2025 NCAA Division I FCS football season

For the 2025 FBS season, see 2025 NCAA Division I FBS football season.

2025 NCAA Division I FCS season
Regular season
Number of teams	129
Duration	August 23 – December 6
Playoff
Duration	November 29 – January 5
Championship date	January 5, 2026
Championship site	FirstBank Stadium, Nashville, Tennessee
NCAA Division I FCS football seasons
«2024

The 2025 NCAA Division I FCS football season, part of college football in the United States, will be organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) level. The regular season will begin on August 23 and end in November. The postseason will begin in November 29 and end in 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 will be allowed to play 12 regular-season games instead of the normal 11.

Notable headlines

• December 12, 2024 – The Ivy League announced that starting with the 2025 football season; the Ivy League champion will compete in the FCS playoffs. This will be the first time that conference has 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.
• May 5, 2025 – 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 will replace founding MVFC commissioner Patty Viverito, who is retiring on June 30, and Summit commissioner Josh Fenton will fill the new position of executive advisor at that time. Administrative operations will be shared by the MVC and Summit, which are home to all but one of the MVFC's 10 members in the 2025 season.
• May 6, 2025
  • 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.
  • The NCAA's FCS Oversight Committee recommended the adoption of several pieces of legislation affecting the season structure. If approved by the Division I Council in June 2025, these changes will take effect in the 2026 season.
    • Permanent expansion of the FCS regular season from 11 to 12 games.
    • Standardization of the regular season starting date, which would be permanently set as the Thursday 13 weeks before the FCS playoff bracket is released on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Currently, the normal start of the FCS regular season is the Thursday preceding Labor Day.
    • With said standardization, rule exceptions that allow contests that meet legislated criteria to be played as early as the second Saturday before Labor Day would be eliminated. Instead, all FCS teams will be able to play during what the Football Bowl Subdivision calls Week 0.

Conference changes and new programs

School	2024 conference	2025 conference	Ref
Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens	CAA	CUSA (FBS)
Missouri State Bears	MVFC	CUSA (FBS)
New Haven Chargers	Northeast-10 (Div. II)	Northeast
Richmond Spiders	CAA	Patriot
UTRGV Vaqueros	Exhibition Team	Southland

