COLUMN: Gap between FCS and FBS closing fast

Southeast Missouri State running back Peyton Brown carries the ball against New Mexico State on Saturday, Aug. 31, in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Photo courtesy of SEMO Athletics

Under no circumstances should a team in the FBS lose to a team in the FCS.

The FBS schools are bigger, more talented, and have so much money that they pay these small schools to come to their stadiums and get sacrificed at the altar of the Big House in front of hundreds of fans.

However, that is starting not to be the case, and this may finally become the year the FCS closes the gap with the FBS.

The 2024 season started with Montana State entering New Mexico as a two-touchdown favorite and rallied to win 35-31 on Aug. 24.

Entering Week 1, FCS powerhouse North Dakota State was only a 10-point road underdog at Colorado. Two-time defending FCS national champion South Dakota State also entered No. 17 Oklahoma State as a 10-point underdog. Heck, Southeast Missouri State was an 8.5-point underdog against New Mexico State. The Redhawks fell 23-16 but actually held the lead right up until the final three minutes.

In the end, the FBS squads won to varying margins but there were a lot of games that put plenty of teams on notice.

Idaho, the first school to go from FCS to FBS and then back to FCS, came within 10 points of No. 3 Oregon on Saturday, losing 24-14. As an FBS squad, the Vandals would lose to the Pac-12 powers by a large margin on an annual basis. Yet now, as a ranked team in the FCS, they finally showed some fight against one of the best teams in the country.

Central Arkansas mounted a 21-point fourth-quarter rally to take a 31-27 lead against Arkansas State in the final minute, before ultimately losing 34-31.

Middle Tennessee and Texas State also almost lost to FCS teams, and Texas Tech went into overtime with Abilene Christian.

For all of those near misses, there are still plenty of landslide victories at the hands of the FBS, especially the power conference teams who wouldn't let a promising season get nuked by such an embarrassing loss. The SEC is certainly not involved in this conversion. No. 6 Ole Miss flattened Furman 76-0, Arkansas smoked Arkansas-Pine Bluff 70-0, Auburn humiliated Alabama A&M 73-3, No. 15 Tennessee crushed Chattanooga 69-3, and Mississippi State eked out a 56-7 win over Eastern Kentucky by comparison. The only noteworthy thing to come out of No. 11 Missouri shutting out Murray State 51-0 was center Connor Tollison getting to share the field with fellow Jackson High School alum and Racers offensive lineman Ashton Flinn.

"It was exciting to see another high school friend, somebody that I grew up with all through high school, played for three years alongside each other," Tollison said on SEMO ESPN.

So in 2024, the gap between the four power conferences (SEC, Big 12, B1G, and ACC) and the FCS is still as wide as the Mississippi River. However, the gap between the Group of 5 and the FCS might be closing.

Of all the things about SEMO's game against New Mexico State, a program that's coming off a C-USA title game appearance and its second-ever 10-win season, is how indistinguishable the two teams are from each other in terms of size. The Aggies did not look overwhelming to the Redhawks and it was why SEMO's defense could cause havoc and hold them to 10 points through the first three quarters and only 60 yards passing the entire game. It's why senior quarterback Paxton DeLaurent could throw for almost 300 yards and make Dorian Anderson look like the next Ryan Flournoy.

If SEMO had the stadium and the resources to truly grow as an athletic institution, it could very well make the same transformation Missouri State is making. MSU is soon to join NMSU and Conference USA, which is rapidly turning into the stopgap for FCS-to-FBS transitions.

Jacksonville State, a former member of the Ohio Valley Conference, went from winning nine games in the FCS (2022) to nine games in C-USA the very next season. Liberty has not recorded a losing season since making the switch in 2018, including winning the C-USA title with a perfect regular season in 2023.

So is the FCS closing the gap with the mid-majors of the FBS or is C-USA being dragged down to their level?

Maybe another week of FBS vs. FCS action will answer that question.