Breaking down the FCS playoffs: Advantage Jackrabbits
Nov. 20—BROOKINGS — The reward for earning the No. 1 seed through any playoff or tournament is supposed to be the most favorable path to the championship.
In the case of the FCS playoffs, though, we have seen instances in the past (mostly involving North Dakota State) where the reigning champion had as many challenging opponents thrown in their way as could reasonably be justified.
That did not happen this year.
There's no doubt about it, the Jackrabbits' road to Frisco is (we won't use the word 'easy' here; nothing is easy come postseason and it would be insulting to the other 11 teams on their half of the bracket) about as welcoming as they could have hoped for.
Save your complaints — they earned it. South Dakota State is 11-0, the only undefeated team in the FCS. They've won 25 games in a row, they are the reigning national champions and have been so far ahead of the pack this year they probably would've received the top seed even if they'd lost to Missouri State on Saturday. They deserve what they got.
The Jacks will face the winner of Gardner-Webb and Mercer on Dec. 2, and if the higher seeds win from there SDSU would face 8th-seeded Villanova and 4th-seeded Idaho, coached by their former offensive coordinator, Jason Eck. The Vandals would be an intriguing challenge to be sure, and Villanova has given the Jacks a run for their money twice in the playoffs before. The 5-seed is Albany, and while it's easy to dismiss the Great Danes, they did win the CAA, routed Villanova back in September and come in on a five-game winning streak.
Still, the majority of the heavy hitters (or what's left of them in the FCS) are on the other side of the bracket.
Montana earned the 2-seed and USD the 3-seed, while the 6-seed went to Montana State, the team SDSU has faced in each of the last two semifinals and beat this season by the thinnest of margins in Brookings. Furman, the 7-seed, was the No. 2 ranked team in the nation before Saturday.
Oh, and nine-time national champion North Dakota State is also on that side of the bracket as an unseeded team. The Bison get what will be largely a first-round tune-up against Drake, the non-scholarship Pioneer League champion that SDSU beat 70-7 at Target Field. North Dakota, Delaware and Sacramento State (all ranked in the top 15 of the latest Top 25 poll) are among the non-seeded teams joining the Bison.
While there are a few interesting matchups set for Saturday, the second round is where it will heat up, particularly when NDSU visits Montana State. The Bison and Bobcats were thought to be the clear-cut second-and-third best teams in the country after the Jacks back when the season started, but both faltered on their way to the finish line. NDSU lost to all three Dakota schools. Montana State, perhaps worn down by a brutal schedule, lost at Idaho and then got hammered in the Brawl of the Wild game at Montana on Saturday. But the Bobcats did go undefeated at home this year. The last time these teams met was in the 2021 national championship. The Bison crushed them.
If Southern Illinois can get past Nicholls they'd head to the Kibbie Dome to take on Idaho. The Vandals have won 15 games in Eck's first two seasons at the helm, but that would be their first game against a Missouri Valley Football Conference team since he took over.
And then there's the Coyotes, who quietly had a strong argument for the 2-seed (their two losses are to the national champions and a Missouri team that's in the FBS's Top 10).
USD has its first-ever first round bye, then they'll host the winner of North Dakota and Sacramento State. Not an easy draw. They barely got by the Hawks 14-10 in the Dome just two weeks ago, and Sacramento State is a tricky team, too. The Hornets beat Stanford this year but went 0-4 against the Big Sky's four other playoff contenders. Carson Camp, the former USD starting quarterback who transferred after the emergence of Aidan Bouman, is one of Sac State's backups.
If the Yotes win that second round game their reward will be the winner of Montana State/NDSU. That's arguably a tougher draw than USD would've had as the fourth seed, but it does mean they'd never have to go to Brookings.
So yeah, whomever comes out of the non-Jackrabbit side of the bracket will have really earned it. It is, as SDSU coach Jimmy Rogers said Sunday, a gauntlet. That should be entertaining, if nothing else. There aren't a lot of truly great teams left in the Championship Subdivision, so it will be fun watching several of them duke it out on the way to Frisco.
The Jacks are the favorites. The race to knock them off begins Saturday.
