Using the Sagarin ratings from this week alone to project the FCS playoffs, along with the automatic bid for the conferences that receive a bid, the following would be the playoff teams. These teams are seeded 1 through 24 for the 24 teams that make the FCS playoffs.
The following are the 10 automatic bid conferences with the ones that have already clinched their conferences in bold.
Big Sky Conference Big South Conference -- Monmouth Colonial Athletic Conference (CAA) -- James Madison Missouri Valley Football Conference (MVFC) -- North Dakota State Northeast Conference (NEC) -- Central Connecticut State Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) Patriot League Pioneer Football League -- San Diego Southern Conference -- Wofford Southland Conference
Top 24 Rankings with playoff spot with the conference name indicating the automatic spot for its conference and then the 14 at-large spots also listed. See the full Top 25 with the hyperlink:
1 | North Dakota State | MVFC |
2 | James Madison | CAA |
3 | South Dakota State | At-Large 1 |
4 | Montana | Big Sky |
5 | Weber State | At-Large 2 |
6 | Sacramento State | At-Large 3 |
7 | Northern Iowa | At-Large 4 |
8 | Montana State | At-Large 5 |
9 | Illinois State | At-Large 6 |
10 | Towson | At-Large 7 |
11 | Eastern Washington | At-Large 8 |
12 | Wofford | SoCon |
13 | Southern Illinois | At-Large 9 |
14 | Villanova | At-Large 10 |
15 | SE Louisiana | Southland |
16 | Furman | At-Large 11 |
17 | Maine | At-Large 12 |
18 | Monmouth | Big South |
19 | Austin Peay | OVC |
20 | Kennesaw State | At-Large 13 |
21 | SE Missouri State | At-Large 14 |
22 | C. Connecticut St. | NEC |
23 | San Diego | Pioneer |
24 | Holy Cross | Patriot |

Originally from LaMoure, North Dakota, Kent is a 1996 graduate of North Dakota State University. His prior writing experience is over 15 years having previously worked with D2football.com, I-AA.org, and College Sporting News before coming to College Sports Journal in 2016. His main focus is college football is the Missouri Valley Football Conference within the Division I FCS. And in 2017, he began also to look at the FBS Group of Five conferences of the American Athletic, Conference USA, Mid-American, Mountain West, and Sun Belt.
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What about Central Arkansas…they won last week, didn’t they?