Photo by Don Juan Moore/Getty Images
The West Florida Argonauts are the newest member of Division 1-FCS. UWF is familiar with its FCS foes, as former conference rivals West Georgia, North Alabama, and Central Arkansas are welcoming UWF into the United Athletic Conference (UAC).
UWF has faced three FCS schools while playing Division II football, posing a winning record. UWF is 2-1 against FCS schools to date, with the most recent game being against FAMU in 2023. The Argos were tied at halftime 3-3 with the Rattlers before falling behind, never to catch the lead again. They would go onto lose 31-10.
The other two games, however, ended in upset wins for the Argos. In 2018, UWF beat former conference rival North Alabama during the Lions first year of transition to the FCS, beating them 24-19 on the road. Likewise, the Argos played McNeese State during their season opener in 2021, beating them 42-36. This win was the first game UWF had played in 2 years coming off of the canceled 2020 season.
With the Argonauts success against Division 1 opponents, it would make sense for that success to continue… in theory.
“We’ve had some success against some D1’s sporadically here and there over the last decade, but this is week in and week out jumping in and playing some big boy football.”
Will Kennedy during an interview on the FCS Football Talk podcast.
It would be par-for-the-course for UWF to take a bit of a dip in performance.
Familiar foe West Georgia made the transition to the FCS in 2024, and in their first season finished with a woeful 4-7 record. However, during their second season they would find success finishing 8-3 and 4th in their conference (UAC).
Other familiar foe North Alabama made the transition to the FCS in 2018, and have gone a combined 23-59 since that time, with their only winning season being their first season, going 7-3.
These two case studies show the wide variety of outcomes a transition up can bring. So what can we expect from the Argos?
The Argos measured up pretty well last year comparative to other FCS schools. Bill Connelly, staff writer for ESPN, releases weekly rankings of every school from the SEC to the NESCAC (yes, that’s a real D3 conference) called the S&P+. In these rankings, the Argo’s finished what would be ranked 40th among FCS teams. They even finished ranked above FBS school Sam Houston State.
View the S&P+ rankings here.
If this team retains the same talent level overall, theoretically they could expect to finish about where West Georgia finished, 8-3 overall, 4th in conference. For some, this would be a success, for others it would be seen as a drop off from the 10-2 season last year.
That begs the question, what is considered a successful season?
As a fan, there are a few nonnegotiables:
Be competitive in most games. The Argos should have the fire power to compete man-for-man with most teams on their schedule. They have some tough challenges, playing Southern Illinois to open the year (the Salukis finished 14th among FCS schools in the S&P+), an early road game to Abilene Christian off of a playoff appearance, and the last home game against Tarleton State, who finished 2nd in the S&P+ among FCS schools and coming off a deep playoff run. Avoiding blowouts or an embarrassing result, especially at home, is my first criteria for a successful season.
Beating West Georgia is a must. The last time these rivals played, UWF won 49-21 against the Wolves. They haven’t played since UWG’s departure to the FCS.
Handling your DII opponents should be an expectation. The Argos play 3 DII teams this year: Northeastern State, Delta State, and West Alabama. The Argos swept this group last year, it would be seen as a regression to go anything but 3-0 here. Bonus points that these are all three home games.
This is a realistic expectation for the Argonauts, a season like this would set the Argos up for a bright future, both in recruiting and buy-in. The goal is to have a season that sets up your future success while avoiding the fate of North Alabama. Anything more than that is a bonus, and competing in the conference championship game would be best case-scneario.
What do you expect the Argo’s to do this year?
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