Transferring to FBS vs staying FCS

[Monymony]

I know an NFL pro scout personally and have had quite a few discussions with him about how they do their job. They spend far more time watching film than they do attending games. When they are watching film they are generally evaluating a single player. Occasionally another player will catch their attention.
This is why it's almost always better to be on a higher profile team than a lower lever FCS team. In the case of Troy Andersen or Marcus Wehr the scouts are going to find you regardless. But in the case of Daniel Hardy, he was noticed by scouts when they were watching film on Troy Andersen. Had he been at Utah Tech I doubt he would have been invited to the combine nor drafted.
The players that everyone crapped on for moving to UNM will almost certainly get more scout eyeballs on them competing in the MW than the BSC since there are far more scouts evaluating those game films than MSU games.
The only reason to stay at the lower levels is if your coaching situation is better or if your playing time situation is better. Otherwise moving from FCS to G5 is a good move not only for the NIL but for the next level opportunities IMHO.

Dead on

How many players transfer to FBS schools then lose reps though? Pretty hard to get noticed on film if you get snaps cut in half. There are also cases where players in the FCS can look really attractive on film, transfer up, suck, end up not even getting a change. I think for the top FCS guys you get just as much attention, if not more, than being mediocre on the FBS level. Guys like Wentz, Lance, Troy, Watson, etc all kicked ass and got a ton of traction for it. Heck Grownowski will be a perfect test dummy, as was the Idaho QB.

I understand your point but I think dominating or getting more reps is way better than being average or getting less snaps.

If a player transfers up and loses reps, then he was never good enough to be an NFL player either way.

People can say lots about Ifanse but if he went from 280 carries in 2021 to 70 in 2023. Hard to think that if he rushed for 1500+ his senior year that he doesn’t get some attention.

[MSU01]

I know an NFL pro scout personally and have had quite a few discussions with him about how they do their job. They spend far more time watching film than they do attending games. When they are watching film they are generally evaluating a single player. Occasionally another player will catch their attention.
This is why it's almost always better to be on a higher profile team than a lower lever FCS team. In the case of Troy Andersen or Marcus Wehr the scouts are going to find you regardless. But in the case of Daniel Hardy, he was noticed by scouts when they were watching film on Troy Andersen. Had he been at Utah Tech I doubt he would have been invited to the combine nor drafted.
The players that everyone crapped on for moving to UNM will almost certainly get more scout eyeballs on them competing in the MW than the BSC since there are far more scouts evaluating those game films than MSU games.
The only reason to stay at the lower levels is if your coaching situation is better or if your playing time situation is better. Otherwise moving from FCS to G5 is a good move not only for the NIL but for the next level opportunities IMHO.

Dead on

How many players transfer to FBS schools then lose reps though? Pretty hard to get noticed on film if you get snaps cut in half. There are also cases where players in the FCS can look really attractive on film, transfer up, suck, end up not even getting a change. I think for the top FCS guys you get just as much attention, if not more, than being mediocre on the FBS level. Guys like Wentz, Lance, Troy, Watson, etc all kicked ass and got a ton of traction for it. Heck Grownowski will be a perfect test dummy, as was the Idaho QB.

I understand your point but I think dominating or getting more reps is way better than being average or getting less snaps.

If a player transfers up and loses reps, then he was never good enough to be an NFL player either way.

People can say lots about Ifanse but if he went from 280 carries in 2021 to 70 in 2023. Hard to think that if he rushed for 1500+ his senior year that he doesn’t get some attention.

"Getting some attention" is one thing, but it doesn't really matter in the long run if a player doesn't have the tools needed to make an NFL roster. There has been a long list of FCS running backs who put up huge stats at this level but that who never made an NFL roster because they just weren't big/fast/strong enough to have success against NFL defenses. Ifanse wasn't going to play in the NFL whether he stayed at MSU or went to Cal. All that ultimately changed for him was that he had the opportunity to attend a year of grad school at one of the top public universities in the country after completing his undergrad degree at MSU. Hopefully that's serving him well in whatever he's doing now with his career.

[TomCat88]

As a general rule, I'm of the opinion that in terms of NFL prospects a player's talent matters a lot more than the school they play for. The NFL will find you if you're good enough whether you play at Montana Tech or Montana State or Ohio State. We have your examples of players who stayed FCS and have had successful NFL careers, but there are also plenty of examples of players who transferred and have also done very well for themselves. Jared Verse, transferred from Albany to Florida State and was a 1st round pick this past year. It's very likely that the top three draft picks in this year's NFL Draft will be players who started at the FCS level and transferred to FBS. And did Cam Skattebo's draft stock get hurt by transferring from Sac State to Arizona State? Surely not.

And this has been going on for decades. The nfl is littered with players from small schools going back at least to Jan Stenerud. Walter Payton played for Jackson State, I think. The examples are overwhelming if you take the time to look at any NFL roster from the 60s or 70s. But suddenly players need to play at New Mexico and San Jose St to get noticed? ROFL.

I just looked at the Dallas 1970 roster and it has 11 sub-what are now FBS players out of 45 and two are from the BSC. Ron East was on that team and he played here.

Anyway, if they could find players in 1970 I’m sure they could do it now.

I count 13 and some big names in there. Trinity Valley CC, Marquette, Montana State (Ron East), Weber State, Ouachita Baptist (Cliff Harris), Florida A&M (Bob Hayes), Yale (Calvin Hill), Johnson C. Smith, Elizabeth City State (Jethro Pugh), Boston Univ., West Texas A&M, Morgan State, and Ft. Valley St. (Rayfield Wright).

It was more difficult back then. Today, players that feel they're overlooked can send their tape to team scouts, which is how most high school athletes get recruited. Players aren't found by scouts very often anymore; they get themselves out there. It's a whole different ballgame.