LAST FOUR IN: Tennessee State, Central Arkansas, Colgate, Nicholls
FIRST FOUR OUT: Northern Iowa, McNeese, Illinois State, Montana
Anybody who tries doing FCS Bracketology during the first couple of weeks will tell you, it is usually a project of futility. Many of the teams selected towards the bottom lose, some other pull huge upsets and others win unimpressively or close to higher ranked opponents.
Welcome to the party for those newcomers. One of which is Tennessee State, who was one of three and one-half FCS teams (I’ll explain) to beat FBS schools this weekend. One of those others was defending champion, James Madison, who went and whooped East Carolina. The most surprising was easily Howard, who left Washington, DC for Las Vegas and are flying back overnight as a record-breaking winner. They were a 45.5 point underdog, who won outright, the largest ever - congrats! The final, half FCS team was Liberty. Liberty is still competing as an FCS Independent in the Big South Conference - I know, confusing, right? They have more scholarships than normal FCS teams, but not at the FBS level either. Still, the team in limbo went to and dropped Baylor.
This week’s bracket drops Northern Iowa, McNeese and Fordham off and replaces them with Tennessee State, Colgate and Nicholls. That swap reduces the Missouri Valley’s projected entrants to four and raises the Ohio Valley to two, leaving everyone else where they were.
Next week figures to be just as crazy as many of the FCS teams who didn’t face FBS opponents this week, get their paydays. Here’s to hoping the “little guys” pull a few more upsets against “big brother”.
Big Sky (2): North Dakota*, Eastern Washington
Big South (1): Charleston Southern*
Colonial (4): James Madison*, Villanova, New Hampshire, Richmond
Missouri Valley (4): North Dakota State*, South Dakota State, Youngstown State, Western Illinois
Northeast (1): Duquesne*
Ohio Valley (2): Jacksonville State*, Tennessee State
Patriot (2): Lehigh*, Colgate
Pioneer (1): San Diego*
Southern (4): Wofford*, Samford, Chattanooga, The Citadel
Southland (3): Sam Houston State*, Central Arkansas, Nicholls
* League Champion and automatic bid
