2019 FCS Playoff Projections

The road to Frisco, the home of the 2020 FCS National Championship game, starts on November 24th, 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.

Updated on 10/14/2019 @ 11:50am EST.

FCS Playoff Bracket Projection

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  • 1. N Dakota St(6-0)
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  • Montana St(5-2)
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  • New Hampshire(4-2)
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  • 8. Furman(4-2)
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  • Northern Iowa(3-3)
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  • Holy Cross(3-3)
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  • 5. Villanova(6-1)
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  • Youngstown St(4-2)
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  • Central Conn(5-1)
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  • 4. Montana(5-1)
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  • UC Davis(3-4)
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  • North Dakota(3-3)
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  • 3. S Dakota St(5-1)
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  • Idaho St(3-3)
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  • Illinois St(4-2)
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  • 6. CS Sacramento(4-2)
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  • Weber St(4-2)
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  • San Diego(3-2)
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  • 2. James Madison(6-1)
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  • Cent Arkansas(4-2)
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  • Towson(3-3)
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  • 7. Kennesaw(5-1)
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  • Nicholls St(4-2)
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  • TN Martin(4-2)
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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 5 Weber St
Big South 1 Kennesaw
Colonial 5 James Madison
FCS Independents 1 No Auto Bid
Missouri Valley 5 N Dakota St
Northeast 1 Sacred Heart
Ohio Valley 1 Jacksonville St
Patriot 1 Colgate
Pioneer 1 San Diego
Southern 1 ETSU
Southland 2 Nicholls St
Southwestern Athletic 0 No Auto Bid
Mid-Eastern Athletic  0 No Auto Bid
Ivy League 0 No Auto Bid