Bracketology Breakdown
Six At-Large Bids: James Madison, Southern Illinois, North Dakota State, Albany, Nicholls, Southeast Missouri State
First Four Out: South Dakota State, Northern Iowa, Southeastern Louisiana, Eastern Washington
Remember everything I wrote last week? Forget it. Everything that appeared as far as Bracketology from last week, from December, it’s all irrelevant. That edition has been burnt to a crisp, placed in an urn and buried at sea. The computer that was used has been wiped clean and the motherboard has been melted down. This weekend was such a crap shoot. We’ve seen weekends of chaos before, but those all look like lullabies comparatively speaking. If your team hasn’t started playing yet - REJOICE! You were likely just spelled of large amounts of antacid trying to extinguish the molten fire of football acid reflux.
Let’s look at the at-large bids. James Madison is safe, as is Southern Illinois. Albany hasn’t played, so we’ll leave them alone as a third place Colonial team. Nicholls looks like the #2 Southland team right now and they’re scoring at a ridiculous pace - 71 points per game! Southeast Missouri State looks like the #2 Ohio Valley team. They only lost to Southern Illinois by three in the fall and dominated in their opener like they were supposed to.
That brings us to North Dakota State. If you look at the heirarchy with the MVFC, they probably slot fifth, actually, behind South Dakota State and Northern Iowa. But since it seems unlikely the Selection Committee would actually put four or more teams from one conference in the field, I had to pick one of the three. South Dakota State’s victory over Northern Iowa eliminates the Panthers. The way both of the ‘DSUs’ lost this weekend leaves much to be desired. So rather than totally upset the apple cart and taking NDSU off the bracket tree from the #1 overall position last week, I’m leaving them in. So fans of SDSU and UNI, no need to send me love letters, I’ve already agonized over this decision for about fifteen hours. More, if you count the initial shock of, “How the Hell did ‘DSU’ schools lose and lose so badly on the same weekend?”
For those just on the outside, I’ve already touched on South Dakota State. The real omission is Northern Iowa, who was in the field before and won by shutout over a team that North Dakota State beat by less at home. It really isn’t fair, but this is the second full week of spring football. There’s a lot of time for this to sort itself out. Southeastern Louisiana was also in last week but lost a shootout to Sam Houston State. They fall, but not very far. When you consider who they lost to and by the narrow margin to the blowout buttkickings some of the others accepted, it’s more than reasonable. Eastern Washington also fell off after losing a controversial game at Idaho, where a go ahead field goal was called no good and the replay camera was focused too low to see the ball go over the tops of the uprights.
If anybody should be happy about the mayhem that was this weekend, it’s the ‘Joe Average’ non-power conferences in FCS. The Missouri Valley, right now, appears to be in full-on cannibal mode. This is the exact situation that held the league to three bids a couple years ago, allowing for a record six from the Colonial. No way six is happening from any conference this spring. But if the MVFC continues chewing up and spitting each other out, it might open up another bid for the Ohio Valley, Southland or Southern Conference.
Bids By Conference
Big Sky (1): *Weber State
Big South (1): *Kennesaw State
Colonial (3): *Villanova, James Madison, Albany
Missouri Valley (3): *North Dakota, Southern Illinois, North Dakota State
Northeast (1): *Duquesne
Ohio Valley (2): *Jacksonville State, Southeast Missouri State
Patriot (1): *Holy Cross
Pioneer (1): *San Diego
Southern (1): *Chattanooga
Southland (2): *Sam Houston State, Nicholls
* denotes predicted automatic qualifier
