To our newer readers, I owe an explanation. Last year, in an attempt to diversify our brand, All Things NIT—the digital ancestor of The Barking Crow—decided to cover the FCS. It was, at times, fun. For example: we developed an arms-length relationship with Weber State, and Joe’s FCS Bracketology was one of the more accurate projections around. It was, at times, not fun. For example: Although we were on the front page of Google results for “FCS Bracketology,” we didn’t get all that many clicks. People, it turns out, just don’t really care about FCS football.
We do still enjoy the FCS. We’ve kept tabs on it, and Joe’s college football model will hopefully expand to include it next year. There’s an outside chance I try to get a press pass to the national championship in January. We also had a lot of fun following the first few rounds of the playoffs last year. We might do that again. We might not. We’ll take it a day at a time. For now, though, if you want to follow the FCS playoffs, here’s everything I know, having kind of followed it last year.
The Format
24 teams, with eight seeded. I forget how exactly the bracket works, but the outcome is that the top eight seeds get byes and are placed independently of geography. The remaining 16 teams are grouped based on geography, with the better team in each matchup the home team. Since those remaining 16 teams aren’t seeded, and the second-round matchups are geographically determined as well, you could conceivably have the hypothetical 10th seed playing at the hypothetical 9th seed for a chance to play the 1st seed in the next round.
All games until the championship are at the home field of the higher-seeded team. I have no idea what happens if two unseeded teams ever meet. The championship is at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, a fittingly underwhelming-looking place.
The Teams
We’re going to go through these one by one, working our way down the bracket.
#1 Seed: North Dakota State (hosts winner of Nicholls State and North Dakota next Saturday)
The Bison. The best team around. Juggernauts. Don’t know when they last lost but it was a while ago (I want to say 2017, but might have been earlier). They play in the Fargodome, which is as awesome as it sounds (if it doesn’t sound awesome, you might not like this website). They’d likely be one of the two or three best teams in this year’s ACC. I would guess they’re favored over the field to win it all, but I haven’t checked.
Nicholls State (hosts North Dakota tomorrow)
Think these guys are the Colonels? How’d an “r” get in the pronunciation of that word, by the way? It looks like they won the Southland, which is a middling FCS league. It isn’t a bad one, but it isn’t a good one. As I said, it’s a middling one.
Anyway, Nicholls got an automatic bid (should have mentioned that—all conference champions get an automatic bid, except for maybe the MEAC and SWAC, whose champions play in the Celebration Bowl anyway). I think they scored a lot of points last year, but I could definitely be misremembering that. I always think they’re in Texas (a lot of the Southland is in Texas), but they’re actually in Louisiana. So’s McNeese, but I don’t think they made the playoffs.
North Dakota (plays at Nicholls State tomorrow)
Historically inferior to their neighbors to the south (that’s North Dakota State—Grand Forks is further north than Fargo), the Hawks or something like that are technically an independent. They’re in the process of joining the powerhouse Missouri Valley Football Conference (separate organization from the MVC we see in the other sports), but they were in the Big Sky, so the situation this year was that their games counted for other Big Sky teams in the standings, and they played a Big Sky schedule, but they weren’t actually in the Big Sky. Anyway, at-large bid. Looks like they’re decent. Might be favored over Nicholls.
#8 Seed: Central Arkansas (hosts winner of Southeast Missouri State and Illinois State next Saturday)
Ooh, maybe these guys won the Southland. They’re seeded, after all. They lost head-to-head to Nicholls, though, and Google says they were tied in the standings. If I remember correctly, they disappointed last year, but it looks like they put it together this season. Beat Western Kentucky on the road, so that’s neat.
Southeast Missouri State (hosts Illinois State tomorrow)
SEMO! A crowd favorite.
Beyond being named SEMO, which is fun to say, SEMO plays in Cape Girardeaux, which is also fun to say. A little reminder Missouri’s got some French to it. Looks like these guys won the Ohio Valley, which would be the first time Jacksonville State hasn’t won it in a long time, unless they also beat Jacksonville State for last year’s title. I don’t remember how that shook out.
The Ohio Valley isn’t that good—I think they get a little more love than the Southland, but I don’t know if that’s deserved. Seems like something that could change year-to-year. ACC/Pac-12 deal. People used to criticize Jacksonville State because they got high seeds based on a good win-loss record but didn’t play a tough schedule. Jacksonville State showed them this year by going .500 and staying out of the playoff conversation.
