(STATS) - If this is going to be a season to #FearTheFCS - as the bold hashtag goes - then subdivision teams needed to make it happen against FBS opponents in Week 1.
There was no time to relax over Labor Day weekend, the FCS was busy at work.
Villanova, Nicholls and Northern Arizona showed just how much on Saturday, lifting the early season total to four FCS wins over the FBS.
Quarterback Zach Bednarczyk's three touchdown passes led No. 19 Villanova to a 19-17 win over Temple. So close to some FBS wins in recent seasons, No. 18 Nicholls got one at Kansas, 26-23 in overtime. Northern Arizona was the betting favorite at hapless UTEP and showed why as Case Cookus and Emmanuel Butler connected for two touchdowns in a 30-10 triumph.
The first FCS win over the FBS occurred Thursday night when UC Davis opened its 100th season of football by defeating San Jose State 44-38. FCS victories over the FBS are one of the bigger early season storylines in college football. There are 111 matchups this season - up 12 percent from last year's 98 - and the largest portion was set to occur by the end of the first full weekend of action (43 after severe weather canceled South Dakota State at Iowa State).
Division I split into two tiers in 1978. While reaching the FCS single-season record of 16 wins in 2013 is ambitious, the schedule has enough realistic possibilities that it was fair to expect a seventh season in double figures. Last year, FCS teams fell just shy of it with nine wins over the FBS.
