Will the pursuit of playoff berths at the top of college football cost FCS teams? Not so far

Overmatched FCS teams going into FBS stadiums to take a beating and leave with a half-million dollars is an annual rite of September, and there is no sign of a slowdown in the scheduling of so-called money games as the prospect of an expanded College Football Playoff looms.

This week alone, there will be 48 games pitting a team from the second-tier Championship Subdivision against a Bowl Subdivision program and 37 more will be played next week. In all, a total of 127 FCS-FBS games are set for 2026 and 57 will involve Power Four conference teams.

The expectation in some quarters was that the market for these games would tighten: The move from eight to nine league games across the major conferences, the requirement in the ACC, Big 12 and SEC that each of its teams play at least one Power Four nonconference opponent each year and a potential playoff expansion to 16 or 24 teams could make strength of schedule critical to teams eager to land in the CFP.

“There’s been a lot of discussion about whether an expanded 24-team FBS playoff could reduce opportunities for FCS schools to schedule FBS opponents," said North Dakota athletic director Bill Chaves, whose school visits Nebraska on Sept. 19. "I have been scheduling these games for 20 years at the FCS level, and one thing I’ve learned is that the landscape is always changing. We’re not overly concerned. We'll adapt, go with the flow, and continue to position our program for success regardless of how scheduling evolves.”

College football matchmaker Dave Brown, founder of the Gridiron scheduling software firm, said economics win out in scheduling. Power Four teams are paying an average of $525,000 to opponents from the FCS this year — a significant amount for athletic departments on shoestring budgets — versus $1.3 million to Power Fuur opponents from the Group of Six. FCS schools make around $250,000 when they play a Group of Six team.

The height of FCS glory was Appalachian State's 34-32 upset of then-No. 5 Michigan in 2007, seven years before App State joined the FBS. Mostly, the games turn into beat-downs. The FCS was 4-122 against the FBS last year and, according to FearTheFCS.com, has a .134 winning percentage in such matchups (497-3,708) since Division I football split into the FBS (then I-A) and FCS (I-AA) in 1978.

Mercyhurst, in its third and final year of moving to Division I, will make a combined $1 million for playing road games this month against Group of Six teams New Mexico State, New Mexico and Western Kentucky. The athletic department has gone through growing pains in the D1 transition, and athletic director Joe Spano said he plans to schedule two or three FBS opponents each year.

UT Martin will play back-to-back games at West Virginia ($500,000) and Memphis ($350,000), and athletic director Kurt McGuffin plans to schedule two FBS opponents per year now that the NCAA is allowing FCS programs to play 12-game schedules every year.

“If you play two of those a year, that's quite a bit of money and there are some things I can get done, maybe pay to replace our turf in our stadium," said McGuffin, who has signed contracts for games at Iowa and Alabama in 2028 for a combined $1 million.

McGuffin said he foresees a limited impact from CFP expansion and the strength-of-schedule issue. McGuffin said Power Four teams at the top of their conferences probably would continue to schedule an FCS game most years because it makes financial sense and shouldn't cost them a bid. Middle-of-the-pack power conference teams hoping to compete for one of the final at-large bids might think twice, he said.

Western Carolina athletic director Kyle Pifer said potential power conference realignment and the possibility of power conferences going to 10-game league schedules are the biggest threat to FCS-FBS matchups. The Catamounts have games against FBS teams scheduled five of the next six years, including a 2031 game at Georgia for $650,000.

“I don’t think Georgia is going to leave the SEC, necessarily, but if there’s something else that moves and I have to cancel a game we have scheduled four years out or something like that, that’s more of a concern I have with these money games,” Pifer said. “Right now, people are still open to scheduling us and we’ve been fortunate to have some good partners out there that have sent us contracts and we’ve agreed to the deal. Today I’m not as concerned as maybe I will in two or three years.”

Campbell has at least three power-conference opponents lined up, starting Sept. 12 at Florida. The Camels visit Wake Forest in 2027 and North Carolina State in 2029 and are working to finalize a deal with Duke for 2028.

“If ultimately the strength of schedule becomes even more important because of the possible playoff expansion, it’s possible some of those games will become less common,” Campbell athletic director Hannah Bazemore said. “For us, we’re paying attention, but we’re not panicking. Right now we’re talking about the possibilities and what-ifs.”

AP Sports Writer Alanis Thames in Miami contributed to this report.

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