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Now that we have the tease of Week Zero behind us, it's time for the real opening weekend of the 2024 college football season.
Every FCS program, besides Stonehill and the eight Ivy League schools, will see action this weekend. At least one FCS school is involved in 31 games on Thursday night, 3 on Friday and 59 on Saturday. The 94th and final game of the weekend will take place Sunday afternoon when North Carolina Central and Alabama State clash in Miami in the Orange Blossom Classic at Hard Rock Stadium at 3 p.m. eastern time on ESPN.
A record 58 schools will face FBS teams over the weekend, up from 42 a year ago.
Some of those FBS-FCS games are among the most interesting games on this week's slate. This past weekend, the computer correctly had FCS member Montana State over New Mexico, but even the oddsmakers had the Bobcats in that game.
One of those Thursday games sends North Dakota State (FCS No. 2 Coaches Poll and Computer) to Colorado as a 9.5-point underdog while the computer has the Bison on the wrong end by 10.05. NDSU is one of 31 FCS schools that are kicking off the 2024 season with a different head coach than a year ago. Matt Entz left to take on the roles of linebackers coach and assistant head coach of the defense at USC. The new Bison head coach is Tim Polasek who was serving as Wyoming’s offensive coordinator for the past three seasons after spending the previous four as the offensive line coach at Iowa. Prior to that, Polasek was an assistant for North Dakota State from 2006-2012 and 2014-2016. He was part of four FCS championship teams during that time in Fargo.
The computer loves Jackson State's chances at ULM on Thursday night, installing the Tigers as 5.12-point favorites against a program that closed last season on a 10-game losing streak and was preseason picked by the Sun Belt Coaches and the computer to finish last in the Sun Belt's west division. However, JSU is a 7.5-point underdog on handicapping websites such as DocSports.com, one of the most trusted names in handicapping since 1971! By the way, Doc's is offering $60 in Free Premium Member Only picks if you want to check out their services.
Elsewhere, two-time defending FCS Champion South Dakota State plays in Stillwater against the Oklahoma State Cowboys as a 9.5-point underdog, as of Tuesday morning. Somewhat surprisingly, the Congrove Computer Rankings at CollegeFootballPoll.com have the No. 1 Jackrabbits as much larger underdogs at 25.20 points. Oklahoma State is No. 23 in the computer's FBS rankings.
Sacramento State at San Jose State also looks interesting. The computer gives the Spartans a 13.62-point advantage but the spread is only 2.5. The Hornets were 30-23 winners at Stanford last year after the oddsmakers had the Cardinal by 6.5 while the computer took Sac State by 6.31.
Sacramento State also won big at Colorado State in 2022, blowing out the Rams 41-10.
SJSU is one of 29 FBS schools with a new head coach this season. Brent Brennan left to take Jedd Fisch's spot at Arizona after Fisch filled Kalen DeBoer's shoes at Washington when he moved to Alabama. Former Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo is now the head coach of San Jose State.
The computer puts Nicholls at just 2.58 points behind Louisiana Tech on Saturday and the line only favors the Bulldogs by 8.5.
SEMO at New Mexico State could also be ripe for an upset, though the Redhawks are 8.5-point underdogs and come up negative in the computer by 15.06.
Highlighting the head-to-head FCS games is Villanova hosting Youngstown State with the Wildcats at No. 6 in the Coaches' Poll and 10th in the computer rankings, while the Penguins are No. 23 in the Coaches' Poll and 28 in the computer rankings.
Last but not least, Kennesaw State plays its first game as a FBS program when the Owls visit UTSA. Kennesaw will compete in Conference USA and, in fact, received a 3rd-place conference finish-projection from the computer. The computer correctly picked Jax State's coming out success a year ago, so we'll see if Kennesaw can manage to do the same in 2024.
Last season had 117 of the 133 FBS schools facing one FCS opponent, and Army played two such games for a total of 118 FBS-FCS matchups.
Of the 16 FBS schools that did NOT play a FCS program, 7 were in the B1G (Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Purdue, Wisconsin). 6 more are evenly split between the Big 12 (Houston, Oklahoma, Texas) and Pac-12 (Colorado, USC, Washington). The other three were Liberty (CUSA) , UTSA (American), and Virginia Tech (ACC).
The FBS programs were 114-4 last year against the FCS schools. Over-all, the FBS is a collective 1,800-152 (.922) since we began tracking this in 2003.
These were the FCS wins in 2023:
September 9: Idaho 33, Nevada 6
September 9: Southern Illinois 14, Northern Illinois 12
September 9: Fordham 40, Buffalo 37
September 16: Sacramento State 30, Stanford 23
In 2024, there are 121 scheduled matchups between FBS and FCS schools with 119 of the 134 FBS schools (Kennesaw State moves up from FCS) playing one such game, while Hawaii and UMass each play two.
This year, 15 schools do not play a FCS opponent and 5 are in the B1G (Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, USC and UCLA). Texas is the only school in the SEC that will not play a FCS program. The same is true for Virginia Tech in the ACC. In fact, Texas and Virginia Tech, along with Michigan and Houston, are repeats from last year's list of schools that played all FBS programs.
2024 FCS wins vs. FBS:
August 24: Montana State 35, New Mexico 31
SOUTH DAKOTA STATE - Won 29 straight over-all, 21 straight home, 18 straight conference games, 8 straight road games.
Last: The #1 seed Jackrabbits posted a 23-3 win over the #2 seed Montana for the national championship in Frisco, Texas on Sunday, January 7.
Next: Visits Oklahoma State (FBS) on Saturday, August 31
MONTANA STATE - Had won 26 straight home games.
Last: Won 35-31 at New Mexico (FBS) on Saturday, August 24.
Next: Visits Utah Tech on Saturday, August 31.
FLORIDA A&M - Won 20 straight home games
Last: Won 24-23 over Norfolk State in the MEAC-SWAC Challenge on Saturday, August 24 in Atlanta
Next: Hosts South Carolina State on Saturday, August 31
WESTERN ILLINOIS - Lost 24 straight over-all, 18 straight conference games, 11 straight home games, 15 road games.
Last: 48-6 home loss vs. South Dakota in season finale on Saturday, November 18.
Next: Visits Northern Illinois (FBS) on Saturday, August 31
CAL POLY - Lost 16 straight true road games.
Last: 48-21 home loss to Weber State in season finale on Saturday, November 18.
Next: Visits San Diego on Saturday, August 31.