The FCS Notebook is a blog-style article series featuring an assortment of news, rumblings, quick hitters, and commentary on various topics.
A new FCS Notebook will be published multiple times a week.
Nashville, Frisco, Houston, St. Louis, & Kansas City Bid On Hosting FCS Championship
First published on Dec. 3 and updated on Dec. 6
With Frisco’s Toyota Stadium undergoing major multi-year renovations after this season’s FCS title game, multiple cities have submitted bids to host the championship for the 2025 and/or the 2026 seasons.
Those cities are Nashville, Frisco, Houston, St. Louis, and Kansas City.
The Tennessean first reported the news earlier this week that Nashville submitted a bid to host the championship for the 2025 and 2026 seasons at Vanderbilt’s newly renovated FirstBank Stadium (30,000 capacity). The current capacity for Toyota Stadium is around 18,500 for the FCS championship game.
The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead reported that Frisco, Houston, St. Louis, and Kansas City also submitted bids. HERO Sports has been able to confirm Nashville and Frisco as cities to submit bids.
Houston’s bid included the game being played at Shell Energy Stadium, a 20,000-seat professional soccer stadium that is also home for FCS member Texas Southern. St. Louis’ bid has the game being held at The Dome at America’s Center, a 67,000-seat indoor stadium where the Rams used to play.
Frisco, Texas, holds the current contract to host the FCS championship with an option to host through the 2026 season (January 2027 game). However, the $182 million renovation will significantly reduce capacity until completion.
Toyota Stadium Planned Renovation Timeline
- Q1 2025: Construction begins on east side of stadium.
- Summer 2026: The east side reopens while construction begins on west side of stadium.
- Q1 2028: The entire stadium reopens.
While hosting the game at Toyota Stadium next season and the season after isn’t realistic due to capacity concerns, Frisco is finding solutions for other stadiums in the area to host the game.
The FCS championship game has nearly a $10 million direct economic impact for the Frisco area, a number that jumps to $16 million after taking indirect and induced spending into account. The FBS’ Frisco Bowl, for comparison, has a $1.9 million economic impact.
Conversations were ongoing on hosting the FCS championship after this season, conversations that sped up after the Toyota Stadium renovations were announced.
HERO Sports is told a decision on future hosting sites is expected to be made before this season’s national title game, which is held Jan. 6.
Nashville Sports Council president and CEO Scott Ramsey told The Tennessean his staff made a presentation and submitted a bid to the FCS committee on Nov. 22 to host the championship game in 2025 and 2026. Vanderbilt and the Ohio Valley Conference partnered with the Sports Council in putting together the bid.
The 2025 FCS national championship game will be played on Jan. 5, 2026 and the 2026 national championship is Jan. 4, 2027.
“We have our fingers crossed,” Ramsey said. “We’re hopeful in the next couple of weeks they (FCS committee) will make a decision and hopefully it’s Nashville and we can kind of get rolling and start working on it. I believe they want to decide on the next city as soon as possible.”
Cole Wisniewski Enters Portal
NDSU All-American safety Cole Wisniewski announced he’ll be entering the transfer portal.
Wisniewski hasn’t played all season after recovering from foot surgery. However, there was hope that he’d be able to return during NDSU’s playoff run.
Wisniewski is an NFL Draft prospect and turned down P5 offers last year after a breakout season. He was PFF’s No. 1-graded FCS/FBS safety in 2023, totaling 92 tackles, eight interceptions, and five pass breakups.
Maverick McIvor Expected To Play
After missing the last 1.5 games due to injury, Abilene Christian standout quarterback Maverick McIvor is expected to play this weekend in the second round at North Dakota State. ACU is the #15 seed traveling to #2 NDSU.
McIvor has thrown for 3,675 yards (No. 4 in the FCS), 29 touchdowns, and five interceptions this fall.
Past FCS Notebooks
UNI’s Mark Farley To Retire + W&M’s Charles Grant Gets 1st Senior Bowl Invite … READ MORE
Mountain West Reportedly Considering Adding NDSU … READ MORE
