Week 1 Pick 'Em

The Salukis hold on to defeat the Bulldogs. Chandler Chapman rushed for 133 yards and received 47 yard on two catches. Jake Curry threw for 153 yard and two touchdowns. The Salukis improve to 1-1 on the season. Jake Curry still looks a little rusty but he did have some decent plays. And a Southern Illinois player Karson Konkel of Pickneyville, IL catches his first touchdown pass of his career.

They gotta drop the weird Microsoft WordArt Vandal face logo that they’re wearing against Utah. They’re possibly the worst helmets in football.

The Vandals or Idaho script looks wayyyyy better. Ever a Big I would look much better.

What is going on lol

If your team was that good that quickly after moving up from d2 you’d gloat too! So why does everyone hate on them? They seem to have an insane amount of support from their university (donors too…) and especially their fans. So I’m just curious every school has loud mouth fans so why the hateful comments?

First, I want to say, I'm sorry Minutemen fans. I actually always root for UMass and will be rooting for ya'll tonight and during the MACtion this year.

Second... Oh My Lawd...

I knew it was bad, but I didn't know it was this bad. They used to be a consistent, formidable force, but their FBS transition has been an unmitigated disaster.

Back when they were in the FCS as a member of the Atlantic-10 , UMass consistently fielded teams finishing above .500. Through the 2000s, they were a legit powerhouse. They took home the FCS Championship under Mark Whipple and were a top-15 program under Don Brown. Even when they moved to the CAA, which was a high-tier FCS conference, they managed to hold their own with a respectable 6-6 average.

Then came 2012...The move up to the FBS and the MAC.

The program has been absolutely horrible ever since. Their overall record since 2012 is 26-134 aka a win % of 0.163.

The admins tried to fix it by bringing back the architects of their glory days. Both Whipple and Brown returned for second stints during this last 14 years, but both were flummoxed. 2025 was an rock bottom...as the Minutemen went 0-12 under Joe Harasymiak in their first year.

With all that said, I'm excited to see what they do this year. UMass was not penalized much last year and very young. This year Joe has "his" guys and QB "Pop" Watson III (Virginia Tech transfer) has moxy. In their first game against Rutgers this season Joe has some insight against the Scarlett Knights as he was the former DC for them.

I was curious, why has UMass failed where other teams that transitioned have fared much better?

Is it all to blame on the Athletic Department? Lack of money? or just plain bad luck?

EDIT: This team has hope!!

EDIT2: What? 3 touchdowns?? Forced Fumble??? This couldn't be fathomed after losing 44-10 to Akron last year

YOU KNOW WHAT THIS THREAD IS FOR

CAPS LOCK: ON

BASIC RULES: STILL APPLY

YOUR OPINIONS: HOT GARBAGE, BUT WELCOME ALL THE SAME

2026 After Week 0 /r/FCS Poll Results

Dropped from the Top 10: NCCU, Tennessee State, Alabama A&M, Bethune-Cookman

Others receiving votes: Tennessee State (8), Hampton (7), Morgan State (4), Norfolk State (4), Alabama A&M (4), NCCU (3), Bethune-Cookman (2), UAPB (1)

The full list of responses can be found here. Congratulations to /u/damnyoutuesday for having the Top 25 submission that best correlated with the final HBCU Top 10 this week!

Tarleton State Week 0 Highlights — Some really fun stuff from this offense

Put together a quick highlight reel of Tarleton State’s best plays from Week 0.

If you like watching offensive football, they’re a really fun team to follow. Lots of creativity in the run game, play action, QB run stuff, and some explosive plays.

I’ve been breaking down more of what Tarleton is doing offensively, so I figured I’d throw the best plays from Week 0 together in one video.

Would be interested to hear what stood out to you guys.

Let's hear your hot take FCS opinions. The ones you know in your heart of hearts are right, but for some reason aren't embraced by the FCS community (or particular fanbases) en masse!

Could be controversial (the Ivy League very well might be the best FCS conference on the East Coast), unpopular but you know is true (Sam Houston was at least as good a team as JMU from 2011 through the "2020" season), or even somewhat popular but still liable to rankle some folks (the Walter Payton award should go to the "best" offensive player, not just the offensive player with the best stat line because they played a weak schedule).

