While the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga was getting knocked around by Auburn last week, other Football Championship Subdivision teams were playing games that affected their NCAA playoff possibilities.
For the Mocs (5-4, 4-2 Southern Conference), their mission is clear and straightforward: Beat Samford on Saturday and No. 4 Wofford next week and hope a 7-4 record against a tough schedule is enough to earn them an at-large bid.
"Obviously right now we know if we lose we're out of it and won't be playing in postseason play," Mocs coach Russ Huesman said. "I bet there's 20 or 25 teams out there in the same boat we're in right now."
Only one team has already earned a spot in the 20-team playoff field. Robert Morris has won the Northeast Athletic Conference, which has one of the 10 automatic bids.
Elsewhere in the FCS, teams are still fighting for conference titles and at-large bids. The top three teams in both major FCS polls - Appalachian State, Jacksonville State and Villanova - lost last week, which opened some conference races a little but likely didn't affect the at-large hopefuls much.
"The bubble teams are still going to come down to the two or three spots for about seven or eight teams with similar resumes," said Craig Haley, who covers the FCS for The Sports Network.
If the Mocs can beat Samford (4-5, 2-4) and then go on the road and beat a top-10 team in Wofford (8-0, 6-1), they should definitely get an at-large, Haley said.
In the SoCon, No. 3 Appalachian State and Wofford are locks to make the postseason. UTC, Georgia Southern and Furman each is 5-4 and can get to seven wins, the minimum needed to be considered.
Georgia Southern and Furman meet next Saturday, so regardless of what happens this week one of them will come up short. And UTC beat both of them.
The SoCon hasn't had three teams in the playoffs since 2005, and Haley said it is unlikely that the league will get four teams in this season despite the expansion of the playoffs from 16 teams to 20.
"They're are a bunch of teams with similar resumes," he said, "and if you have a lot of teams that are similar, maybe you don't give that extra bid to one of the power conferences."
Among the other teams fighting for the 10 at-large spots are four members of the Colonial Athletic Association: 2009 national champion Villanova, 2008 champion Richmond, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
Richmond, ranked No. 21, and 17th-ranked UNH are 5-4 and have to win out to have a shot, while No. 9 Villanova and No. 14 UMass each is 6-3 and has to win one of its last two.
In the Big Sky, No. 11 Montana State and No. 5 Eastern Washington are locks, but perennial power Montana, ranked No. 13, needs to win one of its last two to reach seven wins. The Grizzlies have been to the playoffs 18 years in a row and played in the last two championship games.
Based on the way things stand heading into Saturday's games, 16 teams appear to have at least a toe-hold on a playoff spot either via automatic or at-large bid. That leaves about a dozen teams, UTC among them, competing for four spots over the next two weeks.
Contact John Frierson at jfrierson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6268. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/mocsbeat.