Bracketology Breakdown
Last Four In: Central Arkansas, Villanova, Jacksonville State, Austin Peay
First Four Out: Richmond, Sacramento State, Northern Iowa, Furman
As a fan of FCS football, this was a terrific Week 1. Six programs took “scalps” from the higher-level FBS. Roll call, please…
Montana beat Washington, 13-7
South Dakota State beat Colorado State, 42-23
Eastern Washington beat Nevada-Las Vegas, 35-33 in double overtime
UC-Davis beat Tulsa, 19-17
East Tennessee State beat Vanderbilt, 23-3
Holy Cross beat Connecticut, 38-28
Unfortunately, there were three lower division casualties. Not going to highlight those as the loss is shame enough.
As you can see from the list above, the Big Sky Conference was the moving force, taking half of those upsets. There’s a reason they were occupying five early Bracketology spots and that’s not going to hurt moving forward. The Missouri Valley also took one, which is about ten straight years someone from the conference has victimized the FBS. SoCon member ETSU surprised a Southeastern Conference team. Finally, Holy Cross showed they may be the only decent team with the Patriot. Overall, there were numerous other close calls. The total number could have been in double digits, but we’ll gladly accept the six we got.
Trying not to be over-reactionary with the second installment of Bracketology here. Five of the six “scalpers” were already in the field and it wasn’t a stretch to include the last. Teams will continue to shift in and out, it’s the nature of the Bracketology business. And, like this week, bracket positioning may sway wildly with limited outcomes. It’ll settle down - eventually.
Bids By Conference
AQ7 (3): *Sam Houston State, Jacksonville State, Central Arkansas
Big Sky (5): *Montana, Eastern Washington, UC-Davis, Montana State, Weber State
Big South (1): *Monmouth
Colonial (3): *James Madison, Delaware, Villanova
Missouri Valley (4): *South Dakota State, North Dakota State, Southern Illinois, North Dakota
Northeast (1): *Sacred Heart
Ohio Valley (2): *Murray State, Austin Peay
Patriot (1): *Holy Cross
Pioneer (1): *San Diego
Southern (2): *Virginia Military, East Tennessee State
Southland (1): *Southeastern Louisiana
* denotes projected conference’s automatic qualifier
