142 Playoffs!

Hello gentlemen, it's that time of the year again. Let me start off by saying congratulations to all of the conference winners! Also congratulations to everyone who is in the field of 32... well 31 since one sim did make playoffs this season. I think we are on the verge of seeing a couple of sims making playoffs again in Wilkinson, done are the days where many solid human teams were missing playoffs... at least for now. With CJ on the hunt to revitalize the Wilkinson media only time will tell if the world population can return!

I will say that looking at this year's field I felt a little underwhelmed. It's probably just because its a different field this season. A lot of new faces at schools who had long time coaches, and some up and coming coaches who are starting to make waves. I really feel like there are only a handful of teams who have a legit shot at winning this thing. To me this season has a few heavy weights and then a ton of solid teams who don't quite have the horses or the coaching to get the job done. Either way, good luck to everyone this season!

North

The game of the first round for this division is the 3 seed Western Carolina taking on the 6 seed Samford. This game should be quite interesting. We have one team who has been a perennial playoff team but have only advanced past the second round two times under the current regime. The other team has a first year head coach who comes in with two losses. Samford's two losses were to top 20 teams on the road. WCU comes in undefeated but having played a single playoff team this season and only 2 of their opponents this season have had winning records so this will be a big opportunity they're more than smoke and mirrors.

South

This division was a no brainer for me. The featured game from this region is 4 seeded Maine taking on 5 seeded Youngstown State. These two teams made quarterfinal appearances a season ago and for one of them, a first round loss to follow that up. This will be the sixth meeting between these coaches with chetty holding a 3-2 lead over sternes. Both squads come in with similar SOS and overall stats on the field are pretty even but slightly favor the Black Bears. These two tenured coaches have sustained a lot of success at their respective schools and a first round loss isn't a "success" for them by any means. Look for this game to be a coaching chess match.

East

There were a couple of games to choose from in this region but I went with 2 seed Morgan State vs 7 seed Florida International. Both of these coaches look to finally have their teams rolling and they both come in with a good amount of talent behind solid coaching. Morgan comes in with 2 losses on the season and both were to top 5 teams, they then rolled through a sim filled conference so it's been a while since they have been tested. FIU has 2 losses as well, also to top 5 teams but by a combined 6 points. The MSU defense will have to try to figure out a way to slow down this #1 scoring offense which averages over 76 ppg, their balanced offense will be key to achieving that goal.

West

This region was tough for me to decide as I feel like it is full of coaches looking to finally make a deep playoff run. I went with 4 seed Harvard taking on 5 seed Drake. This game features two solid coaches who are trying to make some playoff noise but haven't really been able to in recent seasons. These two teams rely heavily on the passing attack and when it comes to trying to defend passing threats Harvard has a slight edge. This game could turn into a score fest if these defensive backfields miss assignments. Both teams have some nice wins over tough opponents but neither was able to lock of their division and get a chance at a conference title. A playoff run would definitely help put an exclamation point on the season.

For all of my first round predictions you can find them here.