These FCS playoffs have been excellent, and never more than on semifinal weekend. Friday night brought the end of North Dakota State’s five-year national titles streak, when James Madison marched into Fargo and left with a 27-17 win. On most weekends, that’d be the top highlight from across the country.
FCS playoff scores and bracket update: Youngstown State to play James Madison in National Championship
The Penguins and Dukes are an unexpected but great matchup for the national title.
This has not been like most weekends. The next night, playoff Cinderella Youngstown State trailed Eastern Washington by four points with six seconds remaining, then got a preposterous pinned-to-the defender touchdown catch to win the game just before the buzzer. It was one of the great plays in recent college football history, ending one of the great games in recent college football history. That’s no exaggeration at all.
And so we’ve come to the end, although it’ll take some time to get there. JMU and YSU will play on Jan. 7 in Frisco, Texas, for all the marbles (noon ET, ESPN). Both teams will get three weeks of preparation, and a great matchup between the Dukes and Penguins should eventually become a great game. Both will be extremely ready to go.
The FCS playoffs started three weeks ago, with 24 teams. The two that are left aren’t the ones who were supposed to be here. YSU was unseeded, and James Madison was No. 4 and had to share one side of the bracket with No. 1 NDSU.
The Penguins beat No. 3 Jacksonville State and now No. 2 EWU as part of their path, while the Dukes conquered an opponent that had come to seem unconquerable. Both have earned everything they’ve gotten, and the result should be 60 terrific minutes of football in a couple of weeks. At least we’ve got a long slate of bowl games to help bridge the gap. We’ll need ‘em.
Here’s the current bracket, via the NCAA. It’s updated to reflect YSU’s presence in the championship game:
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