Last Four In: Mercer, Eastern Washington, Austin Peay, Southern Illinois
First Four Out: Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Western Carolina, Fordham
First order of business, Southern Illinois picked up another FCS victory over the heinous FBS, by beating Northwestern. This also forces the Salukis back into the bracket this week. The talent was never the issue, it was more the vicious destruction they took from the hands of Incarnate Word. UIW has proven themselves to be a higher commodity, so the impact towards SIU diminishes slightly over time.
The rest of the FCS should also rejoice as North Dakota State actually lost. Of course, it was to FBS Arizona and only by a field goal. From this bracketologist’s point of view, I’m not very happy about the game starting so late in the evening. It’s not Hawai’i. It’s not Iowa City either (where Nevada & Iowa didn’t finish until early Sunday morning because of lightning). Even with the loss, NDSU will still hold the top rung of the ladder. Decided to flip-flop South Dakota State and Montana between #2 and #3. Montana is undefeated, SDSU lost to FBS Iowa, and has been steamrolling everyone.
Elsewhere, the Colonial lost a couple of teams on this week’s tree. New Hampshire had a real stinker of a home loss to North Carolina Central. That should be a good indicator for who represents the MEAC in the Celebrations Bowl, as the Eagles are still unblemished. Back to UNH, yes, they technically are leading the CAA with two early conference wins, but most teams in the CAA haven’t even played yet. So, should I have them as the current automatic? I could. But it’s a quirky situation to stand on only three weeks into the season. The other drop was Rhode Island. The Rams had a couple of road wins to start the season, but were drubbed at home by Delaware. Yes, Delaware is legit, but Rhode Island’s two wins were against teams a combined 0-5.
Picking up those two vacancies in the Bracket Hotel are the aforementioned Southern Illinois and the A-Sun’s Austin Peay, who improved to 3-1. Granted, their three wins are pretty soft in appearance, but somebody has to claim the spot and right now, they’re as deserving as anyone.
Last note here, my still very primitive FCS Power Rankings will be debuting AFTER next week’s games and they’ll be available here on College Sports Madness. It’ll likely be linked to the Bracketology or Top 25 by that fancy sorcery that nerdy coding geeks can pull off that I am completely oblivious to. Back in seven.
Bids By Conference
Atlantic Sun (2): *Eastern Kentucky, Austin Peay
Big Sky (5): *Montana, Montana State, Weber State, Sacramento State, Eastern Washington
Big South (1): *Campbell
Colonial (3): *William & Mary, Delaware, Villanova
Missouri Valley (5): *North Dakota State, South Dakota State, Missouri State, North Dakota, Southern Illinois
Northeast (1): *Sacred Heart
Ohio Valley (1): *Southeast Missouri
Patriot (1): *Holy Cross
Pioneer (1): *Davidson
Southern (3): *Chattanooga, Samford, Mercer
Southland (1): *Incarnate Word
Western (0):
* denotes an automatic qualifier
** one of the champions between the Atlantic Sun and Western combined, will also receive an automatic bid
