Boston College Eagles

California Golden Bears

Clemson Tigers

Duke Blue Devils

Florida State Seminoles

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

Louisville Cardinals

Miami Hurricanes

NC State Wolfpack

North Carolina Tar Heels

Pittsburgh Panthers

SMU Mustangs

Stanford Cardinal

Syracuse Orange

Virginia Cavaliers

Virginia Tech Hokies

Wake Forest Demon Deacons

Oregon State Beavers

Washington State Cougars

Army Black Knights

The United States Military Academy in West Point is the oldest of the three major academies that train officers for the US military^note There are a total of five federal service academies. The other two, Coast Guard in New London and Merchant Marine in Kings Point, are much smaller and their athletic programs compete in the D-III level New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) alongside schools like MIT and Emerson. and set precedents for many military and civilian American universities that followed. Since the federal government funds all necessary academic operations, TV exposure and money are less of an issue for Army than for most other D-I schools. Also, being able to play a national schedule enables West Point to expose itself to potential cadets throughout the country, making the team a useful recruiting tool for the highly selective academy. The Black Knights used to be a powerhouse in college football in an era where a military career was likely to be more stable and respectable than playing a game for the rest of one's life. Much like the Army the school represents, the program peaked in prestige in the mid-1940s under legendary coach Red Blaik (1941-58), winning three straight national titles, posting multiple undefeated seasons, and producing three Heisman winners in the dominant FB/HB tandem of Doc Blanchard (1945) and Glenn Davis (1946) and future general Pete Dawkins (1958). However, as pro football salaries rocketed into the stratosphere in the '70s, West Point had a difficult time convincing great athletes to come play for them, as potential cadets faced the choice of spending the prime of their athletic potential in service to their country rather than making money and being famous. (Basically, the NFL stopped drafting Army players when the Army stopped drafting high school players.) The school bottomed out with winless seasons in 1973 and 2003 and have lost far more games than they've won since the 1960s, though current coach Jeff Monken (who inherited a program in 2014 that had one winning season in the last 17 years) has finally returned the Black Knights to consistent winning and bowl appearances; the school is tied with Western Kentucky for the best FBS bowl win percentage among teams that have played at least 10 bowls.^note However, WKU's overall bowl record is a shade below Army's; the Hilltoppers went 4–2 in small-college and D-II bowls before joining FBS. Going into the 2024 season, the best record overall among teams that have played 5 or more bowls is Appalachian State's 7–1 (.875).

The "Black Knights" nickname was only officially adopted in 1999, in reference of their black uniforms^note Specifically, their nickname was "The Black Knights of the Hudson".; prior to that, they had just been known as the Cadets, and their mascot is a mule. Army is a member of the Patriot League (see FCS section in the main "Conferences" page) for (most) non-football sports, as is Navy; outside of football, the academy is known for its very competitive lacrosse team, which won eight pre-NCAA national titles. Outside of a relatively brief membership with CUSA, Army has been a football independent through all of its history and is the only service academy that is still unaffiliated. It won't be for long; it is set to join Navy and replace SMU as a football-only American member in 2024.

Back in the 1940s, the rivalry between Army and Notre Dame was arguably the most important in college football, as they claimed the majority of national championships and Heisman winners in that decade; it has greatly cooled in intensity since then. Army seems to have barely noticed, as the only rivalry—and, indeed, the only thing—that really matters to the program is with Navy. Said contest has kept the program in the spotlight for at least one Saturday a year, as the Army-Navy game is traditionally the last of the regular season and the only FBS game played on that week. Even though Army and Navy will soon be united in American Conference football, the game will continue to be played on its traditional date as a nonconference matchup.^note Meaning that should the two academies make the conference title game, they will play in back-to-back weeks. It is typically played at a neutral site, which means relatively few football fans get to see Army home games on TV these days; a shame, considering that the relatively small and asymmetrical Michie Stadium is often considered one of the most beautiful venues in the U.S., located right up against the shores of the Hudson River and nestled in a valley that looks truly breathtaking in the fall (weather permitting).

Charlotte 49ers

The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, nestled in the largest city of the Carolinas, has one of the youngest programs in FBS football and is one of the younger schools in general. Established in 1946 as a G.I. Bill campus of the larger University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill^note The University of North Carolina system—which since 1972 has included all of the state's public four-year institutions—wasn't established until 1963. for returning World War II vets, its athletic name of the "49ers" is named for how the school was saved from closure by the city school district in 1949. Their football team was officially refounded in 2013 after a 64-year absence, and since then has posted the worst win-loss record in FBS history. The Niners have played most of their history in Conference USA but were scooped up by The American in 2023 to replace the departures of UCF, Cincinnati, and Houston for the Big 12.

Navy Midshipmen

The United States Naval Academy's football team is Exactly What It Says on the Tin; its athletes are all officers-in-training that hold the rank of midshipmen. Like its interservice rival Army, Navy has a very old and decorated football history, in part because one of its multiple stringent requirements for recruits is athletic participation. Navy football used to be a strong program, even winning a national title in 1926, before the allure of pro football careers greatly weakened its recruiting power. The school's performance plummeted in the mid-1960s, shortly after the team produced two Heisman winners, HB Joe Bellino and QB Roger Staubach, who both had to serve in Vietnam before they could begin playing for the NFL. After underperforming for several decades, the program returned to winning in the 21st century, helped by the record-setting rushing offenses of Paul Johnson and Ken Niumatololo, particularly when led by dual-threat QB Keenan Reynolds (2012-15). After well over a century as an independent, Navy joined The American in 2015; however, the program's main priority year in-and-out remains defeating Army in the final game of the season.

A live goat named Bill is used as the team mascot. Bill's been a regular target of kidnappings by Army cadets, who have a slightly higher success rate then many other schools due to the nature of their schooling but face much steeper potential costs, since Bill is technically the property of the most powerful military on Earth. Outside of their fellow military academies, Navy maintains strong rivalries with Notre Dame and nearby Maryland. Navy's non-football sports mainly play in the FCS Patriot League, also home to Army. The chant shown in the caption to the team logo originated at the Academy's prep school, quickly spread to the Academy proper, and has gained wide traction in the US, most notably among supporters of the US men's national soccer team.

Rice Owls

Rice University is one of the most prestigious private universities in the U.S., but its football team has not been nearly as competitive on the gridiron for several decades. A charter member of the Southwest Conference, the Owls were very competitive in the region for several decades under the long tenure of Hall of Fame coach Jess Neely (1940–66), including being involved in one of the most memorable games in college football history, a defeat of Alabama in which one of the Tide ran off the bench to tackle a Rice player mid-play. However, the small and highly academically selective school (smallest by admissions of any FBS school save for Tulsa) was unable to keep pace with the other powers of the SWC as the sport evolved, and it failed to post a winning season from 1964–91, including going completely winless in '82 and '88. The SWC dissolved shortly after Rice finally broke this streak; the underperforming program was understandably not brought along to the Big 12, and while it has performed relatively better since landing in CUSA, it is still nowhere close to the power it once held. It's one of the six schools that left CUSA in 2023 for The American—ironically, at the same time its crosstown rival Houston left The American for the Big 12.

Despite not being very good at football for a long time, Rice still had major influence on the sport and even American culture in a few respects. Built near the heart of downtown Houston before the city had a big enough population to support a pro sports team, the school at one point had aspirations for being as big a deal in Houston as the Texas Longhorns had become in Austin. In 1950, they built the massive Rice Stadium on-campus, which served as the biggest venue in the city in the decades before the construction of the Astrodome. The stadium famously was where John F. Kennedy delivered his "We choose to go to the Moon" speech, where he compared the challenges of space travel to Rice facing Texas in football, and it even hosted Super Bowl VIII, one of just three college venues to do so. However, the construction of new venues in Houston (including one by UH) and the steep decline of the program has caused the facility to fall into an increased state of disrepair; the upper deck has been off-limits for years, and even then sellouts are rare.

South Florida Bulls

Like its greatest rival UCF, the University of South Florida (aka USF) has a young football program that saw a rapid rise through the conference ranks thanks in part to its massive growth in student population.^note The university has also greatly bolstered its academic reputation; in 2023, it became a member of the Association of American Universities, an elite organization of top research universities (69 in the US, two in Canada). Founded in 1997 as a Division I-AA program, the school made the leap to I-A in 2001 and soon developed a reputation for upsetting ranked schools; a string of such upsets in 2007 saw the school go all the way to #2 in the mid-season rankings before quickly falling back to Earth. The team has been mostly decent but inconsistent ever since. The Bulls play out of the NFL Buccaneers' stadium, and light up their distinctive mushroom-shaped water tower bright green after every victory. They may not be long for sharing with the Bucs; the USF board has approved a preliminary budget for a new on-campus 35,000-seat stadium that's penciled in for 2026, though the final costs won't be set until some time in 2024, before which time USF can back out without penalty.

Temple Owls

Temple University is an urban school in Philadelphia best known for its basketball program, one of the winningest in the nation that last won a national title in 1938, the year before the NCAA Tournament began. Its football program has been a historic underperformer most known as the last HC stop for Pop Warner and a springboard for a few other coaches to go on to bigger and better things. In many ways, the football program has been a massive hindrance for Temple; it was booted from the Big East in 2004 due to the team's poor performance, was brought back in during the conference's disintegration in 2012, then was forced to join The American rather than the basketball-oriented Big East due to still having the football team few people wanted. The team managed to see a resurgence in the mid-2010s with a few ranked appearances before its coaching staff was mostly drained by other programs. The Owls (named as a reference to the school's history as a night school) have shared the field of the NFL's Eagles since the '70s. Incidentally, Temple is the only full football-playing American Conference member to have never been in Conference USA.^note The same is true for football-only member Navy and non-football full member Wichita State.

