FCS Tournament Underway

For all those of you who long for the day when the FBS crowns its national champ with an end of the season tournament, here is how their closest neighbors, the FCS, navigate those waters. If you go to my home page and click on conferences, you will get a drop down Menu which has the following choices: FBS (AQ’s), FBS (Non AQ’s), FCS (AQ’s) and FCS (Non AQ’s).

I would like you to focus, for a minute, on the10 Conferences listed under the FCS (AQ’s) heading. The champion of each of these leagues earns an automatic birth (AQ Automatic Qualifier) into the 20 team tourney.

This year’s Champions; Big Sky: Montana, Big South: Stony Brook, Colonial Athletic Association: Towson, MEAC: Norfolk State, Missouri Valley: North Dakota State, Northeast: University of Albany, Ohio Valley: Tennessee Tech, Patriot League: Lehigh, Southern Conference: Georgia Southern, & Southland Conference: Sam Houston State.

So 10 of the 20 teams are established by their regular season results… win your conference and you are in the playoffs, its that simple.

Now the fun begins, who gets the “at large bids” and how is the subjectivity of this process minimized. I must also tell you, I have not studied the logic for these decisions and have no idea how the these determinants guide the selection process.  For our purposes today, I am simply going to identify for you the teams selected and the conferences they represent. So we will not deal with how they minimize subjectivity, but I promise you, I will look into the guidelines that are used by the FCS selection committee for “at large invitations” during this FBS Bowl Season.

That said, lets see what  teams got invited to the FCS Tourney, without winning their league championship; Big Sky: Montana State; Colonial: Old Dominion, Maine, New Hampshire, & James Madison; Missouri Valley: Northern Iowa; Ohio Valley: Eastern Kentucky; Southern: Appalachian State & Wofford University, and Southland Conference: Central Arkansas. Here is the breakdown for at large bids; 4 from the Colonial, 2 from the Southern, and one each from the Big Sky, Missouri Valley, Ohio Valley, & Southland conferences.

The total conferences representation goes like this; Colonial had 5 teams or 25% of the field, Southern was next with 3 teams, followed by the Big Sky, Missouri Valley, Ohio Valley, and Southland with 2 each for a total of 16 teams. The final four entries came as league champions from the Big South, MEAC, Northeast, & Patriot.

The Tournament is set up with 4 games in the first round, this will reduce the field to the needed 16 teams. These 16 teams will  compete in eight Second Round reducing the field to 8 teams and 4 games in Round Three. The semi-finals will occur in Round Four, where the 20 teams will have been reduced to the final two. The Championship Game will be played on January 7, 2012 in Frisco, Texas, at Pizza Hut Park.

The first round results are as follows: The Big South Champ, Stony Brook stopped the University of Albany, Champion of the the Northeast Conference, 31-28. Stony Brook moves on to face Sam Houston State, the #1 seed in the tourney and champions of the Southland Conference. In another First Round tilt, Tennessee Tech , the champions of the Ohio Valley fell 34-14 to Central Arkansas, an at large team, from the Southland Conference. Central Arkansas now heads west, to face the 4th seeded Montana Grizzles. In a third game on Saturday, the MEAC Champ, Norfolk State, was beaten 35-18 by Old Dominion, an at large team, from the Colonial Athletic Association. Georgia Southern, the 3rd seeded team, awaits the arrival of Old Dominion. In the final First Round contest, two at large teams battled, Eastern Kentucky from the Ohio Valley hooked up James Madison from the CAA, with James Madison prevailing, 20-17. James Madison, like Central Arkansas, is headed west, where they will take on North Dakota State, the # 2 seed in the Tournament.

I will keep you up-dated as the tournament moves now into the Second Round. As always Enjoy the Games.