Football

Big South-OVC Football AQ Scenarios

The 2024 regular season ends on Saturday ahead of the 24-team FCS Playoff field being announced on Sunday, November 24 at 11:30am CT on ESPNU.

If multiple teams finish tied for first place, they will be declared co-champions. The Association's tiebreaker policy will determine the automatic qualifer for the FCS Playoffs. 

This Week's League Games
Eastern Illinois at Tennessee Tech
Gardner-Webb at Western Illinois
Lindenwood at UT Martin
Southeast Missouri at Tennessee State

Here are a look at scenarios:

• If Southeast Missouri wins at Tennessee State, the Redhawks finish 7-1 in league play for the outright championship and will earn the AQ.

• If Tennessee State defeats Southeast Missouri, Tennessee Tech loses to Eastern Illinois and UT Martin loses to Lindenwood, TSU and SEMO will each finish 6-2. TSU will win the tiebreaker (based on its head-to-head win over SEMO) and earn the AQ.

• There will be a four-way tie if Tennessee State defeats Southeast Missouri, Tennessee Tech defeats Eastern Illinois and UT Martin tops Lindenwood (all teams 6-2). When comparing the four teams in the tie, SEMO and TTU would each have 2-1 composite records versus the other tied teams (TSU and UTM would have 1-2 records). The tiebreaker then shifts to a head-to-head tiebreaker between SEMO and TTU; SEMO won the head-to-head matchup and would earn the AQ.

• There will be a three-way tie at 6-2 if Tennessee State defeats Southeast Missouri, UT Martin defeats Lindenwood and Tennessee Tech loses to Eastern Illinois. SEMO, TSU and UTM would all have 1-1 records against each other, pushing the tiebreaker to records against the 4th place team (Tennessee Tech at 5-3). SEMO was the only one of the three teams to top TTU, they would win tiebreaker and earn the AQ.

• There will be a three-way tie at 6-2 if Tennessee State defeats Southeast Missouri, Tennessee Tech defeats Eastern Illinois and UT Martin loses to Lindenwood. SEMO, TSU and TTU would all have 1-1 records against each other, pushing the tiebreaker to records against the 4th place teams (UT Martin and Lindenwood would be tied for fourth place at 5-3). Tennessee Tech would be 2-0 against those two teams (SEMO and TSU would be 1-1), win the tiebreaker and earn the AQ.