Jacksonville State, Sam Houston State expand FBS to 133 teams in 2023.

To say Burgess-Snow Field at JSU Stadium will be a happening place on the last Saturday of August is sure to be a great understatement, especially to those aligned with Jacksonville State University athletics.

After all, the Gamecocks will be entering a new era as members of the Football Bowl Subdivision. Not only will they be at home August 26, but will host UTEP in their first Conference USA tilt.

The following week, on Labor Day weekend, Sam Houston State will be in Provo to play BYU in the program’s first game as a member of college football’s highest classification. (The game, which will reportedly pay SHSU $1.2 million, will also be BYU’s first as a member of the Big 12.)

It will be a while before the Bearkats have their first true home game. Though there is a home date with Air Force on September 9, the game will be played 70 miles south of Huntsville at Houston’s NRG Stadium where SHSU has played one game every season (with the exception of spring 2021) since 2010. The first game at Elliott T. Bowers Stadium is not until September 28 against, ironically, Jacksonville State. That will be a Thursday night in what is sure to be a memorable evening.

Jacksonville State, a member of the Atlantic Sun Conference last year, and Sam Houston State, moving up from the WAC, officially become members of the FBS and a restructured C-USA on July 1. Their inclusion will bring FBS membership to 133.

Both schools have a rich football history. JSU fielded its first football team in 1904 and was an independent as well as NAIA affiliated for several decades before becoming a member of NCAA Division II in 1973. The program moved up to the FCS in 1996 and spent all but two seasons in the Southland and Ohio Valley conferences.

SHSU’s first season of football was 1912. The program moved from the NAIA to D-II in 1982 and made the jump to the FCS in 1986. The Bearkats spent all but two FCS seasons in the Southland Conference.

Both programs have enjoyed much recent success. Starting with Bill Clark’s lone season as coach in 2013 and continuing through the end of John Grass’ tenure in 2021, JSU had six seasons of at least 10 wins. The Gamecocks played for FCS supremacy in 2015, losing to North Dakota State.

Last season was Rich Rodriguez’s first in northeast Alabama, which resulted in a 9-2 campaign. Rodriguez, whose coaching timeline includes stints at Arizona (2012-17), Michigan (2008-10) and West Virginia (2001-07), has a career mark of 172-121-2.

Sam Houston State was an FCS power for much of the past decade. Starting with a 14-1 campaign under Willie Fritz in 2011, the Bearkats went to the FCS playoffs nine times in an 11-year stretch. They won it all during the revamped 2020 season, which was pushed back to spring 2021 due to the pandemic.

K.C. Keeler, who succeeded Fritz in 2014, is 85-27 in nine seasons in Huntsville after arriving from Delaware, his alma mater. He won a national title at UD in 2003 and took the Blue Hens to the national title game in 2007 and 2010. Keeler, whose first head-coaching job was at Rowan (NJ) University, has a career mark of 259-100.

The Gamecocks, who will receive a reported $1.3 million in a meeting of Gamecocks at South Carolina on November 4, are 7-22 against FBS opponents. SHSU is 3-30.

James Madison joined the FBS in 2022, the first program to elevate from the FCS in four years. Here is a look at how the Dukes and other teams that recently made the jump to college football’s highest level have fared.

2012 Massachusetts

The Minutemen have lost 39 of their last 42 games, including three to FCS opponents, and have not won more than four games in any of their 11 seasons since elevating to the FBS. UMass, which became an independent in 2016 after four years in the MAC, is 21-103 as an FBS member. Long-time defensive coordinator Don Brown returned to Amherst in November 2021 to take over the coaching duties. He previously led the then-FCS program for five seasons (2004-2008) and took it the FCS title game in 2006 while a member of the Atlantic-10.

2012 South Alabama

South Alabama has been playing football for only 14 seasons and took a very quick and unusual route to the FBS. The first two years, 2009 and 2010, USA won all 17 of its games while playing as an unclassified program and with a schedule that included prep schools, JUCOs and Division III teams. After one season in the FCS, it was off to the Sun Belt in 2012. It was not until last year, Kane Wommack’s second as coach in Mobile, that the Jaguars had their first winning season (10-3) as an FBS member. The previous high for wins was six on three occasions.

2012 Texas State

The Bobcats have been a member of the Sun Belt since 2013 after spending their first season of FBS affiliation in the WAC, which had its last season as an FBS conference in 2012. A 4-8 showing each of the past two seasons represents the high-water mark since going 7-5 in 2014, the program’s only winning season since moving up. The Bobcats were passed over for a bowl that year. Hence, they have yet to taste postseason play. G.J. Kinne makes his FBS head-coaching debut this season in San Marcos.

