CSJ Sagarin 2021 NCAA FCS Playoff Projection-FINAL
Using the Sagarin ranking this week, the following would be the field of 24 teams for the Division I FCS Football Playoffs. The actual playoff announcement will be made later today at 12:30 EST on ESPNU.
North Dakota State is the top seed, while MVFC mate South Dakota State is the second seed.
James Madison is the #3, while Sam Houston State and Eastern Washington are the #4 and #5 respectively.
There are currently 11 conferences that get their champion into the field as an automatic qualifier. The remaining 13 positions are at-large selections. NOTE: the MEAC, SWAC, and Ivy League do not send their conference champions to the playoff field. The MEAC and SWAC non-winners of either their division or the conference could be selected so these teams were taken into consideration.
Automatic Bids Already Obtained
There are conferences that recieved automatic bids for their champions. The following are these schools:
| AQ7 (WAC/A-Sun) | Sam Houston State |
| Big Sky | Sacramento State |
| Big South | Kennesaw State |
| CAA | Villanova |
| MVFC | North Dakota State |
| NEC | Sacred Heart |
| OVC | Tennessee- Martin |
| Patriot | Holy Cross |
| Pioneer | Davidson |
| SoCon | East Tennessee State |
| Southland | Incarnate Word |
Below is a list of all 24 teams with the ones in bold and highlighted in orange as the automatic qualifier from their respective conference (again, using the Sagarin rating to determine that team). The teams highlighted in yellow and not bolded represent the at-large selections:
The seeds would be as follows using the Sagarin rankings:
| 1. North Dakota State |
| 2. South Dakota State |
| 3. James Madison |
| 4. Sam Houston State |
| 5. Eastern Washington |
| 6. Montana |
| 7. Northern Iowa |
| 8. Missouri State |
Below would the be bracket using fully the 24-seeds. No regionalization was considered for the 24-team field and the bracket was solely made by the Sagarin rankings.
Conference Breakdown with Number of Teams
| Missouri Valley Football Conference | 6 |
| Big Sky Conference | 5 |
| Colonial Athletic Association | 2 |
| Southern Conference | 2 |
| Southland Conference | 2 |
| AQ7 (Western Athletic/Atlantic Sun) | 2 |
| Big South Conference | 1 |
| Ohio Valley Conference | 1 |
| Patriot League | 1 |
| Pioneer Football League | 1 |
| Northeast Conference | 1 |
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.
Reach him at this email or click below:
