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Almost a year to the day, FCS schools had their best single weekend performance against FBS teams by going 3-26. Before the weekend began, the FCS was 1-60 against FBS schools.
On September 9 of last year, FCS schools were 3-35 in such games. Idaho was one of those teams, knocking off Nevada 33-6. This past Saturday (September 7), the Vandals got their first win ever at Wyoming and second in history (2-7) with the other occurring in 1921. What made it worse for the Cowboys was that the game was played in front of the school's first home sell-out (25,070) since Wyoming hosted Nebraska on September 24, 2011.
The other FCS upsets saw St. Francis (PA) beat Kent State 23-17, and Southern Utah down UTEP 27, UTEP 24 in overtime.
Last year, the other upsets had Southern Illinois downing Northern Illinois 14-12, and Fordham outscoring Buffalo 40-37.
Ironically, Northern Illinois on the same weekend this year was a 16-14 upset winner at Notre Dame.
For the record, the FCS had four FBS wins on the same weekend almost two years ago to the day.
Scroll down for more about FCS-FBS matchups, and visit Fear the FCS to view every FCS win over a FBS program.
Among ranked teams, South Dakota went into the weekend at No. 1 in the FCS Congrove Computer Rankings at CollegeFootballPoll.com, but fell 27-13 at Wisconsin. Teams ranked 2nd through 5th are all 1-1 with the lone loss for each school coming against FBS program.
North Dakota State is 2nd, followed by South Dakota State, the aforementioned South Dakota, and Idaho. According to the computer, Idaho has the toughest schedule of all 129 FCS teams.
The Bison's loss was 31-26 at Colorado. The defending national champion Jackrabbits lost 44-20 at Oklahoma State on Labor Day weekend, which is also when Idaho fell 24-14 at Oregon.
Idaho's win this week was the catalyst for a jump up from No. 7 in the rankings.
Delaware was the computer's preseason No. 1 team, but is eligible for the national title as the Blue Hens are in a transition season to the FBS where they will play in Conference USA next season. So, in essence, NDSU is actually No. 1 right now.
This past Saturday, Delaware was idle and will head to NC A&T this week. Both are CAA schools, but Delaware games also do not officially count in the CAA Standings because of the transition.
The Bison were 52-3 winners over Tennessee State, the Jackrabbits prevailed 45-24 at home over then-No. 26 Incarnate Word, and last year's runner-up in the FCS, Montana, dropped from 3rd to 8th after a 27-24 loss at North Dakota which moved up from 22nd to 19th.
Montana State, the chief rival of the Griz, stayed perfect with a 41-24 home win over Maine to hold steady in the rankings at No. 6.
No. 9 Drake was a 35.5-point underdog at Eastern Washington, but the computer only had the Eagles by a fraction of a point at 0.24 and was obviously closer to reality as the Bulldogs won the contest 35-32 in overtime in Cheney. Drake was 10th a week ago.
Northern Iowa climbed from 15th to 10th with a 17-10 win at St. Thomas where, again, the oddsmakers were way off base. The sportsbooks had the Panthers by 28.5 over the Tommies while the computer put the margin at 3.24.
Northern Iowa's entrance into the top 10 means 40% of those top ten spots belong to schools from the Missouri Valley Football Conference (MVFC). The Big Sky has three and the CAA has two with Villanova at No. 7 to join Delaware in that grouping. The Wildcats were 28-3 winners at Colgate.
Princeton, which won't have a game until next week (September 21) when all eight Ivy League schools begin play, is ranked 11th. And largely because they haven't even had a chance to win or lose, the Tigers are joined by three other schools in the Top 25 with Harvard at 16, Yale at 20, and Penn at 23.
Elon bullied its way up from the ladder from No. 27 to No. 15 after a 42-mile trip to NC Central in Durham where the Phoenix took a 41-19 win.
William & Mary took a nosedive from 9th to 21st as the result of a 40-21 loss at FBS member Coastal Carolina.
Richmond, which began the year ranked 22nd, has fallen all the way down to 54 after a 0-2 start. The Spiders were on the short end of a 34-13 school at Virginia and followed that up with a 26-19 loss at Wofford as a 17.5-point favorite. The Terriers, now 2-0, have moved from 91st to 50th. The preseason projections had Wofford finishing the year ranked 86th with a 4-8 record.
Richmond is moving from the CAA to the Patriot League next season.
St. Francis (Pa.) led by as much as 17-0 at Kent State and held on for a 23-17 win to secure its first-ever victory over a FBS opponent.
That was one of 29 games that pitted FBS schools against FCS programs this past weekend and the FBS schools were 26-3.
In the other FCS wins, Idaho prevailed 17-13 at Wyoming, and Southern Utah scored a 27-24 overtime victory at UTEP. It was Southern Utah's fourth win over a FBS program, having also taken down Arkansas State in 1997, UNLV in 2011, and South Alabama in 2013. Idaho has been on both sides of the fence since the Vandals have spent time as a FBS program and a FCS school.
For the season, FBS programs are 86-4 against the FCS schools. They were 114-4 last year. Over-all, the FBS is a collective 1,886-156 (.924) 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 scheduled matchups between FBS and FCS schools with 119 schools 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
September 7: St. Francis (PA) 23, Kent State 17
September 7: Idaho 17, Wyoming 13
September 7: Southern Utah 27, UTEP 24 (OT)
SOUTH DAKOTA STATE - Won 30 straight vs FCS teams, 22 straight at home, 17 straight conference games, and 8 straight FCS road games.
Last: Won 45-24 at home over Incarnate Word on Saturday, September 7.
Next: Hosts D3 Augustana (SD) on Saturday, September 14.
FLORIDA A&M - Had won 13 straight over-all, but lost at Miami, Florida (FBS). The defending HBCU National Champs still have streaks of 13 straight FCS wins, 21 home wins, and 16 conference wins (2nd longest)
Last: Lost 56-9 at FBS Miami (FL) on Saturday, September 7. Florida A&M won 16-13 the first time these teams met in a major upset in 1979. The 'Canes have won all eleven meetings since then by at least 32 points and as much as 67. The school made $700,000 for the trip to Miami.
Next: The Rattlers get a bye week before heading to Troy for another FBS contest on Saturday, September 21. We couldn't find any info on whether or not they are making money for the 160-mile trip to Troy trip.
WESTERN ILLINOIS - Lost 26 straight over-all, 18 straight conference games, 11 straight home games, 17 road games.
Last: Lost 77-3 at Indiana (FBS) on Friday, September 6.
Next: Visits 13th-ranked Illinois State on Saturday, September 14.
CAL POLY - Lost 18 straight true road games.
Last: Lost 41-7 at Stanford (FBS) on Saturday, September 7.
Next: Hosts D2 Western Oregon on Saturday, September 14.