The NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly known as Division I-AA, is the second-highest level of college football in the United States, after the Football Bowl Subdivision. Sponsored by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the FCS level comprises 128 teams in 14 conferences as of the 2023 season. The FCS designation is only tied to football with the non-football sports programs of each school generally competing in NCAA Division I.
From 1906 to 1955, the NCAA had no divisional structure for member schools. Prior to the 1956 college football season, schools were organized into an upper NCAA University Division and lower NCAA College Division. From 1973 to 1977, all schools participated in a single NCAA Division I group. Prior to the 1978 season, schools were again organized into upper NCAA Division I-A and lower NCAA Division I-AA groupings. These two divisions were renamed as NCAA Division I FBS and NCAA Division I FCS prior to the 2006 season.
The FCS has held a post-season playoff to award an NCAA-sanctioned national championship since its inception in 1978. The size of the playoff bracket has increased from 4 teams in 1978 to 24 teams in the 2020 season. This makes the FCS the highest level of college football with an NCAA-sanctioned national championship.
Conferences
As of the 2023 football season, there are 14 Division 1 FCS football conferences:
Big South Conference — Partially merging football with the Ohio Valley Conference for 2023 and beyond, in a similar manner to the former ASUN–WAC alliance. This alliance will have a single automatic FCS playoff berth.
Ohio Valley Conference — Partially merging football with the Big South Conference for 2023 and beyond, in a similar manner to the former ASUN–WAC alliance. This alliance will have a single automatic FCS playoff berth.
Formed in December 2022 by a football-only merger of the ASUN Conference and Western Athletic Conference. In the 2021 and 2022 seasons, those two all-sports conferences had been partners in a football alliance that shared a single berth in the FCS playoffs.
2023 NCAA Division I FCS football season