Tulane Green Wave

Tulane University is an old urban private school in New Orleans, initially founded as a state school prior to being privatized in the late nineteenth century. Its football program used to be competitive with the big teams in the South, but the administration chose to deemphasize athletics in the mid-1950s, and left the SEC after the 1965 season. Tulane's final school year in the SEC did see the Green Wave integrate the conference, but in baseball instead of football—Stephen Martin walked onto the baseball team in 1966, becoming the first African American to play any SEC sport.^note The first black SEC football and men's basketball players arrived on campus later in 1966, respectively at Kentucky and Vanderbilt. However, under then-current NCAA rules they weren't eligible for varsity sports until 1967–68, and while each school brought in two black players, only one integrated his program. See the Kentucky Wildcats description in the SEC page for more details. The team has been a bottom-feeder since this deemphasis, save for a completely unexpected undefeated run under Tommy Bowden in 1998 that landed him the job in Clemson the next year and an equally unexpected conference championship under Willie Fritz in 2022. The latter season marked arguably the greatest single-season turnaround in college football history, as the Green Wave finished the prior year 2–10 and ended 2022 12–2 after beating USC and its Heisman winner in the Cotton Bowl. The Green Wave made the conference title game again in 2023, but lost to SMU, soon followed by Fritz being hired away by Houston.

Besides that, the school was most notable for its on-campus stadium, a venue that was the birthplace/longtime home of the Sugar Bowl and hosted three Super Bowls and the New Orleans Saints in that team's early years. The aging stadium was condemned in 1974, the year the Saints' Superdome opened; the Wave moved in and played there for decades (except in 2005, when Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans^note Like the Saints, the Green Wave were forced to play elsewhere that year; however, unlike the Saints, which split their home schedule between Baton Rouge and San Antonio after playing their first "home" game in New Jersey, the Green Wave played six "home" games in five different stadiums across Louisiana and one in Alabama) before the Saints' owners helped pay for the construction of a new stadium in 2014; the playing surface is known as Benson Field, after late owner Tom Benson and his widow and current owner Gayle. Their mascot and logo is a literal anthropomorphic green tidal wave with an adorable angry face nicknamed Gumby.

Tulsa Golden Hurricane

The University of Tulsa is probably most notable for having the smallest undergraduate enrollment of any FBS school, with slightly less than 3,200 at last count. Despite that fact, they've become the Quietly Performing Sister Show to their cash cow instate counterparts Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. Their peak came in The '40s, when they played in five consecutive New Year's Day bowls and achieved a #4 final ranking in 1942. Their star player in that era, Glenn Dobbs, returned to the school as AD and HC immediately after his pro career and the year after his former team went completely winless; he devised an offense that shattered NCAA passing records in the '60s. The program further served as the launch pad for John Cooper's career in the late '70s and early '80s. They've mostly underperformed since then, though they rode an era of strength in the 2000s to jump to CUSA.

Why is a team on the Oklahoma prairie called the Golden Hurricane? They originally had the more climatologically appropriate nickname of the Golden Tornadoes, but when they found out that Georgia Tech sometimes used that name as well, they switched to a more tropical storm.

UAB Blazers

The University of Alabama at Birmingham is one of the youngest institutions in Division I sports, having only started its athletics program in 1978. When it comes to football, it's most notable for its tumultuous recent history, which saw the program fold, unexpectedly come back to life, and experience even more unexpected success after its return. UAB initially focused on men's basketball and began football on the D-III level in 1991. UAB was one of a group of schools that was forcibly reclassified as I-AA (now FCS) when the NCAA ruled that D-I members had to play all sports at that level (for more details, see the Pioneer Football League in the FCS section). Deciding that if they had to be D-I, they might as well operate fully-funded, they moved to I-A (now FBS) in 1996, the year after they became a CUSA charter member, though they wouldn't play CUSA football until 1999. Up into the 2010s, they were generally mediocre, with only one bowl appearance (a loss to Hawaii in the 2004 Hawaii Bowl).

UAB had one huge factor holding it back: its governance. UAB's president reports to the UA system's governing board... which, historically, has been packed with members that (allegedly) put Tuscaloosa first.^note Among them being one Paul Bryant Jr., as in The Bear's son. The system board opposed UAB adding football in the first place and threatened to shut the program down in 2002. Four years later, it blocked UAB's planned hire of Jimbo Fisher as its new head coach before he went on to great success at other institutions. Still later, it killed a planned project to add new practice turf that a donor had fully funded, and never acted on a plan to build a new practice facility. Some of its members went so far to publicly hint that UAB shouldn't have an athletic program at all. UAB's home of Legion Field was one of the South's most storied stadiums but was increasingly decrepit and was too large for the program, even after the third deck was closed for safety reasons. The system board killed a plan to build a new stadium. All this culminated in a financial review, commissioned in 2013 and published in 2014, that concluded that football was a drain on UAB and should be shut down. The numbers in said report were shady at best and closer to Blatant Lies, but UAB's president nonetheless shut the program down in a move that was widely seen as motivated by in-state politics. This in turn led to a firestorm of criticism in both traditional and social media, along with a massively successful fundraising drive that led to the reinstatement of football shortly thereafter; the Blazers started play again in 2017. See these articles for the whole sordid story; all of them are worth a look.

The return of UAB football has been one of college football's biggest feel-good stories of recent years, with the Blazers qualifying for bowl games in each of the first six seasons since their return (though COVID-19 scrapped their planned 2020 bowl game) and winning CUSA titles in 2018 and 2020. Equally significantly, the political pressure on the UA system board led them to let the Blazers move into a new (and smaller) city-owned stadium on the grounds of the downtown convention center that opened in October 2021. Later that month, UAB was announced as one of the six CUSA members moving to The American in 2023. However, they made their move without the coach responsible for their recent rise—Bill Clark, who came to UAB in 2014 and oversaw their triumphant return from the dead, retired shortly before the 2022 season due to a deteriorating back. Their first season in The American saw the end of their run of bowl appearances.

UTSA Roadrunners

The University of Texas at San Antonio makes for an interesting contrast with UAB, given that both schools were (formally) founded in 1969 as secondary campuses of university systems featuring historic football superpowers and left CUSA for The American in 2023. However, unlike UAB, UTSA was founded completely from scratch and has had nothing approaching the tumultuous football history of its Alabama counterpart.

With its location in one of the largest cities of its football-crazed state, and also one with no direct competition from a pro or major-college team,^note the city's only major pro team in any sport is the Spurs it made its first moves toward a program in the late 2000s, eventually starting up in 2011. The early-2010s conference realignment and access to a stadium that had originally been built for pro football opened the door for them to play their first season as an FCS independent, move to the WAC for its second transitional season, and join CUSA when the WAC's football side imploded. The Roadrunners were able to attract Larry Coker of Miami Hurricanes fame as their first HC. Their first-ever game drew 56,743, the highest attendance ever for an NCAA team's first game, and they averaged 35,521 in their first season, also a record for a startup college football team. The Roadrunners soldiered on as a decent but inconsistent team until the arrival of current coach Jeff Traylor and the emergence of future San Antonio icon Frank Harris at QB sparked a rapid ascent, with a breakout 2021 season much like that of Coastal Carolina a year prior but with memes more focused on the mascot than mullets. The Roadrunners headed to The American off consecutive CUSA titles; while they missed out on a title in their first season in their new league, they did manage their first-ever bowl win. Meep meep.

FIU Panthers

The Panthers of Florida International University merit a mention on this page as currently the second worst FBS team^note Charlotte currently has the #1 spot. in terms of program win record. The public university in Miami (and they're fond of reminding everyone that they're the only D-I school actually located in Miami, since the University of Miami is in Coral Gables) is relatively young itself, and its football program is even younger, only starting play in 2002. They fast-tracked their move to the FBS level in just three years but bottomed out with a winless 2006 season most memorable for a bench-clearing brawl during their first meeting with crosstown foes Miami. The following year, the school hired the first Cuban-American HC in D-I history, Mario Cristobal, reflecting its predominantly Cuban-American student body. Cristobal built the program up to its first winning seasons and a conference championship but was fired after a backslide. The program has been unstable and generally losing ever since, with the optimistic omens of three consecutive bowl appearances from 2017-19 and a 2019 upset of Miami giving way to a collapse, winning just one game across the 2020 and '21 seasons. Their biggest competition is the similarly named and young South Florida-based program at Florida Atlantic.

Jacksonville State Gamecocks

The football team of Jacksonville State University (located in a small town in Alabama, not the much larger city in Florida) has been active for over a century, working its way up through the myriad ranks of college football through decades of mostly good regional football. The Gamecocks reached FBS in 2023, getting into a bowl in its first year thanks to a lack of eligible non-transitioning teams and winning it.

Liberty Flames

One of the more recent additions to FBS football, and also the youngest university in FBS, Liberty University began its life in 1971 as an offshoot of Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, home of divisive pastor Jerry Falwell (Sr.). The school immediately developed a reputation as a Strawman U of the St. Jim Jonestown variety and a headquarters for the evangelical branch of conservative politics. Considerable change did come under Falwell's son and successor as president, Jerry Jr., as the university became somewhat less legalistic and dramatically grew to become the largest university in the Group of Five, and close to the largest in all of FBS... with a caveat. LU's actual on-campus enrollment is around 16,000, but it has an enormous online operation, pushing its total enrollment over 130,000 (second in FBS to Arizona State). However, the younger Falwell's tenure ended in 2020 after a particularly embarrassing sex scandal and allegations of questionable (though not illegal) financial dealings, leaving the school in an awkward spot.

As for football, Falwell Sr. was very outspoken about his grandiose plans for the program when it joined D-I toward the end of The '80s, saying that he intended Liberty to become the "Evangelical Notre Dame", and it got some attention when it hired former Cleveland Browns coach Sam Rutigliano as HC in 1989 (he stayed until 1999). After a slow and steady climb to moderate FCS success (capped by a playoff appearance in 2014), they finally pulled the trigger on their long-expected move to the FBS level by joining the independent ranks in 2018 (after lobbying heavily for an invite from the Sun Belt). The NCAA gave Liberty a waiver from its transition rules, which normally require that a school have an invitation from an FBS conference before starting the transition. 2019 was the Flames' first season as full FBS members, and they won bowls in each of their first three seasons of eligibility, joining Appalachian State as the only other school to have done so. With Conference USA having been raided to within an inch of its life in 2021, Liberty became attractive to that league, and it joined in 2023; the Flames immediately posted their first-ever undefeated regular season, won the conference title game, and picked up the G5 New Year's Six bid (where they were smoked by Oregon).

