Four more FCS playoff spots added soon?

[Jason Svoboda]

The proposal includes an automatic qualifier berth for the Pioneer League and three more at-large berths. That could only help the top leagues in the FCS, such as the Missouri Valley Football Conference, get more teams into postseason.

Nice.

This year, that would have meant Indiana State, which finished 6-5 but had a power ranking of No. 18 and a win over a Football Bowl Subdivision program, may have benefitted from an increased playoff field.

Would have been awesome if this was already in place.

http://www.jamestownsun.com/event/article/id/154177/group/Sports/

 

[Jason Svoboda]

Nobody is excited about this?

 

[new sycamore fan]

I think it's great if they do it, but why not go for 32? Make everyone play the first week and have a "normal" bracket. If it goes to 24 the MVFC should have at least 3 teams in every year, and sometimes 4. We blew our chance last season, and Illinois State got screwed because of their lousy early season losses. I would hope as the field expands, the expectation for us should be getting to the playoffs pretty regularly.

 

[4Q_iu]

Nobody is excited about this?

Yeah if it comes to be... my first take was this might be a bone the ncaa throws at 'mid-majors' as the rest of the Div I schools and NCAA travel down this path: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/coll...ncaa-division-I-structure-football/52875162/1

Call me a skeptic but I'd LOVE to have an NCAA President who's not only a Mid-Major Alumnus BUT has spent their entire career AT a Mid-Major program.

So, while it could be a very good thing; I think it might be like the NIT today... ie Win the REAL Conf Championship (regular season), get upset in your conf tourney, and Goodbye NCAA! Hello NIT!

So, is this 4-team an expansion to pave the way for a future (2014-2016) of Div I - FBS being ONLY the BCS auto qualifing conferences and Div I - FCS being current FCS plus, MAC, WAC, Sunbelt, etc, etc, etc?? Good grief, I hope NOT.

But than again, I remember an NCAA tourney of 48 schools, not 64...

 

[Jason Svoboda]

CARBONDALE — The Missouri Valley Football Conference could be in play for three more at-large bids to the playoffs if a proposal to expand the field to 24 teams passes later this year.

The Football Championship Subdivision playoffs currently feature 20 teams. A proposal from a group of presidents from FCS schools aims to expand the field beginning in 2013, with eight seeded teams, an automatic qualifier from every league in the country that wants to compete and 13 at-large teams. The Ivy League and the Southwestern Athletic Conference do not send their regular-season champions to the postseason.

The proposal will go before an NCAA championships cabinet in June and will be subject to approval by an executive committee Aug. 2.

http://thesouthern.com/sports/college/salukimania/ncaa-close-to-expanding-fcs-playoffs-to-teams/article_bb25a4f4-9af8-11e1-b3da-0019bb2963f4.html

 

[bent20]

Could be great, but also means a longer road to get to the title game once you do make the playoffs.

 

[DyedBlue]

This seems a logical expansion endpoint. It gives the top 8 seeds a week off and a home game as a reward for a season of excellence. It will be geographically balanced in all probability so that the national character of the playoffs is maintained and expanded and it will give top leagues, at least in their own opinion, the opportunity to get another team or two into the playoffs. If each truly deserves to be there, then it will be competitive. The chances of competitive games among the 9-24th ranked teams is higher than games with top 4 playing the weakest automatic qualifiers. I see nothing to argue against this arrangment. And 1/5 of the teams making the playoffs seems more than fair.

 

[Jason Svoboda]

http://www.argusleader.com/article/...?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Home&nclick_check=1

Done deal from what I've been seeing everywhere.