From Craig Haley at STATS
(STATS) - Talk surrounding the FCS playoffs this weekend will center around who's in and who's out of the 24-team field.
When the seeded teams with first-round byes begin play in two weeks, the excitement figures to center around the biggest possible change to the field - fresher matchups rather than the same 'ol, same 'ol.
While the NCAA Division I FCS selection committee will make the pairings regional when possible, beginning this year, conferences with four or more competing teams will be split over both sides of the bracket.
In each of the first three playoffs since they were expanded to 24 in 2013, there has been at least two conferences with four or more qualifiers. This year, the Big Sky, CAA Football, Missouri Valley and Southern conferences are all strong candidates to reach that number.
"Hopefully what it means," Brian Hutchinson, chair of the selection committee, said Wednesday, "is that it's more exciting to our fans that they're not watching the same game they've already seen before, at least something similar to what they've seen before, that they're going to see really good quality opponents, and playing in different places than they've played. If that's what that means and it generates a little bit more excitement about the championship, then I think that's probably a very, very good thing."
The change in policy occurred following conference unrest over last year's field, which included all five qualifiers from the Missouri Valley Football Conference being placed in one half of the bracket through regionalization, which can minimize travel and expenses.
The playoffs consist of 10 conference champions which receive automatic bids and 14 at-large selections. There are eight first-round games on Nov. 26, with the winners advancing to meet the seeded teams in the second round. The championship game will be held Jan. 7 in Frisco, Texas.
Six of last year's eight second-round games had been played during the regular season - three were between teams from the same conference. That is less likely to happen this year.
"I do think it's very possible that we have an opportunity for a little bit less regionalization this year than we've had in previous years," Hutchinson said. "One, because of who the teams are that are vying for the championship and, two, because we have a little more flexibility in our bracketing principles to ensure that we avoid some common seasonal matchups. It's not something we've talked about specifically yet, but in sort of reading the tea leaves, I think that's where we are."
The other big change for the committee has been the release of Top 10 rankings each of the last three weeks, intended to create interest in the playoffs and basically a preview to what teams could earn seeds.
Hutchinson says the margin between the top six ranked teams has been "razor-thin" and is part of the reason that, as all six have continued to win games, Sam Houston State dropped from No. 2 to No. 5 in the second ranking, Jacksonville State dropped from No. 1 to No. 3 in the third and final ranking, and North Dakota State rose from No. 4 to No. 1 over the final two rankings.
"It's not that significant if you know how closely ranked they were in terms of just the way our point system works," Hutchinson said.
Hutchinson, who is the Morehead State athletic director, said the biggest factors when evaluating a team for the field are overall record, results against Division I opponents, record against other conferences that have automatic qualifiers, head-to-head results against other potential qualifiers, common opponents' records and the Simple Rating System, which quantifies the strength of a team's schedule.