Anyway, turns out SEMO did not, in fact, win the Ohio Valley. Just checked again. It was Austin Peay. Still a good year for whatever red bird SEMO is. They’re an at-large bid.
Illinois State (plays at SEMO tomorrow)
Oh man, that’s a tough draw for SEMO. I think Illinois State’s pretty good. They play in the MVFC, which is, as was said, a powerhouse of a league. Good luck, SEMO.
These guys either won a national championship or came close to winning a national championship at some point this decade. There’s no way to know for sure. They aren’t as good this year, but probably still pretty good. Looks like their only losses were all respectable, except they got held nearly scoreless by Bo Pelini’s Youngstown State last weekend. We’ll see if SEMO can take ‘em down.
#5 Seed: Montana State (hosts winner of Albany and Central Connecticut State next Saturday)
Oh man, looking ahead a little bit, we are going to see a lot of Big Sky teams in the second round. Looks like four of them got byes? Nice.
Montana State’s pretty fun. I think they’re historically not as good as their neighbors to the north (Bozeman is south of Missoula, but we’ll get to Missoula). They keep beating ‘em in the Cat-Griz game, though. Hopefully it’s snowy there next weekend. And in Missoula too.
Albany (hosts Central Connecticut State tomorrow)
Albany. Think these guys were real bad last year. Looks like they turned it around.
Albany plays in the Colonial Athletic Association, which isn’t as good as the MVFC normally, but is still very good. There’s basically a big cutoff after the CAA and Big Sky, which are closer to the MVFC than they are to the field.
Albany had a pretty good year, it looks like. Didn’t do anything too wild, but took care of business in a tough CAA.
Central Connecticut State (plays at Albany tomorrow)
Don’t let the 11-1 record fool you. CCSU’s played nobody. On the other hand, don’t let the narrative fool you. CCSU’s 11-1, after all.
CCSU won the NEC, which is easy to confuse with the Patriot League because both are at the bottom of the barrel, both are in the Northeast, and both are small. CCSU’s generally been a pretty good NEC team these last few years, if memory serves me correctly. Doesn’t mean they can beat Albany, though. But again, they might.
#4 Seed: Sacramento State (hosts winner of Austin Peay and Furman next Saturday)
What a year for the whatever these guys are named. Tied for the Big Sky Championship, for crying out loud (Weber State won it). Who knows what happened to Eastern Washington, but good year for Sacramento State. Looks like two of their three losses were against FBS schools, too.
Austin Peay (hosts Furman tomorrow)
Ah, yes, the true Ohio Valley champion. I don’t know if they’d be in if they were still 9-3 but hadn’t beaten SEMO. Not a lot else going on. Guessing Furman’s a narrow road favorite.
Furman (plays at Austin Peay tomorrow)
Furman plays in the Southern Conference, which is different from the Big South, which we’ll get to in a minute. The SoCon, like the OVC and the Southland, is in the middle. Better than the NEC and Patriot League. Worse than the MVFC and CAA and Big Sky. Kind of interesting Furman made it, to be honest, but they also played two FBS schools, and I think I remember the committee getting a thrill out of that sort of thing. Looks like they even played one of them close, which is particularly helpful with the powers that be.
#3 Seed: Weber State (hosts winner of Wofford and Kennesaw State next Saturday)
If you want to know more about the history between this website and Weber State, Google “Weber State Beekeepers.”
Held back by their boring nickname, Weber State still won the Big Sky this year and enters the field one of a few teams capable of getting demolished by North Dakota State in the national championship. They’re stronger defensively than offensively, but they aren’t terrible at the whole scoring thing. Pretty good at it, in fact, when viewing it with the proper context.
Wofford (hosts Kennesaw State tomorrow)
Rematch of a 13-10 thriller alert! Yes, last year Wofford, who won the SoCon this year and might have done the same thing last year but that’s irrelevant, lost a tight one to Kennesaw State in the second round. They’re back, and I hope they still run the triple option because that was kind of fun.
Kennesaw State (plays at Wofford tomorrow)
I don’t know what happened to these guys (the Owls—great name). They were really good last year, I think. Gave South Dakota State a good game in the quarterfinals. Didn’t even win the Big South this year.
