- Source: 2021 NCAA Division I FCS football season
The 2021 NCAA Division I FCS football season, part of college football in the United States, was organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) level.
After the prior season was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, resulting in some conferences canceling their seasons and significant rescheduling by other conferences, the 2021 season returned to its traditional fall scheduling. The season ended with a single-elimination tournament, with the championship game held on January 8, 2022 at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas. North Dakota State won its ninth championship in eleven seasons, defeating Montana State, 38-10, for the title.
Notable headlines
September 4 – In Kevin Kelley's debut as head coach of Presbyterian, Ren Hefley threw for 10 touchdowns in the Blue Hose's 84–43 win over NAIA member St. Andrews, breaking the previous FCS record of 9 first set in 1984 by Willie Totten of Mississippi Valley State and equaled in 2007 by Drew Hubel of Portland State. Blue Hose backup quarterback Tyler Huff added 2 TD passes to set a new Division I team record (for both FCS and FBS) of 12, surpassing the previous record of 11 thrown by David Klingler of Houston against Eastern Washington in 1990.
November 12 – The Utah Legislature approved changing the name of FCS member Dixie State University to Utah Tech University, effective in the 2022–23 academic year.
FCS team wins over FBS teams
September 2: UC Davis 19, Tulsa 17
September 3: Eastern Washington 35, UNLV 33
September 3: South Dakota State 42, Colorado State 23
September 4: Holy Cross 38, UConn 28
September 4: Montana 13, No. 20 Washington 7
September 4: East Tennessee State 23, Vanderbilt 3
September 11: Duquesne 28, Ohio 26
September 11: Jacksonville State 20, Florida State 17
September 18: Incarnate Word 42, Texas State 34
September 18: Northern Arizona 21, Arizona 19
November 6: Rhode Island 35, UMass 22
November 13: Maine 35, UMass 10
Conference changes and new programs
The Western Athletic Conference (WAC), which had last played football in the 2012 season as an FBS league, reinstated football for the 2021 season at the FCS level. The ASUN Conference also announced in 2021 that it would sponsor FCS football in the future.
Because WAC and ASUN programs reclassifying from Division II could not be counted toward the minimum of six members required for a conference champion to be an automatic qualifier (AQ) for the FCS postseason, the two conferences pooled their seven members with active FCS programs in 2021 (four WAC, three ASUN) to form the WAC–ASUN Challenge, a temporary league also referred to as the AQ7.
Conference standings
Playoff qualifiers
= Automatic berths for conference champions
== At large qualifiers
== Abstentions
=Ivy League – Dartmouth
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference – South Carolina State
Southwestern Athletic Conference – Jackson State
Postseason
After the prior season's playoffs were reduced to a 16-team bracket, FCS returned to a 24-team bracket for this season: 11 of the teams were decided via automatic bids issued to conference champions (listed above) and 13 teams were determined via at-large bids; the top eight teams were seeded.
= Bowl game
== NCAA Division I playoff bracket
=Source:
Rankings
The top 25 from the Stats Perform and USA Today Coaches Polls.
= Pre-season polls
== Final rankings
=Kickoff games
The regular season began with three games on Saturday, August 28:
Indiana State 26, Eastern Illinois 21
MEAC/SWAC Challenge at Center Parc Stadium in Atlanta: North Carolina Central 23, Alcorn State 14
San Jose State (FBS) 45, Southern Utah 14
Regular season top 10 matchups
Rankings reflect the Stats Perform Poll.
Week 3
No. 3 James Madison defeated No. 9 Weber State, 37–24 (Stewart Stadium, Ogden, Utah)
Week 5
No. 6 Eastern Washington defeated No. 4 Montana, 30–24 (Roos Field, Cheney, Washington)
No. 5 North Dakota State defeated No. 10 North Dakota, 16–10 (Alerus Center, Grand Forks, North Dakota)
Week 6
No. 8 Southern Illinois defeated No. 2 South Dakota State, 42–41 OT (Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium, Brookings, South Dakota)
Week 10
No. 4 Montana State defeated No. 5 Eastern Washington, 23–20 (Roos Field, Cheney, Washington)
No. 9 South Dakota State defeated No. 2 North Dakota State, 27–19 (Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium, Brookings, South Dakota)
Week 11
No. 7 Eastern Washington defeated No. 6 UC Davis, 38–20 (UC Davis Health Stadium, Davis, California)
Week 12
No. 6 Montana defeated No. 3 Montana State, 29–10 (Washington–Grizzly Stadium, Missoula, Montana)
Upsets
This section lists instances of unranked teams defeating ranked teams during the season.
= Regular season
=During the regular season, 33 unranked teams have defeated a ranked team.
September 4, 2021:
Furman 29, No. 25 North Carolina A&T 18
September 11, 2021:
Merrimack 35, No. 24 Holy Cross 21
September 25, 2021
Holy Cross 45, No. 20 Monmouth 15
Eastern Kentucky 35, No. 19 Austin Peay 27
UT Martin 34, No. 9 Jacksonville State 31
October 2, 2021
Elon 20, No. 22 Richmond 7
The Citadel 35, No. 18 VMI 24
October 9, 2021
Idaho State 27, No. 7 UC Davis 17
South Dakota 20, No. 13 North Dakota 13
Youngstown State 41, No. 16 Missouri State 33
October 16, 2021
Dartmouth 38, No. 23 New Hampshire 21
Chattanooga 21, No. 10 East Tennessee State 16
Sacramento State 28, No. 5 Montana 27
Stony Brook 34, No. 14 Delaware 17
Towson 28, No. 12 Rhode Island 7
October 22, 2021
Columbia 19, No. 25 Dartmouth 0
October 23, 2021
Weber State 35, No. 2 Eastern Washington 34
Illinois State 20, No. 15 South Dakota 14
McNeese State 28, No. 16 Incarnate Word 20
October 30, 2021
William & Mary 31, No. 4 Villanova 18
Maine 45, No. 24 Rhode Island 24
November 5, 2021
Dartmouth 31, No. 20т Princeton 7
November 6, 2021
Portland State 30, No. 24 Weber State 18
Delaware 24, No. 20т William & Mary 3
Illinois State 17, No. 13 Northern Iowa 10 OT
Stephen F. Austin 31, No. 25 Eastern Kentucky 17
November 13, 2021
Alcorn State 31, No. 24 Prairie View A&M 29
Furman 37, No. 21 VMI 31
Mercer 10, No. 22т Chattanooga 6
November 20, 2021
Southeast Missouri State 31, No. 13 UT Martin 14
Nicholls 45, No. 15 Southeastern Louisiana 42
Youngstown State 35, No. 17 Southern Illinois 18
Elon 43, No. 25 Rhode Island 28
Coaching changes
= Preseason and in-season
=This is restricted to coaching changes that took place on or after May 1, 2021. For coaching changes that occurred earlier in 2021, see 2020 NCAA Division I FCS end-of-season coaching changes.
= End of season
=See also
2021 NCAA Division I FBS football season
2021 NCAA Division II football season
2021 NCAA Division III football season
2021 NAIA football season
2021 U Sports football season
References
Kata Kunci Pencarian:
- 2021 NCAA Division I FCS football season
- NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision
- NCAA Division I Football Championship
- 2024 NCAA Division I FCS football season
- 2023 NCAA Division I FCS football season
- List of NCAA Division I FCS football programs
- 2020–21 NCAA Division I FCS football season
- 2019 NCAA Division I FCS football season
- 2018 NCAA Division I FCS football season
- 2021 NCAA Division I FCS football rankings
