FCS shut out in first three NFL Draft rounds for first time since 1979
No FCS player went in the first three rounds of the NFL Draft, and the first 100 picks were all from bigger programs. Only four FCS prospects came off the board, all on Day 3.
The FCS was shut out of the first three rounds of the 2026 NFL Draft, the first time that has happened in the FCS era and the first such drought since 1979. Through the first 100 picks, not a single FCS player heard his name called, while 97 selections came from Power Four programs and only three from the Group of Six.
That is more than a one-night anomaly. It is a warning sign about how talent now moves through college football, and the numbers point to a squeeze from every direction. The transfer portal has made it harder for FCS programs to hold onto elite players, NIL money has widened the gap for top-end recruits, and NFL teams increasingly seem to be shopping for prospects who have already been tested against the deepest weekly competition.
The first FCS player drafted did not come until No. 104, when Southeastern Louisiana defensive tackle Kaleb Proctor went to the Arizona Cardinals in the fourth round. From there, the rest of the FCS class came in a thin burst on Day 3: North Dakota State wide receiver Bryce Lance at No. 136 to the New Orleans Saints, Stephen F. Austin cornerback Charles Demmings at No. 163 to the Minnesota Vikings and North Dakota State quarterback Cole Payton at No. 178 to the Philadelphia Eagles.
The drop was steep even by recent standards. FCS programs produced 15 draft picks in 2024 and eight in 2025, but only four in 2026. North Dakota State was the only FCS school with multiple selections, continuing a run that had seen the Bison land at least one pick in seven of the previous eight drafts, with 2024 the lone exception. This draft also landed at a turning point for the program, which was in its final year as an FCS member before moving out of the subdivision in 2026.
The league has not suddenly forgotten how to evaluate lower-level stars. It has simply made clear that the path to the first three rounds now runs more often through the Power Four, where the biggest athletes, the biggest stages and the biggest media machines meet. For FCS football, the message from Pittsburgh was blunt: the middle class is still getting drafted, but the old route to Day 1 and Day 2 is getting harder to find.
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