American college football season
The 2018 NCAA Division I FCS football season, part of college football in the United States, was organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) level. The FCS Championship Game was played on January 5, 2019, in Frisco, Texas. North Dakota State claimed its second consecutive FCS title, and seventh in eight years, defeating Eastern Washington, 38-24.
Notable headlines
- June 13 – Major changes to redshirt rules in Division I football (both FBS and FCS) were approved by the NCAA Division I Council. From the 2018 season forward, players could participate in as many as four games in a given season while still retaining redshirt status.[1]
- September 15 – Hurricane Florence caused unprecedented disruption to college football schedules. For FCS teams alone, the storm forced the cancellation of six games (Elon at William & Mary, Savannah State at Howard, Tennessee State at Hampton, Presbyterian at Stetson, Walsh (D-II) at Jacksonville, and Colgate at Furman) and the rescheduling of nine others.[2][3][4]
- October 27 – Central Connecticut's Aaron Dawson ran for 308 yards in the second half, a record for a half throughout Division I, and 361 yards overall to lead the Blue Devils to a 49–24 win over Wagner.[5]
- November 17 – In the final game of his college career, Samford quarterback Devlin Hodges set a new FCS record for career passing yardage, surpassing late Alcorn State and NFL great Steve McNair in the Bulldogs' 38–27 win over East Tennessee State. Hodges finished his career with 14,584 yards.[6]
FCS team wins over FBS teams
(FCS rankings from the STATS poll, FBS rankings from the AP poll.)
August 30: UC Davis 44, San Jose State 38
September 1: No. 18 Nicholls 26, Kansas 23 OT
September 1: Northern Arizona 30, UTEP 10
September 1: No. 19 Villanova 19, Temple 17
September 2: No. 14 North Carolina A&T 28, East Carolina 23
September 8: No. 22 Maine 31, Western Kentucky 28
September 22: No. 16 Illinois State 35, Colorado State 19
Conference changes and new programs
Conference standings
Conference summaries
Championship games
Other conference winners
Note: Records are regular-season only, and do not include playoff games.
Playoff qualifiers
Automatic berths for conference champions
At large qualifiers
Abstentions
Postseason
Bowl game
NCAA Division I playoff bracket
Pre-season international exhibitions
Kickoff games
One kickoff game was played during "Week Zero" on August 25:
Awards and honors
Walter Payton Award
Buck Buchanan Award
Jerry Rice Award
Coaches
Coaching changes
Preseason and in-season
This is restricted to coaching changes that took place on or after May 1, 2018. For coaching changes that occurred earlier in 2018, see 2017 NCAA Division I FCS end-of-season coaching changes.
- ^ Interim for remainder of season; interim tag removed on November 28, 2018.
End of season
See also
References
- ^ "DI football to offer more participation opportunities" (Press release). NCAA. June 13, 2018. Retrieved July 27, 2018.
- ^ Adelson, Andrea. "UNC, NC State, Va. Tech called due to Florence". ESPN. Retrieved September 12, 2018.
- ^ "Football Cancels Game against Stetson". GoBlueHose.com. Presbyterian College. Retrieved September 13, 2018.
- ^ "NCAAF College Football Scores - FCS Week 3". ESPN. Retrieved September 14, 2018.
- ^ "CCSU's Aaron Dawson sets record with 308 rushing yards in a half". ESPN. October 27, 2018. Retrieved October 27, 2018.
- ^ "Devlin Hodges notches FCS mark with 14,584 career passing yards". ESPN. November 17, 2018. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
- ^ "London replaces legend as William & Mary coach". STATS FCS Football. November 19, 2018.
- ^ Rittenberg, Adam (December 13, 2018). "North Dakota St. promotes defensive coordinator Matt Entz to head coach". ESPN.com. Retrieved December 14, 2018.