New Mexico State Aggies

New Mexico State University is another example of a school with a strong men's basketball program that struggles to find relevance in football. The undisputed peak of the program came in 1960, when they went undefeated under Hall of Fame coach Warren B. Woodson and QB Charley Johnson.^note The program went undefeated several times before then... in an era where they had truly terrible competition and played half their games against high schools. However, the Aggies (represented in mascot form by a pistol-wielding cowboy) have fallen off hard since Woodson's departure in 1967, with only seven winning seasons and two completely winless ones in that half-century-plus span that saw them struggle to find a steady conference home. They're a frequent member of ESPN's "Bottom 10" as "Whew Mexico State", living mostly in the shadow of New Mexico in their own state and even UTEP (a team bad enough to also frequently appear in the Bottom 10 as "UTEPID") in their immediate region. The Aggies failed to reach a bowl from 1960 to 2017 and even chose not to play in 2020 (though they pieced together two games against FCS teams in spring 2021, making them the only FBS team to play in the spring).

With NMSU's then-current all-sports home of the Western Athletic Conference relaunching FCS football in 2021 with visions of returning the conference to FBS, it was thought that NMSU would stay put in that league. However, with CUSA suddenly depleted after the 2021 realignment shuffle, NMSU became an attractive option (even for UTEP, which had reportedly been reluctant to share a conference with NMSU), so the Aggies moved there in 2023. Despite their overall historic futility, the Aggies entered the 2023 season as the only current FBS team to have never lost in a bowl appearance, and are finally looking like a real football team; in their first year in CUSA, the Aggies posted their first 10-win season since their 1960 peak and competed in the conference title game (but suffered their first-ever bowl loss).

UTEP Miners

The University of Texas at El Paso is a unique American university known for its majority Hispanic student population and its distinct Tibetan monastery-inspired architecture. UTEP has played an important role in the history of college sports, most notably for its 1966 basketball team that won a national championship after assembling the first all-Black starting lineup in NCAA history (as dramatized in Glory Road) and for winning 20 national championships in cross country and track and field in the 1970s and '80s. In football, however, UTEP is really only notable for its stadium, the Sun Bowl, which has a very unique location (embedded in mountains overlooking the U.S.-Mexico border) and hosts one of the oldest bowl games. While the Sun Bowl has hosted a number of very memorable games, few of them have involved its home team; the Miners are one of the worst performing teams in the FBS, with completely winless seasons in 1973 and 2017 and far fewer winning seasons than losing ones. The program's historical highlight came in 1985, when the Miners knocked off #7-ranked defending national champion BYU by a score of 23–16, often regarded as one of the biggest upsets in major college history; it was UTEP's only win that year.

Western Kentucky Hilltoppers

A longstanding Division I-AA power but historically more of a basketball school,^note The main athletic logo is derived from the red towel that E.A. Diddle, men's basketball coach from 1922–1964 and basketball arena namesake, variously clutched, chewed on, threw, and waved during games. Western Kentucky University rose to football prominence during the long tenure of Jack Harbaugh (Jim and John's dad) through the '90s, culminating in an FCS championship in 2002. The Hilltoppers ("Toppers" for short)^note The central campus is atop a hill overlooking the Barren River valley. transitioned to FBS soon after, but after going winless in 2009, they returned to their past by hiring former star QB Willie Taggart to be HC; his success in reviving their prospects launched his brief sojourn into the major college ranks. Nowadays, WKU is known best for two things: its immensely productive offense that spawned FBS record-holding QB Bailey Zappe in 2021, and its odd mascot, an amorphous red blob known only as "Big Red", who has become the center of a lengthy transatlantic legal dispute, with WKU claiming that the Italian TV character Gabibbo is an unauthorized knockoff of Big Red (something Gabibbo's creator has in fact admitted to). The Toppers also entered the 2023 season as the only current CUSA member to have won the conference's championship.

Bowling Green Falcons

Located 15 miles south of Toledo, Ohio, Bowling Green State University (they prefer "Bowling Green" as their athletic branding, but use BGSU as an abbreviation) is a well-regarded public college, especially famed for its Media Studies program. On the sports side, its signature programs are probably men's ice hockey (winning the national championship in 1984) and women's basketball. Its football team is a fairly consistent winner with several standout periods. Stadium namesake Doyt Perry, a close personal friend of Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler, notched an impressive 77–11–5 record at BGSU from 1955-64, including an undefeated season and the College Division national title in 1959, with that team's star RB Bernie Casey going onto an NFL career and a later stint in Hollywood. Don Nehlen, who played QB for Perry from 1955-57, was the HC from 1968-76 and managed to schedule a number of marquee opponents for non-conference games, pulling off big upsets in the process, most famously against a ranked Purdue squad in 1972. Nehlen's replacement Denny Stolz turned the Falcons into one of the first major college teams to utilize heavy passing and multiple receiver sets, with QB Brian McClure becoming one of the first college players to pass for more than 10,000 yards in a career. More recently, BGSU gave Urban Meyer his first HC job, going 17-6 from 2001-02. They have a heated rivalry with neighboring Toledo, having played their very first varsity game against UT in 1919.

BGSU made two unusual contributions to National Football League history. In 1946, Cleveland Browns founder Paul Brown went to scout BGSU as a possible training camp location for his new team. While the Browns did end up hosting their first few training camps at BGSU, the school's more permanent contribution was the Browns' brown/orange color scheme, which Paul Brown was always quick to credit to BGSU's influence. Later, during the 1987 players strike, the aforementioned Brian McClure joined the Buffalo Bills replacement squad, and was the winning QB in their notorious game against the Giants in which Lawrence Taylor crossed the picket line to suit up against the "scab" players.

Central Michigan Chippewas

Located almost exactly in the middle of the Michigan "mitten", Central Michigan University plays the role of Quietly Performing Sister Show to Michigan and Michigan State, having established its own tradition and winning legacy in the shadow of its bigger brothers. Second to Miami among MAC schools in both wins and win percentage, CMU joined the conference in 1975 after winning the D-II national championship the previous season^note under HC Roy Kramer, who would make an even greater impact on college football as SEC commissioner and quickly established itself as a power under Hall of Fame coach Herb Deromedi (1967-77 as an assistant, 1978-93 as HC, 1994-2006 as AD). In 2004, they made the unusual move for an FBS school of hiring an HC from the D-II level by bringing in Brian Kelly from Grand Valley State; he guided them to a conference title in three seasons before departing for numerous high-profile gigs. This laid the groundwork for 2009, where the school program saw its only AP Poll rankings thanks to dynamic dual-threat QB Dan LeFevour and future NFL legend/menace Antonio Brown. The program has not come close to this peak in the decade-plus since.

CMU is one of six schools who have permission from the NCAA to use a Native American nickname, since the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe has formally approved use of the name.^note The other schools with NCAA permission include four who also have tribal approvals for their name—Florida State (Seminoles), Utah (Utes) and the D-II schools Catawba (Indians) and Mississippi College (Choctaws)—plus one school—D-II UNC Pembroke (Braves)—that was originally founded to educate Native Americans, has close ties with the local Lumbee tribe, and successfully convinced the NCAA to give them an exemption.

Eastern Michigan Eagles

Located in Ypsilanti (the birthplace of Domino's Pizza), just east of Ann Arbor, the massive shadow of the Michigan Wolverines has always loomed large over Eastern Michigan University's football program (their stadiums are a mere 5 miles apart), but it was once a regional power under the Long Runner tenure of stadium namesake Elton Rynearson, who coached the team in various stints from 1917-48 and stayed on as AD until 1963. Most of that tenure was when the school was "Michigan State Normal College"; as EMU, the school has mightily struggled on the gridiron, from a 27-game losing streak from 1980-82 to posting exactly one winning season from 1990 to 2015 (with another winless one in 2009). That latter streak coincidentally (or perhaps not) coincided with the team changing their mascot from "Huron" (a French name for the indigenous people of the region) to the more generic Eagles. Not to mention that in 1984, the MAC presidents voted to expel EMU from the conference less than two months before the football season started. EMU fought the move and the NCAA stepped in to void the presidents' vote. Three years later, EMU won its only MAC title to date, in the process beating all seven schools whose presidents had voted for the expulsion.^note In order of play: Miami, Kent State, Northern Illinois (which had left the MAC after the 1985 season), Ball State, Ohio, Toledo, Bowling Green. The school calls that season "college football's ultimate revenge tour".

The current tenure of coach Chris Creighton, who has had four winning seasons just over .500 since his arrival in Ypsi in 2014, has by comparison been a massive improvement. Coincidentally (or perhaps not), Creighton's arrival coincided with EMU becoming one of the few FBS teams to adopt a colored field, a dull gray that has contributed to the stadium's nickname: "The Factory". Fun fact: Both of Eastern Michigan's bowl victories came against San Jose State, 35 years apart.

Kent State Golden Flashes

Kent State University, a former teachers' college located 40 miles from Cleveland, has been a major Butt-Monkey for almost all of its football history; it has just one conference title to its credit, posted four winless seasons in the 1980s and '90s, and has the lowest overall winning percentage of any FBS team that's played more than 50 seasons. It once lost something called the Refrigerator Bowl.^note A bowl for small college teams played in Evansville, Indiana from 1948-56. The school itself is best known for the 1970 incident in which the Ohio National Guard fired on an anti-Vietnam war protest, killing four students (two protesters, two bystanders). And yet: look at that list of notable names above! There's a surprising number of former Golden Flash players who've gone on to greater success in either the NFL or college coaching. They've had just three winning seasons in this century, but the last two were memorable: In 2012 they went 11-3 and made the MAC championship game, losing in double overtime to Northern Illinois. In 2019, they finally won their first bowl game, knocking off Utah State in the Frisco Bowl.

