. 3 Montana State defeated No. 10 Weber State, 40–0 (Stewart Stadium, Ogden, UT)
• Week 7
  • No. 10 Montana defeated No. 3 Idaho, 23–21 (Kibbie Dome, Moscow, ID)
• Week 8
  • No. 2 Montana State defeated No. 3 Sacramento State, 42–30 (Hornet Stadium, Sacramento, CA)
  • No. 4 Furman defeated No. 8 Western Carolina, 29–17 (Bob Waters Field at E. J. Whitmire Stadium, Cullowhee, NC)
• Week 9
  • No. 1 South Dakota State defeated No. 4 South Dakota, 37–3 (DakotaDome, Vermillion, SD)
  • No. 9 Idaho defeated No. 2 Montana State, 24–21 (Kibbie Dome, Moscow, ID)
• Week 10
  • No. 4 Montana defeated No. 7 Sacramento State, 34–7 (Washington–Grizzly Stadium, Missoula, MT)
  • No. 9 South Dakota defeated No. 10 Southern Illinois, 14–7 (Saluki Stadium, Carbondale, IL)
• Week 11
  • No. 6 South Dakota defeated No. 10 North Dakota, 14–10 (DakotaDome, Vermillion, SD)
• Week 12
  • No. 3 Montana defeated No. 4 Montana State, 37–7 (Washington-Grizzly Stadium, Missoula, MT)
  • No. 10 Villanova defeated No. 7 Delaware, 35–7 (Delaware Stadium, Newark, DE)

Upsets

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

Regular season

During the regular season, 33 unranked teams defeated ranked teams.

• September 2, 2023
  • Morgan State 17, No. 18 Richmond 10
• September 9, 2023
  • Western Carolina 30, No. 8 Samford 7
• September 16, 2023
  • Eastern Washington 40, No. 19 Southeastern Louisiana 29
• September 23, 2023
  • Northern Arizona 28, No. 13 Montana 14
  • Eastern Kentucky 41, No. 16 Southeast Missouri State 38
  • Chattanooga 47, No. 20 Samford 24
  • Eastern Washington 27, No. 15 UC Davis 24
• September 30, 2023
  • South Dakota 24, No. 2 North Dakota State 19
  • Elon 14, No. 5 William & Mary 6
  • Harvard 38, No. 6 Holy Cross 28
  • Towson 54, No. 14 New Hampshire 51
  • Albany 31, No. 16 Villanova 10
  • Northern Iowa 44, No. 23 Youngstown State 41
• October 7, 2023
  • Northern Arizona 27, No. 13 Weber State 10
  • Youngstown State 31, No. 6 Southern Illinois 3
• October 14, 2023
  • Idaho State 42, No. 21 Eastern Washington 41
  • UC Davis 17, No. 22 Weber State 16
  • New Hampshire 38, No. 24 Albany 31
• October 21, 2023
  • Towson 34, No. 13 William & Mary 24
  • Princeton 21, No. 18 Harvard 14
  • Northern Iowa 27, No. 11 North Dakota 0
  • Lafayette 38, No. 15 Holy Cross 35
• October 28, 2023
  • Mercer 45, No. 10 Western Carolina 38
  • Gardner–Webb 38, No. 14 UT Martin 34
  • Tarleton State 25, No, 18 Central Arkansas 23
  • Northern Arizona 38, No. 25 UC Davis 21
• November 4, 2023
  • Elon 33, No. 5 Delaware 27
  • Colgate 37, No. 20 Lafayette 34 ^OT
  • Nicholls 45, No. 8 Incarnate Word 32
• November 11, 2023
  • Weber State 31, No. 4 Idaho 29
  • Howard 50, No. 7 North Carolina Central 20
  • Missouri State 35, No. 15 Northern Iowa 16
• November 18, 2023
  • UC Davis 31, No. 8 Sacramento State 21
  • Samford 27, No. 19 UT Martin 17
  • Yale 23, No. 23 Harvard 18
  • Wofford 19, No. 2 Furman 13
  • VMI 27, No. 14 Western Carolina 24

Coaching changes

Preseason and in-season

This is restricted to coaching changes that took place on or after May 1, 2023, 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 2023, see 2022 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.

See also

• 2023 NCAA Division I FBS football season
• 2023 NCAA Division II football season
• 2023 NCAA Division III football season
• 2023 NAIA football season
• 2023 U Sports football season

References