The Big South is weird because overall, it’s really bad, but it sometimes has some really good teams. This year, none of those, but two that won ten games, which counts for something. I’d place the Big South above the NEC and Patriot League because of its ceiling, but probably below the OVC and Southland and SoCon because it lacks depth.
I think Kennesaw State also runs the triple option? But a more souped-up version? I don’t know. Could be remembering that wrong.
#6 Seed: Montana (hosts winner of Southeastern Louisiana and Villanova next Saturday)
The Griz. Missoula’s finest. Man, I hope we get a snow game. Think they had some solid success back in the day, but don’t think they’ve made much noise for a while. Would be fun if they put a little run together.
Southeastern Louisiana (hosts Villanova tomorrow)
SELA (not as fun as SEMO, I’ll say it) is also in the Southland, and if memory serves me correctly, they do this thing where they aren’t supposed to be good but then they win a few games and get on the radar? Disregard that, actually. Just looked at their results last year and I’m probably thinking of someone else.
Guessing SELA’s in because they demolished Central Arkansas somehow. Good for them. Underdog tomorrow, though. Villanova’s in the CAA.
Villanova (plays at SELA tomorrow)
Put Villanova in the “unseeded team that could make some noise” category, along with Northern Iowa, who we’ll get to. They won nine games in the CAA, but for some reason (maybe because they didn’t play any FBS teams?) they didn’t get seeded. They won a national championship a while back, so not an irrelevant program by any means. Looks like their offense is good but their defense is bad, and in an actively bad way, not in a “just not as good as the offense” way.
#7 Seed: South Dakota State (hosts winner of Northern Iowa and San Diego next Saturday)
Man, tough seed for the Jacks (which is what I think folks call the Jackrabbits). Makes sense, though. Lost to South Dakota last week, and the Illinois State loss doesn’t help either.
Lately, South Dakota State’s been one of the best teams in the FCS, good enough for long enough to be in the category’s second tier, right there with James Madison in terms of current prestige. I’m guessing they’ve still got it in ‘em, but they won’t get to do it at home after the second round. They’re in the MVFC, by the way.
Northern Iowa (hosts San Diego tomorrow)
I think UNI’s normally pretty good. I associate them with Montana in my mind. Mentioned them earlier in the “could make some noise even though they’re unseeded” category.
They’ve got a great defense. Not a very good offense. Good first round draw, though.
San Diego (plays at Northern Iowa tomorrow)
San Diego plays in something called the Pioneer League, which I’d say is worse than the Patriot League and the NEC. It’s non-scholarship, so no shame, but yeah, not good. A couple years ago San Diego changed that narrative by winning a playoff game, beating the pants off Northern Arizona. Last year, they didn’t achieve the same result. Anyway, not someone to be taken for granted, but big underdog.
#2 Seed: James Madison (hosts the winner of Monmouth and Holy Cross tomorrow)
JMU is back. Or are they?
For a while, James Madison looked poised to topple North Dakota State. Won a national championship a few years ago. Then, last year, they really disappointed. Lost to Colgate, and while Colgate had a great defense, that still was a bad look. Now…we’ll see.
They’re definitely the second-best team in the country. They took care of business in the CAA, and not in the way that’s just enough to make the field. Their only loss was to West Virginia by a touchdown in Morgantown.
They’ll be a significant underdog if they take on NDSU, but until that happens, they’ll be a significant favorite.
Monmouth (hosts Holy Cross tomorrow)
Hmm…Monmouth. Won the Big South. Only lost to Western Michigan (FBS) and Montana (good). Not necessarily any good themselves, though. We’ll see what they’re made of. But maybe not tomorrow because they’re playing Holy Cross.
Holy Cross (plays at Monmouth tomorrow)
Hey, I know them! A dietitian who’s a friend of the blog (itsavegworldafterall.com if you’re interested in vegetables) went there!
Nice draw for these guys, getting to play Monmouth instead of Villanova or someone like that. Possibly the worst team in the field, Holy Cross won the Patriot League outright with only one conference loss. They also accounted for two of the league’s few nonconference victories, beating New Hampshire (pretty solid program) and Brown (not solid, but it’s a nonconference win). They definitely have a chance, because Monmouth isn’t all that good, but they’re a justifiably heavy underdog.
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That’s all I’ve got. If we do this again next week, you’ll get to hear about the SWAC, and if we keep doing it after that, you’ll also get to hear about the MEAC. Fun stuff.