Miami RedHawks

Miami University^note named for the Miami River Valley and the Miami tribal nation that historically calls it home is one of the oldest public universities in the United States and the birthplace of a great many fraternities. It is much less well-known on the national stage than the much younger Florida private school with the similar name, but it has still had a great impact on football history and is the traditional power of the MAC even with far fewer winning seasons than losing ones in the 21st century. While the RedHawks (known as the "Redskins" until 1997) have enjoyed periods of great success, with undefeated seasons in 1908, '21, '55, and '73, their real legacy is on the sideline. Miami proudly calls itself the "Cradle of Coaches" because of the great number of prominent coaches in both college and the NFL who have played and/or coached at the school.^note Of the "historic" figures listed here, exactly one (Ben Roethlisberger) achieved his greatest fame as an NFL player. Travis Prentice had a forgettable NFL career; Brian Pillman had a brief NFL career before making his name in pro wrestling.

And yes, Miami (Ohio) has played Miami (Florida), 4 times (1945, 1946, 1987, 2023), with the Florida team winning all the games (the scores were 54–3 in '87 and 38–3 in '23).

Northern Illinois Huskies

Northern Illinois University's football program started out as a regional power under the Long Runner tenure of Chick Evans (HC and AD from 1929-54, AD until 1968) and produced an innovative spread shotgun offense under Howard Fletcher (1956-68) that shattered passing records and won the school the 1963 D-II championship. The Huskies struggled with the move to the major college ranks after Fletcher's retirement and underperformed for decades. A couple of bright spots were a MAC title in 1983 and Jerry Pettibone's HC tenure from 1985-90, when his high-octane wishbone attack guided the Huskies to a 9-2 record in '89, and a record-setting 73-18 upset over a ranked Fresno State squad a year later. But the decision to leave the MAC after the 1985 season hurt the program in the long run, and things had gotten so bad that they bottomed out with a winless 1997 campaign, the same year they returned to the MAC. NIU returned to power in the MAC, with their undefeated 2012 regular season under dynamic dual-threat QB Jordan Lynch making them the conference's only (and the last ever) BCS Buster. Their results in recent years have been the model of inconsistency, going from a winless COVID-impacted season in 2020 to winning the MAC the next year.

Toledo Rockets

While Miami Ohio has the MAC's best-looking historical football ledger, the University of Toledo isn't too far behind. After starting their football history with a 145-0 loss to the now-defunct Detroit program^*now Detroit Mercy, the Rockets steadily improved. The program has four AP final poll appearances to its credit and went on a 35-game winning streak from 1969-71 under Hall of Fame QB Chuck Ealey. Nick Saban had his first HC job here, going 9-2 in 1990; he was succeeded by Gary Pinkel, who stayed a little longer before also going on to greater success. Toledo can also boast of having won the first overtime game in FBS history, a 40-37 defeat of Nevada in the 1995 Las Vegas Bowl. Additionally, one cannot mention Toledo without mentioning their dismal 2008 season, where their 3-9 record would be forgotten if not for the fact that one of those wins was the first ever MAC victory over Michigan. The Rockets' mascots are Rocky and Rocksy, whose modern iterations dress like futuristic astronauts (though the original Rocky was an anthropomorphic missile).

Air Force Falcons

The youngest of the three major service academies, The United States Air Force Academy began as the Quietly Performing Sister Show to Army and Navy, often succumbing to Every Year They Fizzle Out syndrome, apart from two early standout seasons: 1958 (Cotton Bowl, #6 final poll finish) and 1970 (Sugar Bowl, #11 poll finish). Two major factors kickstarted the rise of Falcon football: the hiring of Ken Hatfield as head coach in 1979, and joining the Western Athletic Conference the next year. While the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy was introduced in 1972 to go to the winner of the series between Army, Navy, and Air Force, the Falcons didn't win it until 1982. Since then, they've won the trophy 20 times, compared to 11 for Navy and 7 for Army in that span of time. Hatfield brought the option offense with him, and the Falcons have run it ever since, even after most college teams abandoned the run-based option for looser passing or spread offenses. The option helps them deal with the stringent requirements for admission to the academy that limit the team's ability to attract top athletes. The discipline, finesse, and proactive nature of the option mesh well with military training, and after Air Force's success with the offense, Army and Navy have generally run it as well. Hatfield quickly catapulted off of his early success to take other high-profile coaching gigs, but since his departure in 1983, the program has only had two head coaches: Hall of Famer Fisher DeBerry, who took the program within one game of playing for a national title in 1985, and Troy Calhoun, who took over in 2007 and has kept the team competitive in the west.

Despite putting up most of its yards on the ground, Air Force lives up to its name in more ways than one. Besides its (living) Falcon mascot, its stadium near Colorado Springs has the second-highest elevation of any FBS venue (6,621 feet), and its cadets live more than 600 feet higher (7,258 feet). They also have one of the longest-standing helmet designs in any level of football, the lightning bolts that have adorned their helmets since the early years of the program, riffing on the frequent use of lightning bolts in fighter pilot insignias dating back to World War II. Fun fact: the Los Angeles Chargers use of bolts on their helmets was directly inspired by Air Force, though the Chargers deliberately used a different design.

Boise State Broncos

The Broncos of Boise State University have been one of the more consistently competitive programs in the nation, often punching well above their weight class. Going into 2024, BSU has the highest winning percentage of any school outside the Power Five, and when only games played as a member of FBS and its predecessors are counted, Boise State actually leads the entire pack by a healthy margin. The Broncos enjoyed great football success as a junior college, winning 15 conference titles (13 in a row) and one national title before becoming a four-year school in the late 1960s. They were regionally competitive until a surge in the early days of FCS, winning that level's national title in 1980. After some ups and downs, including a move to FBS (then I-A) in 1996, they truly emerged in the 21st century as a member of the WAC, with their coming-out party on the national stage being an epic undefeated 2006 season, capped with an overtime win over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl fueled by a series of incredible trick plays. The Broncos reached even greater heights from 2008-11 with Kellen Moore at QB, going undefeated again in 2009 and becoming the first FBS team ever to win 50 games in a four-year period (before the CFP) and making Moore the winningest FBS QB ever. Moore's final season was also the Broncos' first in the MW, where they've established themselves as a regular contender and one of the more dangerous Group of Five teams, having not posted a losing record since 1997. While a down year by their standards in 2023 saw them briefly in danger of breaking this streak, leading to their HC being fired, the Broncos ended up winning the MW championship game anyway.

But that probably isn't what you know Boise State for. Since 1986, the Broncos have played their home games at Albertsons Stadium on a vibrant blue artificial turf. Nicknamed "the Surf Turf", "the Smurf Turf", "the Blue Plastic Tundra", or simply "the Blue", the field was the first non-green field in American football and still the most visible. Though not the only program with a colored field, it does hold the trademark, so other schools have to get a license from Boise State if they want to color theirs. Keeping their field unique provides more than just financial benefits; the Broncos have one of the most dominant home field advantages in sports, as its blue uniforms can help to camouflage players. The program didn't lose a regular season home game from 2001-11, which led the NCAA to nearly pass a rule requiring the team wear non-blue uniforms (the school successfully campaigned to knock that down).

Colorado State Rams

A relatively small program located in northern Colorado, Colorado State University's team has largely struggled through its history, with consecutive winless seasons in 1961-62, another in 1981, plenty more in the pre-modern era, and numerous other poor showings. The program is notable for a) having the same HC in Harry W. Hughes for over three decades (1911-41, '46), who brought them the most regional success and became namesake of their former stadium, b) briefly contending for national rankings under Sonny Lubick (1993-2007), who became namesake of the playing surface of both their former and current stadiums, and c) sporting the same ram horn helmet designs as their NFL counterparts (which they've used since 1973, when newly hired HC Sark Arslanian added to them their previously blank helmets). The school has recently poured tons of money into the program, including building a brand-new stadium in 2017 whose size greatly exceeds the largest crowd that's ever assembled to watch the Rams. The results have so far been... underwhelming.

Fresno State Bulldogs

The Fresno State Bulldogs football team has long been one of the crown jewels in the reputation of California State University, Fresno.^note The school's sports teams are always called Fresno State, never Cal State Fresno; it's an Artifact Title from its earlier days as Fresno State College. The university markets itself as Fresno State, although the full name does appear on formal documents such as diplomas. Located in Central California's football-loving San Joaquin Valley, the Bulldogs were a small college power on the West Coast through much of their history, before joining D-I in 1969 along with their longtime rivals San Diego State and San Jose State. Former Washington State HC Jim Sweeney launched them to the next level in The '80s. Behind a series of standout QBs and a balanced offense, the Bulldogs won six titles in the old Pacific Coast Athletic Association (later renamed the Big West). A devoted fanbase (called "The Red Wave") formed around the team, leading to the construction of Bulldog Stadium on campus (after previously borrowing the local junior college's stadium for home games), which also became the home of the California Bowl (which matched the champions of the PCAA and the MAC from 1981-91). Their peak year in this era was 1985, when, led by QB Kevin Sweeney (Jim's son), the Bulldogs finished the season as the only unbeaten major college team, with an 11-0-1 record and a #16 finish in the coaches' poll. The Bulldogs are also the last FBS-level team to score over 90 points in a game, in their 94-17 pulverization of New Mexico in '91 (could've been worse, too—they led 66-7 at halftime). This success helped lead to a Western Athletic Conference invite, and they debuted in the WAC with a bang in 1992, sharing the conference title and upsetting USC in the Freedom Bowl. The conference move was a godsend, since many of Fresno's California-based Big West peers (Cal State Fullerton, Long Beach State, Pacific) ended up dropping football in The '90s.

