2023 FCS Playoff Bracket

The 2023 FCS Playoff bracket has been revealed and South Dakota State will be the deserving top seed as the Jackrabbits seek to defend their title. SDSU went undefeated in the regular season at 11-0 with only two games decided by a touchdown or less.

The opening round of the FCS Playoffs will begin on Saturday, November 25 with 8 first round games. Those 8 winners will advance to the second round to play at one of the 8 seeded teams on Saturday, December 2. The quarterfinals are scheduled for Friday, December 8, and Saturday, December 9. The semifinals will take place the following week with one on Friday, December 15, and the second semifinal on Saturday, December 16.

The FCS National Championship will be played on Sunday, January 7, 2024, in Frisco, Texas with a kickoff at 2 PM Eastern Time on ABC. The entire playoff bracket is provided below. The bracket below shows the home team on the bottom of each matchup and the bracket will be updated as the games are played and completed.

* Denotes the number of overtime periods played in a game

2023 FCS Playoff Teams

The table below provides information on all 24 FCS playoff teams including the seed, record, conference, how they qualified, and how many total playoff appearances they have made. The table is sortable by any of the columns provided below.

The last four FCS teams to make the bracket according to the selection committee were Mercer, Chattanooga, Sacramento State, and Youngstown State. The first four out were Eastern Illinois, UT Martin, UC Davis, and Holy Cross.

Seed	Team	Record	Conference	Path	Appearance
1	South Dakota State	11-0	Missouri Valley	Automatic Qualifier	13th
2	Montana	10-1	Big Sky	Automatic Qualifier	27th
3	South Dakota	9-2	Missouri Valley	At Large Qualifier	3rd
4	Idaho	8-3	Big Sky	At Large Qualifier	13th
5	Albany	9-3	CAA	At Large Qualifier	3rd
6	Montana State	8-3	Big Sky	At Large Qualifier	13th
7	Furman	9-2	SoCon	Automatic Qualifier	20th
8	Villanova	9-2	CAA	Automatic Qualifier	15th
	Sacramento State	7-4	Big Sky	At Large Qualifier	4th
	Gardner-Webb	7-4	Big South-OVC	Automatic Qualifier	2nd
	Richmond	8-3	CAA	At Large Qualifier	13th
	Delaware	8-3	CAA	At Large Qualifier	19th
	North Carolina Central	9-2	MEAC	At Large Qualifier	1st
	Youngstown State	7-4	Missouri Valley	At Large Qualifier	13th
	Southern Illinois	7-4	Missouri Valley	At Large Qualifier	11th
	North Dakota	7-4	Missouri Valley	At Large Qualifier	5th
	North Dakota State	8-3	Missouri Valley	At Large Qualifier	14th
	Duquesne	7-4	Northeast	Automatic Qualifier	3rd
	Lafayette	9-2	Patriot League	Automatic Qualifier	5th
	Drake	8-3	Pioneer Football League	Automatic Qualifier	1st
	Mercer	8-3	SoCon	At Large Qualifier	1st
	Chattanooga	7-4	SoCon	At Large Qualifier	5th
	Nicholls	6-4	Southland	Automatic Qualifier	7th
	Austin Peay	9-2	United Athletic	Automatic Qualifier	2nd

Photo credit to South Dakota State University Athletics