grizindabox said:
Western Illinois's inclusion is a kick to the nut sack for everyone not in the MVC
And then, just to rub it in, they gave W-Illi-nilly the easiest possible draw in the opening round. Granted, Dayton is not the
worst (in terms NCAA power rating) of the teams that got bids. Two other auto-bid teams are worse (Colgate and Duquesne), and the weakest of all is New Hampshire (which got an at-large bid, in case you forgot).
Regionalization prevented them from giving W-Illinois the weakest opponent, so they did the best they could. Looks like they want to make pretty sure that their selection looks good, because "after all," they won a playoff game.
Note that they also matched up two of the four weakest -- Colgate at UNH -- in an opening game. Since UNH plays
way better at home, looks like somebody wanted to give them the best chance for a "feel good" opening-round win.
And in case you’re wondering: New Hampshire has a ranking of 0.51, which is #40 among all FCS teams. NAU is 0.61 (#33) and UND is 0.57 (#36). FWIW also, Towson (my choice for the other from the CAA) is 0.73 (#29). So among those, the one that got screwed the most might have been Towson. (And yes, I know there's more to it than just the power rankings, but still.)