Bracketology Breakdown
Six At-Large Bids: Delaware, North Dakota, South Dakota State, Eastern Washington, Richmond, Southeastern Louisiana
First Four Out: Kennesaw State, Villanova, East Tennessee State, Murray State
First off, as projected last week, the Mid-Eastern automatic bid was abandoned/forfeited. So the Spring 2021 FCS football playoffs will consist of ten automatics and six at-large bids.
Second, half of the automatic bids were confirmed this weekend. That means the playoff field has become much, much clearer. Those bids are going to Weber State (Big Sky), Monmouth (Big South), Sacred Heart (Northeast), Jacksonville State (Ohio Valley) and Sam Houston State (Southland). In fact, the bubble looks about as small as it ever has with one week to go. That being said, if the surprise results happen this final weekend, the view could be just as muddied as it was a couple of weeks ago.
There are a number of bid deciding games this coming weekend. North Dakota State and South Dakota State will play each for the Missouri Valley and a likely seed. The loser is still a 99% certainty for the playoffs. The Patriot will have an official championship game, with their bid going to the winner of Holy Cross at Bucknell. The Pioneer and Southern can each be clinched by current spot holders winning their final game, Davidson and Virginia Military, each respectively. A loss by either opens up the possibility of losing their autobids and likely any chance of even claiming at-large berths. The final autobid, the Colonial, has a pair of games involving four potential playoff participants; Delaware at Villanova and Richmond at James Madison. They’ve decided if there are undefeated champions of each of their divisions, the other conference teams will vote on who gets their automatic spot in the playoffs. It basically comes down to Delaware beating Villanova for this to happen, as Villanova has already lost a game and the other game’s teams are both undefeated.
I’ll be putting out a Bracketology Bonus during mid-week, where I’ll go over everything more in depth.
Bids By Conference
Big Sky (2): #Weber State, Eastern Washington
Big South (1): #Monmouth
Colonial (3): *James Madison, Delaware, Richmond
Missouri Valley (3): *North Dakota State, North Dakota, South Dakota State
Northeast (1): #Sacred Heart
Ohio Valley (1): #Jacksonville State
Patriot (1): *Holy Cross
Pioneer (1): *Davidson
Southern (1): *Virginia Military
Southland (2): #Sam Houston State, Southeastern Louisiana
* denotes predicted automatic qualifier
# denotes clinched automatic qualifier
