Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams continue to sprinkle Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) teams in to their schedules including the latter half of the season. FBS teams, in fact, have some motivation from a post-season perspective to continue scheduling FCS teams.
NCAA Bylaw 18 defines, in part, what contests may count toward earning Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) bowl eligibility. Within Bylaw 18.7, bowl-eligibility legislation states a (football) contest shall serve the purpose of providing a national contest between deserving teams. A "deserving team," the legislation further states, shall be defined as one that has won a number of games against Football Bowl Subdivision opponents that is equal to or greater than the number of its overall losses.
Enter the FCS opponent exception.
Each year, an FBS institution may count one victory against a Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) opponent toward meeting the definition of a "deserving team," provided the FCS opponent had awarded a minimum amount of athletics aid across its team. For many years, that standard was 90% of the permissible maximum number of grants-in-aid per year in football during a rolling two-year period. The maximum number of grants-in-aid for FCS is 63 full-scholarships dispersed across no more than 85 counter student-athletes on an FCS team. That 90% threshold was recently lowered to 80% per adoption of Proposal 2022-8— which would net potentially more FCS opponents as teams that could help an FBS team qualify for bowl eligibility.
This change was driven by recent history that included a blanket waiver that had been recommended by the Football Oversight Committee and approved by the Council during the pandemic that outlined that a win against an FCS opponent that met the 80 percent financial aid requirement in this proposal qualified for an exception during the 2020 football season.
The rationale for making this change permanent was in allowing an FBS team to count one win against an FCS opponent who averages at least 80 percent of the permissible maximum number of grants-in-aid per year in football during a rolling two-year period provides more scheduling flexibility for FBS versus FCS contests and continues to ensure the exception remains available for FCS programs that demonstrate an ongoing commitment to providing financial aid to their football student-athletes.