North Dakota State and Sacramento State are two of the most recent FCS teams to make a jump up to the FBS. NDSU is expected to immediately contend for a Mountain West title, and Sac State could also pose some problems for some teams in the MAC.
They wouldn’t be the first teams to win some games after making that move. Kennesaw State won Conference USA last year, and Jacksonville State won the league title the previous season after both being in the FCS just five years ago. Of course, James Madison made the move up in this decade and made the College Football Playoff in 2025.
So which FCS teams could be next? Here’s a ranking of the top five FCS teams most likely to go to the FBS.
Note: Some of these teams may appear in some of my other articles in a different order. This is based on how appealing they would be to FBS conferences in general, not just a specific league or two.
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Top 5 FCS-To-FBS Teams
| Rank | Name | Conf. |
| 1 | Tarleton St. | UAC |
| 2 | UC Davis | Big Sky |
| 3 | Montana | Big Sky |
| 4 | Montana St. | Big Sky |
| 5 | South Dakota St. | MVFC |
Top FCS Teams Going To The FBS Next, Ranked
Honorable Mentions
After making it to the FCS Championship in 2025, Illinois State could potentially be in a good position to receive a conference invite. That’s especially true if the MAC loses another team or two and looks to backfill.
Eastern Kentucky and McNeese also have FBS aspirations. Whether they ever move, and the same is true for the other teams on this list, depends on what happens to individual FBS conferences and what they look for in new members.
5. South Dakota State
I didn’t have South Dakota State on my Pac-12 expansion target article I wrote earlier this year, and maybe that wasn’t the right thing to do. But I think SDSU would be a solid addition for any G6 league.
The Jackrabbits have been one of the best programs in the FCS for many years now. They won back-to-back national championships in 2022-23, and they’ve shown a willingness to invest in their football program.
Their location and media market, though, might not be as appealing as other candidates.
3 and 4. Montana State & Montana
Montana State and Montana, with North Dakota State gone, are in a tier of their own in the FCS with South Dakota State and maybe a couple others. So when looking at teams in that subdivision, they clearly stand out from a competitive standpoint.
Montana State just won the FCS national championship, and Montana is consistently a contender as well.
One problem that complicates this: the Montanas would likely have to be a package deal for a jump to the FBS. The Mountain West, for example, may want two new members at once. But other leagues may just want one and would therefore look elsewhere.
2. UC Davis
UC Davis has been one of the better teams in the FCS and the Big Sky, and for leagues like the Mountain West, having another team in California wouldn’t be bad, either.
UC Davis is in the Sacramento area, so obviously it would give a conference a team in a solid market.
UC Davis just checks a lot of boxes.
1. Tarleton State
Tarleton State has been a prime candidate to move up to the FBS for a few years due to its financial backing of football and athletics overall.
And that commitment has led to results. The Texans haven’t endured a losing season at the FCS level. Most recently, they went 10-4 overall in 2024 and reached the second round of the FCS Playoffs. In 2025, the team pulled off an upset over Army and went 12-2 overall before losing in the quarterfinals of the playoffs.
Tarleton State is also just a couple hours from Dallas, and a lot of conferences wouldn’t mind a stronger footprint in Texas.
