2011 FCS Playoff Bracket

The NCAA unveiled the 2011 Championship Subdivision Playoff bracket Sunday morning, and the only unbeaten, Sam Houston State is the overall No. 1 seed. Should the Bearkats win the national championship, they would never leave the state of Texas. I can only assume the NCAA is working on a way for Duke to have such an all-North Carolina road to a title sooner than later.

This year’s field is the most surprising in the time I have followed the subdivision. Powerhouse Montana is back, yesterday pounding rival and previous No. 1 Montana State for the Big Sky championship. And stalwart Appalachian State is one of the top seeds, a November tradition as reliable as Thanksgiving and Pac-12 basketball teams losing embarrassing non-conference games.

Otherwise? Nostradamus could not have foreseen how this field played out. In just its third season, Old Dominion makes the field of 20 and will host Norfolk State in what is certain to be the most well-attended of the first round games. For as long as ODU football has existed, Liberty has suffered heartbreaking November losses that kept the Flames from the Playoffs. This year, it was at Stony Brook. The Seawolves are now winners of eight straight and in their first postseason.

Surprising CAA champion Towson meets high-scoring Patriot League winner Lehigh in what is likely to be the most exciting of the second round match-ups — unless ground-based offenses Wofford and UNI have anything to say about it. Eric Breitenstein of Wofford and Tirrell Rennie of Northern Iowa are both Walter Payton Award finalists.

SaturdayBlitz.com is your home throughout the Playoffs. We will have previews, recaps, podcasts and analysis for the entire tournament.