College Football Team Misses Out On Playoffs Because It Lost A Coin Flip

UT Martin did not make the FCS college football playoffs. That would not have been the case if it hadn't lost a coin flip on Saturday night.

The Skyhawks were screwed out of the playoffs because they were on the wrong end of 50/50 odds.

UT Martin is on the outside looking in. (Photo by Tyler Ingham/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Let's break it down:

Prior to the weekend, Southeast Missouri State and the University of Tennessee at Martin sat atop the Ohio Valley Conference at 4-0. The former hosted Murray State at 2 p.m. ET on Saturday, while the latter hosted Eastern Illinois at 3 p.m. ET.

Both teams won. As a result, they each finished 5-0 in the conference.

This is where the coin toss came into play between UT Martin and SEMO to decide the Ohio Valley Conference champion and FCS playoffs.

A total of 24 teams make the FCS football playoff. There are 10 automatic qualifiers and 14 at-large bids.

Automatic qualifier bids are awarded to these conference champions:

Notice how the OVC champion is one of the automatic qualifier bids. The winner of the OVC gets an automatic bid.

However, both SEMO and UT Martin finished 5-0. They did not play each other because of conference realignment. So who won the conference? Who gets the bid?

That was determined by the coin toss.

SEMO won the coin toss and got the bid.

As a result, UT Martin missed out on the playoffs. It was an emotional hour, from winning the conference to losing a coin flip that ultimately sealed their fate.

So what happened?!

Entering the weekend at 8-2 overall, SEMO was ranked No. 15 in the FCS Coaches Poll. Win, lose or otherwise on Saturday (they won), the Redhawks were likely making the playoffs as either an automatic qualifier or through an at-large bid.

Entering Saturday at 6-4, UT Martin was not ranked in the FCS Coaches Poll. If the Skyhawks lost, they were out of playoff contention. If they won, it went to a coin toss.

The latter ended up playing out. But they lost the coin toss, so they did not punch their ticket to the postseason after winning the OVC, while the Redhawks did.

By losing the toss, UT Martin sat just outside the playoff conversation and did not get in. The bracket was revealed on Sunday and it did not include the school from Tennessee.

At 7-4, without getting the auto-bid, the Skyhawks will have to watch the postseason from the couch. All because of a coin toss. Brutal.