EDIT: I missed a detail. Two days ago, San Diego removed themselves from consideration for the Pioneer League title and autobid due to a violation of conference rules. The PFL is a non-scholarship league, and apparently some players were receiving benefits related to their athletic participation. The post has been updated; see the Pioneer section for the new status.

Some things got sorted, some others quite patently did not (including two teams which started the day in the driver’s seat finding themselves standing on the side of the road with their luggage by day’s end and a third being kicked to the back seat). Quick and dirty, the following six teams have secured entry into the FCS playoffs: Eastern Washington, Maine, North Dakota State, Sacred Heart, Eastern Illinois, and Southeastern Louisiana. Northern Arizona, Montana, Coastal Carolina, Charleston Southern, Towson, Bethune-Cookman, Youngstown State, Jacksonville State, Fordham, Chattanooga, McNeese State, and Sam Houston State are probably securely in the field as at-larges (or, if italicized, still have a shot at an autobid but probably don’t need it).

After the jump, the more detailed breakdown of the conference races. We won’t get into at-large possibilities; the 19 teams above plus three other teams which might steal two of the remaining autobids make up 20 teams of the 24-team field, and speculating as to the final three is sort of foolish with a week remaining. Anything can happen.

Big Sky

Eastern Washington (9-2/7-0) has claimed the autobid. Northern Arizona (8-2/6-1) can still tie for the conference title with a win and an Eagles loss, but Eastern Washington holds the tiebreaker thanks to a win over Montana State, the architect of Northern Arizona’s only loss.

Big South

Leading the Pack: Coastal Carolina (10-1/4-1)
Still alive: Charleston Southern (10-2/3-1)

Coastal Carolina is safely in the clubhouse. They visit South Carolina next week, but of course that doesn’t matter here. Charleston Southern stumbled against Gardner-Webb yesterday, while Liberty (7-4/3-1) beat D-II Brevard in a non-conference tilt. Charleston Southern plays Liberty next week, so one of the two teams is going to share the conference title with Coastal Carolina. Since Charleston Southern beat Coastal Carolina, things are real simple:

Charleston Southern wins: they win the autobid.
Liberty wins: Coastal Carolina wins the autobid.

Colonial

Maine (10-1/7-0) won the outright conference title by beating Rhode Island, and of course claims the automatic bid.

Ivy

Leading the Pack: Princeton (8-1/6-0)
Still alive: Harvard (8-1/5-1)

Princeton has claimed a share of the conference title. A win at Dartmouth (5-4/4-2) will secure it outright. Should they lose, Harvard would claim a share of the title with a win at Yale (5-4/3-3). No autobid, of course, since the Ivies don’t participate.

Mid-Eastern

Leading the Pack: Bethune-Cookman (9-2/6-1)
Still Alive: South Carolina State (8-3/6-1)

Both teams won as expected yesterday, taking the race down to the wire. Thanks to head-to-head, Bethune-Cookman can claim the autobid (and, should South Carolina State lose, the outright title) with a win against Florida A&M (3-8/2-5) in the Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Florida Classic at Orlando. If they lose, South Carolina State would win the outright title with a win at Norfolk State (3-8/3-4).

Missouri Valley

North Dakota State (10-0/7-0) clinched the outright title and autobid yesterday with a 35-17 win over Youngstown State (8-3/5-2).

Northeast

Sacred Heart (10-2/4-2) clinched the autobid by beating Robert Morris (5-5/3-2) while Wagner (3-8/2-4) knocked off Saint Francis (PA) (4-6/3-3) and eliminated them. Duquesne (6-4/4-2) shares the conference title with Sacred Heart after a 24-21 win over Central Connecticut State (4-7/2-3), which knocked CCSU out of any relevance to the race, but Sacred Heart beat both Duquesne and Robert Morris, so wins all tiebreaks.

Ohio Valley

Eastern Illinois (10-1/7-0) clinched the autobid and outright title with a 52-14 win over Jacksonville State (8-3/4-3).

Patriot

Leading the Pack: Lafayette (4-6/3-1), Lehigh (8-2/3-1)

Lehigh eliminated Colgate (4-7/3-2) by winning 31-14 yesterday. Since Lafayette visits Lehigh next week, the winner of that game claims the outright title and the autobid.

Pioneer

San Diego (8-3/7-1), Marist (8-3/7-1), and Butler (9-3/7-1) all won their conference finales yesterday. They share the conference title, but San Diego beat both of the others so they claim the Pioneer League’s first-ever autobid. Except for one problem. Two days ago, San Diego removed themselves from consideration for the title and autobid due to a violation of conference rules. As a result, Marist and Butler are tied, and are in a dead heat on head-t0-head tiebreakers because they didn’t play each other. The next tiebreaker is final ranking in a composite of computer rankings; that means the PFL can’t declare its autobid until next week.

Southern

Okay, things got really complicated when Tennessee-Chattanooga lost to Samford, and only a tiny bit less complicated when Appalachian State beat Wofford. Chattanooga (6-2/8-3) visits Alabama next week, so they’re done with conference play. Samford (7-4/5-2) hosts Elon (2-9/1-6) and Furman (6-5/5-2) hosts Wofford (5-5/4-3). If Samford loses, regardless of what Furman does, Chattanooga claims the autobid; Chattanooga beat Furman, so they’d win that tiebreak. If Samford wins and Furman loses, Samford gets the autobid because they beat Chattanoogs. If both Samford and Furman win, we’ve got a three-way tie. And they were all 1-1 against each other, which means we have to go to the next step… which is record against other teams in descending order.

And to sort that out, we have to sort those teams out, because there will be a three- or four-way tie for fourth place since Furman winning means Wofford loses to drop to 4-4 in conference, where The Citadel and Georgia Southern are already sitting, their conference schedules complete. Appalachian State would also finish 4-4 in conference with a win over 1-10 Western Carolina. In the event of a four-way tie, Appalachian State and Wofford both went 2-1 in the group… but both lost to all three of the contenders for the title, so that’s no help. Georgia Southern beat The Citadel, so they’re sixth. Chattanooga lost to Georgia Southern, eliminating them from the autobid; Furman beat Samford, so they claim it. If it’s a three-way tie, Wofford went 2-0 against the group, but again, they lost to all three contenders. Which leaves us with Georgia Southern and The Citadel, and we’ve already been down that road. So regardless of whether it’s a three-way tie of a four-way tie for fourth, Furman wins a three-way tie for the title.

Short version:
Samford loss: Chattanooga wins the autobid.
Samford win/Furman win: Furman wins the autobid.
Samford win/Furman loss: Samford wins the autobid.

Southland

Southeastern Louisiana (9-2/6-0) updended Sam Houston State (8-3/4-2), thus claiming the autobid because they hold the tiebreaker against McNeese State (9-2/5-1). Should Southeastern lose at home to Nicholls State (4-7/1-5) while McNeese wins at Lamar (5-6/2-4), they’ll share the conference title.

Southwestern

As noted last week, Jackson State (7-3/7-1) won the East, Southern (7-4/6-2) won the West, and they’ll meet on December 7 in Houston for the conference title. No autobid.