Happy Friday college football fans and welcome to the first day-by-day edition of the prediction model. Starting today, you’ll see one of these only for the games of the day rather than the remainder of the week. Today is all about the FCS playoffs with 3 games on the docket. Before we get to that, a reminder that there are over 20 conference realignments happening over the summer already (probably more to come from the FCS as some conferences are being decimated) and a new report today that a group of teams are creating a new conference. The teams are current FCS members Austin Peay, E Kentucky, C Arkansas, N Alabama, Steph F Austin, Abilene Christian, Utah Tech, S Utah, and Tarleton joined by Texas Rio Grande Valley (probably shortened to Rio Grande in the GCR) who doesn’t even have a team yet. The plan is to form this conference, yet to be named, and join the FBS en masse as soon as they are allowed by the NCAA. More on this to come. Over the next two years 3 FCS teams (Jacksonville St, Kennesaw St, and Sam Houston) will join Conference USA. If this 10-team conference is accepted, it will bring the FBS total to 144 teams.
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The six teams playing tonight are a combined 66-6 on the year with only defending champion North Dakota St having multiple losses. Last week, the GCR was 9-0 picking the home team for each game but this week 2 of the away teams are the favorites. All 4 games (there is one tomorrow as well) are all out west so prepare for some late nights. We kick off tonight at 7:00 (all times Eastern) but the other two are after 10:00. All of these teams are deserving and have a decent shot at advancing so worth watching. Here are the predictions:
| Time | Away | Conf Rec | Home | Conf Rec | Vegas | GCR | To Cover |
| FCS Round of 8 | December 9, 2022 | ||||||
| 7:00 | Samford (11-1/118) | SoCon (8-0) | North Dakota St (10-2/135) | MVFC (7-1) | NL | SAM 56.2% | NL |
| 10:15 | William & Mary (11-1/113) | CAA (7-1) | Montana St (11-1/117) | Big Sky (9-0) | NL | W&M 55.3% | NL |
| 10:30 | Incarnate Word (11-1/109) | SLAN (6-1) | Sacramento St (12-0/98) | Big Sky (8-0) | NL | SAC 57.0% | NL |
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That’s it for today. Tune in tomorrow for the Army/Navy prediction along with the 4th playoff game. Thanks for reading and sharing, G
