Folks, I’m not going to mince words on this. I just submitted my FCS Poll Ballot (on behalf of GridironHeroics) a few minutes ago to the FCS godfather, Craig Haley, at STATS/PERFORM as part of the official FCS football poll this week — and it was a toss-up in many ways.
On Tuesday morning? I’m going to publish more of a fleshed-out postseason/playoff picture (seedings, at-larges, guaranteed playoff berths, etc) with only a few weeks remaining (seeding and at-large projection, etc.) because there are trickier dynamics when it comes to the postseason picture.
WEEK NINE FCS REACTION: OPINION: How did this weekend affect the playoff picture?
The FCS annually has eight top seeds who don’t have to play on Thanksgiving weekend. trust me, these young men and their coaching staffs want to earn that free weekend, they’d love to eat turkey at home with their families. That’s the bonus of securing a seed.
That’s also the bonus of not being an FBS team and not securing a bowl berth because your fans don’t travel well — while a 6-6 team that you’ve beaten? Gets the bid. Shrug.
You can always find an opinion about who might do this … on my Twitter acct (@BrianMacWriter) by … soon.
Here’s my week’s FCS poll ballot explanation is in the Week Eight FCS reaction piece linked below:
FCS PODCAST – BMAC AND THE NACH – ON APPLE PODCASTS
BMAC’S FCS POLL BALLOT EXPLANATION:
Want to know the reasoning for this week’s vote? It’s available at the link immediately below!
WEEK NINE FCS REACTION: OPINION: How did this weekend affect the playoff picture?
THE VOTE: (note that FCS REC (record vs. FCS) is what the playoff committee will look at — unless the FCS school has an FBS win or a lower-division loss).
| RK | WEEK 9 (OCT 29) | CONF. | REC | FCS | STRK | WEEK 9 (Oct 29) |
| 1 | SDSU | MVFC | 8-1 | 8-0 | W8 | BEAT Indiana St by 42 |
| 2 | Sac. State | BIG SKY | 8-0 | 7-0+ | W8 | BEAT Idaho by 3 (home) |
| 3 | Montana State | BIG SKY | 7-1 | 7-0 | W5 | OPEN DATE |
| 4 | NDSU | MVFC | 6-2 | 6-1 | W1 | BEAT Illinois St by 17 |
| 5 | Weber State | BIG SKY | 7-1 | 5-1+ | W1 | BEAT Montana by 3 |
| 6 | William & Mary | CAA | 7-1 | 6-1+ | W5 | BEAT Rhody by 1 |
| 7 | Incarnate Word | SOUTHLAND | 8-1 | 7-1+ | W5 | BEAT TAMU-Comm by 28 |
| 8 | Holy Cross | PATRIOT | 8-0 | 7-0+ | W8 | BEAT Fordham by 1 |
| 9 | Samford | SOCON | 7-1 | 7-0 | W6 | BEAT at Citadel by 35 |
| 10 | Idaho | BIG SKY | 5-3 | 5-1 | L1 | LOST at SacSt by 3 |
| 11 | Montana | BIG SKY | 5-3 | 5-3 | L3 | LOST at Weber St by 3 |
| 12 | Furman | SOCON | 7-2 | 6-1 | W4 | BEAT Chattanooga by 4 |
| 13 | Chattanooga | SOCON | 6-2 | 6-1 | L1 | LOST at Furman by 4 |
| 14 | New Hampshire | CAA | 6-2 | 6-1 | W3 | OPEN DATE |
| 15 | Elon | CAA | 6-3 | 6-2 | W1 | BEAT Delaware by 20 |
| 16 | Delaware | CAA | 6-2 | 5-2+ | L1 | LOST at Elon by 20 |
| 17 | Rhode Island | CAA | 5-3 | 5-2 | L1 | LOST AT W&M by 1 |
| 18 | SEMO | OVC | 6-2 | 6-1 | L1 | LOST East Ky. By 5 |
| 19 | Mercer | SOCON | 7-2 | 7-1 | W1 | BEAT VMI by 41 |
| 20 | Jackson St. | SWAC | 8-0 | 8-0 | W8 | BEAT Southern by 35 |
| 21 | Princeton | IVY | 7-0 | 7-0 | W7 | BEAT Cornell by 25 |
| 22 | SE Louisiana | SOUTHLAND | 5-3 | 4-1 | W2 | BEAT McNeese by 1 |
| 23 | Richmond | CAA | 6-2 | 6-1 | W3 | BEAT Maine by 10 |
| 24 | East. Kentucky | ASUN-WAC | 5-3 | 4-2+ | W2 | BEAT at SEMO by 5 |
| 25 | North Dakota | MVFC | 5-3 | 5-2 | W1 | BEAT Abilene by 3 |
WEEK NINE FCS REACTION: OPINION: How did this weekend affect the playoff picture?
A (+) indicates the team has beaten a Group of Five Conference FBS team, and a (&) indicates the team has beaten a Power Five Conference FBS team. FBS wins are key come postseason selection time.
Brian McLaughlin has been a voter on the STATS/PERFORM FCS football poll since 2016, while also voting on the postseason awards — the Walter Payton Award (top offensive player), the Buck Buchanan Award (top defensive player), the Jerry Rice Award (the top freshman in FCS football), and the Eddie Robinson Award (top coach that year).
Brian votes based on his ballot last week, not the final poll tally from the entire group of voters. He believes this keeps his vote to comparing apples to apples and expressing his opinion on what he has seen. When there is a team listed above that doesn’t make it into the publically released FCS football poll, that indicates that no other voter listed the team and that eliminates that team from being even in the “also receiving votes” category.
Also, this year, if a program is ineligible for the postseason yet is playing in one of the playoff-bound conferences (Sam Houston and Jacksonville State are examples) — that program isn’t allowed in the poll. But Ivy Leagues and HBCUs are included because they determine their champions in a different way.
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