The 8 States That Don’t Have A Single College Football Team That Competes In The FBS

 

Prior to the start of the 2025 college football season, Delaware made the leap to the FBS  level and became the first team hailing from The First State to join that club. However, there is still a solid chunk of the country that doesn’t have a single representative at the highest level of the sport.

These are all of the states that don’t have a school that fields a college football team at the FBS level

In the 1970s, the NCAA did some reshuffling on the college football front that led to all of the nation’s teams being classified as members of one of three “Divisions.” That change was first instituted in 1973, and five years later, the governing body introduced a new classification system that split Division I into Division I-A and Division I-AA.

Those tiers have been known as Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) and Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), respectively, since the rebranding that was rolled out in 2006. The vast majority of states have at least one team that’s a member of the former, but there are still more than a few on the outside looking in.

Alaska

Fun fact: Alaska is the only state in the country that is not represented at the FBS, FCS, or any other level of the NCAA as far as college football is concerned.

The University of Alaska Anchorage, the state’s largest higher learning institution, is firmly a hockey school (the Seawolves compete in Division I), and its athletic department does not sponsor a squad on the gridiron. As a result, Alaskans are largely forced to get their football fix from high school teams.

Maine

Maine, on the other hand, has a single FCS team to its name: the Black Bears, who hail from the state’s flagship university in Orono.

Bates, Bowdoin, and Colby are among the other schools that compete at lower levels, and the Maine Maritime Academy recently revived a program that was discontinued in the wake of the pandemic.

Montana

With the exception of Alaska, Montana is the biggest state on this list by area, but it does not have an FBS team.

With that said, it does have two notable FCS programs courtesy of Montana and Montana State. The fierce rivals have been facing off against each other since 1897, and the former has two national championships to its name (the latter played in the title game for the first time in 2024 but lost to a North Dakota State program we’ll be mentioning momentarily).

New Hampshire

College football largely ran through the Ivy League in the decades that followed the first-ever game in 1869; Yale still has the most national championships of any school in the country thanks to the 18 it racked up between 1874 and 1927.

Dartmouth was never really a powerhouse, but the Big Green can claim a national title they shared with Alabama and Michigan in 1925. They currently compete as an FCS team along with UNH, but New Hampshire is also home to two DII programs (Franklin Pierce and Saint Anselm) and a couple that compete in DIII (New England College and Plymouth State).

North Dakota

North Dakota may not have an FBS team, but it does have the most accomplished program in FCS history.

North Dakota State has been a force to be reckoned with over the past couple of decades, as the Bison won their first national title in 2011 to usher in an unreal dynasty that’s seen them secure ten championships in the span of 14 seasons.

The University of North Dakota is also an FCS team, but they tend to be a bit of an afterthought—as is the case with Jamestown, Mary, and Minot State, all of which are DIII.

Rhode Island

Providence College probably has the most noteworthy athletic program in the state of Rhode Island, but it hasn’t had a football team since the school discontinued it in 1941.

America’s smallest state does have three FCS teams: Brown, Bryant, and URI. Salve Regina is the only other college that sponsors a squad, as the Seahawks compete in Division III as members of the NEWMAC.

South Dakota

South Dakota State has also emerged as a program to keep an eye on in recent years, as the Jackrabbits won back-to-back titles after securing their first championship in 2022. They’re one of two FCS schools, and as was the case with North Dakota, the University of South Dakota lives in their shadow.

There are also five DII football teams, none of which has a cooler name than the South Dakota Mines Hardrockers.

Vermont

We’re closing things out with the only other state on this list that doesn’t even have an FCS team. UVM fielded a squad for the first time in 1886, but it hasn’t had one since the program folded following the conclusion of the 1974 season.

That means St. Michael’s, the relatively tiny Catholic school located just outside of Burlington, technically has the most prestigious college football team in the state as the only one that competes at the DII level. Three others—Castleton, Middlebury, and Norwich—do their thing in DIII.