How lower-tier college football coaches are grappling with losing top draft talent to FBS programs
The FCS failed to produce an NFL Draft pick within the first three rounds for the first time since 1978
For the first time since the Division I split in 1978, not a single FCS player was selected in the first three rounds of the NFL Draft.
Overall, only four players were selected directly from the FCS level and none from Division II, Division III or NAIA levels. Ten years ago, 20 players were selected from the FCS. Times are changing quickly as small colleges struggle to keep up with the financial behemoths continuously plucking away top talent.
"It was expected, you know?" Southeastern Louisiana coach Frank Scelfo said. "The best players are getting money and signed, basically recruited right out of FCS ball… they see the dollar signs, and they're jumping."
While NIL and the transfer portal have become significant issues at the Power Four level, their effects are perhaps felt even more deeply at lower levels of college football. Any players with pro-level talent are scouted and plucked right off rosters by FBS schools with massive scouting and roster-building operations. In some cases, players at the Power Four level are matching the size of entire football budgets at small schools.
Five players selected in the first three rounds started their careers at FCS or Division II schools, but none finished there. Cincinnati linebacker Jake Golday started at Central Arkansas, but Cincinnati came calling. Keagan Troast bounced all the way up from Morgan State to Missouri. And of course, Curt Cignetti helped take Kaelon Black and D'Angelo Ponds from James Madison to Indiana.
Eleven additional players with small-college roots were selected on Day 3, bringing the total to 16. When the dust settled, 239 of the 257 NFL Draft picks came from the power conference level. That consolidation is transforming player acquisition and roster management across the sport.
Identifying and developing professional-caliber players is no longer a recipe for success. Instead, it just buys time until the next churn.
"It's kind of the times that we live in now," Montana Tech coach Kyle Samson said. "It's getting harder to keep those really good players at our level. Three, four years ago, I felt differently than I do today in terms of being frustrated. When you look at the way college sports are these days, I think you've just gotta accept that it's part of the deal."
Changing their models
Tarleton State coach Todd Whitten has seen it all during three stints with the Texans. He helped take the program to Division II in 2000 and returned in 2016. Four years later, Tarleton State opted to make the jump to FCS. With transfer rules changing, Whitten looked to the changing landscape.
With the transition to Division I approaching, Whitten huddled with his staff and made it clear: "We're embracing the new world, or we'll get left behind." After building sizable high school classes for most of his career, Whitten has leaned heavily into portal combat.
"We sort of take the approach where we have to put together a new team every year," Whitten said. "Now, we do have a good many holdovers, but you're going to have to go out and find guys that you can plug in and play and win with. Things are different. It's not like those days when you sign 25 freshmen every year and kind of grew everybody up. I think those days are gone."
Two of Tarleton State's best players -- wide receiver Cody Jackson and offensive lineman Braden Smith -- landed at Iowa State in the portal. In response, the Texans pulled together the nation's No. 1 portal class. There are additions from the Power Four (Arizona), Group of Six (Wyoming), FCS (Western Carolina), Division II (East Central) and Division III (Mount Union). No stone is left unturned.
Like other peer programs, Whitten is not shy about selling the opportunity to get on the field and put together good film. Opportunity can help lead to a big payday down the road, even if it means leaving Tarleton State. There's simply no reason to avoid the elephant in the room.
"We're very open about that," Whitten said. "I think it's just better when you're kind of open and honest. It gets rid of all of these difficult conversations. I've found this way works best for us."
Successful programs at the FCS level often have some NIL to share with players. Whitten uses it primarily as a retention tool, but it can also be a draw for players moving up from the sub-Division I level.
With few exceptions, Division II and NAIA players aren't receiving serious NIL consideration. But even without money factoring in, coaches recognize the prestige gap of playing Division I football. As FCS players get poached by the FBS, they turn and do the same to other lower levels.
"We've lost probably five or six kids over the last few years that were really good players for us," Samson said. "A lot of them have gone to the FCS level, which is natural, right? If the Division I schools are pulling from the FCS, the FCS is gonna go and try to find the best D-II or NAIA school players to come play for them too."
Despite all the changes, great football and outstanding coaching continue to stand apart. Division II Ferris State lost multiple players to the FBS ranks after a national title season in 2024, including quarterback Trinidad Chambliss. They went on to win the national title anyway. A year later, Michigan State poached replacement quarterback Carson Gulker. Undoubtedly, they'll still find a way.
