If there's been a hot national topic in the FCS these first two weeks of action, North Carolina A&T would certainly be one of them if not "it".
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The Aggies first knocked off a non-conference FCS opponent (Jacksonville State) 
that has won the Ohio Valley Conference title every season since 2014, and then turned around and knocked off a FBS team for the third consecutive season in East Carolina — a program that was in bowl games not that long ago.
So the curiosity has arisen, nationally — what would this Aggies team do in the FCS Playoffs? And is there any way the Aggies might end up in the playoffs (answer: there is a chance)? The fans of the perennial FCS powerhouses have puffed out their chests and said this N.C. A&T team couldn't go toe to toe with their teams in the postseason, but then in the same breath have asked the question: But could they win a few games in the FCS Playoff structure?
I know I could see North Carolina A&T doing some playoff damage, but the program would have to actually take a few steps back to be eligible for the FCS Playoffs. It would have to lose a MEAC game, not be the MEAC representative to the Celebration Bowl and still have a strong enough resume to be considered a playoff team by the FCS Selection Committee. That doesn't seem like a likely scenario — this team looks like the clear MEAC frontrunner at this point, which puts it in the Celebration Bowl … which is the HBCU national title game that comes with a very nice financial reward and a crowd that's usually bigger than the FCS Title Game crowd.
But there is a big asterisk that makes this interesting to watch … what if there's a tie for the MEAC title. But how could that happen? Well, don't be completely surprised if it does. Thanks to schedule rotation, arguably the top two MEAC schools don't play each other in 2018 — the Aggies and Howard. That leaves it at least a possibility that both could go 8-0 in MEAC play, and then go to the conference tiebreaker scenario.
But the Aggies have all but locked up the MEAC tiebreaker already, thanks to those first two big wins and Howard's FBS loss this past weekend.
The Bison (the other Bison, NDSU fans would scream) are good. They had an FBS team on the ropes last weekend at Ohio U., Cam Newton's little brother Caylin Newton looks like he won't skip a beat after his stellar Freshman All American season, and the program under former Virginia head coach Mike London just looks solid (maybe Howard could be an FCS Playoff team, but we're getting ahead of ourselves a bit).
So there's a chance both could go 8-0 in MEAC play. So what breaks that tie if that happens? Well, it's rather simple. They both play three non-conference games. In the tiebreaker format, they receive six points for an FBS win, four points for a non-conference FCS win.
So here's how the MEAC tiebreaker looks thus far:
| NORTH CAROLINA A&T | PTS | HOWARD | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|
| beat FCS Jacksonville St. | 4 | lost to FBS Ohio U. | 0 |
| beat FBS East Carolina | 6 | at FBS Kent St. (Sat.) | n/a |
| vs. FCS Gardner Webb (Sat.) | n/a | vs. FCS Bryant (Nov. 17) | n/a |
| 10 | 0 |
Breaking this down, you look at North Carolina A&T and you figure it has wrapped this tiebreaker up if the procedure is needed this year. Last year the Aggies throttled Gardner-Webb so one would assume the Aggies should be able to win this weekend and get to 14 points in this scenario rather easily, and then there's no way Howard can catch up, mathematically, because of its loss to Ohio U.
Potentially, Howard could have beaten two FBS teams (it beat UNLV last year led by Newton, by the way) and then potentially dispose of the NEC's Bryant in the season finale and finish with 16 points in this setup. The best N.C. A&T could score was 14 points. That scenario could have put the Bison in the Celebration Bowl and N.C. A&T in the FCS Playoffs — even with an 11-0 record — but that's not possible now.
But hey, as the coaches say, you still have to play the games — so let's not count our chickens before they hatch and let's take it one game at a time and not take anything for granted, because winning is a team game and the only thing that matters is what happens on the field … and … {smack} …
OK, I just had a V-8 and snapped out of cliche-mode.
Need an aspirin? I do.
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