Because of the dwindling number of four-year college football teams in California, Fresno has a huge swath of the California juco system to itself, guaranteeing a strong talent base. After Sweeney's retirement in 1996, a number of good HCs have passed through Fresno, like Pat Hill, Kalen DeBoer and former Bulldog QB star Jeff Tedford, the current HC. But the program has also been dogged by Every Year They Fizzle Out syndrome. A typical Bulldog season will see them upset a Power 5 team early in the year, stall in conference play, then close out things with a loss in a winnable bowl game. They've also been at the center of the infamous "Jeff Tedford Curse", with Bulldog QBs Trent Dilfer and David Carr (the #1 overall pick) being among the biggest NFL draft busts ever. Still, they're respected as a program that almost always manages to find a way to pull off some big wins every year.

The Bulldogs' 2023 home opener against FCS Eastern Washington was of note as the first FBS football game to be broadcast over linear TV exclusively in Spanish.^note Specifically by UniMás in the Fresno and Bakersfield markets. English-language viewers had to go to streaming, with audio being a simulcast of the Bulldogs' (English) radio broadcast.^BackgroundThe San Joaquin Valley has a very large Hispanic population, with the city of Fresno being about 60% Hispanic, and the university's enrollment is majority Hispanic.

Hawaiʻi Rainbow Warriors

The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa's football team has had a proud history as the most prominent athletic representative of its island home. A bit of a novelty for most of its history because of its exotic location, it joined the Western Athletic Conference in 1979 and became competitive under HCs Dick Tomey and Bob Wagner, who led UH to a conference championship in 1992. The program's on-field peak came under the revolutionary passing offense of June Jones in the 2000s that helped QBs Timmy Chang and Cole Brennan break NCAA passing records; the latter helped the Rainbow Warriors (then just the Warriors) join the BCS Buster ranks with an undefeated 2007 regular season (though they also became the first BCS Buster to lose their bowl game, getting blown out by Georgia).

However, the program is most famous for its location and the various logistical challenges it provides. With the island chain sitting nearly 2,400 miles away from the nearest airport in the contiguous United States, the team is often by far the most traveled American athletic program every year despite only playing six or seven away games. The NCAA allows Hawaiʻi and all of its home opponents to play one extra game per season in an attempt to partially offset these expenses.^note  This exception applies to any team that plays a regularly scheduled game in Alaska or Hawaiʻi. However, no other NCAA school in either state has a football program. From 2010–19, games at the only NCAA member in Canada, D-II Simon Fraser University, also counted; it's in the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby, British Columbia, about a half-hour's drive from the US border. However, they didn't play football in 2020 due to COVID-19 and played all their 2021 and 2022 "home" games in Washington state due to COVID-related border restrictions, before dropping the sport entirely after the 2022 season. Until Hawaiʻi started trying to balance out its home-and-away schedule, it often played as many as 9 home games in a season! That's not to say home games are any easier. Hawaiʻi's 50,000-capacity Aloha Stadium, which had served as the team's home since 1975 (and also hosted the NFL's Pro Bowl from 1979-2008, plus 2010-13 and 2015), has been a major concern for decades due to the architects not properly accounting for the effects of the island's climate; the ocean air led the stadium to rapidly rust, leading to the venue being essentially condemned in 2020 and forcing the team to move home games to its athletic practice field, where UH hastily erected some bleachers. After building up and expanding the on-campus stadium a bit, they'll play home games there at least through the 2027 season, while the current Aloha Stadium is demolished and a new 30,000-seat facility is built on the site (which is set to open in 2028). With all those challenges in mind, the team's successes only stand as more impressive.

Nevada Wolf Pack

Before the rise of Marshall and Boise State, the University of Nevada, Reno was the gold standard for a team moving up to the I-A/FBS level and gaining success. While they already had a bit of a football tradition (early NFL star Marion Motley was an alum), the hiring of 30-year-old former Wolf Pack QB Chris Ault as head coach in 1976 set the team's rise in motion, as they went from a D-II independent to a national I-AA power to joining I-A in 1992 and winning a conference title in their very first season. Ault retired from coaching (twice!) to focus on his AD duties, but the Wolf Pack hit an Audience-Alienating Era while he was gone. His return to the sidelines in 2004 gave the program a shot in the arm, aided by the launch of the Pistol offense and the arrival of QB Colin Kaepernick, who led them to their standout season in 2010 where they went 13–1 and finished at #11 in the final AP poll. After Ault retired for good in 2013, they've never quite reached the same heights but have performed modestly well. They're also notable for having a two-word singular form nickname (as opposed to the NC State Wolfpack)^note In their early history, they had the much more unique nicknames of "Sagebrushers" and "Desert Wolves". and the odd design of their stadium (the end zone bleachers are squeezed inside the track, with the track going underneath the south end zone stands).

New Mexico Lobos

At a school where men's basketball is the main sport, the University of New Mexico's Lobo football team counts as The Determinator for the conference. They have the embarrassing distinction of being the only team who's been in the top level of college football for the entire existence of the AP poll (since 1936) to have never been ranked once, not even when they finished 10–1 in 1982 (they also got snubbed by the bowls that year). Their last conference title came when Lyndon Johnson was President, they've often struggled mightily on the field (with completely winless seasons in 1968 and 1987), yet they still keep plugging away. The last few decades have seen UNM occasionally become competitive, starting with the tenure of HC Dennis Franchione, who recruited future Pro Hall of Famer Brian Urlacher to the team in 1996 and ended the Lobos' 36-year bowl drought in 1997. They're also notable for fielding the first woman to play in an FBS game, placekicker Katie Hnida^*the "H" is silent, who played in a bowl game in 2002 and converted two extra points in a 2003 game.

San Diego State Aztecs

San Diego State University's football history was initially forged in the small-college ranks. The Aztecs were generally a mediocre team with occasional flashes of brilliance until future NFL coaching great Don Coryell arrived in 1961. During his 12 seasons, he perfected the high-powered passing offense that he took to the pros, leading the Aztecs to small-college national titles in each of their final three seasons before they moved to what's now NCAA D-I in 1969, generating a huge local following in the process (the 1967 Aztecs averaged 41,030 fans per home game, still an attendance record for a non-D-I team). They were up and down for the next couple of decades after Coryell left in 1972, with a few conference titles, several productive quarterbacks, and Marshall Faulk finishing second in the 1992 Heisman race. They bottomed out by not posting a winning season all through the 2000s, then finally bounced back to bowl eligibility throughout the 2010s.

The Aztecs opened the new Snapdragon Stadium (Aztec Stadium behind the sponsorship) in 2022. After having played on campus in the Aztec Bowl^*some of whose bleachers still stand, but mostly covered up in the 1990s by the university's current basketball arena since 1935, they moved to the Chargers' new stadium in 1967, two years before that venue also became home to MLB's Padres. The Aztecs and Chargers would share that stadium for 50 seasons (1967–2016), the longest co-tenancy between college and pro teams. After the Padres moved to a park of their own and the Chargers returned to Los Angeles, SDSU was the only tenant in an increasingly run-down venue that was far too large for its needs. Not long after the Chargers left, SDSU bought the stadium site and announced plans to redevelop it as a non-contiguous campus expansion parcel, with the 35,000-seat Snapdragon Stadium being the centerpiece of the development. In the meantime, they played in the LA Galaxy's Dignity Health Sports Park nearly two hours' drive away (not counting traffic delays); coincidentally, the Chargers also played at the LA Galaxy's home ground before the opening of SoFi Stadium.^note Interestingly, the Aztecs' relocation to Dignity Health Sports Park had the side effect of basically giving Cal State Dominguez Hills, a D-II school that's never had a football team, a home team for two seasons, since the stadium is actually located on its campus. Also of interest is that the Aztecs' new stadium also hosts a soccer team, namely San Diego Wave FC of the National Women's Soccer League, and will also host the city's MLS team, San Diego FC, when it starts play in 2025. With its location and new stadium, and the impending move of UCLA and USC to the Big Ten, SDSU was heavily linked with a Pac-12 invitation in the first part of 2023. Multiple media reports that June indicated that SDSU had given the MW notice of its intent to leave in 2024, and that the MW was treating SDSU's departure as a done deal. However, on the very day that SDSU's exit fee would have doubled, and with no Pac-12 invite (or, equally important, new Pac-12 media deal) on the horizon, SDSU told the MW it planned to stay for the time being. After hemming, hawing, and lawyering up, the MW and SDSU settled the dispute, with SDSU staying in the conference for the immediate future. Ironically, the Aztecs ended up on their feet—within weeks of that settlement, the Pac-12 imploded, losing eight more schools.^note It later came out that SDSU was literally minutes away from receiving a Pac-12 invite, as was SMU. However, 10 minutes before the Pac-12 suits were set to approve a streaming media deal with Apple TV+, Washington announced it would follow UCLA and USC to the Big Ten. The meeting was canceled, and four other schools announced their departure before the day was over (Oregon to the Big Ten; Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah to the Big 12). A few weeks later, Cal and Stanford bolted for the ACC.

San Diego State's "Aztec Warrior" mascot (adopted in 1925 after experimenting with "Normalites", "Professors", and "Wampus Cats") is one of the few in American college sports that remains based on an indigenous people group; the NCAA did not require the school to change it due to the Aztecs not having a modern day recognized tribe, but that hasn't stopped various student and indigenous groups from protesting its trope-y depiction of Aztec culture.

