FCS Football: Power Ranking FCS Conferences Ahead of 2026 Season

With several conferences being impacted by conference realignment, I thought it would be a great time to assess the hierarchy of every FCS conference.

For this analysis, every team was placed into the conference that they will play in for the upcoming 2026 college football season. The numbers used in this exercise are qualitative power ratings from multiple available sources, such as Massey, Sagarin, and SP+.

I included measures for every team from the last three seasons to attempt to limit the influence of outliers from 2025, either in a positive or negative direction. For example, UT Martin had a down year in 2025, while the recent history of that program suggests a bounce back in 2026. So the data used here is from 2023-25.

Some of the biggest realignment moves were North Dakota State leaving the MVFC for the Mountain West, Sacramento State's jump to the FBS level, Villanova and William & Mary moving from the CAA to the Patriot League, and Tennessee Tech's move to the SoCon. There was also Southern Utah and Utah Tech moving from the UAC to the Big Sky.

The Conference Power Rating (CPR) for each conference is the average of each team in the conference. The number assigned is related to how big a favorite they might be compared to another team in a different conference.

For example, if Conference A is a 30 and Conference B is a 20, it suggests the average team from Conference A should be favored by 10 points over the average team from Conference B.

The following table contains each FCS conference, along with their CPR, and then we discuss some potential takeaways from the data.

FCS Conference	Conference Power Rating
1. MVFC	37.3
2. Big Sky	34.9
3. UAC	32.8
4. Ivy League	28.8
5. SoCon	28.3
6. Patriot League	28.1
7. Southland	25.1
8. CAA	24.6
9. OVC-Big South	24.3
10. MEAC	19.4
11. SWAC	16.5
12. NEC	16.2
13. Pioneer League	11.5

Takeaways:

Battle At The Top

Even with North Dakota State's move to the FBS and Montana State's national title run last season, the MVFC remains atop the FCS conference rankings. Six of the nine teams in the MVFC are legitimate Top 20 teams in the FCS, and most power ratings had those six teams firmly in the Top 15 following the 2025 season. This will likely not change in 2026, with all the exceptional quarterbacks returning in the conference. The gap, even without North Dakota State, is still fairly large.

What's the biggest difference between the Big Sky and MVFC? It's the second tier of each conference. The tier behind Montana State, Montana has failed to take a big step forward over the past few seasons, with UC Davis being the possible exception after back-to-back quarterfinal runs. This was even more evident last season, when the middle of the Big Sky seemed to take a step back in quality from where it had been in the past 5-7 years.

UAC Becoming A Powerhouse?

It's been a two-team race between the MVFC and Big Sky, but could the UAC enter the race over the next few seasons? If we just take a look at 2025 measures, the UAC was a better conference top-to-bottom on average than the Big Sky. Now, the Big Sky did take one of the better UAC teams in Southern Utah, but also added Utah Tech, which has been historically one of the worst teams in the UAC.

The UAC has the best "floor" in the FCS. No conference has better teams at the bottom of their league. The best example would be North Alabama, which took Illinois State to overtime last season on the road. It helps that West Georgia became a true contender last year, dominating in non-conference play.

The addition of West Florida doesn't hurt the conference either. The Argos were ranked around the 30th-best FCS team, according to SP+ last season, which is comparable to Western Carolina and West Georgia.

The UAC really needs 1-2 legitimate national title contenders to emerge, which will push them into the conversation with the Big Sky and MVFC. The pressure is officially on Abilene Christian and Tarleton State to take that next step.

Biggest Risers

The Patriot League made a jump in the rankings after the recent additions of Villanova, Richmond, and William & Mary. These were some of the CAA's best teams, but now join Lehigh, Holy Cross, and Lafayette as potential playoff contenders in the Patriot League. It's put this conference in a position to be a real force, with a majority of those teams grading out near most of the Ivy League and SoCon.

Speaking of the Ivy League, they graded out as the No. 4 conference in the FCS, edging out the SoCon and Patriot League. This has always been a tough conference to figure out because they perform well in out-of-conference games, but haven't had many chances on the biggest stage.

The Ivy League's playoff results were mixed. Harvard got dominated by Villanova, which is now part of the Patriot League, but Yale got an impressive comeback win over Youngstown State (MVFC) on the road. They also competed well against eventual national champions Montana State in the second round. We'll have more data points to really analyze this over the next few seasons.

The Southland is also a roser if you look at recent seasons. Last year, the Southland would have ranked 5th in the FCS and could be on the rise after putting three teams in the FCS Playoffs. If the SLC is able to replicate that success in 2026, it would go a long way in helping the conference make a push into the Top 5.

Biggest Fallers

The most obvious loser of the latest round of realignment is the CAA. It has been a tough few years for the conference, which has lost almost all of its best programs. In the early 2000s, this was arguably the best FCS conference, and now they find themselves all the way down at No. 8. It's an unbelievable drop-off in only a matter of a few years.

The SoCon is another conference that should be mentioned here. It's really been tough the past two years, showing that the depth of the conference has taken a hit over the past decade. Since Furman in 2023, they haven't had a team really push into that top tier of teams nationally. The addition of Tennessee Tech could be a turning point, but this was a conference that should have been competing to be No. 3 in these rankings.

The Bottom

Out of the bottom 4 conferences in the FCS, the MEAC is the clear leader in that tier. This really stems from Delaware State's emergence last season, along with the conference's success in the Celebration Bowl, where they hold a 7-3 advantage over the SWAC. If Norfolk State can rebound in 2026, the MEAC will be in an excellent position to catch the next tier in the updated rankings.

The SWAC and NEC had identical Power Ratings, but both suffer from massive gaps between the top and bottom teams in the conferences. You could argue that the Top 2-3 teams in each conference could compete at a playoff level (And we've seen this happen), while the bottom of the conferences are home to some of the worst teams in the subdivision.

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