This season, FBS teams will play 127 games against FCS opponents. Most years, FBS teams will lose a small handful of those games. The purpose of the Split Zone Duo FCS Upset Draft is to identify those teams, engage in some friendly competition, and use the process as a look ahead to the season. Everyone picks four FCS winners, but there’s a catch: Some FCS upsets are barely upsets at all, and they may only be worth three points. Others could be worth 100.
Compete in our 2026 FCS Upset Draft
It’s a Split Zone Duo pastime, and it’s easy to join. Anyone can play, but only paid subscribers are eligible to win a prize. Not signed up for SZD? You can join us right here. And here is the game form where you can make your picks:
Here are the rules. Read carefully!
These are similar to the rules in past years, but pay close attention:
A nonpartisan committee made of up one member (me, Alex Kirshner) puts every FCS-versus-FBS game on the schedule into a spreadsheet.
Each game gets a point value of 3, 5, 10, or 100, with higher point values awarded to games where an FCS team is a bigger underdog.
You may pick FOUR games. The form should stop you at that point.
You can pick non-upset "upsets" in which great FCS teams beat bad FBS teams, but you'll likely only get three or five points if it pans out.
Or you can take some bigger swings for 10- and 100-point values and go for the fences. Getting a 10-pointer right has long been an ingredient for victory.
At the end of the season, five top points-scorers will be celebrated on an episode of SZD. Most of all, you’re fighting for eternal glory here, but in case that’s not enough, you’ll also get something cool from Homefield.
You must enter your picks by 12 p.m. ET on Week 1 Saturday. You can resubmit as many times as you like before then and we'll count your most recent entry. Just use the same email address each time. One catch: any game that has already kicked off is locked in as you had it. You can't drop a Thursday or Friday game after you've seen how it went.
Here's a big ol’ list of previous FCS-on-FBS wins.
We'll track the results throughout the season, and if we can set one up cleanly, we’ll give people a public leaderboard option to view.
Thank you to our subscribers and partners
Become a paid subscriber today to get a lot more SZD, and check out www.nokiantyres.com/szd and www.homefieldapparel.com
