This past Sunday, the FCS college football season concluded with the championship game at Toyota Stadium. Featured were the number two ranked Sam Houston State against the number one ranked team South Dakota State. Fans were in for a treat when Sam Houston State scored a late touchdown to win its first championship 23-21 in front of 7,840 fans.
This season proved that football can work in the spring with plenty of benefits to moving FCS football to the spring. The teams in the FCS would no longer play meaningless FBS games. For years, these teams were an afterthought behind the FBS. Every year when the schedule comes out, there’s always an FCS versus FBS matchup.
Those matchups are not great for the sport. It’s always a guarantee that the FCS team is going to get pounded by the bigger teams. There have been some occasions where an FCS team beats an FBS team, like in 2007 when Appalachian State defeated Michigan 34-32. Moving to the spring would eliminate those uneventful games for good.
Another reason a move to the spring would be more exposure. This would be a challenge for football. During the spring season, the only sports going on are basketball, hockey, and auto racing. Later in the spring, college basketball has its tournament, baseball season starts, and basketball and hockey playoffs.
Since 2019, the Alliance of American Football, XFL (2020), and The Spring League have shown that people will watch football all year round. Last year, the XFL was averaging over a million views, more than what the AAF did in 2019.
In fact, according to XFL News Hub’s Mike Mitchell, the week one game on FOX between the Jousters and Generals averaged 380,000 views. Now that’s not close to XFL numbers, but 380,000 watched a football game in the spring.
The FCS have been around a lot longer than those leagues, and many fans would know more players if they could watch them live. This year, only five players from FCS football were drafted into the NFL, including North Dakota State quarterback Trey Lance at number three to the San Francisco 49ers. Those numbers would increase if they went to a spring season, along with money and better television contracts.
Now that FCS football season is over, it won’t be long now before college football returns in three months. While FCS football is preparing to play a fall season, they should strongly consider making the permanent move to spring. More football all year round is a win for football fans.