Group of Six lagging
Those in the FCS aren't the only ones wrestling with the NFL Draft data and what it says about roster building. The numbers for the Group of Six were just as eye-opening and concerning as the Group of Six teams attempted to fend off poachers from the Power Four.
Only 14 players were drafted from the Group of Six this year. That's down from 19 in 2025 and 38 a decade ago. The numbers are so damning that one Group of Six general manager messaged CBS Sports with some consternation about sharing the draft data on social media.
"That stat is such a killer for small school guys," the GM said. "It makes it hard to look your guys in the eye and say,' Stay here, you can make it to the NFL from here."
But the numbers are somewhat misleading. Of the 239 players who were drafted from the Power Four, 30 began their careers on the G6 level. The pathway to the NFL remains open to players who begin their careers outside the Power Four. They just don't tend to finish their careers in the American or the MAC as often as they did five years ago.
NIL and unlimited transfers have created an obvious pathway from the G6 to the Power Four: If you perform, you can transfer and get paid. It's something that's making some on the G6 level reconsider how they construct rosters.
No longer can you count on recruiting wins and development to help a program build for the long term. Now, G6 teams have to be just as malleable with their roster construction. If their best players flow up, they have to be able to take the best players from lower levels, too.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers third-round pick Ted Hurst is a great example. He began his career at D-II Valdosta State. Hurst had a good sophomore season, catching 38 passes for 596 yards and four touchdowns. Then he entered the portal. Hurst didn't show quite enough at that point as a 6-foot-4, 180-pound sophomore to attract Power Four teams. But Georgia State liked what it saw and bet on Hurst's traits.
It worked.
He led Georgia State in receiving in 2024 with 961 yards and 9 scores. Hurst felt enough loyalty to the Panthers -- it helped that they made a competitive NIL offer, a luxury available at the level -- and turned down seven figures from several teams in the portal to remain on the same development track with Georgia State. That's the type of creative scouting G6 teams have to do in this era.
"Just shows you've got to be able to build it out of the portal at this level," said a Group of Six associate GM. "You're going to lose a lot of top-end players quickly, and sometimes you can't respond by building back slow."
Charting a future
While the allure of higher levels draws many players, others choose to play the long game. SELA defensive lineman Kaleb Proctor chose to spurn FBS financial offers to stay with the Lions. After an All-American senior campaign, including a return to the FCS Playoffs, Proctor was selected No. 104 in the NFL Draft.
Proctor's rookie contract could total more than $5.5 million over five seasons; Southeastern Louisiana's annual football budget is $4.3 million. His former teammate, former Oklahoma and LSU tight end Bauer Sharp, was selected in the sixth round. In conversations with Scelfo during the lead-up to the draft, Sharp expressed regret at leaving. Dysfunctional situations at both Oklahoma and LSU meant that he didn't get the quality reps he wanted, while Proctor and his longtime friends won in Hammond.
"What do you want to do? You can sit on a bench for a couple of years or be a scout team guy and get a few thousand dollars," Scelfo said. "If that's more important to you, go do that. We're really honest with them up front, we all know it's a business, and they have to make a business decision just like we do."
In the coming years, fewer NFL players will announce FCS schools during pregame introductions. Fewer scouts will visit, and rosters will get even more transient. But even as their profile shrinks, plenty of future stars will still begin their journey below the FBS level.
Five years ago, Montana Tech's staff identified linebacker Keyshawn James-Newby out of Helena. After coming to the school to focus on his engineering degree, James-Newby became an all-conference performer. He later transferred to Idaho and then to New Mexico under coach Jason Eck, becoming the first Lobos defensive lineman to get drafted since 1973.
Weeks before the draft, James-Newby made the 75-minute drive from his hometown of Helena to Butte to catch up with his old coaching staff. The Orediggers were fresh off an NAIA national quarterfinal appearance.
While James-Newby's NFL profile will never feature his Montana Tech roots, his relationship with the college lives on. And that will be true of many such stories.
"If the kid's good enough and gets an opportunity, we're going to support him because that's just the way it works," Samson said. "Ultimately, if a kid thinks that he's making a decision that's best for him and his family, then we fully support that. We want to see him succeed."