San Jose State Spartans

The oldest public university on the West Coast, and the founding campus of the California State University System, San José State University^note The university itself officially uses the acute Spanish accent mark in José but accepts other outlets dropping it. has long been the Quietly Performing Sister Show to Cal and Stanford in San Francisco Bay Area college sports (despite both institutions being younger than SJSU). After sponsoring football for a few years toward the end of the 1800s, they relaunched the program in 1921, becoming a steady if not spectacular winner over the next few decades. The 1941 Spartans had the misfortune of being in Hawaii on the morning of December 7, when the Pearl Harbor attack not only canceled their scheduled game against Hawaii on December 13, but left them stranded on the islands for the next few weeks; the Honolulu police enlisted them to help patrol the beaches. SJSU also gained a "cradle of coaches" reputation. Former Spartans who went onto to coaching greatness included Bill Walsh, Dick Vermeil, and Bob Ladouceur (the coach behind the 151-game winning streak of California's De La Salle High School from 1992–2003).

Their peak came in The '80s, a decade that saw the Spartans earn seven winning seasons and three bowl bids, a string of success begun by HC Jack Elway (John Elway's father). They couldn't sustain that level of achievement in the next decade but still got an invite to the 16-school WAC expansion in 1996, even though (much like Rutgers joining the Big Ten in the future) everyone recognized that SJSU was only invited to give the league access to a Top 5 media market. In the years before joining the WAC, they struggled to hit the I-A attendance requirement (the largest attendance mark for an event at their home stadium is a ZZ Top concert) and their football games were broadcast on the school's student-run radio station. Despite grabbing notable coaches like John Ralston and Dick Tomey in the twilight of their careers, Spartan fans haven't had much to cheer about in the last few decades. Their best recent season came amid the bleak days of the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020, winning a conference title and finishing the regular season undefeated.

UNLV Rebels

Another case of a football team that struggles at a school where basketball is king, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas makes for an interesting contrast with Boise State. Both teams began playing at the four-year level in 1968 and became D-II powers over the next few years. In fact, Tony Knap, the coach who led BSU into the NCAA, left for UNLV in 1976. The Rebels elected to move to the I-A level in 1978 and immediately became competitive, producing a genuine star in QB Randall Cunningham, who led them to a conference title and bowl win in 1984. Things looked bright for UNLV's football future, but with coach Jerry Tarkanian's basketball program already under the NCAA's microscope, the football program was accused of various improprieties, including using ineligible players, plus several players getting into trouble with the law. Many of their wins were forfeited, and the Rebels have never really recovered from these controversies; since 1986, UNLV has had just five winning seasons.^note 1992, 1994, 2000, 2013, 2023. Outside of Cunningham and Cincinnati Bengals one-season wonder Ickey Woods, their two most famous ex-players are better-known for non-football endeavors: SportsCenter anchor Kenny Mayne was a backup QB, and Death Row Records mogul Suge Knight played nose guard for two seasons. The move to the newly arrived Raiders' Allegiant Stadium has given Rebel faithful some hope that they can start attracting better talent, and the Rebels made the MW championship game in 2023.

If you're wondering- yes, the "Rebel" moniker is a reference to the Confederate States of America, invented back when UNLV was Nevada Southern in contrast to their rivals in Reno. Adding to the irony/controversy around this mascot, Nevada was given statehood during The American Civil War to help keep Lincoln in power and defeat said rebels. Another layer of irony for all that is the fact that UNLV won the first-ever matchup between Black head coaches at the I-A/FBS level, when, under coach Wayne Nunnely, they defeated Ohio, coached by Cleve Bryant, 26-18 in 1988.^note The "I-A/FBS" qualifier matters here, since in 1977, the year before the I-A/I-AA split, the SWAC (see FCS conferences below) moved up to D-I as a conference, so technically their conference games were the first Black coaching matchups at the major college level.

Utah State Aggies

Located about a 90-minute drive from Salt Lake City in an isolated dairy-farming valley, Utah State University has alternated between great success and mediocrity over its history. Under the three-decade tenure of Hall of Fame coach Dick Romney (a distant relative of current Utah senator Mitt Romney), the Aggies challenged Utah for football supremacy in the Beehive State in the years before World War II (1919-48, with BYU football as an afterthought in those years). The program peaked in 1961 when it finished with a #10 ranking led by star DT (and future NFL great, sportscaster, and actor) Merlin Olsen, who the school later named their playing surface after. However, the school's exclusion from the newly-created WAC in 1962 hobbled the program, and BYU's rise to football prominence (ironically led by former Aggie player LaVell Edwards) made USU the odd one out in the state, leading to it constantly bouncing around conferences. The most notable player from that era was QB Anthony Calvillo, who went on to a 20-year CFL career in which he set a North American pro record for passing yards (now held by Tom Brady). However, the program resurged in the 2010s, with three more Top 25 finishes (2012, 2018, 2021) and two conference championships.

Wyoming Cowboys

The University of Wyoming's football team is the ultimate in local market domination: it's the only public four-year college in the state (and was the only four-year school period until the founding of Wyoming Catholic College in 2005). However, since the state just happens to be the smallest one in the union in population, the Cowboys have never been a major powerhouse. They were one of the worst teams in the nation in the early 20th century but became a regional power in The '50s (posting undefeated seasons in '50 and '56) and The '60s, peaking with a #5 finish and Sugar Bowl appearance in 1967. However, two years later, the program took a huge hit over the "Black 14" incident, in which 14 African-American players were kicked off the team after announcing their plan to wear black armbands in a game against BYU in protest of the LDS Church's (since disavowed) anti-black doctrines and practices. That episode caused Wyoming no end of recruiting problems for years, and they've fluctuated wildly ever since. Those glory years also highlighted another big issue for the school: they've never been able to hold onto any of the multiple good coaches who pass through town. Bowden Wyatt started their turnaround before leaping to jobs at Arkansas and Tennessee; Bob Devaney lasted five years, then went to neighboring Nebraska and launched the meteoric rise of the Cornhuskers. Pat Dye and Dennis Erickson likewise only lasted one year before moving on to high-profile jobs. To give you an idea of how bad the musical chairs game is in Laramie, Craig Bohl's 10-year stint (2014–23) was the longest in team history (which dates back to 1893).

Their 103–0 defeat of Northern Colorado in 1949 holds the record for the most points in a single game by a major college team since the end of World War II. Their home field at War Memorial Stadium has the highest elevation of any major college field, sitting at 7,220 feet above sea level.^note The highest stadium in any division is the Mountaineer Bowl at D-II Western Colorado University, at 7,750 feet. As noted above, Air Force's cadets live at a slightly higher elevation than Wyoming's stadium, but the Falcons play several hundred feet below.

Appalachian State Mountaineers

Nestled in the mountains of western North Carolina^*About 3300 ft/1016 m elevation; the nearest D-I school at a higher elevation is Air Force, a bit under 1300 miles/2100 km as the crow flies., Appalachian State University is a mid-sized former teachers college best known for going into Michigan in 2007 and beating the then fifth-ranked Wolverines, becoming the first FCS team ever to defeat a ranked FBS team. (It's happened four more times since.)^note JMU beating #13 Virginia Tech in 2010, Eastern Washington beating #25 Oregon State in 2013, North Dakota State over #13 Iowa in 2016, and Montana beating #20 Washington in 2021. However, App State's success goes well beyond one game.

While the Mountaineers (also affectionately "Apps") enjoyed periods of success in the small-college ranks and the early years of I-AA/FCS^note Their stadium is named after the coach of their 1937 season, in which their defense didn't surrender a single point during the regular season., they truly emerged as a national power at that level under Jerry Moore. During his 24 seasons, App State won 10 SoCon titles and peaked with three straight FCS titles in 2005–07, becoming the first school since the '40s to claim three straight national titles in D-I or its predecessors. After Moore retired at the end of 2012, the Mountaineers began a transition to FBS in 2013 and joined the Sun Belt Conference the next year. They started slow but won their last 6 games in 2014 and won at least 9 in each of the next seven seasons, a run that included shared conference titles in 2016 and 2017 plus wins in the first two Sun Belt championship games. Much like Arkansas State earlier in the decade, they saw both of the coaches who led them to title game wins immediately scooped up by more prominent FBS programs. The Apps also won bowl games in each of their first six seasons after completing their FBS transition (2015–20), a record as yet unmatched by any transitioning school. The next-longest streak of this type is Liberty's three from 2019–21.

Coastal Carolina Chanticleers

Coastal Carolina University, located just a hop, skip, and jump from the tourist mecca of Myrtle Beach, started its life as a junior college in the 1950s, became a two-year extension of the University of South Carolina in 1960, and expanded into a four-year school in the 1970s before separating from USC (with that school's blessing) in 1993. However, football didn't start up until 2003. The Chanticleers (affectionately known as the "Chants", with the rooster a cheeky play on the Gamecocks the school spun off from) soon emerged as a strong contender in the FCS Big South Conference, and the program grew even more in the 2010s under Joe Moglia, a former CEO of discount brokerage TD Ameritrade who oversaw Coastal's move to FBS and the Sun Belt Conference after the 2015 season. After spending 2016 as an FCS independent and non-football Sun Belt member, the Chanticleers joined Sun Belt football in 2017.

After joining the FBS, Coastal struggled and was known by college football fans only for the teal-colored field it adopted in 2015 (or maybe the unusual background of its now-retired HC), only to come out of nowhere in 2020 and draw national attention with an unbeaten regular season, complete with more mullets than an '80s rock concert and locker-room celebrations right out of WWE. That season also featured a matchup against then-unbeaten BYU scheduled on two days' notice, which featured a Down to the Last Play finish and earned enough national media attention that it got its own Wikipedia page. The Chants claimed their first bowl win the next year and have remained a force in—and in some ways the face of—the Fun Belt.

