The Jacksonville State Gamecocks are already proving they’re FBS material

The Jacksonville State Gamecocks are 4-1 on the season today, and that’s enough for me to declare them more than worthy of their young FBS status.

When a wave of conference realignment hits a peak like this latest one has, we mainly focus on college athletics’ biggest names and where exactly they’re going (e.g. OU/TEX to the SEC, USC/UCLA/ORE/WASH to the Big Ten, etc.). In that process, we can easily forget about some of the smaller fish out there and the magnitude of their futures, with perhaps the best example of such being the Jacksonville State Gamecocks.

Before this season, the Jacksonville State Gamecocks were nothing more than a respected FCS squad with a couple of high-profile upsets to their name. But back in 2021, upon Conference USA enduring the news of eventual team withdrawals, they were given this current path to show where the limits of their true FBS potential resided—but the results were not something we expected to see take shape so quickly.

Whenever a program makes a leap as colossal as JSU’s (especially in a sport as physical as football), most of us prepare for the worst; the jarring rise in competition hitting a team’s formidability right in the gut is something that most practical-minded people would be able to understand and forgive. However, the Gamecocks clearly don’t want anyone feeling sorry for them just yet, as they rock an attractive 4-1 record today.

Of those four wins, three are over fellow FBS programs: UTEP, Eastern Michigan (the Eagles won nine games last year), and Sam Houston (the Bearkats are also new to both Conference USA and the FBS level). And heck, even their one loss is relatively excusable, as it was at Coastal Carolina, a team that’s won over 30 games from 2020 to now.

But wait, while a 4-1 record is great news for anyone, is this really something to get overly hyped about? UTEP is currently 1-5, Eastern Michigan is 2-3, and Sam Houston is winless (which, by the way, didn’t stop Jax State from having to claw back and beat the Bearkats in overtime). Not only that, but while the Chanticleers have been strong recently, they also have a losing record of 2-3 today, yet still managed to down JSU by 14.

With all of this in mind, why should we confidently assume that JSU’s success will last as the Gamecocks get deeper into their 2023 slate? Well, the main reason would have to fall on the fact that the early opponents’ overall weakness is not solely a product of sorry out-of-conference scheduling or dumb luck—it’s also due to half of Conference USA sucking.

Just how bad are some of the teams in Conference USA?

Beyond UTEP and Sam Houston combining for one whopping win right now, Louisiana Tech is 3-3, New Mexico State is 2-3, and Middle Tennessee is 1-4. With records like those, all of those teams are at solid risk of falling to Jacksonville State’s wrath.

But even though they put success all the more within reach, the Jacksonville State Gamecocks may not have to rely exclusively on ones as sorry as them to obtain it.

On top of facing that much mediocrity, Jax State also has the privilege of playing Liberty—the only unbeaten Conference USA team remaining—in the comfort of its own stadium.

However, while being the hosting party can only help their chances of snagging an extra victory in that one, I understand that the Gamecocks actually doing so is still far from promised, so we won’t count the Flames toward their hypothetical win count.

In fact, we won’t even bother making arguments for them beating their other tricky foes (3-2 Western Kentucky, 3-2 FIU, and 2-3 South Carolina). But why is that? Simple: Because we don’t need to for Jax State’s first FBS season to be praiseworthy.

Just by surviving the losing teams we listed earlier, the Gamecocks could get pummeled in every other week of their season and still finish with seven wins, which would lock in a positive record for the year. Their entering what could’ve quite possibly been a compromising era in their program’s history with a winning record means a lot more than some might take from it at face value.

Jacksonville State has not looked particularly great so far this season, but when you’re in such a pivotal position, dominance doesn’t matter—poor FBS competition is still FBS competition. If the Gamecocks are consistent enough to continue exploiting that fact, then they will further prove that being granted FBS status was something they undoubtedly deserved.