And it’s heavy.

The NCAA approved expanding the Football Championship Subdivision playoff grid to 20 teams, and the new look has its good points and bad. As examples, Montana athletic director Jim O’Day provided me with mock 20-team brackets for the last two postseasons.

Things to like: Montana would’ve had a first-round bye in each season, playing the Texas State- Jacksonville State winner in 2008 and the Eastern Washington-Liberty winner last year. That means no Thanksgiving weekend games, which typically bring a smaller crowd than the Grizzlies’ other home games. Yet at the same time, Eastern and Weber State could have had home playoff games last year.

Thanks to dislike: The possibility of playing Eastern again the first weekend in December. It might have been a classic, like the 61-48 win over South Dakota State was; I guess we’ll never know. There are also going to be games the Friday and Saturday before Christmas — they’ll just be semifinals instead of the championship.

I also couldn’t help but notice that Jacksonville State wasn’t in the 2009 bracket. I thought the Gamecocks, with Ryan Perrilloux at QB, should’ve been in last year’s 16-team bracket.*

Here’s how the bracket breaks down: Eight teams play four first-round games, creating basically 12 byes into the second round. The four first-round winners advance to play the top four seeds.

The FCS is increasing the number of seeds, but just by one, to five. As usual, geography will play a role in first-round pairings — and it will likely also affect second-round matchups. That’s why the Griz might have drawn Eastern.

-Fritz Neighbor

*-The four extra teams on the 2009 mock bracket were Liberty, Florida A&M, Central Connecticut State and Northern Iowa.