FCS teams still seek first win over AP No. 1 FBS foes
Nineteen shots, zero wins: Georgia Southern’s 45-21 loss in 2008 remains the closest an FCS team has come to toppling AP No. 1.
The gap at the top of college football has never been clearer than in the ledger against AP No. 1. Across 19 all-time matchups between an FCS program and the nation’s top-ranked FBS team, the subdivision has not landed a single win, and the closest it has come was Georgia Southern’s 45-21 loss at Georgia on Aug. 30, 2008.
That score still matters because it shows the thin line between a respectable showing and a historic breakthrough. Georgia Southern stayed within striking distance for part of that afternoon in Athens, but the Bulldogs still pulled away, and the No. 1 matchup history has stayed brutally one-sided ever since, including Ohio State’s 70-0 rout of Grambling State on Sept. 6, 2025, and Georgia’s 48-3 win over Tennessee Tech on Sept. 7, 2024.
The broader FCS-FBS picture is far richer, even if the AP No. 1 column remains empty for the subdivision. Since Division I football split into I-A and I-AA for the 1978 season, six FCS teams have beaten ranked FBS opponents: Cincinnati over No. 20 Penn State in 1983, Appalachian State over No. 5 Michigan in 2007, James Madison over No. 13 Virginia Tech in 2010, Eastern Washington over No. 25 Oregon State in 2013, North Dakota State over No. 13 Iowa in 2016 and Montana over No. 20 Washington in 2021.
That history explains why these games keep drawing attention even when they are set up as paycheck dates. Opta said there were a record 126 FCS-vs.-FBS matchups in the 2025 season, and 26 different programs from nine FCS conferences posted at least one FBS win during the 2020s. But the trend line is not as friendly as the raw volume suggests: Opta said there were 33 FCS wins over FBS teams in the five full seasons since 2019, down from 43 in 2014-18 and 44 in 2009-13.
That is where the upset formula starts to matter. The best FCS threats are not built on hope, but on veteran rosters, an experienced quarterback, lines that can survive at the point of attack and enough depth to hold up when the game stretches into the fourth quarter. NCAA coverage of FCS upsets over ranked teams noted that, in five of those wins, the starting quarterback completed an average of 70 percent of his passes, a reminder that precision and continuity can narrow the margin.
The atmosphere also changes the stakes for the FCS program. Delaware’s trip to Penn State in 2023 showed that even a lopsided matchup can carry real significance, with James Franklin saying, “You’d better appreciate winning and what winning takes,” and Ryan Carty pointing to the challenge of more than 110,000 fans at Beaver Stadium. That is the size of the mountain, and the next giant-killer will need nearly every piece in place before it can even think about climbing it.
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