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FCS Preview - 1 vs. 9, and 2 vs. 8 Highlight Week 9 Games

October 25, 2023 by CollegeFootballPoll.com Staff

A 60-game schedule gets underway on Thursday with a pair of games as LIU (1-6, 1-2) visits Central Connecticut (3-4, 1-2) in a NEC affair, and South Carolina State (3-4, 1-0) travels to 10th-ranked North Carolina Central (6-1, 1-0) for a MEAC game.

The penultimate game before the Saturday slate begins will take place on Friday when Brown (3-3, 1-2) visits Penn 5-1, 2-1) for an Ivy League matchup. Going into this weekend, the Quakers are one of five Ivy league schools tied for first place with with a 2-1 conference record.

Two monster games are among the mix on Saturday as each of the top two teams play road games against Top 9 foes.

All Top 25 teams in the Coaches' Poll are seeing action this week as just 10 out of 128 are idle.

Week 9 'Coaches' Poll Top 25' Matchups (2)

(1) South Dakota State at (9) South Dakota - ESPN+, 2:00 PM Eastern -
After raveling to Southern Illinois and getting out of Carbondale with a 17-10 win, South Dakota State (7-0, 4-0) goes on the road again to face No. 9 South Dakota (6-1, 4-1) which knocked off Indiana State 17-3. This will be the 118th meeting in a series that began in 1889 and the Jackrabbits hold a 2-game advantage 56-54-7. SDSU won last year's game 28-3 in Brookings after South Dakota had taken the previous two. The Jacks are 22-5 since 1990.
Computer Favorite: South Dakota State by 13.63

(2) Montana State at (8) Idaho - ESPN+, 4:00 PM Eastern -
The Bobcats (6-1, 4-0) look to follow up a 42-30 win at then-No. 4 Sacramento State with another tough road win at No. 8 Idaho (5-2, 3-1). Montana State took wins in Bozeman in 2018 and 2021 after losing at Idaho in 2016 when the Vandals were still a FBS school. They moved back to the FCS in 2018.
Computer Favorite: Montana State by 9.28

FCS vs. FBS

This season has 117 of the 133 FBS schools facing one FCS opponent, and Army playing two such games for a total of 118 FBS-FCS matchups.

Of the 16 FBS schools that do NOT play a FCS program, 7 are 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 are Liberty (CUSA) , UTSA (American), and Virginia Tech (ACC).

There were no such matchups this past weekend, and none are scheduled for this coming week. There will be 3 such games on November 4, followed by 1 on November 11, and the remaining 4 on November 18.

The FBS programs are 106-4 this year against the FCS schools. Over-all, the FBS is a collective 1,792-152 (.922) since we began tracking this in 2003.

Here are the FCS wins in 2023, so far:
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

Streaks - Current FCS Longest

SOUTH DAKOTA STATE - Won 21 straight over-all, 14 straight conference games, 6 straight road games (tied with Penn).
Last: 17-10 win at Southern Illinois on Saturday, October 21.
Next: at South Dakota on Saturday, October 28.

MONTANA STATE - Won 24 straight home games.
Last: 42-30 win at Sacramento State on Saturday, October 21.
Next: at Idaho on Saturday, October 28.

WESTERN ILLINOIS - Lost 20 straight over-all, 14 straight conference games, and 9 straight home games.
Last: 52-7 loss at North Dakota State on Saturday, October 21.
Next: Hosts Southern Illinois on Saturday, October 28.