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 seven Division I win criteria was used in the selection.
The following are the 10 automatic bid conferences winners:
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. The autobids are highlighted in bold.
| 1 | North Dakota State | MVFC |
| 2 | James Madison | CAA |
| 3 | South Dakota State | At-Large 1 |
| 4 | Montana | At-Large 2 |
| 5 | Weber State | Big Sky |
| 6 | Sacramento State | At-Large 3 |
| 7 | Montana State | At-Large 4 |
| 8 | Northern Iowa | At-Large 5 |
| 9 | Wofford | SoCon |
| 10 | Villanova | At-Large 6 |
| 11 | Towson | At-Large 7 |
| 12 | Southern Illinois | At-Large 8 |
| 13 | SE Louisiana | At-Large 9 |
| 14 | Furman | At-Large 10 |
| 15 | Illinois State | At-Large 11 |
| 16 | Monmouth | Big South |
| 17 | Nicholls | Southland |
| 18 | Austin Peay | OVC |
| 19 | Albany | At-Large 12 |
| 20 | North Dakota | At-Large 13 |
| 21 | Kennesaw 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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