Bracketology Breakdown
Six At-Large Bids: Delaware, North Dakota, South Dakota State, Incarnate Word, Virginia Military, Eastern Washington
First Four Out: Murray State, Southern Illinois, UC-Davis, Maine
Now, we’re getting into the nitty gritty. Especially in the Missouri Valley. All the major contenders have all played each other, sans one match-up; an April 3 showdown between South Dakota State at North Dakota State. Southern Illinois is just barely out of the loop, having finished 1-2 against those two and North Dakota. North Dakota has finished against the other three at 2-1. Each of NDSU and SDSU are 1-1 with their pending game. That game will have an impact on North Dakota as far as the conference’s automatic berth later on.
Elsewhere, in the Ohio Valley, we’ve got Jacksonville State and Murray State both undefeated in conference action. Guess what? April 10, Jacksonville State visits Murray State. That might end up being an automatic bid game. What’s happening in the Southland on April 17? Sam Houston State travels to Incarnate Word. Potential automatic berth.
But what about the Southern Conference? What happened on February 20? Chattanooga and Virginia Military had their head-to-head match-up canceled and no common off day to reschedule. Unfortunately, both of those teams are currently undefeated within the conference. If both end undefeated, they’ll likely end up in a quirky “least points allowed” tiebreaker.
The heat is turning up and every game from here on out is magnified in significance. Let’s just hope we get to see all these games and the damn virus allows them to be played, so we can see champions determined on the field.
Bids By Conference
Big Sky (2): *Weber State, Eastern Washington
Big South (1): *Kennesaw State
Colonial (2): *James Madison, Delaware
Missouri Valley (3): *North Dakota State, North Dakota, South Dakota State
Northeast (1): *Duquesne
Ohio Valley (2): *Jacksonville State, Virginia Military
Patriot (1): *Holy Cross
Pioneer (1): *San Diego
Southern (1): *Chattanooga
Southland (2): *Sam Houston State, Incarnate Word
* denotes predicted automatic qualifier
