College Sports Journal Sagarin FCS Playoff Predictions–Oct. 29

On By Kent Schmidt

NCAA FCS 2013

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.

As a reminder, the following conferences receive an automatic bid, while 14 teams are selected as at-large picks.

Big Sky Conference
Big South Conference
Colonial Athletic Conference (CAA)
Missouri Valley Football Conference (MVFC)
Northeast Conference (NEC)
Ohio Valley Conference (OVC)
Patriot League
Pioneer Football League 
Southern Conference
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 South Dakota State At-Large 1
3 James Madison CAA
4 Montana Big Sky
5 Sacramento State At-Large 2
6 Weber State At-Large 3
7 Northern Iowa At-Large 4
8 Illinois State At-Large 5
9 Villanova At-Large 6
10 Kennesaw State Big South
11 Youngstown State At-Large 7
12 Furman SoCon
13 Southern Illinois At-Large 8
14 Montana State At-Large 9
15 Towson At-Large 10
16 Central Arkansas Southland
17 Wofford At-Large 11
18 Sam Houston State At-Large 12
19 Stony Brook At-Large 13
20 New Hampshire At-Large 14
21 Tennessee-Martin OVC
22 Central Connecticut St. NEC
23 San Diego Pioneer
24 Holy Cross Patriot
Note that Central Connecticut State, San Diego, and Holy Cross are currently leading NEC, Pioneer League, and Patriot League in the Sagarin rankings and would be the last three schools into the field as those conference champions.
Also note that the Ivy League, MEAC, and SWAC do not have autobids. The MEAC and SWAC champions play in the Celebration Bowl. The SWAC also plays a championship game so both division champions would not be able to participate but any second place or lower team in either conference would be eligible. And the Ivy League as a whole has elected not to participate in the playoffs.
For this week, no MEAC or SWAC schools are in the Top 21 of the standings. But Princeton and Dartmouth from the Ivy League, who are in the this Top 21 are not eligible for the playoffs due to the Ivy League rule of no postseason play so these two were left off. Also, UC Davis, Eastern Washington, and South Dakota would be in the Top 21 but each have five losses and would not make it with the current rule of getting seven DI victories. If each win out, they may have a chance but I left them out in this prediction this week.
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