2016 NCAA Division I FCS football season

Rule changes

• Requiring replay officials to review all aspects of targeting penalties, including the option to call a targeting foul missed by the on-field officials if the foul is deemed egregious.
• Allowing electronic devices to be used for coaching purposes in the press box and locker room during the game. Electronic devices will still be prohibited on the field and sideline.
• Coaches can now be ejected after receiving two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties in one game, the same as players.
• A ball carrier who "gives himself up" will now be considered a defenseless player.
• Deliberate tripping of a ball carrier with the leg is now a penalty.
• Players who leave the tackle box are now prohibited from blocking below the waist toward the initial position of the ball.
• An exception to a rule introduced for the 2015 season regarding low hits to passers was eliminated. Last season, a defensive player would not have been penalized for such a hit if making a bona fide attempt at a tackle, but will now be penalized in the same situation.
• Teams attempting a scrimmage kick must have five offensive linemen on the scrimmage line unless the kicking team has at least two players seven yards OR one player at least 10 yards behind the line of scrimmage. Previously only one player had to be lined up seven yards behind the line to avoid using five linemen, causing confusion in kick coverage on defense.

Conference changes and new programs

Membership changes

Other headlines

• January 29 – East Tennessee State and Bristol Motor Speedway announced that the Buccaneers' September 17 home game against Western Carolina, which would be ETSU's first Southern Conference game after a 12-season absence, would be played at the NASCAR racetrack. The playing surface was a temporary fieldturf field installed for the Tennessee–Virginia Tech game held one week earlier.
• April 20 – The NCAA banned five schools from this year's postseason for failure to meet Academic Progress Rate criteria. They are Florida A&M, Howard, Morgan State, Savannah State and Southern.
• April 28 – Following the March 1 announcement by the Sun Belt Conference that it would not renew its football-only membership agreements with Idaho and New Mexico State when they expire at the end of the 2017 season, Idaho announced that it would return to FCS football in its all-sports league, the Big Sky Conference, in 2018. The Vandals will become the first team ever to voluntarily drop from FBS to FCS.
• September 13 – The Big South Conference and the Division I non-football ASUN Conference announce a football partnership. Under its terms, any current or future member of either conference, as long as it lies within the general geographic footprint of the two leagues, that adds football or upgrades from non-scholarship to scholarship football is automatically entitled to Big South football membership. At the time of agreement, ASUN member Kennesaw State was already a Big South football member, and three other all-sports members of the two leagues played non-scholarship FCS football in the Pioneer Football League.
• November 14 – The Big South announces that Campbell, a full conference member that plays football in the Pioneer League, will upgrade to scholarship football and become a football member in 2018.
• November 19 – Joe Thomas Sr., a 55-year-old walk-on at South Carolina State, appeared for one play in the first quarter of the Bulldogs' season finale against Savannah State, running for 3 yards. Although the NCAA does not keep statistics on player ages, the father of Green Bay Packers linebacker Joe Thomas Jr. is believed to be the oldest player ever to take the field in a Division I game.
• December 6 – The University of North Alabama, ASUN, and Big South announce that the Division II Lions will move to Division I and eventually to FCS football. North Alabama will join the ASUN as an all-sports member in 2018, with Big South football membership following in 2019. The Lions will not be eligible for the conference title or the FCS playoffs until the completion of their Division I transition in 2022.

  Updated stadiums

• South Dakota State debuted the Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium which seats 19,340. The stadium was half finished for the 2015 season and finished in time for the Luke Bryan concert on September 8, 2016, and the first football game the evening of September 10.
• New Hampshire debuted a major renovation and expansion of the renamed Wildcat Stadium. The venue, previously with a capacity of 6,500, now seats slightly over 11,000.
• William & Mary also debuted a major renovation and expansion to its Zable Stadium, which the saw the addition of an upper deck and an increase in capacity to 12,259.
• Prairie View A&M started its home schedule on September 3, 2016 in the new on-campus 15,000 seat Panther Stadium against Texas Southern.

• Abilene Christian left the off-campus Shotwell Stadium after this season for the new on-campus Wildcat Stadium.
• East Tennessee State left local high school venue Kermit Tipton Stadium for a new on-campus William B. Greene Jr. Stadium.

  FCS team wins over FBS teams

• September 2:
• *Albany 22, Buffalo 16
• September 3:
• *#14 Eastern Washington 45, Washington State 42
• *#5 Northern Iowa 25, Iowa State 20
• *#4 Richmond 37, Virginia 20
• September 10:
• *Eastern Illinois 21, Miami 17
• *#10 Illinois State 9, Northwestern 7
• *#23 North Carolina A&T 39, Kent State 36 ^4OT
• September 17:
• *#1 North Dakota State 23, #13 Iowa 21
• ** NDSU went to #13 FBS Ranked Iowa and became just the 4th FCS team to beat an AP ranked FBS team by beating the Hawkeyes on a game-winning field goal 23–21. This was Iowa's first loss to a non FBS opponent. The next day NDSU received 74 votes for the AP top-25 rankings, which is the most votes ever received by an FCS team, beating the old record held by North Dakota State in 2013 when they received 17 and were #33 after the 2013 season.
• September 24:
• *Central Arkansas 28, Arkansas State 23
• *#13 Western Illinois 28, Northern Illinois 23

  Conference standings

Conference summaries

Championship games

Other conference winners

Playoff qualifiers

Automatic berths for conference champions

At large qualifiers

Abstentions

• Ivy League – Princeton
• Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference – North Carolina Central
• Southwestern Athletic Conference – Grambling State

Postseason

NCAA FCS Playoff bracket

Bowl games

Awards and honors

Walter Payton Award

• The Walter Payton Award is given to the year's most outstanding offensive player. Finalists:
• * Jeremiah Briscoe, Sam Houston State
• * Gage Gubrud, Eastern Washington
• * Cooper Kupp, Eastern Washington

  Buck Buchanan Award

• The Buck Buchanan Award is given to the year's most outstanding defensive player. Finalists:
• * Dylan Cole, Missouri State
• * P. J. Hall, Sam Houston State
• * Karter Schult, Northern Iowa

  Jerry Rice Award

• The Jerry Rice Award is given to the year's most outstanding freshman.
• * Winner: A. J. Hines, Duquesne

  Coaches

• AFCA Coach of the Year: Mike Houston, James Madison
• Eddie Robinson Award: K. C. Keeler, Sam Houston State

  Coaching Changes

In-Season

End of Season