CSJ Sagarin 2022 NCAA FCS Playoff Projection-FINAL
Using the Sagarin rankings for this week of Nov. 19th–the final regular season week for the Division I FCS., the following would be the field of 24 teams for the 2022/23 Division I FCS Football Playoffs.
South Dakota State would be the top seed using the rankings for this week, while MVFC mate North Dakota State would be the second seed.
Sacramento State would be the #3, while Montana and Montana State are the #4 and #5 respectively.
Overall for this year, there are 11 conferences that get their champion into the field as an automatic qualifier. The remaining 13 positions are at-large selections. The following are the 11 automatic qualifying leagues and their respective champions:
| A-SUN / WAC Alliance | Eastern Kentucky |
| Big Sky | Sacramento State |
| Big South | Gardner-Webb |
| Colonial | William & Mary |
| Missouri Valley | South Dakota State |
| NEC | Saint Francis |
| Ohio Valley | Southeast Missouri State |
| Patriot | Holy Cross |
| Pioneer | Davidson |
| Southland | Southeast Louisiana |
| Southern | Samford |
Transitioning FCS to FBS teams are not eligible for the FCS playoffs, which includes Jacksonville State, Sam Houston, and James Madison this season.
The list includes any school with six or more victories as this is a requirement to be considered for the playoffs.
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). Those in bold and orange are the automatic bids. The teams highlighted in yellow and not bolded represent the at-large selections:
The seeds (and first round byes) would be as follows using the Sagarin rankings:
| 1. South Dakota State |
| 2. North Dakota State |
| 3. Sacramento State |
| 4. Montana |
| 5. Montana State |
| 6. Incarnate Word |
| 7. UC Davis |
| 8. Weber State |
Below would the be bracket using a fully 24-seeded field. 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 | 5 |
| Big Sky Conference | 6 |
| Colonial Athletic Association | 1 |
| Southern Conference | 4 |
| Southland Conference | 2 |
| Western Athletic/Atlantic Sun Alliance | 1 |
| Big South Conference | 1 |
| Ohio Valley Conference | 1 |
| Patriot League | 1 |
| Pioneer Football League | 1 |
| Northeast Conference | 1 |
The actual bracket has been announced and this is a follows:
Comparing the actual bracket to the Sagarin bracket, there are five selections in the actual bracket that were not in the Sagarin bracket. These include Delaware, Fordham, Elon, Richmond, and New Hampshire.
Those in the Sagarin that were not selected include UC Davis, Northern Iowa, Mercer, Youngstown State, and Chattanooga.
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:
