The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of FCS-FBS Week 1 Matchups

Last season, I did a breakdown of the good, the bad and the ugly of FCS schools going up against schools in the FBS in week 1 of the college football season.

Typically, FBS schools wave cash in front of FCS schools, in order to play a "tune up" game. Most of the time, these FCS schools will have a nice payday while getting spanked by 40+ points.

There was more good than bad and ugly compared to last season. That is if you consider the American Athletic Conference to still be a good conference.

THE GOOD

As I said, a lot of good from FCS schools in week 1. Here are the ones who pulled off the upsets.

-North Dakota State beats Kansas State 24-21

Kansas State was close to playing for the BCS National Championship last season. They invite two-time defending FCS champion North Dakota State to Manhattan and get embarrassed in what should have been a cake walk. No wonder the Wildcats are not ranked.

-Eastern Washington beats No. 25 Oregon State 49-46

You know Eastern Washington, right? They're the team with the red field. Take that Boise State. Also, they beat the Beavers, who enjoyed one week in the Top 25.

-McNeese State beats South Florida 53-21

This video was uploaded to YouTube to promote South Florida's 2013 season. Two things in this video didn't happen:

New head coach Willie Taggart wanted to fill Raymond James Stadium up to capacity and get everybody on board with Bulls football.

Around 35,000 people paid to watch McNesse State, out of the Southland conference from Lake Charlies, Louisiana humiliate his team by multiple touchdowns.

After that performance, the bus is emptying out, and it's about to drive off the bridge and into the Gulf of Mexico. Go Bulls?

-Towson beats Connecticut 33-18

As a former lax bro, I knew Towson as only a school with a lacrosse team. Then again, I only knew UConn as a basketball school with a football team on the side.

Towson plays in the CAA. the Huskies continue the departed Big East's tradition of losing to an FCS team. So the spirit of the old conference lives on in the new American Athletic Conference.


-Northern Iowa beats Iowa State 28-20

The Cyclones don't have a recent history of being upset by FCS schools. Their worst losses came back in 2008 against Kent State and UNLV, and those are FBS schools.

THE BAD

Should I even do the bad and ugly of FBS-FCS matchups? There was so much good this weekend, but let's push forward.

-Nicholls State losses to No. 3 Oregon 66-3

The bad part of this is more on Oregon for scheduling a team out of the Southland Conference that has gone 2-22 in their last two seasons.

The Colonels, from Thibodaux, Louisiana, could have given up over 80 points, so holding the Ducks high-powered offense to 66 points is a win for them.

It's games like this that reflect a weak schedule that Oregon plays. Come November, we'll hear the people of Eugene crying about how their school is getting screwed by the BCS.

THE UGLY

-Elon losses to Georgia Tech 70-0

The Yellow Jackets love scheduling FCS schools as much as Oregon to kick off their season.

Elon is another Southern Conference casualty walking away from Atlanta with a big check.


WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN

-West Virginia beats William and Mary 24-17

The Tribe of Bill and Mary had a 10-point lead at halftime in Morgantown Saturday afternoon. The Mountaineers were able to find a way to win, but it might be a 5-7 type of season for West Virginia if they plan on relying on offense and playing quasi defense like last season.

They are off to Norman for a date with the No. 17 Sooners next week.