With the 2024 FCS football season will conclude with a highly anticipated championship game, it’s time to look back at key storylines that have helped bring it to the finish line.
The 2024 FCS football has come down to one game for the national title, and it’s the right one with unbeaten No. 1 Montana State and nine-time champion North Dakota State set to meet on the night of Jan. 6 in Frisco, Texas.
As expected, their Big Sky and Missouri Valley conferences have dominated all season with top teams, matchups and players.
But there also were great games, conference races and accomplishments across the 129-school subdivision.
While so much more is deserving of the spotlight, here are 10 things to remember about the 2024 FCS football season:
Saving the Best for (Almost) Last
The FCS playoffs have lacked edge-of-your-seat thrillers despite the games’ added significance, but North Dakota State’s 28-21, semifinal-round victory over two-time defending national champion South Dakota State earns the distinction of being the best of the season.
NDSU’s 13-9, regular-season win over the rival Jackrabbits was one of the best games already, but with a spot in the title game on the line, the two championship programs delivered again. Bison wide receiver Bryce Lance caught three touchdowns from Cam Miller, including a one-handed game-winner with 4:02 left to break a 21-21 tie.
It was NDSU’s 50th win in its FCS playoff history – the record.
ETSU Overcomes More Than an Opponent
Two weeks after ETSU nearly upset North Dakota State as a 27-point underdog, the way the Buccaneers ended September was even more significant, going way beyond them defeating The Citadel 34-17 in their Southern Conference opener.
The trip from Johnson City, Tennessee, to Charleston, South Carolina, is generally under six hours, but after setting out from campus, coach Tre Lamb’s squad wound up being stranded by flooding from Hurricane Helene in the mountains of west North Carolina for more than 12 hours (and basically out of touch with a loss of cell service).
Having traveled through dangerous areas due to the storm, they eventually made it into Charleston around 4:30 a.m. on game day – a 16-hour ordeal that made national news (and put even greater spotlight on the devastation) before they went on to a win later in the day.
Down Goes FBS. FC-Yes!
Montana State’s unbeaten record was almost over before it got started for a team that’s led by Eddie Robinson Award-winning coach Brent Vigen and quarterback Tommy Mellott. In Week 0, the Bobcats trailed New Mexico by 17 points in the fourth quarter, but they scored the final three touchdowns to win 35-31.
It was one of six FCS victories over FBS programs. Also: Saint Francis 23-17 over Kent State 17; Idaho 17-13 over Wyoming; Southern Utah 27-24 in overtime over UTEP; Monmouth 45-42 over FIU 42; and UT Martin 24-13 over Kennesaw State 13.
Not the Way It Was Predicted
Wild conference races make for a great annual storyline in the FCS. From 13 conferences, the favorite in the preseason polls went on to capture only one outright title – Drake (Pioneer Football League) – and just three more were a part of co-titles – Duquesne (Northeast), South Dakota State (Missouri Valley) and UT Martin (Big South-OVC).
Mercer was an outright SoCon champion after being picked fourth in the preseason poll. Incredibly, there’s been a different outright winner in the SoCon for six consecutive seasons – a first in the FCS.
It’s 1, 2, 3 in the UAC
The last time even two players from the same conference finished a season atop the FCS in rushing yards per game was the SoCon in 2000 with Furman’s Louis Ivory and Georgia Southern’s Adrian Peterson.
The United Athletic Conference has gone one step beyond with the nation’s top trio: Southern Utah’s Targhee Lambson (160.2 yards per game), Tarleton State’s Kayvon Britton (141.6) and Central Arkansas’ ShunDerrick Powell (122.1).
First-Year Coaches Stand Out
It’s been a banner season for first-year FCS coaches, including five who were a part of a shared conference titles: Columbia’s Jon Poppe (Ivy – the school’s first title since 1961), Mercer’s Mike Jacobs (SoCon), North Dakota State’s Tim Polasek (MVFC), South Carolina State’s Chennis Berry (MEAC) and Tennessee Tech’s Bobby Wilder (Big South-OVC).
Also, UC Davis’ Tim Plough led an 11-win national quarterfinalist and Stony Brook’s Billy Cosh lifted the Seawolves to 8-4 after they were 0-10 in 2023.
Dakota Trilogy
That North Dakota State, South Dakota and South Dakota State finished in a three-way tie for the MVFC title was appropriate considering the three eventual national semifinalists were separated by a combined eight points in three of the season’s best games.
NDSU slipped past top-ranked SDSU 13-9 in just the ninth meeting of the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in FCS history. Miller and RaJa Nelson connected on two touchdown passes, including the game-winner with 1:49 left.
A week later, SDSU edged USD 20-17 in overtime, converting a fourth down on its possession before Amar Johnson scored on a 3-yard run. The Coyotes forced the extra session on Mi’Quise Grace’s scoop-and-score in the final five minutes of regulation and had a chance to win on a late field-goal attempt.
USD bounced NDSU from both the No. 1 ranking and playoff seed on the final day of the regular season, winning 29-28 with 12 points in the final 3:22, including Aidan Bouman’s 25-yard TD pass to Javion Phelps with 12 seconds left.
Gap to Big Two Conferences Widens
For the fourth consecutive season, the FCS championship game includes only Big Sky or MVFC schools, and, more specifically, from the Dakota states and Montana.
CAA Football – once the FCS conference – didn’t have one of its four playoff teams even advance to the quarterfinals. The Southern and Southland conferences – long FCS staples – saw teams beat up on each other during the conference schedule and had only one playoff qualifier each.
Expanded Seeding in FCS Playoffs
The doubling of seeded teams in the 24-team FCS playoffs to 16 led to a less-regionalized field than in past years. There were only three rematches, and only two pitting teams from the same conference against each other.
The selection committee hit the expanded seeding right, as the top eight advanced to the quarterfinals, the top four moved on to the semifinals, and the top two are meeting in Frisco.
Jackson State Was ‘Prime’
The national attention placed on Jackson State during the Deion Sanders coaching tenure (2020-22 seasons) was basically rivaled in recent decades only by North Dakota State’s FCS dynasty.
Under second-year coach T.C. Taylor, Jackson State won the SWAC title – as it did in Coach Prime’s final two seasons – but the Tigers went even further in a 12-2 season by capturing the Celebration Bowl and the HBCU national title.
Honorable Mention Storylines
Show-stopper: Western Carolina quarterback Cole Gonzales passed for a SoCon-record 620 yards – also the seventh-most in a game in FCS history – in 52-20 win at Furman. For good measure, Catamounts quarterback Taron Dickens came off the bench to add a 32-yard touchdown pass. … SDSUs Mark Gronowski finished his career tied for the most wins by an FCS starting quarterback – 49, first reached by former NDSU signal caller Easton Stick (2015-18). … The NCAA announced Nashville, Tennessee, will replace Frisco, Texas, as the host city for the 2025 and ’26 season national championship games. The move to FirstBank Stadium at Vanderbilt University results from a three-year renovation project that will begin at Frisco’s Toyota Stadium shortly after the 2024 title game on Jan. 6. … The Ivy League reversed its ban on postseason play since 1945, announcing member programs will be eligible for the FCS playoffs beginning next season. … Norfolk State hired former NFL Pro Bowl quarterback Michael Vick as its new head coach, making a splash that will continue to draw national attention throughout the offseason.
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