The 2017 FCS season begins on Saturday with not one, but three games on that day (Texas Southern-FAMU, Jax State-Chattanooga and Colgate-Cal Poly), the game of the weekend is on Sunday and is a potential playoff preview as Richmond travels to take on Sam Houston State. With that as the background, I’m taking a stab at the potential playoff field for 2017. Last year I tried this and got just 15 of the 24 teams correct, you can laugh at it here. Forgive the bracket as it has last year’s date, I will have an updated one for the next bracketology at the end of September.
Many of you know, but for those that forget there are ten automatic qualifiers and 14 at-large bids. Here’s how the field breaks down:
AUTOMATIC BIDS (10)
- North Dakota State – Missouri Valley
- James Madison – Colonial
- Cal Poly – Big Sky
- Jacksonville State – Ohio Valley
- Fordham – Patriot
- Duquesne – Northeast
- San Diego – Pioneer
- Wofford – SoCon
- Sam Houston State – Southland
- Charleston Southern – Big South
AT-LARGE BIDS (14)
- South Dakota State
- Illinois State
- Youngstown State
- Richmond
- Villanova
- New Hampshire
- Eastern Washington
- Northern Arizona
- North Dakota
- Samford
- The Citadel
- Central Arkansas
- Kennesaw State
- UT Martin
