2012 FCS playoffs selection show: Preview and TV schedule

The bracket for the nation’s biggest college football tournament will be revealed Sunday on the Football Championship Subdivision Selection Show, scheduled at 1:30 p.m. ET on ESPNU.

FCS, formerly Division I-AA, is the highest NCAA football division to decide its champion through a playoff. The FCS bracket consists of 20 teams. Ten teams get into the field through automatic bids, as winners of conference championships. The other ten at-large participants are chosen by a selection committee. Four first-round games determine the opponents for the top four seeds. From there, the playoffs are a 16-team tournament, with a champion crowned after four more rounds of play.

North Dakota State, 10-1 on the season and winners of the Missouri Valley Football Conference, are widely expected to take the top seed. The Bison capped their regular season Saturday with a 38-20 comeback win over Illinois State, and recorded wins over FCS stalwarts South Dakota State, Youngstown State and Northern Iowa, and a 22-7 win over FBS program Colorado State, on their way to the tournament.

The Montana State Bobcats are projected as a likely second seed. The Bobcats went 10-1 this season, but enter the tournament as an at-large, as their lone loss to Eastern Washington cost them the Big Sky championship. Eastern Washington, the 9-2 Big Sky champion, is also in the mix for a first-round bye. Old Dominion, which is ineligible for the Colonial Athletic Association’s automatic bid due to their pending move to FBS football, finished 10-1 and is likely to get the fourth bye.

Nobowls.com, which has successfully predicted 70 of the 72 teams in the FCS Championship field since 2008, predicts that 10-1 Lehigh, 8-3 South Dakota State, and 8-3 Illinois State will be the last three at-large teams in the field.