The national championship game for NCAA Division I football’s lower tier is headed back to Tennessee, but it will take place in Music City rather than the Scenic City this time around.
The Football Championship Subdivision title game for the 2025 and 2026 seasons will be played in Nashville at FirstBank Stadium on the campus of Vanderbilt University. Those games are scheduled for Jan. 5, 2026, and Jan. 4, 2027.
This season’s FCS championship game will be played Jan. 6, 2025, at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas, which will host the event for a record-extending 15th season in a row. Chattanooga’s Finley Stadium previously held the record with 13 straight editions from the 1997 to the 2009 season, with that venue settling in after the national championship game had bounced around eight cities — including Huntington, West Virginia, just prior from 1992 to 1996 — before its long run in the Scenic City.
Frisco was set to host the game for at least two more seasons with an option for a third year, but NCAA officials said Thursday that they had to look at other sites because of an multiyear renovation project planned at the 20,500-seat professional soccer stadium less than 30 miles north of downtown Dallas.
Vanderbilt’s 35,000-seat football venue, known as FirstBank Stadium since 2022, is in the process of its own multiyear renovation that will be completed by next year. The Commodores of the Football Bowl Subdivision have played two seasons there during the construction, when the highlights include this season’s upset of traditional Southeastern Conference and national power Alabama, which was No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 poll at the time.