The FCS Daily Dose is a blog-style article series featuring an assortment of news, rumblings, quick hitters, and commentary on various topics.
A new Daily Dose will be published multiple times a week.
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FCS In The NFL Draft Trends
The FCS saw 12 selections in the 2024 NFL Draft. Good news: It was the second most in the 2020s. Bad news: It was down from the 17 draft picks per year average in the 2010s.
The low number may become the norm for anyone outside of the now Power 4.
In this year’s draft, more than 200 players were selected from P5 conferences, only 18 from G5 conferences, and only 12 from FCS conferences.
G5 leagues like the Mountain West, MAC, and CUSA each had fewer draft picks than the FCS Missouri Valley Football Conference, which had four selections.
NFL teams are showing they prefer to spend their draft picks on P5 talent, knowing they can get G5 and FCS players via undrafted free agent deals. And for valid reasons. The depth of talent in the power leagues is insane, helped by NIL deals keeping players in college longer. There were First Team All-Conference players from power leagues getting picked in the sixth round. Standout P5 players are going in the late rounds, which were usually reserved for more “small school” players to hear their names called.
The transfer portal also doesn’t help as some (but not all) of the top-tier talent trickles up. But it should be pointed out that there are still more FCS draft picks than FCS-to-FBS transfer draft picks.
NFL Draft picks aren’t always about how good of a college player you are, but how your skillset/talent/athleticism translates to the next level. We see this often with FCS prospects. Absolute dominant All-American players don’t get drafted because they don’t have the measurables, while players who weren’t All-Americans are selected because they tested out of their minds. And the fastest, biggest, most explosive, most athletic college football players are mostly in the power leagues.
On the bright side, 100+ FCS players are still getting NFL rookie opportunities this year. More than 60 FCS players signed UDFA contracts, while around 80 got invited to rookie minicamp tryout invites.
While getting drafted earns you more guaranteed money, many late-round picks don’t make 53-man rosters while several UDFAs can make final rosters or practice squads.
If you’re good enough, you can find your way onto an NFL team, even if draft picks from the G5, FCS, and non-D1s are getting fewer.
Portal Closing Soon, Grad Transfers Need To Be Within Window
Some good news for teams and fans is that grad transfers now need to enter the transfer portal within the portal windows.
The spring transfer portal window opened on April 16. Non-grad transfers have until 11:59 p.m. tonight (Tuesday, April 30) to decide to enter the portal. Grad transfers have one extra day this year to enter their name, with a deadline of 11:59 p.m. tomorrow (Wednesday, May 1).
Once notified of a player’s decision to enter the portal, schools have 48 hours to enter the player’s name and information into the transfer portal database. So there could still be names trickling into the portal a bit after it closes.
Before, grad transfers could enter the portal whenever. Now, teams have more security on what their rosters will look like by early May.
Fans and coaches can breathe a sigh of relief soon. No more summers of angst. There was never really a guarantee of standouts returning until fall camp hit. Heck, even mid-August two summers ago saw UT Martin stud defensive end Eyabi Anoma enter the portal and commit to Michigan a few days later.
NDSU’s Eli Green Enters Portal
Rumors of a mass exodus of Bison players entering the portal after Tim Polasek was hired never occurred. Polasek won the team over with his passion and understanding of NDSU football. It seemed all the stars were returning for the Bison. But yesterday, dynamic wide receiver Eli Green entered the portal.
Green will certainly earn himself a nice NIL deal from a P4 team.
Green was set to be one of the top 2024 WRs in the FCS. He was electric down the stretch last fall, making clutch and highlight-reel catches. On the season, Green totaled 45 receptions for 877 yards and three touchdowns.
NDSU now loses its top two pass-catchers from last year, including Zach Mathis. The most productive returning WR is RaJa Nelson, who caught 31 passes for 388 yards and two scores last fall.
Quarterback Cam Miller returns as one of the top QBs in the FCS. He completed 72% of his passes in 2023 for 2,688 yards, 19 TDs, and four interceptions.
Playoff Seeds
In case you missed our report last week, the number of seeded teams in the 24-team FCS playoff bracket is increasing from 8 to 16.
This has several positives to it, which can be read further here.
Other Daily Doses
Increase In Playoff Seeds Gets Key Approval + Braedon Sloan Enters Portal + NDSU-Colorado Moved To Thursday … READ MORE
UND & NDSU Now Have 3 Ways To “Pay” Athletes … READ MORE
FCS Players In The Athletic’s 7-Round NFL Mock Draft & In ESPN’s Top 400 Prospects … READ MORE
