Welcome back to the second edition of the FCS-FBS recap for the 2023 season. We will provide numerous graphs and statistics for all FCS versus FBS matchups during the second full week of the college football season. In all, 38 FCS versus FBS games were played during week two. Any insights or nuggets of information will be in the opening paragraphs followed by the charts of each statistical category. The table below allows the user to skip to a specific category instead of having to scroll through the tables. All the graphs below will have the same color scheme as FCS teams in orange and FBS teams in blue.
FCS Wins
There were three FCS over FBS wins in week two, the first three for the 2023 season.
Southern Illinois won 14-11 over Northern Illinois to claim its 6th all-time FCS over FBS victory. It’s the second straight year the Salukis have won against an FBS opponent (Northwestern) and the third time in their last five FCS-FBS matchups (UMass in 2019).
Fordham defeated Buffalo 40-37 to claim its third win over an FBS team. Fordham last won against Army in 2015 while Buffalo has lost two straight against FCS teams (lost 37-31 to Holy Cross in 2022).
Idaho dominated Nevada in a convincing 33-7 victory. Idaho’s last FCS over FBS win was in 1994 over UNLV with the long drought due to Idaho’s FBS tenure from 1996 through 2017. Overall, it was the 10th FCS over FBS win for the Vandals.
Stat Nuggets
While the FCS won three of its games against FBS opponents, it also gave up 70+ points three times as well in week 2. The last time that occurred was week 2 of the 2018 season when three games also had FBS teams drop 70+ points. Overall, there have been four weeks of it happening with the other two instances occurring in week 1 of 2015 (three games) and week 2 of 2014 (five games).
Even though Idaho State was blown out 78-28, they committed no penalties. The only other time that’s happened since 2019 was Kennesaw State matching that last year.
New Hampshire threw for 493 yards against Central Michigan in the 45-42 loss. It was the 4th highest amount since 2019 but high passing yardage has been a bad omen for FCS teams. Since 2019, FCS teams have thrown for 400 or more yards 16 times but have only won twice (Incarnate Word versus Nevada in 2022 and Central Arkansas against Western Kentucky in 2019).
Finally, in the “Thanks Captain Obvious” section, we have the lack of turnovers helping FCS teams. Neither Fordham nor Southern Illinois committed a turnover in their respective victories. Since 2019, there have been 28 FCS over FBS victories through week two of the 2023 season and 14 of those 28 wins saw FCS teams not turn the ball over.
Per Game Stats (Year-To-Date and Week 2)
The per-game stats for all FCS-FBS games are provided below. The first chart is only for the week 2 games (38) while the second chart is for all 2023 games to date (80 games).
Weekly Records
Below is a table that shows how each FCS conference performed during the week against FBS foes. There is also the year-to-date record provided in the last column.
| Conference | Games | Week 1 Record | Week 2 Record | Season-to-Date Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Big Sky | 9 | 0-3 | 1-5 | 1-8 |
| Big South | 4 | 0-3 | 0-1 | 0-4 |
| CAA | 11 | 0-7 | 0-4 | 0-11 |
| Independents | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Ivy League | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| MEAC | 5 | 0-2 | 0-3 | 0-5 |
| MVFC | 8 | 0-4 | 1-3 | 1-7 |
| NEC | 4 | 0-2 | 0-2 | 0-4 |
| OVC | 5 | 0-3 | 0-2 | 0-5 |
| Patriot League | 5 | 0-2 | 1-2 | 1-4 |
| Pioneer | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| SoCon | 6 | 0-5 | 0-1 | 0-6 |
| Southland | 9 | 0-3 | 0-6 | 0-9 |
| SWAC | 7 | 0-4 | 0-3 | 0-7 |
| United Athletic | 7 | 0-4 | 0-3 | 0-7 |
| 80 | 0-42 | 3-35 | 3-77 |
Points Scored
Total Yards
Passing Yards
Rushing Yards
Completion Percentage
Yards Per Carry
Turnovers
First Downs
Penalty Yards
3rd Down Efficiency
Photo credit to Southern Illinois University Athletics
