When February 2021 rolled around and the FCS was just a couple of weeks away from its unprecedented spring season, doubts were still high if it would actually occur. Despite teams beginning “fall camp,” the weirdness of a spring season was so high it left us all wondering “Is this actually happening?” all the way up until Week 1.
But the season did kick off on Feb. 13 with McNeese beating Tarleton State. More importantly, the FCS finished the season on May 16 when Sam Houston beat South Dakota State 23-21 to win the national championship.
That in itself makes the season a success.
With the COVID pandemic still raging in January and February, the mindset of FCS leaders was, “We’re going to start, and we just hope we can finish.”
If those leaders were told during those two months that the subdivision would play 80 percent of its scheduled regular-season games, only eight teams will opt out midseason, the best teams playing in the spring will all make the playoff bracket, zero postseason games will be impacted by COVID, and a national champion is going to be crowned in front of a 50-percent capacity crowd in Frisco, Texas, they would’ve said, “Oh hell yeah, that would be amazing if we can achieve that.”
So no, the FCS season wasn’t a failure. It wasn’t necessarily a roaring success either, but it played out almost as well as it could have and accomplished the ultimate goal of finishing in Frisco.
This isn’t putting lipstick on a pig. Because no doubt there were ugly moments between Feb. 13 and May 16.
Shall we?
The FCS didn’t get nearly as much attention on national TV networks during the regular season when one positive thought going into the spring was the increase in exposure.
There was a time period when top-ranked teams like JMU, SDSU, NDSU, and UND missed consecutive games all at the same time due to COVID issues.
You had teams like New Hampshire, who only got one game in while the rest were canceled.
Some teams opted out midseason, causing a backlash from fans, other coaches in the conference, and even players inside their own locker room.
The revealing of the playoff committee’s Top 10 ranking during a college baseball game was a debacle, and something no one even knew was going to be released until an hour beforehand.
The MEAC auto-bid situation was a mess.
The main NCAA FCS Twitter account was barely used.
Ratings for the playoff games were good, but not great and showed further proof football in the spring doesn’t work and the FCS remains a niche in the college football world.
The national championship game saw a lightning delay that lasted more than an hour.
So the season had its messy moments. And no one has denied that through this rollercoaster of a season. But nothing happened that was unexpected. If you stack up those list of negatives against the positives in paragraph five, the spring campaign was much closer to a success than a failure.
The season certainly ended on a high note, getting rid of some of the sour taste we felt in late March. The playoffs were the most entertaining and dramatic they’ve been in years, and engagement on our site and my Twitter rivaled that of the 2019 playoffs. Even those who questioned if playing in the spring was worth it had to be having a blast watching the postseason.
With all that said, let’s never do this spring season thing again. The lone benefit of moving the FCS to the spring is more exposure. But as the playoff viewership indicates, that didn’t happen. At least not enough to warrant playing in the spring permanently.
A spring FCS season means no FBS money games, NFL prospects opting out, coaches taking FBS jobs weeks before the season begins, untimely transfers out and making it tougher to land FBS drop-down transfers, messing with the recruiting calendar, overwhelming smaller athletic departments dealing with football plus the winter/spring crossover months, teams with no indoor facilities trying to get players football ready with frozen fields and snow during preseason camp, etc.
Not worth it.
But it sure has been a fun ride, FCS spring season. We’ll see you never.