Sorted by controversial for maximum spiciness

Rules

• Keep it somewhat relevant to the FCS

• Takes are welcome whether they're looking back historically or in reference to current games/rankings/polls/etc.

• Try to keep it civil (basic /r/CFB and /r/FCS rules still apply)

I know we developed a small cult following after our FCS run last year. But this is far and away the biggest brand deal I have ever seen ISU Football get of any kind. Even if it is on the coattails of Oregon. Kind of blew my mind to see.

Multi-Box FCS games is possible now. Wooo

Hello r/fcs

Greetings from the corporation who quietly pulls the strings of FCS Football. We would like to celebrate what in all likelihood will be another profitable season of Brent Vigen failures of covering the spread, Southern Illinois committing mid-game Salukicide, and the SoCon uhhhh, well existing.

Although in the past sales reps of our organization have moved on. Notably Bobby Hauck has left our organization, deciding to not reap commissions of millions of new installations sold due to Grizzly sized failures. Most importantly we wish to discuss why the original The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly posts have ceased from the account of u/AMankandaMiner as many were wondering if he was even still alive.

I can safely report as spokesperson for the Montana Drywall Association that the poster in question is alive and well, living happily with his wife and their child who is due in a few weeks. He also in the process of the last 6 months last access to his Reddit Account and is inactive on the platform as a result. He's also going through a career change with almost no time to continue his Shitposting on this platform.

PS It's me guys I saw the comments on u/Seadragon1983 GBU post the other day and wanted to let everyone know I'm alive. I'll still try to be a fixture here as much as I can but yeah life has changed massively. Want to let y'all know that I'm so happy beyond words to see the Weekly GBU tradition continue on this sub.

No matter what happened, it's not all bad. Say something nice about your team or their performance.

After a small hiccup with the site (hopefully won't happen again, a bug that I caught which came with the transition of the base off of Sheets), we've got Week 1 lines for every upcoming FCS game!

And as an added bonus, I added some additional functionality to the site along with the standard lines, ranking lists, and matchup tool (mainly (Conference vs Conference Tracking, full Conference Standings, and embedding the live r/CFB Scoreboard).

Go check it out, and feel free to continue to suggest ways to improve or additional content that would be helpful.

Anwyays, lines!

Most Interesting Stat of the Week:

Normally we exclude games against non-Division I opponents, but we had to mention this game. If you exclude garbage time, South Carolina State held Savannah State to a 0% success rate on its first six drives, while posting a 70% success rate itself.

Click here to vote in the /r/FCS Poll.

After signing in, click the link that says Current /r/FCS Poll. The poll will remain open until 12 pm (noon) Central Time on Wednesday, September 2^nd so that the rankings are ready in time for Week 0. The results will be posted later that day on /r/FCS.

Due to the change allowing 12 games in the FCS every year and the calendar shift that comes with it, there were a lot of games in Week 0 this year. We traditionally haven't had a new poll after Week 0 due to the lack of games, but we will this year and going forward.

Optional D1 HBCU Top Ten Poll

You now have the option to vote just for the HBCU Top 10 if you so choose! At the end of your FCS Top 25 (or Top 10) submission, you'll be given the opportunity to also submit a vote for your ranking of the top 10 HBCUs in the subdivision. This is optional and meant to be an additional fanbase voice within the Black College National Championship conversation.

Note: this does not prevent you from ranking the HBCUs in your standard FCS ranking submission.

As a reminder, the /r/FCS poll is now part of the Massey Ratings Composite. As such, we highly recommend submitting a full top 25 vote if you think you can put one together. But we're leaving the option to submit just a top 10 for those who’d prefer that route.

• Please check that you didn't vote for the same team twice. Ballots with a duplicated team that are not fixed by the due date will be discarded.

• Joke votes will be thrown out at the moderators' discretion. Diversity of opinions is good; trolling is not.

• If you make a mistake on your ballot or would like to change it for any reason, please re-submit a corrected ballot. Your old one will be discarded automatically and only your newest ballot will count. You can resubmit as many times as necessary until the deadline.

• If you're unsure if you messed up your ballot, please leave a comment and we'll take a look for you and let you know.

Here are some useful links to help you with your submission:

• Massey Composite Ranking

• STATS Poll (Updates on Mondays)