Saturday brought a couple of upsets in the FCS playoffs, the 24-team postseason extravaganza for college football’s second-highest division. But the biggest potential upset didn’t happen, with No. 1 overall seed and five-time defending champion North Dakota State still standing.
2016 updated FCS playoffs bracket: North Dakota State advances, as usual
Where the FCS postseason stands after Round 2.
Three of the competition’s eight seeded teams – the top teams in the field, ostensibly – lost. No. 3 Jacksonville State lost to Bo Pelini’s Youngstown State, 40-24. No. 6, the Citadel, lost to Wofford, 17-3. And No. 7 North Dakota (not to be confused with NDSU) lost to Richmond, 27-24. Everyone else with a seed next to its name is still alive.
NDSU beat San Diego in a 45-7 blowout, while South Dakota State eked past Villanova, 10-7. The Bison and Jackrabbits have a cool rivalry series, playing annually for the Dakota Marker. At the Fargodome in October, the Jacks handed the Bison their only loss of the season so far. Pulling off the same trick twice against NDSU seems like an awfully tall order, but at least the Jacks shouldn’t lack confidence. The sequel, like the 2016 season’s original, will happen in Fargo.
In total, eight teams are left. Whoever wins the Dakota rematch will draw either Sam Houston State or James Madison in a national semifinal. The top-ranked surviving team on the other side of the bracket is No. 2 Eastern Washington, which cruised past Central Arkansas in the second round, 31-14.
Three of the four quarterfinal games next weekend are on Saturday, but one (JMU-Sam Houston State) is set for Friday evening. They’ll all be on WatchESPN, with NDSU-SDSU and JMU-SHSU getting TV slots. Here’s the full remaining bracket, with game times and TV information included, via the NCAA:
The FCS playoffs are typically a rip-roaring good time. We’ll get to watch them unfold in possible chaos over the next few weeks, leading up to the National Championship on Jan. 7 in Frisco, Texas. Mix the playoffs’ general enjoyability with NDSU’s ongoing quest for another title, and you’ve got a cocktail for fun.
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