Aggies seeded No. 5 in FCS playoff, receive first-round bye

Big Sky Conference receives five bids, led by No. 1 Montana State

UC Davis received the fifth seed in the 24-team pairings for the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs and as a result will have a bye for the first round that begins Nov. 30 at eight campus sites around the country.

The Aggies, who finished the regular season 10-2 with a 42-39 win over Sacramento State on Saturday, will host a second-round game Dec. 7 at 1 p.m. between the winner of No. 12 Illinois State and unseeded Southeast Missouri State, who meet Nov. 30.

If UCD wins that game, it would likely travel to No. 4 South Dakota on Dec. 14 for a quarterfinal game, but only if South Dakota wins its first game as well.

Games are generally played at the home of the higher seeded team, but there can be exceptions.

For example, as the No. 12 seed, Illinois State earned the right to host Southeast Missouri, but Illinois State's home stadium is already scheduled for the state high school championship playoffs and was thus unavailable.

Illinois State is the Redbirds, while Missouri State is the Redhawks, so the Aggies can begin to prepare for a red bird of some sort coming to town Dec. 7.

"Now that we're in the playoff, we may as well go ahead and win this thing," said Aggie head coach Tim Plough with a smile on his face as the pairings were announced Sunday morning on ESPNU.

Tim Plough

"They have to come to Shredville and that's bad news for them, but what an exciting time. Now we can get ready for a great opponent."

Illinois State and Southeast Missouri both finished 9-3 overall. Illinois State competes in the Missouri Valley Football Conference, while SEMO is a member of the Big South-OVC.

The Big Sky Conference landed five spots in the playoff, with conference champion Montana State, 12-0, earning the No. 1 seed. Others are No. 8 Idaho, No. 14 Montana and unseeded Northern Arizona.

The Aggies dropped a 30-28 decision to Montana State Nov. 16 in Davis, failing on a two-point conversion that could have tied the game in the final minute.

The powerful Missouri Valley Conference gathered seeds 2 through 4 behind No. 2 North Dakota State, No. 3 South Dakota State and No. 4 South Dakota. Those three tied for the league title, all with 7-1 records.

The champions of 10 conferences received automatic bids without regard for their overall record, while 14 teams were selected at-large.

Games are played at campus sites until the championship game that is held at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas the evening of Jan. 6.

"Our dream is to play in January," Plough added, something he and his staff and players believe is realistic given the highly successful fall campaign.

Montana State head coach Brent Vigen also sounded a note of confidence after his team received the No. 1 seed, guaranteeing nothing but home games leading up to Frisco, provided the Bobcats keep winning.

"We're so excited," said Vigen. 

Brent Vigen

"Everything has to come through Bozeman. We feel like we're really tested at this point, and if we have games here in December, we have a really good chance. Our team is built for this time of year. Our crowd is loud and proud and they can really make it difficult for an opponent."

In other UCD football news, running back Lan Larison was named the team's Most Valuable and Inspirational player at the team's annual awards banquet Sunday.

Miles Hastings was named Offensive Player of the Year, while Rex Connors and David Meyer shared Defensive Player of the Year honors.

Reach Bob Dunning at bobdunning@thewaryone.com.