2013 NCAA Division I FCS football season

Updated on Sep 20, 2024

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Champion North Dakota State
Duration August 29 – November 23, 2013 Duration November 30, 2013 – January 4, 2014 Championship site Toyota Stadium, Frisco, TX Payton Award Jimmy Garoppolo, QB, Eastern Illinois Buchanan Award Brad Daly, DE, Montana State People also search for 2014 NCAA Division I FCS football season

The 2013 NCAA Division I FCS football season, part of college football in the United States, is organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association at the Division I Football Championship Subdivision level.

Notable changes

For 2013, the FCS playoffs expanded for the first time since 2010. The Pioneer Football League champion now receives an automatic bid into the FCS playoffs, which increased to 24 teams.

Under a standard provision of NCAA rules, all FCS programs were allowed to play 12 regular-season games (not counting conference title games) in 2013, and also in 2014. In years when the period starting with the Thursday before Labor Day and ending with the final Saturday in November contains 14 Saturdays, FCS programs may play 12 games instead of the regular 11. After 2014, the next season in which 12-game seasons are allowed will be 2019.

Conference changes and new programs

Several teams changed conferences from the 2012 season, with all moves officially taking effect on July 1, 2013.

Albany and Stony Brook became football-only members of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA). Previously, they had respectively been football-only members of the Northeast Conference and Big South Conference.

Georgia State left the FCS ranks to become a member of the Sun Belt Conference. As it began its FBS transition in 2012, it was counted as an FBS member for scheduling purposes in 2013.

Old Dominion joined Conference USA (C-USA) and started its FBS transition. ODU was technically an FCS independent in 2013 before becoming a provisional FBS member in 2014 and a full FBS member in 2015.

The Southland Conference added four schools—two with established football programs, one launching a new program, and another (New Orleans) without varsity football. The established programs were Abilene Christian and Incarnate Word, both joining from the Division II Lone Star Conference. While technically considered FCS independents in 2013, they played Division II schedules this season. Both will be counted as FCS members for scheduling purposes in 2014, at which time they will start playing full Southland Conference schedules. Houston Baptist, arriving from the Division I Great West Conference, fielded a football team for the first time in 2013, but only played a partial schedule. Houston Baptist will also begin playing a full Southland schedule in 2014.

Monmouth announced in December 2012 that it would leave the Northeast Conference (NEC) for the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC), effective in July 2013. As the MAAC has not sponsored football since 2007, Monmouth's football plans were uncertain. Those plans became clear on February 14, 2013, when the Big South Conference announced that Monmouth would become a football-only member of that league in 2014. Since Monmouth was transitioning from the limited-scholarship NEC to a conference that allows the full FCS limit of 63 scholarship equivalents, the Hawks played the 2013 football season as an independent.

In addition to the schools changing conferences, three others launched FCS football programs. Charlotte, which rejoined C-USA after eight years in the Atlantic 10 Conference, played as an FCS independent in its first football season, as part of its announced plan to become a full FBS member in 2015. The 49ers will be counted as an FBS program for scheduling purposes in 2014 and will become a C-USA football member in 2015. Two other schools, Mercer and Stetson, reinstated varsity football after decades-long absences—Mercer had last played in 1941 and Stetson in 1956. Both initially planned to operate as non-scholarship programs in the Pioneer Football League. However, Mercer would later commit to scholarship football when it accepted an invitation to join the Southern Conference (SoCon) in 2014.

Two other SoCon members, Appalachian State and Georgia Southern, were officially announced on March 27, 2013 as future Sun Belt members. Both schools began FBS transitions in 2013 in advance of their 2014 entry into the Sun Belt. They will be counted as FBS members for scheduling purposes in 2014, and will be eligible for the Sun Belt football championship, but will not be eligible for bowl games until completing their transitions in 2015.

This was also the last season for two other programs in their then-current conferences. Elon will leave the SoCon for the CAA in July 2014; at the same time, VMI will leave the Big South and return to the SoCon after an 11-year absence.

New stadiums

Albany made its CAA debut in Bob Ford Field, a new 8,500-seat on-campus stadium. University Field, which Albany had used for both football and track since 1970, is now solely a track venue.

Charlotte made its football debut in Jerry Richardson Stadium, a new on-campus facility. Its initial capacity is 15,300, but it can be expanded to 25,000 with temporary seating. The stadium design allows future expansion to 40,000.

Mercer plays at the Moye Complex, a new on-campus venue with a capacity of 10,200.

Stetson plays at the already-existing Spec Martin Stadium, an off-campus stadium owned by Stetson's home city of DeLand, Florida. The stadium holds 6,000.

FCS team wins over FBS teams

(FCS rankings from the Sports Network poll; FBS rankings from the AP Poll)

August 29:

#11 Towson 33, Connecticut 18

Southern Utah 22, South Alabama 21

August 30:

Samford 31, Georgia State 21

#1 North Dakota State 24, Kansas State 21

August 31:

#4 Eastern Washington 49, #25 Oregon State 46 (this is the third time an FCS team has beat an FBS team that was ranked in the AP poll, after James Madison's victory over #13 Virginia Tech in 2010 and Appalachian State's upset of #5 Michigan in 2007).

McNeese State 53, South Florida 21

#17 Northern Iowa 28, Iowa State 20

#21 Eastern Illinois 40, San Diego State 19

September 7:

Chattanooga 42, Georgia State 14

Maine 24, Massachusetts 14

Nicholls State 27, Western Michigan 23

September 14:

Fordham 30, Temple 29

#23 Bethune-Cookman 34, Florida International 13

September 21:

Jacksonville State 32, Georgia State 26 ^OT

November 9:

Old Dominion 59, Idaho 38

November 23:

Georgia Southern 26, Florida 20

Other conference winners

Note: Records are regular-season only, and do not include playoff games.

Automatic berths for conference champions

Big Sky Conference – Eastern Washington

Big South Conference – Coastal Carolina

Colonial Athletic Association – Maine

Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference – Bethune-Cookman

Missouri Valley Football Conference – North Dakota State

Northeast Conference – Sacred Heart

Ohio Valley Conference – Eastern Illinois

Patriot League – Lafayette

Pioneer Football League - Butler

Southern Conference – Furman

Southland Conference – Southeastern Louisiana

At large qualifiers

Big Sky Conference - Montana, Northern Arizona, Southern Utah

Big South Conference - None

Colonial Athletic Association - New Hampshire, Towson

Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference - South Carolina State

Missouri Valley Football Conference - South Dakota State

Northeast Conference - None

Ohio Valley Conference - Jacksonville State, Tennessee State

Patriot League - Fordham

Pioneer Football League - None

Southern Conference - Samford

Southland Conference - McNeese State, Sam Houston State

Abstentions

Ivy League – Princeton

Southwestern Athletic Conference – Southern

NCAA FCS Playoff bracket

* Home team

Preseason and in-season

This is restricted to coaching changes that took place on or after May 1, 2013. For coaching changes that occurred earlier in 2013, see 2012 NCAA Division I FCS end-of-season coaching changes.

NFL draft selections

Listed below are all FCS players selected in the 2014 NFL Draft

References

2013 NCAA Division I FCS football season Wikipedia

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