2018 FCS Playoff Projections

The road to Frisco, the home of the 2019 FCS National Championship game, starts on November 18th, 2018 with the Selection Show. On that day, twenty-four teams will be given the opportunity to work their way through the bracket to win a National Championship. Here, we attempt to project the FCS Playoff bracket to find out who those teams are. Of the thirteen FCS conferences, ten are awarded automatic bids as conference champions. The other fourteen teams come from an at at-large pool of the best of the rest non-conference champions.

For more reading, see our FCS College Football Ratings and our CFB game predictions.

We’ve analyzed the teams and understand how the selection process works, so below is our projected FCS Playoff field for the year. In preseason, this list is mostly a crap-shoot, however, as more games are played we will be able to more accurately predict where the FCS teams will land in the bracket.

Our FCS Playoff Bracket attempts to analyze everything that the selection committee would look at. This includes record, conference record, conference championships, strength of schedules, big wins, RPI and more. Remember, this list is not who we think should make the tournament, but who we think the committee will select to make the tournament.

Final: Updated on 11/17/2018 @ 9:30pm EST.

FCS Playoff Bracket Projection

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  • 1. N Dakota St(11-0)
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  • Towson(7-4)
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  • Duquesne(8-3)
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  • 8. Weber St(9-2)
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  • UC Davis(9-2)
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  • San Diego(9-2)
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  • 5. Colgate(9-1)
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  • ETSU(8-3)
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  • Northern Iowa(6-5)
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  • 4. Kennesaw(10-1)
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  • Stony Brook(7-4)
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  • Furman(6-4)
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  • 3. S Dakota St(8-2)
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  • Nicholls St(8-3)
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  • Indiana St(7-4)
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  • 6. James Madison(8-3)
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  • Jacksonville St(8-3)
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  • Elon(6-4)
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  • 2. E Washington(8-2)
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  • SE Missouri St(8-3)
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  • Montana St(7-4)
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  • 7. Maine(8-3)
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  • Wofford(8-3)
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  • Delaware(7-4)
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FCS Projected Automatic Bids

As mentioned above, there are ten teams that are awarded automatic bids due to being a conference champion. In both the SWAC and MEAC, the conference champions play in the Celebration Bowl. However, teams that are not winners of those conferences are still eligible to make the FCS Playoff. The Ivy League is the only FCS conference that completely sits out of the playoff.

Conference Projected Bids Projected Auto Bid
Big Sky 4 Weber St
Big South 1 Kennesaw
Colonial 6 Maine
FCS Independents 0 No Auto Bid
Missouri Valley 4 N Dakota St
Northeast 1 Duquesne
Ohio Valley 2 Jacksonville St
Patriot 1 Colgate
Pioneer 1 San Diego
Southern 3 Wofford
Southland 1 Nicholls St
Southwestern Athletic 0 No Auto Bid
Mid-Eastern Athletic  0 No Auto Bid
Ivy League 0 No Auto Bid