[Sly Fox]

Please do not consider the following post as any type of endorsement of Mr. C by yours truly. But the article does offer up some interesting topics for discussion ...

Around FCS: A New Playoff Recipe

By David Coulson, FCS Executive Director

Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - Like many FCS fans, I've grown comfortable with the sweet 16. It has been 22 years since the NCAA's football playoff committee settled on that number, and it has proven to be a recipe that is both robust and hearty as the FCS has grown and thrived.

As a traditionalist, I'd be all in favor of leaving this tasty concoction in place for years to come. But we are almost certainly in the final two years of a 16-team postseason bracket, as the football committee moves towards a 20- team field, probably in time for the 2010 playoffs.

The committee had toyed with expanding the field in time for the 2008 playoffs, but logistical concerns about scheduling, television and the availability of Chattanooga, TN's Finley Stadium as a host site proved to be too difficult to overcome quickly.

By waiting until 2010 for expansion, the committee has the time to solve all of these issues before unleashing a 20-team field on us. And in the interim, it is looking at ways to appease the conferences clamoring for automatic playoff berths.

There is nothing really earthshattering in that talks. But this little nugget could play nicely into our favor ...

Damani Leach, the NCAA's director for football, said Wednesday that the football committee is looking at a concept called "earned access" for conferences without auto bids desiring to find a way into the field before 2010.

While this new concept will likely be refined at the committee meeting this month, criteria being discussed include requirements that teams play a minimum of two games against schools from auto-bid conferences while limiting lower- division scheduling to no more than two games, and that the teams under consideration be ranked in the top 20 by such polls as the Sports Network top-25, the FCS coaches poll, and the Gridiron Power Index, a system that takes computer rankings and polls into consideration.

If a team from a league like the NEC met that criteria, it could be granted a spot in the 16-team field as an at-large entrant.

Click Here for Full Story

While that comes across as highly imperialistic by the current Auto Bid leagues that control the division it does offer up the possibility of someone like our Flames becoming somewhat auto-bid eligible the next two years until it becomes official. Our current 2008 schedule would meet the criteria and a Top 20 finish (which we didn't miss by that much in '07) would finally get us into the playoffs.

Thoughts?

[SuperJon]

This has been in the works since June. Our schedule is set up perfectly for this. One thing that wasn't mentioned was that the "earned access" teams must have eight Division I wins.

[Sly Fox]

Wow! 8 DI wins essentially rules out nearly every candidate most years. But it should be a boon for the PFL teams and it is probably why Iona is heading to that division in '09.

[SuperJon]

They don't want this to be a cop-out for teams without an auto-bid. Teams can get in at 7-4 or 8-3 with only seven Division I wins in the CAA or SoCon because those conferences are so tough. Most non-auto conferences aren't that tough. If you play ten Division I schools, and aren't in a power conference, you're not getting in the playoffs with more than two losses anyways.

With our schedule, we have ten Division I games. As long as we win two games against Elon, Youngstown St, Western Carolina, and Lafayette and sweep the conference, that's our eight Division I wins and two wins against teams from auto conferences. That would likely put as at 10-2 or better, which would likely be a Top 20 ranking.

[Sly Fox]

Thankfully we are allowed a 12-game schedule this year to have ten DI games to work with in '08.

[SuperJon]

In the same respect, had we only had 11, there'd only be one Division II game.

[Sly Fox]

More fuel for the expansion fires from the beat writer for Monmouth in the Asbury Park, NJ fishwrap

MU football - NEC likely to get automatic FCS bid for 2010 season
Posted 4/18/2008 12:39 PM EDT on Asbury Park Press

Here is the latest on the FCS playoff bid for the NEC..for story I am writing for next week...

Under a proposal to be voted on by the NCAA Board of Directors next Thursday the Northeast
Conference, which includes Monmouth University, will send its football champion to the 2010
Football Championship Subdivsion (formerly NCAA 1-AA) playoffs via an automatic bid.

And a "'conditional access'' bridge program to the playoffs will be granted for
2008-2009, all part of the package NEC Commissioner Brenda Weare said she expects will be
approved by the 15-member panel at a meeting in Indianapolis, Ind.

""Basically the proposal is that we would expand the FCS bracket from 16 teams to 20 teams
in 2010 which would allow for additional automatic bids,'' Weare said. ...

Click Here for Full Story

[Schfourteenteen]

So it said the "earned access" thing could be implemented before 2010. Our schedule works now, but is it going to be put in place this year?

After that does it really matter this year? I dont think with 12 games we get in at 9-3, especially with 2 D-II games plus our conference, and at 10-2 I would think an at-large bid would almost be secure.