FCS season kicks off with MonDak Football Show, a weekly series through the championship stretch

After a long offseason, the Football Championship Subdivision season opens with Week 0, and Forum Communications is marking the start with a new weekly production, the MonDak Football Show. The program is designed for FCS fans who follow the sport with the same regularity as the major conferences, with each episode built to carry listeners through the season’s early storylines and into the championship run.

The show debuts with Week 0 and will publish on Thursdays moving forward. According to Yahoo Sports’ announcement, the plan is for new episodes to continue every week until “confetti flies” and an FCS champion is crowned in Nashville, Tennessee next January. That phrasing frames the series as a full-arc season companion, not a one-and-done preview.

Veteran FCS reporter Sam Herder and radio host Brad Jones will host the series. The announcement positions the duo as familiar voices for FCS coverage, pairing Herder’s beat experience with Jones’ radio perspective for an ongoing look at what is happening around the subdivision from week to week.

Forum Communications’ involvement indicates a media partnership at the local and regional level, where FCS followership often lives and grows. While the sport’s national identity is built in playoff brackets and championship weekends, its day-to-day momentum is shaped in smaller markets and through consistent radio and digital distribution.

For Week 0 specifically, the episode is timed to land at the beginning of the calendar season for FCS. Week 0 traditionally functions as a measuring point, with teams and coaches using early-season action to set roles and rhythms before conference play tightens the landscape. A weekly show can matter here because it gives fans a repeatable way to track developments beyond any single box score.

As the schedule turns, listeners will likely use the show as a checklist for what changed since the prior week: which teams moved up or down in the public conversation, which matchups are shaping the playoff path, and how the race for postseason positioning evolves as the season lengthens. The Thursday cadence is also practical for fans who want a wrap and an outlook before the next slate of games.

The key watch item is whether the show continues to evolve with the season’s stakes. In late fall, FCS coverage typically emphasizes playoff qualification, conference races, and momentum heading into November. If the series holds its weekly format through the championship stretch outlined in the announcement, it could become a consistent reference point for how the playoff picture is forming.

For now, the public details focus on the show’s structure and hosting lineup. Specific episode segments, schools covered, and how the hosts will balance analysis across conferences are not fully defined in the available announcement, so those elements are worth monitoring as additional weekly editions are released.