The OVC avoided the disasterpants scenario, #1 tumbled yet again, the strongest league in the nation crowned its last place team from 2010 as its 2011 champion, a team which has had a chance to clinch a title for three weeks eliminated themselves, a de facto title game resulted in an upset, and oh, yes, the playoff field has been announced. All the gory details after the jump.

Conference champions (bold indicates winner of autobid):
Big Sky Conference: Montana, Montana State
Big South Conference: Stony Brook
Colonial Athletic Association: Towson
Great West Football Conference: Cal Poly-SLO, North Dakota
Ivy League: Harvard
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference: Norfolk State
Missouri Valley Football Conference: North Dakota State
Northeast Conference: Albany
Ohio Valley Conference: Tennessee Tech
Patriot League: Lehigh
Pioneer Football League: Drake, San Diego
Southern Conference: Georgia Southern
Southland Conference: Sam Houston State
Southwestern Athletic Conference: to be determined

At-large bids:
Appalachian State
Central Arkansas
Eastern Kentucky
James Madison
Maine
Montana State
New Hampshire
Northern Iowa
Old Dominion
Wofford

BIG SKY:

CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS: Montana, Montana State

Montana rolled over rival Montana State on the road in the Brawl of the Wild, and as a result the two teams share the Big Sky title and the Grizzlies secured the automatic bid to the playoffs. Montana State is in as well, of course; Portland State was upset by Weber State and saw their chances of an at-large bid go down the tubes. Eastern Washington, who’d started the season 0-4 thanks to a rash of injuries and looked dead in the water, took down Idaho State to finish in a tie for third place.

Montana earned the fourth seed in the playoffs, and will host until such time as they run into a higher seed. Montana State is unseeded, but earned a first-round bye and will host New Hampshire next week.

BIG SOUTH:

CONFERENCE CHAMPION: Stony Brook

It was a classic showdown, and a hell of a game. Stony Brook upended Liberty to claim sole possession of the Big South title and the automatic bid. VMI pulled off an upset, beating Gardner-Webb by a touchdown.

Stony Brook will host Albany in the first round this week.

COLONIAL:

CONFERENCE CHAMPION: Towson

Towson won one game last year. One. This year? They’re the outright champions of the toughest league in FCS after taking care of business at Rhode Island. That rendered the result of the Maine/New Hampshire game a battle to determine the next five spots in the standings; New Hampshire’s narrow win left a three-way tie for second between the two and Old Dominion. Delaware and James Madison both won, and settle for a tie for fifth. And William & Mary got some measure of catharsis for their lost season by consigning arch-rival Richmond to a winless conference campaign.

Maine, New Hampshire, Old Dominion, and James Madison will join Towson in the playoffs, giving the CAA fully one quarter of the field. Madison will travel to Eastern Kentucky, while Old Dominion hosts cross-town rival Norfolk State. Towson, Maine and New Hampshire have byes; Maine will visit Appalachian State next week while New Hampshire treks way out west to face Montana State. Towson gets a home date with Lehigh, the only potential meeting between top-10 teams prior to the quarterfinals.

GREAT WEST:

CONFERENCE CHAMPION: Cal Poly-SLO, North Dakota

The final conference game in the history of the Great West Conference was a barn-burner. North Dakota slipped past South Dakota by a point, and in so doing secured a share of the final conference championship. Everyone else won non-conference games, too, sending the league off on a high note. Alas, nobody — not even 8-3 North Dakota — received a playoff invite. Next year, everyone’s off to the Big Sky save South Dakota, who’ll be joining the Valley.

IVY:

CONFERENCE CHAMPION: Harvard (clinched outright title)

Well, that ended oddly. Cornell upset Penn and Brown, a pre-season favorite to challenge for the title, was taken down in overtime by… Columbia? Really, Brown? Since Harvard absolutely wrecked Yale, the Crimson end up winning the Ivy League by three whole games. Wow. It was supposed to be a race this year. Guess not.

MID-EASTERN:

CONFERENCE CHAMPION: Norfolk State

Other than Delaware State upsetting Howard, nothing odd happened Saturday. Idle Norfolk had already won the title, of course. Bethune-Cookman was bypassed for the final at-large spot, which instead went to (probably) Eastern Kentucky, more on which in a bit.

Norfolk’s reward is a first-round road game. The trip will be grueling and onerous, as they have to get on buses and roll through five miles of Norfolk to get to Old Dominion. Needless to say, if there’s a first-round playoff game that’s going to sell out, this is it.

MISSOURI VALLEY:

CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS: North Dakota State, Northern Iowa

Northern Iowa needed two overtimes to dispatch Illinois State, which secured a share of the conference title. Two hours later, North Dakota State finished off Western Illinois, forcing the tie and claiming the automatic bid.

Both teams earned precious seeds; North Dakota State is #2, and next week they’ll host the winner of the James Madison/Eastern Kentucky game. Northern Iowa drew the fifth and final seed; Wofford will visit Cedar Rapids next week.

