That’s a rough draw for Sac. Decent chance your first game will be against a team that was a Hail Mary away from a seed. SDSt was No. 4 before the South Dakota game.
Tough draw for the Aggies too. They beat NDSU and demolished Colorado State this year and their RB, Pierre Strong Jr, is probably the best RB is the FCS. He has 1317 yards this year on 190 carries for a whopping 7.4 yard per rush!
Dang! I forgot to set my DVR for this morning and missed the ESPN broadcast. It seems odd to me that they would set up the brackets so that so many Big Sky teams play each other so early. Are they trying to save travel money?
There was something on the broadcast that said that first and second round games would be "regionalized" to save travel costs. This ain't men's basketball and March Madness.
I think they avoided teams playing conference opponents in the first game other than one game where the commentators mentioned that the teams did not meet in the regular season this year. Cannot recall which game that was.
It’s South Dakota-Southern Illinois from the MVC. I was wondering if they were willing to match up teams from the same conference in the 1st round if they didn’t play that season. Makes sense if you’re prioritizing keeping travel down.
That EWU-UNI with the winner facing Montana pod is rough also.
EWU easily could have gotten a seed (they did beat Montana, after all). Then you've got UNI who faced each of the other 5 MVC teams that made the playoffs (going 2-3), beat Sac State by 18 on the road and only lost to Iowa State by 6.
Playoff Selection committee included Montana AD. Would be interested in seeing a list of all selection committee members and their position and affiliation. Saw that Robby Hauck made first team Big Sky. I am sure there was no bias/politicking with that. During the press conference Hawkins did not seem too pleased with how the all-conference selection process goes.
FCS Playoff Schedule Saturday, 11/27, All games on ESPN+:
Sacred Heart 7 at Holy Cross 0 with 12:57 to go in the 2nd Q
Davidson at Kennesaw State 11 AM
UC Davis at South Dakota State 12 Noon
Stephan F Austin at Incarnate Word 12 Noon
Northern Iowa at EWU 1 PM
Tennessee-Martine at Missouri State 1 PM
Southern Illinois at South Dakota 3 PM
Florida A&M at Southeastern Louisiana 4 PM
Eastern has their hands full, UNI playing very tough on defense...classic Panther game plan. Look more physical.
Rest of the playoff games still going on look very competitive.
Holy Cross survives Sacred Heart. Looking forward to seeing Holy Cross in the final.
Kennesaw rolls Davidson...another tough first round match up survived.
UT (Tennessee Martin) beats Missouri State in Springfield. I think UTM starting quarterback was out. MVFC is 1-2 (plus the USD Southern Illinois game) today.