CSJ Sagarin 2018 NCAA FCS Playoff Projection – Sept. 17

Just as Chuck Burton has done his projections for the FCS playoff, the following are using the Sagarin rankings to fully project the field. Keep in mind that there are automatic bids to the following conference champions so the projects also keep this criteria in mind:

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 25 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:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As noted above, North Carolina A&T and Princeton are in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) and the Ivy League. Those two conferences and along with the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) do not directly participate in the playoffs. The MEAC and SWAC champions play a bowl game (the Celebration Bowl) while the Ivy League does not allow any of its members to participate in the postseason in football.

Any MEAC or SWAC second place or lower team could be selected for an at-large spot provided they do not already have a game scheduled on Thanksgiving weekend. But no such team was in the rankings this week.

Also, the final three conferences of the NEC, Patriot League, and Pioneer League will have their champions also participate and these three teams are shown below and will be the final three teams in terms of overall seeds.

The following are the full rankings for these three conferences with the winner highlighted in yellow:

Ranking 1-24, the following would be the playoff field based on the Sagarin rankings.

1 North Dakota State
2 South Dakota State
3 James Madison
4 Northern Iowa
5 Illinois State
6 Weber State
7 Eastern Washington
8 Jacksonville State
9 Kennesaw State
10 South Dakota
11 Samford
12 Elon
13 Maine
14 Wofford
15 UC Davis
16 Villanova
17 Montana
18 Missouri State
19 Western Illinois
20 Sam Houston State
21 Youngstown State
22 Colgate
23 Sacred Heart
24 San Diego