The road to Frisco, the home of the 2021 Spring FCS National Championship game, starts on April 18th, 2021 with the Selection Show. On that day, eightteen 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 six 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 4/17/2021 @ 10:00pm EST.
FCS Playoff Bracket Projection
| Seed | Team | Record | Conference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | James Madison | 5-0 | Colonial |
| VMI | 6-1 | Southern | |
| 8 | Jacksonville St | 9-2 | Ohio Valley |
| Monmouth NJ | 3-0 | Big South | |
| 5 | Delaware | 5-0 | Colonial |
| Holy Cross | 3-0 | Patriot | |
| 4 | Sam Houston St | 6-0 | Southland |
| Richmond | 3-1 | Colonial | |
| 3 | Weber St | 5-0 | Big Sky |
| Davidson | 4-2 | Pioneer | |
| 6 | North Dakota | 4-1 | Missouri Valley |
| E Washington | 5-1 | Big Sky | |
| 2 | S Dakota St | 5-1 | Missouri Valley |
| Sacred Heart | 3-1 | Northeast | |
| 7 | N Dakota St | 6-2 | Missouri Valley |
| Murray St | 5-2 | Ohio Valley |
Just missing the cut, here are our last four out…
| Seed | Team | Record | Conference |
|---|---|---|---|
| L1 | ETSU | 4-2 | Southern |
| L2 | UC Davis | 3-2 | Big Sky |
| L3 | San Diego | 4-2 | Pioneer |
| L4 | Nicholls St | 4-3 | Southland |
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 | 2 | Weber St |
| Big South | 1 | Monmouth NJ |
| Colonial | 3 | Delaware |
| FCS Independents | 0 | No Auto Bid |
| Missouri Valley | 3 | S Dakota St |
| Northeast | 1 | Sacred Heart |
| Ohio Valley | 2 | Jacksonville St |
| Patriot | 1 | Holy Cross |
| Pioneer | 1 | Davidson |
| Southern | 1 | VMI |
| Southland | 1 | Sam Houston St |
| Southwestern Athletic | 0 | No Auto Bid |
| Mid-Eastern Athletic | 0 | No Auto Bid |
| Ivy League | 0 | No Auto Bid |