The 2016 East Tennessee State Buccaneers football team represented East Tennessee State University (ETSU) in the 2016 NCAA Division I FCS football season and were in the first year of their second stint as football members of the Southern Conference (SoCon). ETSU had originally joined the SoCon in 1978, with football joining in 1979, but dropped the sport after the 2003 season and left the conference entirely in 2005. ETSU returned to the SoCon as a full but non-football member in 2014, at that time announcing that the school would reinstate football with play beginning in the 2015 season. The Buccaneers played that season as an FCS independent.