NORTHEAST:

CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS: Albany, Duquesne

Albany and Duquesne both won, and thus share the conference title. Albany wins the tiebreaker, though, and that means they’re in the playoffs. They’ll visit Stony Brook this week in the first round.

OHIO VALLEY:

CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS: Tennessee Tech, Eastern Kentucky, Jacksonville State

Chaos was averted in every possible manner on Saturday, as the three co-leaders all won. They’ll share the title, but Tennessee Tech beat both of the others, and therefore they claimed the autobid. They’ll be hosting Central Arkansas this week in first-round action. Eastern Kentucky not only claimed a playoff spot to the apparent surprise of pretty much everyone but me, they’re going to be hosting James Madison on Saturday. That part IS a surprise to even me, as JMU has about three times the seating capacity.

Why am I not surprised? The season’s opening week, when EKU lost 10-7 to Kansas State, who happens to be the current #12 team in the BCS standings. The committee does not hold losses to FBS teams against anyone when selecting the field; however, they DO give extra consideration to wins or competitive losses to FBS teams. Their performance against K-State surely played a part in the Colonel’s selection.

Tennessee State takes home the Sgt. York Trophy thanks to Tennessee Tech’s win. The two schools actually tied for the honor, but since State has gone longer without winning it, they take possession of the physical trophy.

PATRIOT:

CONFERENCE CHAMPION: Lehigh

Lehigh finished out running the table with an easy win in their storied rivalry game with Lafayette. Colgate avoided the winless conference season by thumping Bucknell.

Lehigh gets a bye, and will visit Towson in two weeks for a second-round contest.

PIONEER:

CONFERENCE CHAMPION: San Diego, Drake

San Diego dealt with Jacksonville, thus sharing the title with Drake. If the PFL had an autobid, San Diego would have the tiebreak, but they don’t, so it doesn’t really matter. Morehead State upset Butler, and Campbell, who were riding pretty high just a couple of weeks ago, lost inexplicably for the second weekend in a row.

SOUTHERN:

CONFERENCE CHAMPION: Georgia Southern

The only conference games went as expected, as Wofford and Appalachian State secured at-large bids with wins. Everyone else lost, however, and none of those losses were even remotely surprising; Western Carolina losing to anyone isn’t a surprise this year, and the other four games were all against SEC foes. Furman had Florida on the ropes for a good portion of their game, though, and Samford was giving Auburn fits early. Most impressive, though, was Georgia Southern’s visit to Tuscaloosa; they scored more points on Alabama than anyone has all year. Think about that a minute.

All three playoff teams earned first-round byes. Georgia Southern landed the #3 seed, and next week will entertain the winner of the Norfolk State/Old Dominion showdown. Appalachian State hosts Maine next week, while Wofford will travel to Northern Iowa.

SOUTHLAND:

CONFERENCE CHAMPION: Sam Houston State

Sam Houston State had no trouble at all with Texas State, finishing the regular season with the only unblemished record in FCS. They claimed the #1 spot in the poll with Montana State’s loss, and the overall #1 seed in the playoffs. They’ll take a week off, then host the winner of the Albany/Stony Brook game. Central Arkansas does not get a week off; they visit Tennessee Tech on Saturday.

SOUTHWESTERN:

Eliminated (West): Texas Southern
Could go this week (West): Southern, Prairie View A&M, Arkansas-Pine Bluff
EASTERN DIVISION CHAMPIONS: Alabama A&M, Alabama State, Jackson State
WESTERN DIVISION CHAMPIONS: Grambling State (clinched share of title)
CLINCH ALERT (West): Grambling State, Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Prairie View A&M, Southern (see below)

Jackson State won, claiming a share of the division title along with idle Alabama State. Alabama A&M joins them as co-champions after knocking off Prairie View, who was eliminated from contention for the west’s spot in the SWAC title game when Arkansas-Pine Bluff knocked off Texas Southern since UAPB would win the tiebreaker in a four-way tie at 5-4. Three weeks ago, Prairie View had a chance to punch their ticket; they let it slip away.

Alabama A&M secured the East’s berth in the SWAC Championship Game via tiebreakers, since Jackson State is ineligible due to sanctions resulting from insufficient Academic Progress Rate. If Southern beats Grambling Saturday, Jackson State would be the technical East champion via tiebreakers; if Grambling wins, Alabama A&M is the technical champion.

In the west, Grambling will win the division title outright should they beat Southern (and they really should). A loss would create a four-way tie, and UAPB would go to the title game instead. On Thanksgiving day, Alabama State will host Tuskegee; they, also, should win.

INDEPENDENT:

South Alabama ended their season with by far the worst loss in the program’s young history, being shelled by 31 at the hands of Cal Poly-SLO. Still, their first season as an actual FCS member was a success, going 6-4 with two of those losses to FBS schools.