Using the Sagarin ratings 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 this week. 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 with the automatic qualifier, while 14 teams are selected as at-large picks.
Big Sky Conference -- Weber State Big South Conference -- Kennesaw State Colonial Athletic Conference (CAA) -- Maine Missouri Valley Football Conference (MVFC) -- North Dakota State Northeast Conference (NEC) -- Duquesne Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) -- Jacksonville State Patriot League -- Colgate Pioneer Football League -- San Diego Southern Conference -- Wofford Southland Conference -- Nicholls
Below are the full 125 team Sagarin rankings. (click on the image to see a larger view.)
Also, note that six Division I wins is what the playoff committee uses as a minimum for the number of victories so any teams that did not meet this mark were left off the projection.
Also, the Ivy League and the champions of the MEAC and SWAC conferences do not participate in the playoffs.
So using the rankings along with the automatic bid and six DI win minimum, the following would the 24 schools ranked first to 24th.
| 1 | North Dakota State (11-0) | MVFC |
| 2 | South Dakota State (8-2) | At-Large1 |
| 3 | Eastern Washington (9-2) | At-Large2 |
| 4 | James Madison (8-3) | At-Large3 |
| 5 | Northern Iowa (6-5) | At-Large4 |
| 6 | Kennesaw State (10-1) | Big South |
| 7 | UC Davis (9-2) | At-Large5 |
| 8 | Colgate (9-1) | Patriot |
| 9 | Weber State (9-2) | Big Sky |
| 10 | Jacksonville State (8-3) | OVC |
| 11 | Stony Brook (7-4) | At-Large6 |
| 12 | Towson (7-4) | At-Large7 |
| 13 | Nicholls State (8-3) | Southland |
| 14 | Wofford (8-3) | SoCon |
| 15 | Delaware (7-4) | At-Large8 |
| 16 | Elon (6-4) | At-Large9 |
| 17 | Indiana State (7-4) | At-Large10 |
| 18 | Montana (6-5) | At-Large11 |
| 19 | Montana State (7-4) | At-Large12 |
| 20 | Maine (8-3) | CAA |
| 21 | Furman (6-4) | At-Large13 |
| 22 | North Dakota (6-5) | At-Large14 |
| 23 | San Diego (9-2) | Pioneer |
| 24 | Duquesne (8-3) | NEC |
Next Four Out
| 25 | SE Missouri State (8-3) |
| 26 | Rhode Island (6-5) |
| 27 | Central Arkansas (6-5) |
| 28 | Chattanooga (6-5) |
The playoff committee will announce the full field at 12:30pm EST today on ESPNU.
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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