The FCS Playoffs 2024 is set following the completion of the regular-season. The complete bracket, 10 automatic qualifiers, full 24-team field, and FCS Playoff Schedule were announced today by the NCAA.
Ten teams that won their respective conference championships move on to the 2024 FCS Playoffs as automatic qualifiers. Those teams are listed below:
- Big Sky: Montana State
- Big South-OVC: Southeast Missouri
- CAA: Richmond
- MVFC: South Dakota State
- NEC: Central Connecticut
- Patriot: Lehigh
- Pioneer: Drake
- SoCon: Mercer
- Southland: UIW
- UAC: Abilene Christian
Below are the top eight seeds for the 2024 FCS Playoffs. The top eight teams receive a first-round bye and will host a second-round matchup on Saturday, Dec. 7:
1. Montana State
2. North Dakota State
3. South Dakota State
4. South Dakota
5. UC Davis
6. UIW
7. Mercer
8. Idaho
The remaining 16 qualifiers (14 at-large) open the FCS Playoffs with a First-Round matchup on Saturday, Nov. 30. Below is the schedule for the first two rounds of the 2024 FCS Playoffs:
FIRST-ROUND GAMES (NOV. 30)
*All games ET and streaming via ESPN+ unless noted.
CCSU 17, (10) Rhode Island 21
(12) Illinois St. 35, SE Missouri 27
UT Martin 41, (16) New Hampshire 10
Lehigh 20, (9) Richmond 16
EKU 17, (11) Villanova 22
NAU 0, (15) Abilene Christian 24
Drake 29, (13) Tarleton State 43
Tennessee State 27, (14) Montana 41
SECOND-ROUND GAMES (DEC. 7)
*All games ET and streaming via ESPN+.
(14) Montana at (3) South Dakota State – 2pm
(10) Rhode Island at (7) Mercer – 2pm
Villanova at (6) UIW – 2pm
UT Martin at (1) Montana State – 3pm
(15) ACU at (2) North Dakota State – 3pm
(13) Tarleton State at (4) South Dakota – 3pm
(12) Illinois State at (5) UC Davis – 4pm
Lehigh at (8) Idaho – 9pm
The FCS Championship Game for the 2024 season is scheduled for Monday, Jan. 6, 2025 at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas. The game will be nationally televised by ESPN at 7:00pm ET.
FCS Playoff Bracket (PDF)
2024 #FCSPlayoffs Bracket pic.twitter.com/Tyq6fHrUz1
— FBSchedules.com (@FBSchedules) November 24, 2024
Dan-ke, @KevinKelleyFB
The 1st Round = Awesome.
All 10 Participating Conferences Are meritoriously represented.
All Participants earned their 1 shot to meritoriously advance or be thrown off the playoff hill.
Beautiful
Seeds 1-5 all out of The Big Sky. Seed #8 also out of The Big Sky.
6 & 7 Incarnate Word and Mercer the 2 remaining top 8 seeds.
2, 3, and 4 are Missouri Valley schools
Jeff,
I immediately noticed that accidental omission as well.
Have a successful weekend.
Should make for a very exciting FCS Playoff. Thanks to this year’s selection now ranking the top 16 schools, instead of the previous top 8, now introduces more intriguing, and arguable properly balanced match-ups that otherwise may not have been possible in years prior. The top 8 ranking required most 1st and 2nd round match-ups to be regionally focused, resulting in brackets being more heavily weighted if that region included better ranked schools during the season. Hopefully we will see this reflected in the games and results and becomes trend that continues past this year. Some additional observations from this year’s selection:
Winners
Big Sky – The Big Sky earns the most bids this year with 5, including 3 first round byes (tied with the MVC) and 4 schools ranked and the #1 bid with Montana State. Alot of the conference’s success can certainly be attributed to Montana St’s dominance along with Idaho and UC-Davis, but the MVC having Missouri St and CAA having Delaware in transition years who have very successful seasons whose eligibility being removed ultimately gave the Big Sky the edge.
NAU – ….Which leads into one of the controversial bubble picks. Just five weeks ago, NAU was looking just to finish their season in a positive trajectory. 2 back-to back-losses to Montana and Idaho meant they needed to win out the rest of the season just to have a chance on the bubble. Their success plus some luck with the strength of the conferences top teams, and other bubble teams stumbling along the way helped NAU land what was one of the last spots in the playoff despite not having a signature win.
The “Alliance Conferences” – After struggling the last few years to get multiple bids, both the UAC and BigSouth/OVC get 3 teams each into the playoff.
SEMO – speaking of Alliance Conference Members, SEMO, despite their regular season ending loss, still won the BigSouth/OVC, and thanks to Illinois St being unable to host a game this weekend due to State High School Football Championships, now get to host a 1st round game.
Losers
SoCon – Despite Mercer earning a Top 8 bid/1st round bye, the SoCon was only able to earn 1 bid this year, despite having 3 legitimate bubble schools (Western Carolina, Chattanooga, and ETSU).
Richmond – The CAA was able to earn 4 bids, tied for 2nd most with the MVC. Yet, no school was able to earn a first round bye, including conference winner Richmond who won 10 straight after starting the season 0-2. The likely reason may have been due to Richmond’s loss to SoCon opponent Wofford earlier in the season.
Stony Brook – CAA’s bubble team Stony Brook, just 3 weeks ago had an outside shot of a share of the conference title with an 8-2 record. However, the last 2 weeks saw losses to fellow conference bubble team UNH and a crushing blowout to Monmouth in the season finale that kept the SeaWolves from earning the last playoff spot.
Go Illinois State!!!
Go Villanova!!!
Go Montana State!!!