NCAA Division I Football (Championship Subdivision) playoff bracket

[anonymid]

FCS (Football Championship Subdivision--the second tier of Division I) is the highest level of college football for which there is an NCAA championship. Appalachian State, which defeated Joe Flacco and Delaware in last year's title game (and famously defeated Michigan in Ann Arbor last season), will be going for its fourth consecutive national championship. First-round games are this weekend. This year's playoff field:

Automatic Qualifiers:

Big Sky: Weber State
Colonial: James Madison
Mid-Eastern: South Carolina State
Missouri Valley: Southern Illinois
Ohio Valley: Eastern Kentucky
Patriot: Colgate
Southern: Appalachian State
Southland: Texas State

At-large selections:

Big Sky: Montana
Colonial: Villanova, Richmond, New Hampshire, Maine
Great West: Cal Poly
Missouri Valley: Northern Iowa
Southern: Wofford


The bracket:

Wofford @ #1 James Madison
Colgate @ Villanova

Texas State @ #4 Montana
Weber State @ Cal Poly


South Carolina State @ #2 Appalachian State
Eastern Kentucky @ Richmond

Maine @ #3 Northern Iowa
New Hampshire @ Southern Illinois

[Safeway]

go big sky conference.

[anonymid]

Well, it just goes to show what can happen in college football when you have a playoff: An unseeded, three-loss Richmond team dominated #4 Montana 24-7 on Friday night to win the national championship. If this were done BCS style, #1 James Madison would have played #2 Appalachian State in a pre-determined championship matchup. Instead, Richmond defeated ASU by 20 on the road in the quarterfinals (and then went on to defeat #3 Northern Iowa, also on the road, in the semis), and Montana defeated JMU on the road in the semifinals.