^According to conferences in football, not necessarily a team's primary conference.
^The campus mailing address isHuntsville; Normal is a Huntsville neighborhood that encompasses the AAMU campus.
^The first fielded team only played three seasons (1922–1924), from 1925 through 1969 Albany did not have a football program. The modern era of Albany football began in 1970, when the school restored football as a club sport. The team was upgraded to full varsity status in 1973.
^The Alcorn State campus has a Lorman mailing address, but is in unincorporatedClaiborne County and is designated by the US Census Bureau as Alcorn State, Mississippi.
^Although the academic core of the Harvard campus, including theuniversity administration, is located in Cambridge, the school's athletic complex, including the football stadium, is within the city limits ofBoston.
^This is Idaho's second stint in the grouping now known as FCS; it had been a member of what was then known as Division I-AA from the group's creation in 1978 through 1995, after which it moved to the league then known as the Pacific Coast Athletic Association (now theBig West Conference). At that time, the PCAA sponsored FBS (then Division I-A) football.
^Effective in 2019-20, Long Island University merged its two athletic programs the Division I non-footballLIU Brooklyn Blackbirds and Division II football-sponsoringLIU Post Pioneers into a single D-I athletic program under the Sharks name. The LIU Post football team became the new LIU football team, playing at its current home on the Post campus and joining the Northeast Conference. LIU was immediately eligible for the playoffs, as it was treated as a new football program of an existing D-I institution, but lost all its Division I games in the 2019 season and failed to qualify.
^First season of the LIU Post program that became the LIU program in 2019. The Brooklyn campus first played football in 1928, but dropped the sport in 1940, before the Post campus existed; LIU traces the history of its current football program through Post.
^While UTRGV has multiple campuses withinits service area, its athletic program is based at the Edinburg campus, which it inherited from its athletic predecessor, theUniversity of Texas–Pan American. The football team plans to play home games in both Brownsville (home to a UTRGV campus inherited from theUniversity of Texas at Brownsville) and Edinburg; when UTRGV confirmed the addition of football in late 2022, it committed to establishing separate marching bands and spirit programs for the two campuses.[2]
^The former UTPA played football while it was a junior college, but never had a football program as a four-year institution.
^abVillanova and William & Mary will join thePatriot League as football affiliates in 2026.
The following programs are transitioning fromNCAA Division II to FCS, or have announced definitive plans to do so. Under current NCAA rules, they must have an invitation from a Division I conference to begin the transition. During the normally four-year transition period, they are ineligible for the FCS playoffs. Since January 2025, the NCAA has expedited the reclassification period for schools, by one year, with schools already reclassifying to Division I being given the option to use either the new, shorter reclassification period or the original, longer period they initially agreed to. The new transition period is three years instead of the previous four for schools transitioning from Division II.[3]
^Mercyhurst started a transition from Division II to Division I in 2024, joining the Northeast Conference.
^New Haven will start a transition from Division II to Division I in July 2025, joining the Northeast Conference as a full member, including football.
^New Haven sponsors football, but will not immediately play a full Northeast Conference schedule. Full conference play is expected for 2026.
^West Georgia started a transition from Division II to Division I in 2024 as a new member of theAtlantic Sun Conference (ASUN). The football team plays in the United Athletic Conference, a single-sport alliance between the ASUN and the Western Athletic Conference.
This listsexisting members of Division I that have announced plans to start FCS programs. Conference affiliations are those expected to be in effect for the season when the program begins FCS play.
^While Chicago State has not officially announced a start date for football, it expects to start play in 2026,[7] having hired its first head coach in April 2025.[8]
^abcdefgh8 of the 10 schools in the MAC at the time were reclassified from Division I-A to Division I-AA prior to the 1982 season. However, following appeals from Bowling Green, Miami (OH), Northern Illinois, and Western Michigan, the conference as a whole was permitted to remain in I-A beginning in the 1983 season.
^UCF's campus has an Orlando mailing address, but is located entirely within unincorporatedOrange County.
^Cincinnati was initially reclassified from Division I-A to Division I-AA prior to the 1982 season. However, the university filed an injunction to postpone their demotion to after the 1982 season, and was ultimately successful in remaining in I-A.