2012 UTSA

Texas-San Antonio has been playing football for only 12 seasons. The first (2011) was as an FCS independent before jumping to the FBS in 2012 as a member of the WAC. The Roadrunners spent the last 10 years in Conference USA and 2023 will be their first as a member of the American Athletic Conference. They arrive in the American having won 23 games the last two years under Jeff Traylor, and being ranked as high as No. 15 (2021) in the AP. The program, which won the C-USA title in 2021, is looking for its first bowl win after four losses. For Miami coach Larry Coker got the program off the ground and coached the Roadrunners for six seasons.

2013 Georgia State

Prior to last year’s 4-8 showing, which included losing their last three games by a total of 10 points, GSU had winning seasons in four of the previous five years. The best season was 2021 when the Panthers went 8-5, including a Camellia Bowl win over Ball State. The Panthers have been to five bowl games (3-2) with the last four under Shawn Elliott. The program, which was launched in 2010 under Bill Curry’s direction, lost 24 of its first 25 games as an FBS member.

2014 Appalachian State

Last year’s 6-6 showing was the worst since the Mountaineers elevated to the FBS. Indeed, a perennial power in the FCS has been a model of success since moving up. Appalachian State won at least 10 games five times during a seven-season stretch (2015-21) and outright won or shared four Sun Belt titles, three under Scott Satterfield and one in Eli Drinkwitz’s lone season in Boone. The Mountaineers won each of their first six bowl games before losing to Western Kentucky in the Boca Raton Bowl in 2021. Former Mountaineers’ offensive lineman Shawn Clark enters his fourth season at the helm.

2014 Georgia Southern

Though ineligible for postseason play as a first-year FBS member in 2014, the Eagles ran the table (8-0) to win the Sun Belt at a time the conference had yet to adopt a championship game. Georgia Southern has had a winning season, or been to a bowl, in six of nine years at the FBS level. GSU is 3-2 in bowl games, including a Camellia Bowl loss to Buffalo last year that dropped them below .500 (6-7) in Clay Helton’s first season at the helm in Statesboro.

2014 Old Dominion

The Monarchs have finished above .500 only once in their eight seasons – they did not play in 2020 due to the virus – at the FBS level. That was 2016 when they went 10-3, including a Bahamas Bowl win over Eastern Michigan. In 2021, after not having played the year before, ODU completed Ricky Rahne’s first on-field campaign by winning its last five regular-season games to reach 6-6 and a qualify for the program’s second bowl, a loss to Tulsa in the Myrtle Beach Bowl. The 2022 season was the school’s first in the Sun Belt after having been a member of Conference USA since elevating from the FCS. The Monarchs went 3-9.

2015 Charlotte

The 49ers took the gridiron for the first time in 2013 and spent their first two seasons at the FCS level before moving up to the FBS, where they have had one winning season in eight years. That was 2019 when they went started 2-5 before winning five straight to qualify for a bowl (Bahamas Bowl loss to Buffalo) and finishing 7-6. A three-game losing streak at the end of 2021 resulted in a 5-7 season and prevented a second bowl bid. The 49ers went 3-9 last season leading to the dismissal of Will Healy. New coach Biff Poggi arrived from Michigan, where the past two seasons he was associate head coach under Jim Harbaugh, to become a first-time head coach at 63. The former hedge fund manager was coaching at the high school level as recently as 2020, his final year at Baltimore’s Saint Frances Academy, which he built into a powerhouse in large part through his funding of scholarships.

2017 Coastal Carolina

After compiling a 43-10 mark in their final four seasons in the FCS under former Wall Street executive Joe Moglia, who led the Chanticleers to three consecutive Big South co-championships (2012-14), the transition to the FBS proved bumpy at first. However, under Jamey Chadwell the Chanticleers went 31-6 the past three seasons, including the program’s first and only bowl win. Chadwell took the head job at Liberty (see below) before last year’s bowl game. Tim Beck, most recently the offensive coordinator at NC State, takes over in Conway.

2018 Liberty

Liberty, which outright won or shared eight conference titles in its final 10 seasons as a member of the Big South Conference in the FCS, are 40-21 in five seasons as an FBS program. Hugh Freeze coached the Flames the past four years before returning to the SEC and taking over at Auburn. Liberty welcomed Jamey Chadwell, who will lead the program in its first year of FBS conference affiliation (Conference USA) after the program was an independent its five years in the FBS.

2022 James Madison

The Dukes were an FCS power winning national titles in 2004 (as a member of the Atlantic-10) and 2016 (Colonial Athletic Association). They also played in the national championship game in 2017 and 2019. JMU had a successful debut in the FBS and as a member of the Sun Belt last season. Curt Cignetti’s team went 8-3, including 6-2 in the conference, though the Dukes were not eligible for postseason play because they were transitioning. Cignetti is 41-8 in four seasons in Harrisonburg.