No longer in the heart of Texas, the Football Championship Subdivision national championship contest will be held, for the first time ever, in Nashville, Tennessee.
Sunday, the NCAA revealed the path to the Music City following the conclusion of the FCS regular-season late Saturday night.
Without an ounce of surprise, North Dakota State was the No. 1 overall seed. The Bison are the defending national champions and have won 10 FCS National Championships since 2011.
Montana State, which held on for a dramatic, 31-28 win Saturday at heated rival Montana in the annual ‘Brawl of the Wild’ rivalry game, leapfrogged the Griz to give Brent Vigen’s squad the No. 2 overall seed. Bobby Hauck’s Montana program closed as the No. 3 seed.
Tarleton State, which claimed the outright United Athletic Conference title when it survived in overtime against Jeff Faris’ resurgent Austin Peay squad, 45-44, rounded out the top-four quartet.
Teams seeded in the top eight nationally all receive byes; Nos. 5-8 are as follows:
The remaining national seeds were awarded to the following programs:
No. 10 Abilene Christian University
No. 14 South Dakota State
No. 16 Southeastern Louisiana
Rounding out the field of 24 with at-large bids were the following teams:
Illinois State, which opens against No. 16 Southeastern Louisiana
Central Connecticut State at No. 9 Rhode Island
Harvard at No. 12 Villanova
North Dakota at No. 13 Tennessee Tech
Lamar at No. 10 Abilene Christian University
Drake at No. 11 South Dakota
New Hampshire at No. 14 South Dakota State
The FCS Playoffs open Saturday; second-round games are on conference championship Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, with quarterfinals the weekend of Dec. 12-13 and semifinals on Dec. 20.
The first-ever FCS Championship in Nashville, at FirstBank Stadium, will be played Jan. 5, 2026.
There are some noteworthy streaks associated with this year’s bracket.
North Dakota State is making its 16th consecutive appearance; South Dakota State is at 14 in a row.
The other end? Tennessee Tech, under the Renaissance work of second-year head man Bobby Wilder, is back in the FCS Playoffs for the first time since 2011.
With the Ivy League finally lifting its longstanding policy of not participating in the football postseason, Harvard and Yale both are making their first-ever appearances in the FCS Playoffs field.
