Last Four In: Idaho, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Elon
First Six Out: North Dakota, Richmond, Austin Peay, Fordham, Tennessee-Martin, Furman
Any of you who follow my bracketology every week will remember all my gripes about automatic bids and the wonky situations they entailed. Well, Valparaiso took my little bit of leeway and confidence and rewarded it with an immediate loss. So, going to backtrack and return to Davidson, who I thought was the best team in the Pioneer League all along.
Northwestern State continues to rack up wins against Southland also-rans, but I’m not going to make them an automatic selection until they beat one of the conference’s two current playoff inhabitants. For now, they’re undefeated in Southland action and making every bracketologists job around the country a nightmarish Hell.
So, were there a couple big games this week? Maybe there was one for a quill pen…or, maybe a Sharpie? No, it was a Marker, as in the Dakota Marker. South Dakota State went to North Dakota State and won in come from behind fashion. Gonna give them the bump to #1 overall. Still could make a case for Sacramento State or Weber State, but this was the biggest “FCS” win so far this regular season. Might be by the end of the season also. Although, there’s still potential for FIVE huge top ten games in the Big Sky during the season’s final five weeks. Two of which happen this next weekend.
The other big game? Idaho went to Montana and beat the Grizzlies. Very few teams go into Montana and come away victorious. Idaho is still undefeated against FCS opponents. This was the game to put their resume smack dab in the middle of the map. Well, welcome to the party, Vandals. They forced their way into the field this week. With that, they knocked North Dakota off. North Dakota was idle, so it wasn’t anything of their doing, just the breaks of living on the edge of the bracket.
The Colonial was the week’s big winner, as far as conferences are concerned. They snag the bracket’s last three bids. Really, any of the final ten teams, four in and six out, have a case for being included. A few are stronger than the others. In my opinion, those are the four I chose. That doesn’t mean it won’t change in the next few weeks, it almost always does. But this is now.
See you in seven.
Bids By Conference
**Atlantic Sun (0):
Big Sky (5): *Sacramento State, Weber State, Montana State, Montana, Idaho
Big South (1): *Campbell
Colonial (5): *William & Mary, Delaware, Elon, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Elon
Missouri Valley (3): *North Dakota State, South Dakota State, Southern Illinois
Northeast (1): *Sacred Heart
Ohio Valley (1): *Southeast Missouri
Patriot (1): *Holy Cross
Pioneer (1): *Davidson
Southern (3): *Chattanooga, Samford, Mercer
Southland (2): *Southeastern Louisiana, Incarnate Word
**Western (1): *Abilene Christian
* denotes an automatic qualifier
** one of the champions between the Atlantic Sun and Western combined, will also receive an automatic bid
