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FCS Bowl Games 2024-25

alabamagrizzly

alabamagrizzly

Well-known member
Watching the GSU/SHS game got me thinking of what former FCS members are playing in bowl games this year. Turns out there’s quit a bit, 17 to be exact. Here’s a list of each game. I included the payout for last years game if it was announced or existed. I also included how many years the former FCS members were active in the FCS. If the game has gone final, I included the score. Something interesting I noticed in all of the first three games, the least experienced FBS team has won the game.

Dec 14th Salute to Veterans Bowl $na
South Alabama(‘10-‘11) vs Western Michigan
USA 30
WMU 23

Dec 18th Boca Raton Bowl $900k
James Madison(‘80-‘21) vs Western Kentucky(‘78-‘08)
JMU 27
WKU 17

Dec 19th Now Orleans Bowl $825k
Georgia Southern(‘84-‘13) vs Sam Houston St(‘86-‘22)
SHS 31
GSU 26

Dec 20th Cure Bowl $573k
Jacksonville St(‘96-‘22) vs Ohio

Dec 23rd Myrtle Beach Bowl $unannounced
Coastal Carolina(‘03-‘15) v UT San Antonio(‘11)

Dec 24th Hawaii Bowl $1.2m
San Jose St vs South Florida(‘97-‘00)

Dec 26th 68 Ventures Bowl $1.5m
Arkansas St(‘82-‘91) vs Bowling Green

Dec 28th Fenway Bowl $unannounced
North Carolina vs UConn(‘78-‘00)

Dec 28th Independence Bowl $2.2m
Army vs Louisiana Tech(‘82-‘88)

Jan 3rd First Responder Bowl $na
North Texas(‘83-‘94) vs Texas St(‘84-‘11)

Jan 4th Bahamas Bowl $225k
Liberty(‘88-‘17) vs Buffalo(‘93-‘98)

Dec 31st Playoff $11m+potential 18m
Boise St(‘78-‘95) vs SMU/PennSt
$4m for advancing to playoff
$4m for advancing to quarterfinals
$6m for advancing to semifinals
$6m for advancing to championship
+$3m expenses/round
 
Shortly after I posted I started to wonder what percentage of the FBS is former FCS members and how that ratio compares to the bowl games and postseason. 23.9% of the FBS is former FCS members, even if a couple were only there a year or two. By comparison 22.9% of this years bowl teams, excluding the playoffs, are former FCS members. Adding the playoffs where 8.3% of the representatives have FCS history, and the percentage lowers to 20.7% which is still fairly close to the overall representation. This should show that the FCS does not water down the FBS by joining. Where they are definitely lacking though is in the Power 5’s where 1of 69 or 1.4% are former members. In ‘26 that’ll jump to 2.7% though when the five MW schools join the PAC 2.
 
alabamagrizzly said:
This should show that the FCS does not water down the FBS by joining.
Click to expand...
I'm not too surprised to hear this. IMO the main differentiator between a good FCS and a non-professional FBS team is depth. I remember Leach mentioning after we (EWU) beat WSU in his post game interview along the lines of "their 1s are as good as our 1s". Going FBS allows the former FCS team to get that depth they're missing.

I would be interested in seeing the data to exclude the FCS teams that were only in FCS because they had to. Programs like San Antonio and Charlotte to name a few from the get-go had the intent of going FBS when forming their programs, while others like Boise it was likely due to the success (thus building a fanbase) they had at the FCS level.
 
alabamagrizzly said:
Watching the GSU/SHS game got me thinking of what former FCS members are playing in bowl games this year. Turns out there’s quit a bit, 17 to be exact. Here’s a list of each game. I included the payout for last years game if it was announced or existed. I also included how many years the former FCS members were active in the FCS. If the game has gone final, I included the score. Something interesting I noticed in all of the first three games, the least experienced FBS team has won the game.

Dec 14th Salute to Veterans Bowl $na
South Alabama(‘10-‘11) vs Western Michigan
USA 30
WMU 23

Dec 18th Boca Raton Bowl $900k
James Madison(‘80-‘21) vs Western Kentucky(‘78-‘08)
JMU 27
WKU 17

Dec 19th Now Orleans Bowl $825k
Georgia Southern(‘84-‘13) vs Sam Houston St(‘86-‘22)
SHS 31
GSU 26

Dec 20th Cure Bowl $573k
Jacksonville St(‘96-‘22) vs Ohio

Dec 23rd Myrtle Beach Bowl $unannounced
Coastal Carolina(‘03-‘15) v UT San Antonio(‘11)

Dec 24th Hawaii Bowl $1.2m
San Jose St vs South Florida(‘97-‘00)

Dec 26th 68 Ventures Bowl $1.5m
Arkansas St(‘82-‘91) vs Bowling Green

Dec 28th Fenway Bowl $unannounced
North Carolina vs UConn(‘78-‘00)

Dec 28th Independence Bowl $2.2m
Army vs Louisiana Tech(‘82-‘88)

Jan 3rd First Responder Bowl $na
North Texas(‘83-‘94) vs Texas St(‘84-‘11)

Jan 4th Bahamas Bowl $225k
Liberty(‘88-‘17) vs Buffalo(‘93-‘98)

Dec 31st Playoff $11m+potential 18m
Boise St(‘78-‘95) vs SMU/PennSt
$4m for advancing to playoff
$4m for advancing to quarterfinals
$6m for advancing to semifinals
$6m for advancing to championship
+$3m expenses/round
Click to expand...
Fun post - thanks for the info!

I love the bowl games, but find myself liking the brackets much more...both FCS and CFP.

Wonder if regular bowl games lose significant luster now that there is a real bracket in FBS.
 
footballdood said:
I'm not too surprised to hear this. IMO the main differentiator between a good FCS and a non-professional FBS team is depth. I remember Leach mentioning after we (EWU) beat WSU in his post game interview along the lines of "their 1s are as good as our 1s". Going FBS allows the former FCS team to get that depth they're missing.

I would be interested in seeing the data to exclude the FCS teams that were only in FCS because they had to. Programs like San Antonio and Charlotte to name a few from the get-go had the intent of going FBS when forming their programs, while others like Boise it was likely due to the success (thus building a fanbase) they had at the FCS level.
Click to expand...
I’ll have to look into this but you’re 100% spot on that the teams with more history do better after their move up. I’m at work now but I’ll definitely do a break down later comparing teams that formed to jump to the FBS quickly vs those with an established history. In the meantime if you wanna read an almost 10 year old post of mine measuring the success or lack of from the 28 teams that had moved up by 2015, then click on the link.

alabamagrizzly

Thread 'Results of FCS move-ups'

Do to the recent success of Georgia Southern and Appalaichian State with their jump to the FBS, the talk of the Griz moving up has started another thread that is currently going pretty well despite the Griz being in the middle of a season(these threads are usually reserved for the off season). Since the FCS(technically 1-AA though most at the 1-A level see it as D-2) started 38 years ago, 28 teams have made the jump to the FBS. Some like Boise State and Marshall have had pretty good success and some like Idaho and Massachusetts have struggled pretty mightily. I, for the most part, have...
 
I’m s
SoldierGriz said:
Fun post - thanks for the info!

I love the bowl games, but find myself liking the brackets much more...both FCS and CFP.

Wonder if regular bowl games lose significant luster now that there is a real bracket in FBS.
Click to expand...
Im sure it has some. Definitely more of a consolation prize than it’s ever been before. Still, winning a bowl game gotta be better than your season just being over after the regular seasons is done.
 
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