It is going to be a busy late fall, early winter in New England as three teams earned FCS playoff bids on Sunday. 

Rhode Island and Central Connecticut State won their respective conferences and earned automatic bids while New Hampshire earned an at-large bid. The Wildcats will host UT Martin on Saturday. 

Coming into the season, none of these programs were expected to contend for conference titles or playoff appearances, yet here we are. They exceeded expectations and now they have a chance to compete for a national title. 

URI Coach Jim Fleming talked about what winning the CAA and making the FCS playoffs means for the program.

It means an awful lot obviously,” Fleming continued: “To the school, to the state, to all the Rhody faithful that have been waiting around for so long for this thing to happen again…I think it’s extremely significant in terms of our evolvement as a football program. But, the most interesting takeaway is just the groundswell of people that are just so excited for us, excited for the school and their pride is just off the charts.”

For UNH, making the playoffs is a tradition and an expectation. Despite that, Head Coach Ricky Santos is happy for his seniors that they will get another opportunity to compete. 

“Just so happy for the seniors. This season certainly wasn’t easy for us…basically, the playoffs started a month early for us…I think it shows a lot about our program. 16 out of 20 years (in the playoffs), that’s pretty special.”

The CAA is one of the top conferences in FCS so getting two teams in the playoff is not a surprise. CCSU on the other hand was not expected to win the NEC and make the playoff this season but Adam Lectenberg and his staff did a great job of getting the most out of a tough and resilient group.

“It shows that we’re resilient,” said Lechtenberg. “We talk about the adversity you face in your life, it’s always going to be different and the only thing you can do is get up, compete, and overcome it. Our kids did that.”

All three programs exceeded expectations and are now playing with house money. It will not be easy, but these programs are battle tested and they have what it takes to make a run. 

Making the playoffs is great. Now it is all business, none of these coaches or programs will be content just being here. They want more. 

Either way, it was a great weekend for FCS Football in New England. The region has several quality programs and URI, UNH and CCSU will represent the region well in the playoffs.