The FCS Daily Dose is a blog-style article series featuring an assortment of news, rumblings, quick-hitters, and commentary on various topics. A new Daily Dose will publish multiple times a week to keep the FCS discussion going throughout the long offseason.
For March 8, 2024, let’s talk about…
How To Revitalize The FCS Kickoff
Remember when the FCS Kickoff was cool?
Week 0 was created to specifically spotlight the FCS. One college football game on the weekend before everyone else played. Two FCS teams. One national TV spotlight.
Then TV execs and FBS conferences realized there was money to be made playing on Week 0, taking away the lone FCS spotlight. Then ESPN found a sponsor for the FCS Kickoff and moved it to a neutral site, taking the game from sold-out home crowds to a 20% full stadium. The FCS Kickoff just isn’t what it used to be, something most FCS followers have echoed for years now.
The solution is simple: move the game back to home stadiums. If ESPN, who runs the FCS Kickoff, wants to or even cares enough to do this doesn’t seem to be as simple.
The first three FCS Kickoffs were electric.
In 2014, No. 1 Eastern Washington hosted No. 17 Sam Houston in an offensive showdown in front of 10,310 fans, a sold-out stadium for EWU. The next year, 26,472 Montana fans watched the No. 13 Grizzlies beat No. 1 NDSU 38-35 in a legendary game. In 2016, No. 1 NDSU hosted No. 7 Charleston Southern in another intense and tight battle as 18,881 fans watched.
Then in 2017, ESPN Events moved the game to the Cramton Bowl in Montgomery, Alabama, as Guardian Credit Union began to sponsor the game.
The first two years were fine. No. 6 Jacksonville State beat No. 12 Chattanooga in front of 12,952 fans. In 2018, No. 14 NC A&T beat No. 6 Jacksonville State with 13,500 fans in attendance.
It’s declined since.
Youngstown State and Samford faced off in a 2019 matchup between unranked opponents. The crowd was fine with 12,560 in attendance. 2020 was a unique year as COVID hit, and No. 11 Central Arkansas and No. 13 Austin Peay had plenty of eyeballs on how college football would look that fall. 2,000 people were there in a reduced capacity.
The last two years have been rough. Only 5,235 watched Jacksonville State beat No. 10 SFA in 2022. And just 5,566 watched No. 20 Mercer beat North Alabama last fall.
Seating capacity at the Cramton Bowl is around 25,000. It’s been a dud of an atmosphere, especially for national TV when this is supposed to be a “spotlight” game for the FCS.
It was recently announced that SEMO will face North Alabama in this year’s FCS Kickoff. It’s unlikely either of these teams will be preseason ranked.
Call it FCS elitism, but these matchups just haven’t moved the needle. Playing on a neutral field makes it worse. At least put them in a home stadium where home openers are typically well-attended with some extra juice from the students.
Send the FCS Kickoff back to a Montana school’s stadium where casual college football fans will flip to it and say, “Holy @$&@, look at this atmosphere.” Send it to NDSU or SDSU where people know those brand names. Send it to an HBCU stadium that takes up most of the Top 15 leaderboard in FCS attendance. Send it to Western Carolina, a cool venue for a team that plays a fun style of football. Send it to Tarleton State, a D1 newbie with FBS aspirations who is already ranking in the Top 5 of FCS attendance. Send it to one of the larger-market schools in the CAA if ESPN wants more eyeballs. Send it to an Ivy Lea… wait, never mind, they operate in their own universe.
For goodness sake, just do something other than sending two unranked teams to play at a 20% full stadium. At least let one of them host.
What was once an incredibly cool thing for the FCS has now turned into a silent but also a deafening “meh” reaction when the FCS Kickoff game gets announced.
Portland State’s Schedule
Portland State’s football schedule has been a dandy.
Last year, the Vikings played two FBS opponents and a non-D1 team in the non-conference. While totally understanding the budgetary reasoning, it’s not the most ideal schedule to set yourself up for playoff consideration. Even more so when you’re a 4-4 team in the Big Sky standings.
This fall is better for PSU in terms of opportunities to notch quality FCS wins in the non-conference. But the schedule is still brutal. It features two FBS opponents in Washington State and Boise State, a South Dakota team that reached last year’s quarterfinals and should be even better in 2024, and a Chattanooga squad that reached the postseason last year.
Portland State will collect a cool $562,500 payout from Washington State and $425,000 from Boise State. So there’s that.
The Portland State at Chattanooga game is actually very intriguing. Here’s why …
Big Sky vs. SoCon Narratives
You have to be deep in the weeds of FCS conversation to know this, but there is a bit of a rivalry between Big Sky fans and SoCon fans.
Big Sky fans firmly believe their middle-of-the-pack teams (like Portland State) are better than the top SoCon teams (like Chattanooga). They think the national FCS media (all 10 of us) gives southern teams way too much credit and that most of the Top 15 should be MVFC and Big Sky teams. They believe the talent differential is apparent.
SoCon fans believe the Big Sky being a power league is a farce. They have a winding argument, but an argument that isn’t too far-fetched:
They say it’s all a circular pattern. Big Sky teams get ranked highly in the preseason, aiding its reputation as a top conference. Because of the larger league and unbalanced scheduling, many Big Sky teams have good to great records. Because the Big Sky has this great reputation among voters, when a team has a good record it’s typically a lock to be ranked or a lock to be highly ranked if that record is great. Because so many Big Sky teams are ranked, playoff resumes are juiced because there are more opportunities for ranked wins. Or if you have an easier schedule draw, all a Big Sky team needs to do is hit seven or eight wins and is then thought of more highly than 8-win teams from most other conferences. Because of this, there are many playoff contenders in the Big Sky because there are several teams with seven or more wins, adding to its reputation even more. Because of this reputation, which leads to more ranked teams, which leads to more ranked wins, which leads to more playoff contenders, top Big Sky teams are usually highly seeded. Because they are highly seeded, they are more likely to go on deep playoff runs thanks to home games. Because they go on deep playoff runs, they are highly ranked heading into the next season. And because of the Big Sky’s good reputation, these teams typically stay highly ranked even if their non-conference resume isn’t great.
And then it’s just a yearly cycle of why the Big Sky isn’t actually as good as its reputation, and why the SoCon’s top teams unfairly get treated differently than the Big Sky’s top teams. SoCon teams can’t break through their reputation because the voters and playoff committee aren’t believers. Meanwhile, the Big Sky continually gets set up to more easily deliver on its strong reputation via high rankings, playoff bids, and playoff seeds.
Honestly, it’s not a terrible argument. I’m not saying I fully believe it. I think if you look at non-conference success, playoff success (again, aided by being higher seeds), and how many players the Big Sky sends to the pros vs. the SoCon, the Big Sky has a better argument on why their reputation is deserved. But the argument that the Big Sky’s top-tier teams are so much better than the SoCon’s top-tier teams is exaggerated. Furman proved that when it nearly beat Montana on the road in the quarterfinals.
But … with all that said, if an unranked Portland State team goes to ranked Chattanooga and wins, that’s the type of result folks will point to on why the Big Sky deserves to get more playoff teams and more seeds than the SoCon.
It’s an under-the-radar non-conference game to watch.
