FCS CONFERENCE · 2025 SEASON

Southern

#23 overall#12 in FCSRR50 +8.4Upper strength +10.89 teamsTop 25 teams 0

THE LONG WAIT · 2025

Oldest in the Country

The Southern Conference is the oldest surviving college football conference in the country (founded 1921) and the birthplace of programs like Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, and Clemson — all of whom eventually left for what became the SEC and ACC. What remained built its own identity around Samford, Mercer, Furman, Wofford, and The Citadel, with a reputation for academically serious programs that also compete for FCS playoff bids. Chattanooga's 2023 run reached the quarterfinals. The conference's history is longer than the Power Five's.

Samford and Furman have both made deep FCS runs in recent seasons. The Southern has multiple programs capable of earning at-large bids. Which one goes furthest in the 2026 bracket, and does the conference finally land a semifinalist for the first time since Chattanooga's 2017 run?

FCS9 teamsRace: FCS Playoff

Southern · 2026 Season Preview

Three Things to Watch

The StandardSamford's Consistent Playoff Presence

Samford has made the FCS bracket four times in the last six seasons from a small Baptist university in Homewood, Alabama — in the shadow of Alabama and Auburn, competing for a sliver of the recruiting market that FCS programs can reach. Their offensive system is one of the most efficient in the Southern Conference, and their quarterback development pipeline has produced NFL draft picks at a rate that surprises most casual observers of FCS football.

The Historic ProgramFurman's Tradition and What It Still Means

Furman won the FCS national championship in 1988 and has been a consistent playoff program since. Their Greenville, South Carolina campus produces the kind of student- athlete that defines the Southern Conference — academically serious, football-committed, developed through coaching rather than recruiting. They earned at-large bids in back- to-back seasons and are the Southern's most complete program from a historical prestige standpoint.

The Identity

The Oldest Conference and Its Living Heritage

Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, and Clemson all played in the Southern Conference before leaving for the SEC and ACC. The programs that remained built something different — a conference of academically selective schools with regional identities that the Power Four's expansion erased. Furman, Wofford, The Citadel, and Samford all have programs that could recruit to Power Four schools but choose not to. That choice is the Southern Conference's defining characteristic.

Conference Standings · Southern · 2025

Standings

#	Team	Conf	Overall	Pwr
1	Mercer	8–0	9–3	+11.1
2	Western Carolina	6–2	7–5	+10.4
3	East Tennessee State	5–3	7–5	+11.0
4	Wofford	5–3	6–6	+10.9
5	Furman	4–4	6–6	+7.2
6	Chattanooga	4–4	5–7	+7.6
7	The Citadel	3–5	4–8	+7.8
8	Samford	1–7	1–11	+4.3
9	VMI	0–8	1–11	+3.1

Conference record determines standing. Power = neutral-field pts vs. all-level average. Last 5 = most recent game results.

Projected Standings · Southern · 2025

Win Projection

Odds of winning at least N conference games from current power ratings — full slate played out, not locked to results. AVG = expected wins; W–L = most-likely record.

#	Team	W–L	PWR	AVG	≥8	≥7	≥6	≥5	≥4	≥3	≥2	≥1
Favorites
1	Mercer	5–3	+2.9	4.6	1	8	26	53	79	94	99	✓
2	East Tennessee State	5–3	+2.8	4.6	1	8	26	53	78	93	99	✓
Challengers
3	Wofford	5–3	+2.7	4.6	1	7	25	52	78	93	99	✓
4	Western Carolina	5–3	+2.3	4.5	1	7	23	50	76	92	99	✓
The Field
5	The Citadel	4–4	-0.4	3.9		3	13	34	62	85	96	✓
6	Chattanooga	4–4	-0.5	3.9		3	12	33	61	84	96	✓
7	Furman	4–4	-1.0	3.8		2	11	30	58	82	95	99
Rebuilding
8	Samford	3–5	-3.8	3.2		1	5	17	41	69	90	98
9	VMI	3–5	-5.1	3.0			3	13	34	62	86	98

Conference Power · FCS

Where We Stand

#	Conference	Avg Power	vs Focal	Top Team
1	MVFC	+10.2	1–2	North Dakota State
2	Big Sky	+9.6	—	Montana State
3	MEAC	+9.4	1–1	South Carolina State
4	UAC	+9.3	0–4	Tarleton State
5	SWAC	+9.1	—	Alabama State
6	Southland	+9.1	—	Stephen F. Austin
7	CAA	+8.9	4–1	Villanova
8	Patriot	+8.7	0–3	Lehigh
9	Big South-OVC	+8.6	0–3	Tennessee Tech
10	Pioneer	+8.5	1–2	Presbyterian
11	SouthernYou are here	+8.4	—	Mercer
12	NEC	+8.2	—	Central Connecticut
13	Ivy	+7.7	1–0	Yale

Round-robin power = strength of schedule-adjusted conference average, points vs. all-level average team. Record = Southern's record vs. that conference across all games this season.

Southern reads like a weekly gauntlet. The middle of the league is strong enough that contenders do not get many breathers.

Conference Snapshot

RR50+8.4

Upper Strength+10.8

Median Power+8.2

Resume Pulse50.4

Avg ATS50.0%

Wins vs Market-0.40

Top-to-Middle Gap3.3

Combined Record46-62

League Drivers

Power leader Mercer #131 overall | +11.1 pts vs avg Resume leader Mercer #131 overall | 89 / 100 resume ATS leader Wofford 81.8% cover rate Beat expectation Mercer +0.97 wins vs market

Southern Team Board

The league stack, sorted by predictive strength. Power is shown as neutral-field points versus the all-level average team, while resume is shown on a 0-100 season score.

Rank	Team	Record	Power	Resume	ATS	Wins vs Market	Recent Form
#131	Mercer	9-3	+11.1	89	6-4	+0.97	2-2 over the last 4 (W11 W12 L13 L15)
#135	East Tennessee State	7-5	+11.0	73	5-7	-0.08	4-0 over the last 4 (W9 W11 W12 W13)
#140	Wofford	6-6	+10.9	70	9-2	+0.59	4-0 over the last 4 (W10 W11 W12 W13)
#153	Western Carolina	7-5	+10.4	73	6-5	-0.55	2-2 over the last 4 (W10 L11 L12 W13)
#214	The Citadel	4-8	+7.8	47	5-4	-0.29	1-3 over the last 4 (W10 L11 L12 L13)
#215	Chattanooga	5-7	+7.6	36	4-8	-0.68	1-3 over the last 4 (L10 W11 L12 L13)
#224	Furman	6-6	+7.2	41	5-7	+0.16	1-3 over the last 4 (L10 L11 W12 L13)
#259	Samford	1-11	+4.3	12	4-7	-1.97	0-4 over the last 4 (L10 L11 L12 L13)
#269	VMI	1-11	+3.1	11	5-6	-1.76	0-4 over the last 4 (L10 L11 L12 L13)