Georgia Southern Eagles

Based in Statesboro, a small rural city about an hour west of Savannah (immortalized in song by blues legend Blind Willie McTell and famously covered by The Allman Brothers Band), Georgia Southern University started as an agricultural and mechanical school, then evolved into a teachers' college, a four-year college, and eventually a university by 1990, becoming the largest university in Georgia south of Atlanta. The football team was suspended for World War II and laid dormant for four decades before being resurrected as a club team in 1981, moving to varsity status in 1984. Erk Russell, longtime defensive coordinator under Vince Dooley at Georgia, was hired as HC. Russell led one of the fastest ascents in college football history, winning their first of six FCS championships in just their second varsity season (and fourth overall), despite having No Budget during the early years of the Eagles' modern era. Some of the team's traditions stem from this, such as their arrival on yellow school buses that were purchased surplus for $1 each from the local K-12 school system. Others were created by Russell himself, such as "Beautiful Eagle Creek", a drainage ditch near the team's practice fields whose waters serve as a Good Luck Charm, and the phrase "One more time", which was coined after the Eagles won back-to-back FCS championships; the phrase is chanted by Eagles fans after every kickoff. The colorful, beloved Russell carried over another tradition from his UGA days: headbutting his helmeted players bare-headed, often to the point of drawing blood; after Russell's death in 2006, a bronze bust of him was placed at the players' entrance at Paulson Stadium ("The Prettiest Little Stadium in America"), and the players headbutt the bust before taking the field. In Russell's final season with the Eagles, he led the team to a 15-0 record en route to their third FCS championship, the first D-I team to do so in the 20th century. Despite Erk Russell's achievements with both Georgia Southern and UGA, he has not been enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame, since Russell was a head coach for only eight seasons and the HOF requires ten seasons experience for head coaches to be considered for induction.

After years of being very comfortable with its niche in the FCS ranks, Southern joined its SoCon rival App State in starting the jump to FBS in 2013 and moving to the Sun Belt the following year. The Eagles immediately won the conference title. Georgia Southern is also known for a spicy rivalry with another in-state school and fellow Sun Belt member, Georgia State; both schools have roots as teachers' colleges and share the same "GSU" initialism, though Southern chooses to use just "GS" in its athletic branding, as reflected in its athletic web address. Both of Southern's main rivalries have nicknames that play off Georgia and Georgia Tech's "Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate"—the rivalry with Georgia State is "Modern Day Hate", and the App State rivalry is "Deeper Than Hate".

Georgia State Panthers

Based in the heart of downtown Atlanta and the largest public university in Georgia by enrollment, Georgia State University had long been considered a commuter school (having spent its first four decades as an extension campus of either Georgia Tech or UGA) and only attempted to shed that label near the end of the 20th century. They're one of the newest college football programs in existence, starting play in 2010 under former Alabama HC Bill Curry, then joining FBS in 2013 despite being almost literally in the shadows of the storied program at Georgia Tech.^note The campuses of Tech and GSU are about 1.5 miles apart, making them the closest FBS teams geographically. As a result, the Panthers lack a rich football history; in the Panthers' first two Sun Belt seasons, the team went 1-23, with that lone win coming against an FCS program by one point. In 2017, following the closure and subsequent demolition of the Georgia Dome and Major League Baseball's Atlanta Braves vacating Turner Field in favor of Truist Park in Cobb County, Georgia State acquired the former MLB ballpark (also the former main stadium for the 1996 Summer Olympics) and renovated it for football.

As mentioned earlier, Georgia State has an intense in-state rivalry with Georgia Southern; while the football rivalry only started with the Eagles' move to the FBS in 2014, the two schools' rivalry goes back as far as the 1970s in other sports, primarily men's basketball, and were previously conference mates in the conference now known as the ASUN.

James Madison Dukes

One of the newest members of FBS, James Madison University is a mid-sized public school located in the heart of Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. It got a late start to football largely because it spent its first 38 years as a women's college. JMU finally started up football in 1972 in the NCAA College Division, moving to D-III once the NCAA split that division. They later moved to D-II for a year, returned to D-III, then jumped up to I-AA in the '80s. JMU was generally viewed as a basketball school in its early history, and the Dukes' football program was mostly middling until emerging as a power in the 21st century, claiming FCS titles in 2004 and 2016 (notably ending North Dakota State's five-year FCS title streak in the latter season). JMU had higher aspirations, openly seeking an FBS upgrade for years until finally making the jump in 2022. By the time of this move, James Madison had the highest football revenue of any FCS program, and its athletic budget was the largest in the SBC when it joined. JMU was intended to join the SBC in 2023, but when the all-sports CAA^note As noted in the FCS section of the main "Conferences" page, the CAA football league, branded as CAA Football, is technically separate from the all-sports CAA. banned them from participating in its conference championships, the NCAA permitted JMU and the SBC to accelerate the move to 2022. This made the Dukes the second program, after UCF, to have played at all four levels of NCAA football. Notably, the Dukes jumped to a 5–0 start and made the AP Top 25, becoming the first team ever to be nationally ranked in its first FBS season (though that status only lasted a week after a close loss to Georgia Southern, and the conditions of their accelerated promotion meant they couldn't play in a bowl). Though counted as FBS in 2022, the NCAA did not allow JMU to play in a bowl in its second transitional year in 2023 despite a 10–0 start... until the NCAA's hand was forced by there not being enough eligible teams to fill all of the available bowl slots. As for the "Dukes" nickname, it has nothing to do with the noble title—it comes from the university's second president, Samuel Page Duke, whose 30-year tenure included the transition to coeducation. JMU's mascot is Duke Dog, a student in a bulldog costume with a crowned head.

Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns

Located in the largest city in Acadiana, the region of south central Louisiana where the majority of the state's Cajun and Creole populations live, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette has always played second fiddle to Louisiana State University, and that very much extends to football. However, the appropriately named Ragin' Cajuns have fought very hard to shake that reputation (and not just by campaigning for decades to be referred to as simply "Louisiana" rather than "Southwestern Louisiana" or "Louisiana–Lafayette"). The school rose to become a Sun Belt power starting in the early 2010s (though they had to vacate many of their early-decade wins due to NCAA violations). Also, for the record—the Cajuns beat the Florida Gators in calling their home stadium "The Swamp" by several decades.^note However, the nickname was originally applied to a different stadium from the one they now occupy, and the Cajuns only started calling their current stadium "The Swamp" a year before Steve Spurrier christened the Gators' stadium as such. Also of note is that the Cajuns are the only Division I team that plays below sea level.^note Although the area around the stadium is about 35 feet above sea level, the playing field is set into a natural bowl and lies 2 feet below sea level. If you're wondering about Tulane, the campus lies in a part of New Orleans that's slightly above sea level.

Marshall Thundering Herd

Marshall University, a medium-sized public school not far from where West Virginia meets Ohio and Kentucky, is one of the few schools at its level with a significant place in popular culture, mostly because of a tragedy in 1970. While the team was returning from a game at East Carolina, their chartered plane crashed on its landing approach, killing all on board. The film We Are Marshall, named for the university's traditional rallying cry, is a somewhat fictionalized version of the team's rebuilding in the aftermath of the crash.

On the field, the Herd played mostly in regional conferences until joining the MAC in 1954, only to be kicked out in 1969 after multiple NCAA rules violations. They joined the Southern Conference in 1977, returning to competition in the '80s and eventually becoming a dominant I-AA/FCS program in the '90s; in their last six seasons at that level (1991–96), they made the playoff semifinals every year and won two national titles. Their last I-AA season, featuring future NFL stars Chad Pennington and Randy Moss, was one of the most dominant in history at that level; not only did they go unbeaten, but none of their opponents got any closer than two TDs. The Herd then returned to the MAC, winning the conference title in each of their first four seasons back (as well as five in six seasons) before (voluntarily) moving to Conference USA in 2005. Marshall has since settled in as a frequent threat for conference honors, though obviously not the national power they were in their final years in FCS. Most recently, Marshall became part of the mass exodus from CUSA, moving to the Sun Belt along with Southern Miss and ODU in 2022. In the process, they joined the conference of their most historic rival, fellow Appalachian overperformer App State (West Virginia barely plays and has never lost to the Herd in football).^note Though they do play in other sports. Funnily, WVU beat Marshall in men's soccer in the same (COVID-affected) 2020–21 season in which Marshall won the national title. At the same time Marshall joined the SBC, WVU moved men's soccer into that league.

Southern Miss Golden Eagles

While the University of Southern Mississippi plays third fiddle in its state to SEC teams Ole Miss and Mississippi State in terms of popularity, it actually outperforms both programs in terms of its historic win percentage. Its team was a regional power in the mid 20th century under Hall of Fame coach Thad "Pie" Vann, who led the team to two College Division national championships as an independent during his long winning tenure (1949-68). Former QB Jeff Bower helped build the team into consistent winners during his tenure (1991-2007) and led their transition to CUSA, where they remained a strong competitor... until 2012, where the Golden Eagles suffered one of the steepest dropoffs in major college history, going from winning 12 games and their conference to going completely winless after a coaching change (the entire coaching staff was fired). The program has mostly rebounded since then and left CUSA for the Sun Belt in 2022.

Despite its general success on the football field, the university has long been dogged by off-field controversies. A lot of this understandably has to do with the ugly history of racism in the region; USM strongly held out from integration and used Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest, who went on to become Grand Wizard of the first KKK, as its mascot for decades before changing its nickname from "the Southerners" to the Golden Eagles in 1974. The school has tried to distance itself from that history (though its stadium is still named after an ardent segregationist). In more recent years, the school has instead been more associated with the misuse of state welfare funds to support the school's non-football athletic programs, a scandal that involved big name alumni like the state governor and Southern Miss' most famous football player, Pro Hall of Famer Brett Favre.

Troy Trojans

Another Alabama school that has long played second fiddle to Alabama's bigger schools (to the point that its team used to be named the "Red Wave" rather than the Crimson Tide), Troy University has a long football history. In the back half of the 20th century, it began steadily rising up through the lower division ranks until making the jump to the big leagues in the 21st century under coach Larry Blakeney (who coached the Trojans from 1991–2014). The Trojans continued to perform well in the FBS, dominating the Sun Belt in its early years. Fans are known for reciting the "Havoc!" speech from Julius Caesar (which has nothing to do with Troy, of course; cue joke about Alabama education).

Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Location: South Bend, IN (though technically it's in the separate adjoining community of Notre Dame, IN)
School Established: 1842^note The full name of the school is University of Notre Dame du Lac (French for "Our Lady of the Lake")... actually a Non-Indicative Name, since the school is on two lakes. Go to The Other Wiki for more details.
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1887-)^note Temporarily joined the ACC for 2020.
Overall Win Record: 948-338-42 (.730)
Bowl Record: 20-20 (.500)^note After playing in the Rose Bowl at the end of the 1924 season, the school elected not to play in bowls, a policy that stayed in place until 1969.
Colors: Blue and gold^note For obvious reasons, the Fighting Irish have adopted green as an informal alternate color, with green home jerseys that get used on special occasions.
Stadium: Notre Dame Stadium (capacity 77,622)
Current Head Coach: Marcus Freeman
Notable Historic Coaches: Pat O'Dea, Knute Rockne, Elmer Layden, Frank Leahy, Ara Parseghian, Dan Devine, Lou Holtz, Charlie Weis, Brian Kelly
Notable Historic Players: Knute Rockne, Curly Lambeau, George Gipp, Jack Chevigny, The Four Horsemen (Harry Stuhldreher, Jim Crowley, Don Miller, Elmer Layden), Buck Shaw, Frank Leahy, "Jumping" Joe Savoldi, Bill Shakespeare, Wayne Millner, Lou Rymkus, Angelo Bertelli, Frank Danciewicz, Johnny Lujack, George Connor, Leon Hart, Frank Tripucka, Johnny Lattner, Ralph Guglielmi, Paul Hornung, George Izo, Nick Buoniconti, Daryle Lamonica, John Huarte, Alan Page, Kevin Hardy, Rocky Bleier, Bob Kuechenberg, Joe Theismann, Walt Patulski, Dave Casper, Steve Niehaus, Rudy Ruettiger, Greg Collins, Joe Montana, Rusty Lisch, Dave Waymer, Greg Bell, Allen Pinkett, John Carney, Steve Beuerlein, Tim Brown, Ricky Watters, Allen Rossum, Rick Mirer, Derek Brown, Jeff Alm, Bryant Young, Ron Powlus, Jeff Faine, Jerome Bettis, Justin Tuck, Brady Quinn, J.J. Jansen, Jimmy Clausen, Michael Floyd, Manti Te'o, Harrison Smith, Zack Martin, Sam Hartman
National Championships: 11 (1924, 1929-30, 1943, 1946-47, 1949, 1966, 1973, 1977, 1988)^note 11 unclaimed (1919-20, 1927, 1938, 1953, 1964, 1967, 1970, 1989, 1993, 2012)
Conference Championships: 0

The University of Notre Dame du Lac is the most famous Catholic university in the country, in no small part because it hosts the most famous remaining football independent and arguably the best-known program in the nation, notably being featured in high-profile sports biopics like Knute Rockne, All American and Rudy. Notre Dame itself features some of the most distinctive iconography in sports, from the oldest marching band in the nation to the giant mural of Jesus signaling a touchdown that overlooks the stadium from across campus to the fanbase that makes every game day look like St. Patrick's Day. It is a common joke (with a ring of truth to it) that certain American Catholics hold greater reverence for the Fighting Irish's polished golden helmets than any other aspect of their faith. The program's national following was built over decades of football success, including having produced seven Heisman winners and more undefeated seasons (11),^note Technically, a few other schools could claim to have equaled or surpassed this tally, but only by counting 19th century seasons where they played only a handful of games. College Hall of Fame players (46), consensus All-Americans (110), and NFL draft picks (525) than any other college program as of 2023. The Irish are also second to their longtime rival USC in producing Pro Hall of Famers (12^note The Pro Hall counts Notre Dame with 13 alumni, but one of them was longtime San Francisco 49ers owner Ed DeBartolo Jr., a Notre Dame alum who didn't play football and was inducted as an owner. to the Trojans' 14).

Their football reputation launched in the 1920s under Knute Rockne (1918-30), whose success on the football field was perhaps only matched by his ability to market the team to a nationwide audience; his death in a plane crash in 1931 was viewed as a national tragedy. Rockne was the first of the "Holy Trinity" of Notre Dame coaches, followed by Frank Leahy (1941-43, 1946-53) and Ara Parseghian (1964-74) who established the university as a football power, each claiming multiple national titles over the decades. Leahy's tenure saw the team regularly dominate the Heisman race, with Irish QBs Angelo Bartelli (1943) and Johnny Lujack (1947), end Leon Hart (1949), and HB Johnny Lattner (1953) claiming the trophy. Even during the team's worst Audience-Alienating Era in the 1950s, star Jack of All Trades Paul Hornung was still able to win the 1956 Heisman on a losing team, and QB John Huarte won the trophy in Parseghian's first year for returning the Irish to their former dominance. Though subsequent coaches Dan Devine (1975-80) and Lou Holtz (1986-96) kept the school a power and won a championship apiece (with Holtz also producing the school's last Heisman winner, WR Tim Brown, in 1987), the program's level of success leveled off as the century wound down, and by the 2000s the Irish had become merely a very good team rather than one that could compete for national titles (though they've remained winning enough to coast on past glories and hold onto a nationwide fanbase even without bringing home any championships). Brian Kelly (2010-21) helped to restore some of Notre Dame's winning tradition in the 2010s, with an appearance in a BCS Championship Game after 2012 and multiple CFP berths, but the school still has yet to win a national title in over three decades. Observers have often attributed this apparent ceiling to Notre Dame being one of the few universities at its level of competition to truly value education equally to athletics; its football players have some of the highest graduation rates of any program in the nation.

As a result of all its success, Notre Dame can largely dictate its own terms in the football world. The team—and the school itself—became famous in part due to national radio broadcasts dating back to the Rockne years, and it currently has a very lucrative TV contract with NBC to nationally broadcast its home games. Until the 1990s, they had been independent in all sports but eventually joined the original Big East outside of football in 1995. They took a half-step away from football independence when they joined the ACC in 2013, nominally remaining independent but agreeing to play five ACC teams each year. In turn, the ACC gave Notre Dame access to its bowl games in seasons when the Irish don't make the CFP or its associated bowls. Notre Dame's schedule once consisted primarily of old "rivalries" between it and its nearby Midwestern—which is to say Big Ten—neighbors. Trips to Michigan (the school's first ever opponent, which was often dominant at the same time as the Irish) and Michigan State (which is quite close geographically) historically were annual or near-annual occurrences but have been disrupted by the move.^note Oddly, the Irish have not of late often played Northwestern, despite that being the closest major football school to them. Currently, in addition to its ACC commitments, the Irish still play Stanford, USC, and Navy every year^note except in 2020, when COVID-19 scuttled all three games. The USC rivalry dates to the Twenties, when the Irish added them to its regular schedule in part to increase the program's recruiting power on the West Coast (Stanford joined the regular rotation in the '80s so they could rotate away games). As for Navy, the US Navy kept Notre Dame afloat during World War II by placing one of its many wartime officer training centers on the Notre Dame campus; the annual game with the Midshipmen is Notre Dame's way of paying them back.

UConn Huskies

The University of Connecticut has enjoyed significant success in several sports since the late 1990s, most notably men's and women's basketball, respectively claiming 6 and 11 national titles. In fact, UConn has more official national team titles than any other Group of Five school, with 24 in all (the others being 2 in men's soccer and 5 in women's field hockey).^note Though not the most in D-I outside the Power Five—that distinction belongs to Denver, a school that last played football in 1960. It has 24 titles in skiing alone, and also has 10 in men's ice hockey and one in men's lacrosse. Football is another story entirely. While the Huskies had enjoyed off-and-on regional success in the small-college ranks and later in I-AA/FCS, that didn't continue after their move to FBS in 2002 (though they did share a couple of Big East titles).

By the end of the 2010s, the football team had fallen firmly into Butt-Monkey status, becoming a regular member of ESPN's "Bottom 10", with said column consistently calling them "U-Can't". To make matters worse, their bread-and-butter sports of men's and women's basketball were being visibly hurt by being in the geographically far-flung American (the women weren't hurt on the court, but suffered from an utter lack of in-conference competition). In the end, basketball won out, with the Huskies rejoining several of their former conference rivals in the Big East in 2020. As it turned out, UConn became the first FBS school (of three) to cancel its 2020 football season due to COVID-19.^note The Big Ten, MAC, MW, and Pac-12 initially canceled their seasons, with plans to move them to the spring, but all four leagues eventually decided to play abbreviated conference-only fall seasons. The hiring of Jim Mora as coach in 2022 saw the program immediately return to bowl eligibility, though only time will tell if that marks the start of a long-term revival.

While the school is located in Storrs, it plays its home games about 23 miles/37 km away (by road) at Pratt & Whitney Stadium in East Hartford, the second-longest distance from an FBS school's campus to its home field (UCLA is 26 miles from the Rose Bowl in Pasadena). The stadium was originally conceived as a possible home for the New England Patriots when they were considering relocating away from greater Boston due to struggles over a new stadium deal, but once the Patriots decided to stay in Foxboro, East Hartford scaled back its stadium plans and made UConn its main tenant.

UMass Minutemen

The University of Massachusetts Amherst is its state's flagship public school, located in the western half of the state (just north of Springfield) and notable for its massive library. Its football team became independent by default, being effectively kicked out of MAC football after 2015. The Minutemen had been a quite successful FCS program, even winning a national title in 1998, but had little success after moving to FBS and MAC football in 2012; they are the only FBS program to never play in an FBS bowl game.^note Technically, Sam Houston also hasn't played in a bowl game, but being brand new to the FBS, it isn't even eligible to qualify for a bowl game until 2024, so it wouldn't be fair to include SH unless it misses out in 2024. After four seasons, they left to an uncertain future, with no FBS conference in their region willing to take them in. They've become a fixture in ESPN's "Bottom 10" as "UMess" and went completely winless in a COVID-shortened 2020 season. However, the Minutemen (and Minutewomen) will return to the MAC in 2025, this time as full members.