How about some virtual playoffs?

With the D1A season ended and there being no playoffs for the 2019-2020 season, we can instead just speculate. Here goes:

Based on the seedings and the rules that conference champions host the first round, we seed the host teams first:

The current rankings have Navy ranked ahead of Central Washington, but we're going to make a guess that CWU might end up ranked a spot ahead of the Midshipmen. This will actually have a huge influence on our fictional brackets.

So here are our first eight:

Cal (Ranked #1 and the PAC Conference Champion)

Life (Ranked #2, and not yet Mid-South champion, but after all is done they would have been. Despite their loss to Arkansas State, the Running Eagles had enough bonus points to get past Lindenwood)

Saint Mary's (Ranked #3 and California Conference Champion). We cannot assume a result for Saint Mary's vs Cal, which was scheduled for March 28. It is very possible that Saint Mary's could win that game, but we're sticking with the current 

Central Washington (Ranked #4). OK, they're not really, but they will be. It's only a matter of time. And to think we at GRR caught criticism for ranking CWU too low earlier in the season. Well, they proved us very wrong. As an independent team, CWU isn't automatically entitled to a home game, but they've done enough to earn one.

Lindenwood (Ranked #5 and Mid-South Runner-up). Too often Lindenwood has been on the road in the first round and since the Lions almost won the Mid-South (we're assuming Life would have beaten Davenport and received a forfeit win over Clemson or figured something out), they should stay home. The key result, however, was that 12-7 win over Navy on November 2.

BYU (Rocky Mountain champion, so have to have a home game)

Indiana (Big 10 champion, so have to have a home game)

Texas A&M or Oklahoma (Red River champion, so whoever would have won this game would have hosted a playoff game). We really can't pick a winner on this game, so it's one or the other.

 

The Next Eight

With Kutztown, the Rugby East champion, having declared in the fall that they wouldn't  participate in the playoffs, the Rugby East teams don't get an automatic home game.

So it's all about where these teams fall in the rankings not including the teams that declared they wouldn't participate.

Navy

Arkansas State

Arizona

Davenport

Army

Penn State

UCLA

Grand Canyon

 

It's hard to imagine that list would change too much. It's possible that Arizona would have beaten BYU, and we might have seen Davenport beat Arkansas State, or Penn State over Army on March 21. Or a week later we might have seen Army beat Navy.

All of these results would have mixed up the rankings. All we can do is guess. We have a suspicion that Arizona would have ended up ranked ahead of Arkansas State. That's just our guess. We're going to match up the playoffs with that assumption in part because we can avoid repeating a spring game. So we switch Army and Davenport because of that, and we switch Arizona and Arkansas State.

So with all that, here's what we have:

Speculative 2020 D1A Bracket
16	Grand Canyon		15	UCLA
	at			at
1	Cal		2	Life
9	Navy		10	Arizona
	at			at
8	A&M/Oklahoma		7	Indiana
12	Army		11	Arkansas State
	at			at
5	Lindenwood		6	BYU
13	Davenport		14	Penn State
	at			at
4	Central Washington		3	Saint Mary's

This is a pretty good bracket. Arizona at Indiana is not a foregone conclusion regardless of what people think about the strength of the Big 10 in the spring. Navy should win at A&M or Oklahoma, but that would be a desirable matchup regardless.

Army at Lindenwood happened last October but that was a while ago, and it was a close game. Davenport at CWU will be fun to watch, and we're thinking Arkansas State could do the job on the road in Provo, maybe.

Out of this we might then see the following quarterfinals:

Cal vs Navy (everyone wants to see that)

Lindenwood (probably) vs Central Washington (likely). Also a really exciting clash.

Life vs Arizona (possibly Indiana but we think Arizona)

Saint Mary's against BYU or maybe Arkansas State

Or ... 

If we go with the idea that we'd split the bracket geographically like D1A did last year.

	East			West
8	Penn State		8	Grand Canyon
	at			at
1	Life		1	Cal
5	Arkansas State		5	Arizona
	at			at
4	Navy		4	BYU
7	Army		7	UCLA
	at			at
2	Lindenwood		2	Saint Mary's
6	Davenport		6	Central Washington
	at			at
3	Indiana		3	A&M/Oklahoma

 

This turns things around a little, but we still have some games that are pretty tough to pick. Could we see a different semifinal from last year?

So many questions never to be answered.