2011 NCAA Division I FCS football season

New FCS program

• The University of Texas at San Antonio, which played its first football season in school history, was technically a new FCS program. However, UTSA announced before the 2011 season that it was transitioning to the Football Bowl Subdivision. The Roadrunners played one season as an FCS independent, and under NCAA rules for transitioning programs were ineligible for the FCS playoffs. They will then join the Western Athletic Conference in 2012, but will be ineligible for FBS bowl games. UTSA will become a full FBS member upon completion of the transition in 2013. The Roadrunners, coached by former Miami head coach Larry Coker, play at the Alamodome in downtown San Antonio.

  Teams transitioning to FBS

• The University of Massachusetts Amherst, currently a member of the non-football Atlantic 10 Conference and a football-only member of the Colonial Athletic Association, will move for football only to the Mid-American Conference effective in 2012.
• The University of South Alabama, after two years as an unclassified NCAA program, played its first complete NCAA season. The Jaguars, already full members of the Sun Belt Conference, will eventually join that conference for football as well.
• Texas State University–San Marcos, a Southland Conference member, will join the WAC along with UTSA in 2012. As a result, they were classified as an FCS Independent in 2011 despite playing a full seven-game Southland Conference schedule.

  FCS team wins over FBS teams

• September 3:
• * Richmond 23, Duke 21
• * Sacramento State 29, Oregon State 28 ^OT
• September 17:
• * Indiana State 44, Western Kentucky 16
• September 24:
• * North Dakota State 37, Minnesota 24
• * Sam Houston State 48, New Mexico 45 ^OT
• * Southern Utah 41, UNLV 16

  Conference standings

Playoff qualifiers

Automatic berths for conference champions

• Big Sky Conference – Montana
• Big South Conference – Stony Brook
• Colonial Athletic Association – Towson
• Missouri Valley Football Conference – North Dakota State
• Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference – Norfolk State
• Northeast Conference – Albany
• Ohio Valley Conference – Tennessee Tech
• Patriot League – Lehigh
• Southern Conference – Georgia Southern
• Southland Conference – Sam Houston State

  At large qualifiers

• Big Sky Conference – Montana State
• Colonial Athletic Association – James Madison, Maine, New Hampshire, Old Dominion
• Missouri Valley Football Conference – Northern Iowa
• Ohio Valley Conference – Eastern Kentucky
• Southern Conference – Appalachian State, Wofford
• Southland Conference – Central Arkansas

Abstains

• Ivy League – Harvard
• Southwestern Athletic Conference – Grambling State

  Postseason

NCAA FCS Playoff bracket

SWAC Championship Game