Programs from the Dakotas remain very prominent in the Football Championship Subdivision.
As the playoffs for the second tier of NCAA Division I competition kick off with eight games Saturday, reigning national champion and top-seeded South Dakota State (11-0) will be among the eight seeded teams with time to get healthier while enjoying a first-round bye.
Conversely, North Dakota State, the most dominant program over the past dozen years with nine FCS titles, finds itself in an unfamiliar spot in its 14th consecutive postseason appearance: the first round. The Bison (8-3), who lost 45-21 to the Jackrabbits in last year’s national championship game, will host playoff newcomer Drake (8-3).
Rather than feeling slighted, Bison coach Matt Entz said his team is excited. Having played for eight straight weeks, momentum is on their side.
“Get in a flow and let’s not get out of the flow right now. Let’s stay in it,” Entz said while allowing that he’ll back off on some practice norms to alleviate the wear and tear of a full regular season and potentially as many as five more games.
The rest of the seeds, in order, are Montana (10-1), which won its first Big Sky Conference championship since 2009, South Dakota (9-2), Idaho (8-3), Albany (9-3), Montana State (8-3), Furman (9-2) and Villanova (9-2). Montana State (1984), Villanova (2009), Montana (1995, 2001) and Furman (1988) are former champions.
South Dakota State sent coach John Stiegelmeier into retirement with the program’s first national title, but new coach Jimmy Rogers has picked up right where Stiegelmeier left off. The Jackrabbits will take a 25-game winning streak into their second-round game against Gardner-Webb (7-4) or Mercer (8-3), another first-time participant. Mercer and Gardner-Webb met last year, with Mercer winning 45-14.
The Jackrabbits’ most recent loss was at the start of the 2022 season and at the hands of a Football Bowl Subdivision program as the Big Ten’s Iowa Hawkeyes won 7-3 as two safeties were the difference.
Montana leads all teams with 27 appearances in the playoffs, and Furman is next with 20. Delaware, the 2003 champion, is third with this year’s appearance the progam’s 19th.
The Bison are making their 14th consecutive appearance, the longest active streak, remarkable because they had never appeared in the playoffs before beginning that streak. The Jackrabbits have the next-longest active streak with 12.
Drake, Mercer and North Carolina Central (9-2) are all first-time participants. While Drake and Mercer have difficult draws, N.C. Central plays at Richmond — the Spiders were national champions for the 2008 season — in one of the more intriguing games of the opening round.
Richmond, one of four teams from the Coastal Athletic Association in the field, has won six straight and shared the CAA title at 7-1 with Albany and Villanova. N.C. Central’s Eagles of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference have played three teams from the CAA this season and beat them all. None qualified for the playoffs.
Drake, meanwhile, draws North Dakota State with the Bison likely to be highly motivated by not earning their typical bye. North Dakota State was 9-0 in national finals before losing last season, and it has won the title with three head coaches: Craig Bohl (2011-13), Chris Klieman (2014-15, 2017-18) and Entz (2019, 2021, 2022).
Drake has faced two playoffs teams from the Missouri Valley Football Conference this year. Neither game went well for the Bulldogs, who lost 55-7 against North Dakota to open the season and 70-7 against South Dakota State two weeks later.
That was long ago, Entz said.
“They’ve won eight games in a row, and so they’ve continued to get better as the season’s gone on,” he said. “To do that at any level — high school, college, the NFL — that’s difficult to keep people locked in and focused like that.”
Youngstown State, which won the most recent of its four championships in 1997, is back in the field of 24 for the first time since 2016. The Penguins (7-4) will host Duquesne (7-4), which is in the playoffs for the first time since 2018.
The University of Tenessee at Chattanooga is back in the playoffs for the first time since 2016 and fifth time overall. The Mocs (7-4) are one of three Southern Conference teams in the bracket, along with league champion Furman and fellow second-place finisher Mercer.
UTC visits Austin Peay (9-2) at 3 p.m. Eastern on Saturday in Clarksville, Tennessee, with the winner taking on Furman next week.
AP photo by LM Otero / North Dakota State tight end Joe Stoffel runs with the ball as South Dakota State’s Isaiah Stalbird (2) and Reece Winkelman try to stop him during the FCS national championship game on Jan. 3 in Frisco, Texas.FCS PLAYOFFS SCHEDULE
All Times Eastern
FIRST ROUND
Saturday, Nov. 25
Sacramento State (7-4) at North Dakota (7-4), 1 p.m.
Lafayette (9-2) at Delaware (8-3), 2 p.m.
N.C. Central (9-2) at Richmond (8-3), 2 p.m.
Gardner-Webb (7-4) at Mercer (8-3), 3 p.m.
Nicholls (6-4) at Southern Illinois (7-4), 3 p.m.
UTC (7-4) at Austin Peay (9-2), 3 p.m.
Drake (8-3) at North Dakota State (8-3), 3:30 p.m.
Duquesne (7-4) at Youngstown State (7-4), 5 p.m.
SECOND ROUND
Saturday, Dec. 2
No. 1 South Dakota State (11-0) vs. Gardner-Webb/Mercer winner, 2 p.m.
No. 2 Villanova (9-2) vs. Duquesne/Youngstown State winner, noon
No. 3 Albany (9-3) vs. N.C. Central/Richmond winner, noon
No. 4 Idaho (8-3) vs. Nicholls/Southern Illinois winner, 10 p.m.
No. 5 South Dakota (9-2) vs. Sacramento State/North Dakota winner, 2 p.m.
No. 6 Montana St. (8-3) vs. Drake/North Dakota State winner, 3 p.m.
No. 7 Furman (9-2) vs. UTC/Austin Peay winner, 1 p.m.
No. 8 Montana (10-1) vs. Lafayette/Delaware winner, 9 p.m.