Conference standings

2025 Big Sky Conference football standings Conf. Overall Team   W   L     W   L   Cal Poly   0 – 0     0 – 0   Eastern Washington   0 – 0     0 – 0   Idaho   0 – 0     0 – 0   Idaho State   0 – 0     0 – 0   Montana   0 – 0     0 – 0   Montana State   0 – 0     0 – 0   Northern Arizona   0 – 0     0 – 0   Northern Colorado   0 – 0     0 – 0   Portland State   0 – 0     0 – 0   Sacramento State   0 – 0     0 – 0   UC Davis   0 – 0     0 – 0   Weber State   0 – 0     0 – 0   As of June 18, 2025 Rankings from STATS Poll	2025 Coastal Athletic Association Football Conference standings Conf. Overall Team   W   L     W   L   Albany   0 – 0     0 – 0   Bryant   0 – 0     0 – 0   Campbell   0 – 0     0 – 0   Elon   0 – 0     0 – 0   Hampton   0 – 0     0 – 0   Monmouth   0 – 0     0 – 0   Maine   0 – 0     0 – 0   New Hampshire   0 – 0     0 – 0   North Carolina A&T   0 – 0     0 – 0   Rhode Island   0 – 0     0 – 0   Stony Brook   0 – 0     0 – 0   Towson   0 – 0     0 – 0   Villanova   0 – 0     0 – 0   William & Mary   0 – 0     0 – 0   As of June 18, 2025 Rankings from STATS Poll	2025 Ivy League football standings Conf. Overall Team   W   L     W   L   Brown   0 – 0     0 – 0   Columbia   0 – 0     0 – 0   Cornell   0 – 0     0 – 0   Dartmouth   0 – 0     0 – 0   Harvard   0 – 0     0 – 0   Penn   0 – 0     0 – 0   Princeton   0 – 0     0 – 0   Yale   0 – 0     0 – 0   As of June 18, 2025 Rankings from STATS Poll
2025 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference football standings Conf. Overall Team   W   L     W   L   Delaware State   0 – 0     0 – 0   Howard   0 – 0     0 – 0   Morgan State   0 – 0     0 – 0   Norfolk State   0 – 0     0 – 0   North Carolina Central   0 – 0     0 – 0   South Carolina State   0 – 0     0 – 0   As of June 18, 2025 Rankings from STATS Poll	2025 Missouri Valley Football Conference standings Conf. Overall Team   W   L     W   L   Illinois State   0 – 0     0 – 0   Indiana State   0 – 0     0 – 0   Murray State   0 – 0     0 – 0   North Dakota   0 – 0     0 – 0   North Dakota State   0 – 0     0 – 0   Northern Iowa   0 – 0     0 – 0   South Dakota   0 – 0     0 – 0   South Dakota State   0 – 0     0 – 0   Southern Illinois   0 – 0     0 – 0   Youngstown State   0 – 0     0 – 0   As of June 18, 2025 Rankings from STATS Poll	2025 Northeast Conference football standings Conf. Overall Team   W   L     W   L   Central Connecticut   0 – 0     0 – 0   Duquesne   0 – 0     0 – 0   LIU   0 – 0     0 – 0   Mercyhurst*   0 – 0     0 – 0   New Haven*   0 – 0     0 – 0   Robert Morris   0 – 0     0 – 0   Saint Francis (PA)   0 – 0     0 – 0   Stonehill*   0 – 0     0 – 0   Wagner   0 – 0     0 – 0   * – Ineligible for NEC title and FCS postseason play due to transition from NCAA Division II. As of June 18, 2025 Rankings from STATS Poll
2025 OVC–Big South football standings Conf. Overall Team   W   L     W   L   Charleston Southern   0 – 0     0 – 0   Eastern Illinois   0 – 0     0 – 0   Gardner–Webb   0 – 0     0 – 0   Lindenwood*   0 – 0     0 – 0   Southeast Missouri State   0 – 0     0 – 0   Tennessee State   0 – 0     0 – 0   Tennessee Tech   0 – 0     0 – 0   UT Martin   0 – 0     0 – 0   Western Illinois   0 – 0     0 – 0   * – Ineligible for OVC–Big South title and FCS postseason play due to transition from NCAA Division II. As of June 18, 2025 Rankings from STATS Poll	2025 Patriot League football standings Conf. Overall Team   W   L     W   L   Bucknell   0 – 0     0 – 0   Colgate   0 – 0     0 – 0   Fordham   0 – 0     0 – 0   Georgetown   0 – 0     0 – 0   Holy Cross   0 – 0     0 – 0   Lafayette   0 – 0     0 – 0   Lehigh   0 – 0     0 – 0   Richmond   0 – 0     0 – 0   As of June 18, 2025 Rankings from STATS Poll	2025 Pioneer Football League standings Conf. Overall Team   W   L     W   L   Butler   0 – 0     0 – 0   Davidson   0 – 0     0 – 0   Dayton   0 – 0     0 – 0   Drake   0 – 0     0 – 0   Marist   0 – 0     0 – 0   Morehead State   0 – 0     0 – 0   Presbyterian   0 – 0     0 – 0   St. Thomas (MN)   0 – 0     0 – 0   San Diego   0 – 0     0 – 0   Stetson   0 – 0     0 – 0   Valparaiso   0 – 0     0 – 0   As of June 18, 2025 Rankings from STATS Poll
2025 Southern Conference football standings Conf. Overall Team   W   L     W   L   Chattanooga   0 – 0     0 – 0   East Tennessee State   0 – 0     0 – 0   Furman   0 – 0     0 – 0   Mercer   0 – 0     0 – 0   Samford   0 – 0     0 – 0   The Citadel   0 – 0     0 – 0   VMI   0 – 0     0 – 0   Western Carolina   0 – 0     0 – 0   Wofford   0 – 0     0 – 0   As of June 18, 2025 Rankings from STATS Poll	2025 Southland Conference football standings Conf. Overall Team   W   L     W   L   East Texas A&M*   0 – 0     0 – 0   Houston Christian   0 – 0     0 – 0   Incarnate Word   0 – 0     0 – 0   Lamar   0 – 0     0 – 0   McNeese   0 – 0     0 – 0   Nicholls   0 – 0     0 – 0   Northwestern State   0 – 0     0 – 0   Southeastern Louisiana   0 – 0     0 – 0   Stephen F. Austin   0 – 0     0 – 0   UT Rio Grande Valley   0 – 0     0 – 0   * – East Texas A&M is ineligible for FCS postseason play due to transition from NCAA Division II. As of June 18, 2025 Rankings from STATS Poll	2025 Southwestern Athletic Conference football standings Conf. Overall Team   W   L     W   L   East Division Alabama A&M   0 – 0     0 – 0   Alabama State   0 – 0     0 – 0   Bethune–Cookman   0 – 0     0 – 0   Florida A&M   0 – 0     0 – 0   Jackson State   0 – 0     0 – 0   Mississippi Valley State*   0 – 0     0 – 0   West Division Alcorn State   0 – 0     0 – 0   Arkansas–Pine Bluff*   0 – 0     0 – 0   Grambling State   0 – 0     0 – 0   Prairie View A&M   0 – 0     0 – 0   Southern   0 – 0     0 – 0   Texas Southern   0 – 0     0 – 0   Championship: December 6, 2025 $ – Conference champion x – Division champion/co-champions y – Championship game participant * – Ineligible for FCS postseason play due to failed academic requirements As of June 18, 2025 Rankings from STATS Poll
2025 United Athletic Conference standings Conf. Overall Team   W   L     W   L   Abilene Christian   0 – 0     0 – 0   Austin Peay   0 – 0     0 – 0   Central Arkansas   0 – 0     0 – 0   Eastern Kentucky   0 – 0     0 – 0   North Alabama   0 – 0     0 – 0   Southern Utah   0 – 0     0 – 0   Tarleton State   0 – 0     0 – 0   Utah Tech   0 – 0     0 – 0   West Georgia*   0 – 0     0 – 0   * – Ineligible for the UAC title and FCS postseason play due to transition from NCAA Division II. As of June 18, 2025 Rankings from STATS Poll	2025 NCAA Division I FCS independents football standings Conf. Overall Team   W   L     W   L   Merrimack   –     0 – 0   Sacred Heart   –     0 – 0   As of June 18, 2025 Rankings from STATS Poll

Kickoff games

The regular season begins on Saturday, August 23 in Week 0:

• FCS Kickoff (Cramton Bowl, Montgomery, Alabama): Mercer vs. UC Davis
• MEAC/SWAC Challenge (Center Parc Stadium, Atlanta): North Carolina Central vs. Southern

See also

• 2025 NCAA Division I FBS football season
• 2025 NCAA Division II football season
• 2025 NCAA Division III football season
• 2025 NAIA football season
• 2025 U Sports football season