SwampSwamiSports.com presents my first attempt to rank every team playing in the NCAA’s FCS (Football Championship Subdivision) for games played through Saturday, October 4, 2025.

The FBS (large division) schools have the Associated Press (media-based) and AFCA (the coaches) providing their own weekly poll.  Of course, yours truly entered that field several years ago and just published his first rankings for the new season today.

The FCS (formerly called NCAA Division 1-AA) currently features a Coaches Poll and another (media) poll called STAT.

You will be able to see this week’s Coaches’ poll to compare against the SwampSwamiSports.com FCS rankings this week.

How did the FCS Coaches’ Poll have the 2-3 Idaho Vandals at #13 this week?

This FCS Coaches’ Poll apparently gives a lot of weight to teams which have performed well in previous seasons.  Idaho has been a regular in the 24-team FCS playoffs.

Perhaps that is why the 2-3 Idaho Vandals are ranked #13 in this week’s Coaches’ Poll.  They came in at #71 (correct) in mine.

Idaho lost two close games at FBS members Washington State (13-10) and San Jose State (31-28).  The Vandals were beaten at 5-0 Montana (41-30).  Idaho performed well against three tough opponents, but that is still three losses in five games.

Their two wins have come at home by just seven points against 2-3 St. Thomas (Minnesota) and by 14 points over 1-5 Utah Tech.

Let’s see how well Idaho plays the rest of this fall.  If Idaho starts to rack-up the wins, they will move up my rankings in the next few weeks.

The FCS has some really cool team nicknames!

The NCAA’s small college division features 129 teams this season.

Longtime FCS power Delaware (the Blue Hens) moved up into the now-136 team FBS larger school division this season.  They joined Missouri State in becoming members of Conference USA.

I discovered that many FCS teams have some rather interesting nicknames, too.

Today’s initial FCS Top 25 will feature the Mountain Hawks, Jackrabbits, Bison, Paladins (a knight, by the way), Salukis, Hornets, and the Governors.

The lower portion of this week’s FCS rankings will find the Delta Devils (Mississippi Valley State), the Penguins (Youngstown State), the Leathernecks (Western Illinois), the Sharks (Long Island University), two sets of Lumberjacks (Stephen F. Austin and Northern Arizona), and the Fighting Camels (Campbell).

Check it out!

The FCS has fewer unbeaten teams than the large school division FBS

There are fewer unbeaten teams (eight) in the FCS through October 4 as compared to the larger division FBS (15) this week.

That’s because many FCS schools accept one or two invitations per year to travel to the bigger schools and play for a large financial guarantee.  Paydays of several hundred thousand dollars give a boost to smaller schools’ athletics budgets.

North Dakota State has dominated the FCS football group for much of the past two decades.

The Bison have won ten of the past 14 football titles.

Missouri Valley rival South Dakota State Jackrabbits has claimed two national championships during the past three seasons.

The Missouri Valley Football Conference seems loaded again this season with three teams in the initial SwampSwamiSports.com FCS Top 25 rankings this week.

There are 13 FCS Conferences plus two teams playing as independents (Merrimack Warriors and Sacred Heart Pioneers).

Let’s provide the rules for the SwampSwamiSports.com FCS Top 25 rankings:

There you have it!

Each team should stand on its own merit based on this year’s body of work.  By the end of the season, some of the long-time favorites may work themselves back into the upper tier and be worthy of another invitation into the 24-team FCS playoffs beginning the weekend of November 29.

Let’s give credit to this week’s top teams as we unveil the entire 129-team FCS rankings for games played through Saturday, October 4, 2025!

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