FCS teams scheduled for 127 games against FBS opponents in 2026
127 FCS-FBS games are on the 2026 slate, and 26 FCS programs are betting on multiple paydays as the price of exposure, survival and playoff stress.
The number keeps climbing: 127 FCS-vs.-FBS games are scheduled for 2026, another step up from 126 in 2025 and a long way from 98 in 2017. The steady rise, year after year, says plenty about the modern FCS calendar: for a growing set of programs, a trip into the FBS is no longer a novelty. It is a revenue line, a scouting stage and, for some teams, a season-defining gamble.
The biggest money-risk tradeoff sits with the 26 FCS programs scheduled to play multiple FBS opponents in 2026, down from 31 a year ago. Charleston Southern, Duquesne, Fordham, Gardner-Webb, Howard, LIU, Maine, Merrimack, Murray State, Nicholls, Norfolk State, Portland State, Robert Morris, Samford, Southeastern Louisiana, Stonehill, Texas Southern, The Citadel, Towson, UT Martin, Wagner, West Georgia and Wofford all land in that group. For several of them, more than one FBS date is survival economics: the kind of check that helps balance a budget, covers travel and keeps the program visible beyond its own footprint.
That is the winner side of the ledger. Schools willing to stack FBS games can turn September into an exposure tour, especially when the opponent list includes Clemson, Georgia Southern, Air Force, Washington State, Coastal Carolina and North Dakota State, along with Liberty, Marshall, Indiana, Rutgers, FIU, Kansas, Appalachian State and Boston College. A single high-profile game can raise a program’s profile for transfers, recruits and donors. Two can become a season-long marketing campaign.
The danger is just as clear. Multiple FBS games can leave an FCS team with little margin for error, especially for programs that still expect to contend for a playoff berth. West Georgia, UT Martin, Towson, Southeastern Louisiana, Samford and Nicholls all sit in a space where one bad Saturday against an FBS opponent can ripple into November. A brutal schedule can harden a team; it can also bury it before the committee ever has a chance to consider the résumé.
The broader trend is unmistakable. The FCS reached 117 such games in both 2021 and 2022, then moved to 118 in 2023, 121 in 2024 and 126 in 2025 before climbing again to 127. The calendar keeps filling with paydays and pressure points, and the schools that manage that balance best are the ones most likely to come out ahead when the season turns from survival to standings.
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