In Week 0, the Montana State Bobcats, who were favored by the way, took down the New Mexico Lobos of the FBS. While the Bobcats were favored, it’s a big deal any time an FCS team knocks off an FBS opponent.
Last weekend, we had a couple of near upsets on the books featuring teams from the FCS:
- Colorado 31, North Dakota State 26
- Arkansas State 34, Central Arkansas 31
- Middle Tennessee 32, Tennessee Tech 25
- Texas Tech 52, Abilene Christian 51 (OT)
- New Mexico State 23, Southeast Missouri State 16
And there were some other games that were really close either at halftime or in the third quarter before the bottom fell out. It goes to show you how there isn’t much of a difference between the Group of Five and the upper echelon of the FCS. I’ve always been a big proponent of the coaching and development that takes place at the FCS level, which definitely explains a lot of these upsets and near-upsets each season.
With regards to the FCS Power Rankings, you don’t want to penalize a team too much for losing to an FBS opponent; you can definitely add context and put the game in its proper perspective. However, there is a new No. 1 in our rankings this week based on what they did against an FBS foe and for how they followed that up the next week against an FCS one.
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