Do You Miss Football? Colleges That Waited Until Spring Start This Weekend

For those who think football season ended with the Super Bowl in Tampa last weekend and believe they'll go into withdrawals, don't worry. The Cowboys and Texans play this weekend in Texas. No, not those Cowboys and Texans.

The Cowboys of McNeese State University will travel to Stephenville, Texas, to face the Tarleton State University Texans. It's the first game of the extended 2020 season for colleges and universities that opted to move their fall schedule into the spring.

The McNeese-Tarleton game Saturday will be the first spring game for the NCAA's Football Championship Series. The remainder of teams will kick off the following, including preseason No. 1 North Dakota State hosting Youngstown State on Feb. 21 in Fargo.

McNeese and Tarleton will kick off at a 7 p.m. CT, and it will be broadcast on Fox Sports Southwest Plus.

Only a handful of FCS teams played football in the fall. NDSU played just one game, which was a 39-28 win over Central Arkansas from the Southland Conference on October 3. It was a showcase game for former quarterback Trey Lance, who's projected to be drafted in this spring's NFL Draft.

The COVID-19 pandemic last year led most FCS conferences to push their entire fall sports schedules to the fall. It looked like most of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams would do the same after the Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences opted to move their fall seasons to the spring. Other conferences followed their lead, but the ACC, Big 12 and SEC held pat and vowed to move forward with a traditional fall schedule.

The ACC and Big 12 teams each had one non-conference opponent and then a full slate of conference games. The SEC played a 10-game, conference-only schedule. Once their seasons began, the Big Ten and Pac-12 announced they would have a season that began in October and November, respectively. The season ended with a slew of bowl games and the annual College Football Playoff. Alabama won the national championship over Ohio State almost a month ago to the date.

The full slate of FCS games begin Friday, February 19. FCS will have a regular season of mostly conference-only games. Following that will be the playoffs, capped by the FCS National Championship, which will be at a date to be determined on May 12-14 in Frisco, Texas.

North Dakota State has won eight of the past nine national championships, including the last three titles. They're also the top-ranked team this spring—despite its starting quarterback leaving for the NFL Draft. The Bison have 2019 Iowa State transfer quarterback Zeb Nolan, who is expected to fill the starting role.

Here are the top 25 FCS teams this spring, according to Athlon Sports:

1. North Dakota State
2. Weber State
3. Northern Iowa
4. James Madison
5. South Dakota State
6. Kennesaw State
7. Villanova
8. Nicholls State
9. Illinois State
10. Sam Houston State
11. Southeastern Louisiana
12. Eastern Washington
13. Southern Illinois
14. New Hampshire
15. Furman
16. Jacksonville State
17. North Carolina A&T
18. Albany
19. Austin Peay
20. Wofford
21. Monmouth
22. Delaware
23. Southeast Missouri State
24. Idaho
25. South Carolina State