The Unofficial Furman Football Page

The FCS is going to a 16 team seeded model for the upcoming season. I believe the goal was to do away with some of the regionalization and avoid some of the unfortunate second round matchups.

Just tinkering with last year's bracket, this is what the new format may have looked like using the final STATS poll of the regular season.

16. Mercer | 1. South Dakota State
Gardner Webb

9. North Dakota State | 8. Villanova
Drake

13. Southern Illinois | 4. Idaho
Nicholls

12. Austin Peay | 5. Albany
Youngstown State

14. Sacramento State | 3. South Dakota
Duquesne

11. North Dakota | 6. Montana State
Richmond

10. Delaware | 7. Furman
Lafayette

15. NC Central | 2. Montana
Chattanooga

***

This format wouldn't necessarily change much for some teams. Mercer, for instance, would still likely have had the same path. Furman would have, arguably, played a similar opponent (Delaware instead of UTC), but still gone to Montana.

It would prevent regionalization inherently giving an advantage to the CAA, which frequently benefits from playing weaker NEC/Patriot league teams early in the tournament.

Here, for example, Albany would potentially have Austin Peay, who finished ranked #13, instead of Richmond, who finished ranked #22. Furman as the #7 seed, would likely host #11 Delaware instead of #18 UTC.

Last season, Villanova was the #8 (and final seed), but arguably had one of the weaker second round matchup in hosting #21 Youngstown State. Under this format, they'd host top 10 NDSU in a much tougher game.

I know they were talkng about seeding the top 16 instead of 8 is this now official?

apaladin wrote: ↑

Tue May 28, 2024 9:52 am

I know they were talkng about seeding the top 16 instead of 8 is this now official?

Had not seen this before my post, but it seems to be the NCAA approved it.

https://www.ncaa.com/news/football/arti ... ams-change

Scratch this. Still 24 teams. Ok

gofurman wrote: ↑

Wed May 29, 2024 4:43 am

Scratch this. Still 24 teams. Ok

Yes still 24 and the biggest thing about that is you won’t necessarily have to play a close by team in the first round which has been the case most of the time.

apaladin wrote: ↑

Sun Jun 02, 2024 11:04 am

gofurman wrote: ↑

Wed May 29, 2024 4:43 am

Scratch this. Still 24 teams. Ok

Yes still 24 and the biggest thing about that is you won’t necessarily have to play a close by team in the first round which has been the case most of the time.

perhaps I am not seeing the full picture but that sounds good to me. You should get to play a team that you earned the right to play... not just because they are close by and perhaps better or worse than your recrod dictates

gofurman wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 12, 2024 3:04 pm

apaladin wrote: ↑

Sun Jun 02, 2024 11:04 am

gofurman wrote: ↑

Wed May 29, 2024 4:43 am

Scratch this. Still 24 teams. Ok

Yes still 24 and the biggest thing about that is you won’t necessarily have to play a close by team in the first round which has been the case most of the time.

perhaps I am not seeing the full picture but that sounds good to me. You should get to play a team that you earned the right to play... not just because they are close by and perhaps better or worse than your recrod dictates

It won't make massive changes, I think, but it will avoid some of the annoying second round matchups where regionalization ends up putting teams in the circular firing squad.

Last season, for instance, Montana State got rewarded for earning the #6 seed by hosting a very good North Dakota State team that, arguably, could have been a seed.

2016 was also a good example. Wofford was ranked #9 and hosted #15 Charleston Southern. The Citadel got the winner of that game as a reward for being the #6 seed. It was a brutal way for the two best SoCon teams to settle matters - a game that really had no business being played but for the fact the two schools are in the same area.