FCS Kickoff
Annual American college football game
The FCS Kickoff is an annual college football game played on the Saturday before the opening weekend of the college football season. The game showcases teams from the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). For the game's first three editions, it was played at campus sites; from 2017 to 2025, the game was played at a neutral site, the Cramton Bowl in Montgomery, Alabama. From 2026 on, the game is back to being played at campus sites. The game is televised nationally by ESPN.
01History
In February 2013, ESPN announced that the 2014 college football season would begin at its earliest point in 11 years with the creation of the "FCS Kickoff", an annual game which would showcase two top-level teams from the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision. ESPN stated that during meetings with FCS conference commissioners there was an interest in creating a "tentpole type" event around FCS football and to showcase the quality and depth of FCS football to a national audience.
Under current NCAA rules, FCS teams are not allowed to play their first regular-season game until the Thursday preceding Labor Day. However, an exception to this rule has been carved out for nationally televised events (on either over-the-air or cable networks); teams may participate in such an event against an out-of-conference opponent on the Saturday or Sunday preceding the standard season start date. No more than one team from a conference can participate in such an event in a given season, and no team can appear in such a game in three consecutive seasons.
The 2017 edition marked several changes for the event. First, ESPN took ownership of the event through its ESPN Events division. The event was moved to a neutral site (the Cramton Bowl in Montgomery, Alabama); received a name sponsorship by Guardian Credit Union, a small Montgomery-based credit union; was co-branded as the Montgomery Kickoff Classic; and also took on Alabama FCS member Jacksonville State University as a partner for the 2017 and 2018 editions. As such, JSU participated in both editions of the event. With Jacksonville State barred from a third consecutive FCS Kickoff appearance by NCAA rule, ESPN chose another Alabama program, Samford, as the de facto home team for the 2019 edition.
The 2020 edition, which saw Central Arkansas defeat Austin Peay, was the first since ESPN took ownership of the event that did not feature an Alabama school.
The game would not be held in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. When the game returned in 2022, it would not be sponsored by Guardian Credit Union and would only be known as the FCS Kickoff.
2022 would feature Jacksonville State's third appearance in the Week 0 game as they took on the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks. The Gamecocks would win 42-17 as the game ended prematurely with 13:18 left in the 4th quarter due to weather.
The 2023 rendition would feature the Mercer Bears and the North Alabama Lions. The Bears would defeat the Lions 17-7. The game was also the second FCS Kickoff game to feature a weather delay as lightning would halt play for 76 minutes in the 3rd quarter.
The Lions would return in 2024 to face off against Southeast Missouri State. The Lions would once again fall as they were defeated by the Redhawks 37-15.
The 2025 edition was a matchup of UC Davis Aggies and Mercer Bears. The Aggies were leading 23-17 with 7:46 remaining in the fourth quarter before the first lightning strike hit. Due to rain and intermittent lightning that continued to move through Montgomery, the game was declared a no contest, with all statistics voided.
In 2026, the FCS Kickoff will revert to being played on college campuses after ten years at the Cramton Bowl.
02Game results
| Season | Date | Winning team | Losing team | Venue | Attendance | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | August 23 | No. 1 Eastern Washington | 56 | No. 17 Sam Houston State | 35 | Roos Field (Cheney, WA) | 10,310 |
| 2015 | August 29 | No. 13 Montana | 38 | No. 1 North Dakota State | 35 | Washington-Grizzly Stadium (Missoula, MT) | 26,472 |
| 2016 | August 27 | No. 1 North Dakota State | 24 | No. 7 Charleston Southern | 17 | Fargodome (Fargo, ND) | 18,881 |
| 2017 | August 26 | No. 6 Jacksonville State | 27 | No. 12 Chattanooga | 13 | Cramton Bowl (Montgomery, AL) | 12,952 |
| 2018 | August 25 | No. 14 North Carolina A&T | 20 | No. 6 Jacksonville State | 17 | 13,500 | |
| 2019 | August 24 | Youngstown State | 45 | Samford | 22 | 12,560 | |
| 2020 | August 29 | No. 11 Central Arkansas | 24 | No. 13 Austin Peay | 17 | 2,000 | |
| 2022 | August 27 | Jacksonville State | 42 | No. 10 Stephen F. Austin | 17 | 5,235 | |
| 2023 | August 26 | No. 20 Mercer | 17 | North Alabama | 7 | 5,566 | |
| 2024 | August 24 | Southeast Missouri State | 37 | North Alabama | 15 | 4,358 | |
| 2025 | Game declared a no contest due to lightning. No. 7 UC Davis vs No. 11 Mercer | ||||||
| 2026 | August 29 | No. 17 Mercer | 23 | East Texas A&M | 15 | Five Star Stadium (Macon, GA) | 8,378 |
Rankings are from the STATS FCS Poll.
03Records
By team
| Rank | Team | Apps | Record | Win % | PF | PA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mercer | 3 | 2-0 | 1.000 | 40 | 22 |
| Central Arkansas | 1 | 1-0 | 1.000 | 24 | 17 | |
| Eastern Washington | 1 | 1-0 | 1.000 | 56 | 35 | |
| Montana | 1 | 1-0 | 1.000 | 38 | 35 | |
| North Carolina A&T | 1 | 1-0 | 1.000 | 20 | 17 | |
| Southeast Missouri State | 1 | 1-0 | 1.000 | 37 | 15 | |
| Youngstown State | 1 | 1-0 | 1.000 | 45 | 22 | |
| 7 | Jacksonville State | 3 | 2-1 | .667 | 86 | 50 |
| 8 | North Dakota State | 2 | 1-1 | .500 | 59 | 55 |
| 9 | UC Davis | 1 | 0-0 | , | , | , |
| 10 | Austin Peay | 1 | 0-1 | .000 | 17 | 24 |
| Charleston Southern | 1 | 0-1 | .000 | 17 | 24 | |
| Chattanooga | 1 | 0-1 | .000 | 13 | 27 | |
| East Texas A&M | 1 | 0-1 | .000 | 15 | 23 | |
| North Alabama | 2 | 0-2 | .000 | 22 | 54 | |
| Sam Houston | 1 | 0-1 | .000 | 35 | 56 | |
| Samford | 1 | 0-1 | .000 | 22 | 45 | |
| Stephen F. Austin | 1 | 0-1 | .000 | 17 | 42 |
By conference
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “FCS Kickoff”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- FCS Kickoff logo.png by Unknown author, Fair use
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