INDIANAPOLIS - The NCAA formally approved Jax State's completed transition to the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) on Friday, wrapping up a two-year process that saw the Gamecocks move from the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) to Conference USA and the highest level of college football.
 
The Gamecocks announced the milestone decision amidst an ever-changing collegiate athletics landscape on November 5, 2021 in conjunction with CUSA's announcement of four new future members. A required two-year transition period began in the summer of 2022, starting a stretch that saw unprecedented success from Jax State Football.
 
"We are thrilled to officially close our transition period in FBS competition and are excited about the future of Gamecock football that has already experienced immediate success at the highest level of competition," said Director of Athletics, Greg Seitz. "Our institution as a whole has made an unwavering commitment to place our teams and our student-athletes in the best position possible to achieve success, and that's a credit to the leadership of President Killingsworth, our Board of Trustees and our coaches and staff."
 
Jax State flipped the script on the transition process, one that requires the two-year transition to complete before allowing postseason eligibility. The Gamecocks, 2022 ASUN Football Champions, missed out on the 2022 FCS Playoffs due to raising scholarship numbers above the FCS maximum 63 in order to better equip themselves for quicker success in FBS and CUSA.
 
That success came quicker than any program in history, with Jax State using a postseason exception to become just the fifth program in NCAA history to play in a bowl in its first season of FBS competition and the first to win. With fewer bowl eligible teams than bowl spots, the Gamecocks cashed in their 8-4 record in the regular season for an invitation to the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl where they defeated Louisiana, 34-31 on a walk-off field goal in overtime.
 
The historic win capped a 9-4 season for Jax State, making it just the third team in history to win at least nine games in its first season against an FBS schedule, joining Marshall (10 in 1997) and Georgia Southern (nine in 2014). The Gamecocks were on national television a school-record eight times in 2023 and led CUSA in average attendance with 20,033 fans per game at Burgess-Snow Field.
 
Among financial obligations, Jax State increased its football scholarships from 63 to the FBS mandated limit of 85 and surpassed the requirement of 210 overall student-athlete scholarships. To help counter the increase in football scholarships, Jax State added women's bowling as its 18th varsity sport and enjoyed immediate success under head coach Shannon O'Keefe by winning the 2024 NCAA national championship in its first season of competition.
 
The football program attacked the transition process from the beginning. Within a month of announcing the move to FBS, Jax State athletic director Greg Seitz announced the hiring of Rich Rodriguez as the program's new head coach and the person to lead the Gamecocks to the highest level of college football. Rodriguez, the seventh-winningest active head coach in FBS football, made an immediate impact upon arriving on campus right after the Gamecocks had endured a 5-6 season in 2021.
 
"This two-year transition has required a lot of work of many individuals," said Seitz. "I want to thank Dr. Greg Bonds, Misty Ray and Tracy Broom, among many others within our athletic department that helped us achieve FBS status. This has been a true team effort and I'm very thankful for everyone's hard work."
 
Jax State won nine games in each of his first two seasons at the helm, reeling off a 9-2 record and unblemished 5-0 conference mark in 2022 to win the ASUN title for the team's 25th conference championship. The energy grew in year two of the transition, and the Gamecocks went 9-4 overall and 6-2 in CUSA action. Jax State had to watch the scoreboard on the final day of the regular season to learn its postseason fate and then capitalized on the unprecedented opportunity with its historic win in New Orleans.
 
Jax State isn't alone in its transition process, completing the journey into FBS alongside fellow CUSA foe Sam Houston and the Sun Belt Conference's James Madison.