2012 FCS Playoff Bracketology: Summer Edition
By Shaun Bummer
The FCS college football season is still a month and a half away. However, it never hurts to see what teams are in contention to compete for the FCS National Championship in 2012.
Will North Dakota State repeat? Will the other recent powers in Sam Houston State, Appalachian State, Montana, and James Madison replace the Bison at the top? Or will someone completely new make some noise in the tournament? Only time will tell.
Currently unlike its bigger bothers in the FBS, the FCS features a 20-team playoff. Ten automatic bids are given out to conference winners (the Ivy League and SWAC choose not to participate in the postseason, and Pioneer League teams can only qualify as at-large selections) along with 10 at-large bids. Twelve teams receive a bye into the second round, while eight duel it out in four first round “play-in” games. Additionally, the top five teams in the tournament are seeded. The first and second round match-ups are heavily influenced by geography to reduce travel, but teams from the same conference cannot play each other in the first or second rounds.
Without further ado, here is our current, way-too-early playoff projection for FCS fans (and FBS fans who cannot wait until January 2015 for the new playoff).
Automatic-Bids:
Big Sky: Eastern Washington
Big South: Liberty
Colonial: Towson
Mid-Eastern: Bethune-Cookman
Missouri Valley: North Dakota State
Northeastern: Bryant
Ohio Valley: Murray State
Patriot: Lehigh
Southern: Georgia Southern
Southland: Sam Houston State
At-Large Bids:
Big Sky: Montana, Montana State
Colonial: James Madison, New Hampshire, Old Dominion
Missouri Valley: Illinois State, Indiana State, Youngstown State
Southern: Appalachian State, Wofford
Last Four Out: Chattanooga, Delaware, Jacksonville State, Stony Brook
The Field:
(* = home field advantage)
*#1 Sam Houston State
Old Dominion/Liberty
*Georgia Southern
Youngstown State
*#5 Montana State
Illinois State
*#4 Eastern Washington
Wofford/Lehigh
*#3 Towson
Murray State/Bethune-Cookman
*James Madison
Appalachian State
*Montana
Indiana State
*#2 North Dakota State
New Hampshire/Bryant