Last Four In: Eastern Washington, Weber State, Stephen F. Austin, East Tennessee State
First Four Out: Eastern Kentucky, Mercer, Northern Iowa, Southeastern Louisiana
Right out of the gate, I don’t like this map. I don’t like how it’s forced to be set-up and the top four seeds all being grouped in the Dakotas and Montana makes for a very unbalanced map. But it is what it is.
Tried to not be a “prisoner of the moment,” awarding too heavily or penalizing too harshly with the Week 1 (and Week 0) results. However, that was impossible for William & Mary and Delaware, who each took FBS wins as William & Mary dominated Charlotte and Delaware put the clamps on Navy. This gives the Colonial an immediate boost in representation, up to four. Other big impressions were made by Samford, who took down previously seeded Kennesaw State and Incarnate Word, who put a first class whoopin’ on Southern Illinois.
Looking across the conferences, with so many games against the FBS this first couple of weeks, it’s hard to swap teams in and out of projected automatic berths. Case in point, the Big South. North Carolina A&T was beaten fairly soundly against rival North Carolina Central. But nobody else in the conference had a win so significant that it warranted a change. A similar situation with the Atlantic Sun/Western Athletic joint venture, as Kennesaw State and Stephen F. Austin both took early losses. We’re going to play the wait and see game with them for a week or two.
Bids By Conference
Atlantic Sun (1): *Kennesaw State
Big Sky (5): *Montana, Montana State, Sacramento State, Weber State, Eastern Washington
Big South (1): *North Carolina A&T
Colonial (4): *William & Mary, Delaware, Villanova, Rhode Island
Missouri Valley (4): *North Dakota State, South Dakota State, Missouri State, Southern Illinois
Northeast (1): *Sacred Heart
Ohio Valley (1): *Tennessee-Martin
Patriot (1): *Holy Cross
Pioneer (1): *Davidson
Southern (3): *Samford, East Tennessee State, Chattanooga
Southland (1): *Incarnate Word
Western (1): Stephen F. Austin
* denotes an automatic qualifier
** one of the champions between the Atlantic Sun and Western combined, will also receive an automatic bid
