Look, things are getting serious.
About 500 teams were eliminated this week on Monday when the 3-week Conference Poll voting closed. Only the top four teams from each Conference advance to each championship bracket.
Then, 12 more teams were sent home due to the tie-breakers that finished earlier today.
Monday, the four-team Championship brackets launch. Half of those teams will be eliminated in week one. Then, the Conference Championship week will eliminate half the remaining teams again to crown the champions.
Tie Breakers
Check out some of these great helmets.
In case you missed it, here are the tie-breaker results.
In the Big 12, the Kansas State Wildcats easily defeated their rivals Kansas Jayhawks to win a first round match-up with the Iowa State Cyclones.
In the Big Sky, the Montana Grizzlies dismissed the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks to meet the cross-state rival Montana State Bobcats.
In the Central Intercollegiate Ahletics Conference, the Johnson C Smith Golden Bulls dropped a close match to the Bowie State Bulldogs. Number 1 Seed Virginia Union Panthers will face the Bulldogs in round 1.
In the Great Lakes Valley, the Quincy Hawks take their unique lid into the bracket against 1 Seed McKendree Bearcats. The William Jewel Cardinals go home.
The Culver-Stockton Wildcats waited through the Heart of America tie-breaker and now know they face the Benedictine Ravens. The Baker Wildcats will have to wait for Helmet Bowl IV.
The Harvard Crimson, a Helmet Bowl contender, advance over the Dartmouth Big Green to face #1 Seed Cornell Big Red.
In the Lone Star, the Tarleton State Texans advance to meet the UT Permian Basin Falcons. The Western New Mexico Mustangs wait until next year.
In a close Mountain West tie-breaker, the Boise State Broncos defeat the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors to meet the perennial strong San Diego State Aztecs.
The Minot State Beavers fell just short of meeting the St. Cloud State Huskies in the Northern Sun bracket. Now its the Upper Iowa Peacocks.
The Upper Midwest says so long to the Iowa Wesleyan Tigers. The Crown Storm, with a very cool helmet than gained an impressive amount of votes (coming out of nowhere) will challenge the Panthers of Greenville University.
And finally, the Northwest Conference will see the Puget Sound Loggers square off against the Linfield Wildcats. As this was a three-way tie, we say “see ya” to the Pacific Lutheran Lutes and the Lewis & Clark Pioneers.
In addition to these Conference matchups, there are about 80 other conferences with two one-on-one matches launching at noon Monday.