Running FCS thread

The Montana vs. Montana State game should be a doozy once again.

 

Montana may be destined to head to Sam Houston State in one of those "regionally sensible" first-round FCS playoff games.

 

Presuming Sam Houston State wins out, they'll likely get a bye into the second round to play the winner of a first-round game. So they may avoid that.

Who *are* the four top seeds anyway? North Dakota State is a lock unless they implode at the end. Montana State for sure if they win out, understanding Montana is a big hurdle. App State if they win the conference, Georgia Southern if the Mountaineers stumble. Then what? Largely unproven SHSU? Can the MVFC get two seeds with Northern Iowa? Maine if they go unbeaten in the CAA? Lehigh?

 

Numerous injuries on the DL, the fallout from the last-minute coaching change and some very close losses have finally caught up to the Spiders. Too bad because Corp is having a great season but very few know about it because UR's record is so bad.

I fully expect there will be a coaching search after the season. They need to find their football version of Dick Tarrant, sort of like Laycock at W&M or Matthews at JMU. Hopefully they'll find a Laycock, an outstanding coach, rather than a Mathews, who does OK but generally underachieves with the Barneys.

Funny that no private school had won an FCS championship for so long, then UR and Villanova do it back-to-back in 2008 and 2009. Now both programs are down.

 

UMass games count in the CAA standings for their opponents, but not for the Minutemen.

 

But I assume he has to chase down voters to get them to get their ballots in on time.

 

Armchair ... not really. He'll send out a reminder e-mail about an hour before the deadline, but he isn't chasing guys down one by one. The number of voters may change on a week-to-week basis because of it.

As for the seeds, Sam Houston will certainly get one if they win out. Maine will get one if they win out, and maybe even if they're 9-2. Northern Iowa can make an argument as long as it wins out. Just can't see Lehigh getting one, though if Liberty wins out, that helps the Mountain Hawks in terms of a signature non-conference win.

Oh, and there's no chance Montana goes on the road in round one. None. Too much gate money to be made, and UM is a sure thing in that regard.

 

If they lose to MSU and go 8-3 they'll be in, but on the road. I've covered a first-round Montana road playoff game before. They aren't going to give Montana a first-round home game just because they are Montana. Now, having said that at 8-3 they could play a first-round home game on Thanksgiving weekend. But in the scenario I was envisioning they'd get the bye and Sam Houston would get the home game, but would not get to sit and wait on a first-round winner.

 

Yeah, I understand the issues they're having. They appear to have truly struck out with the Scott hire and are recovering from that. Lineburg is doing what he can.

Corp is having a good year, but he was putrid against UMass. And he got hurt in that one, too. I'd like to see what they do going forward with their young QB, Craigie - I know he had some BCS-level interest.

 

Montana hasn't gone on the road in Round 1 since 1999 ... that's 11 straight playoff trips that they've started at home. At 8-3 with only the loss to MSU at the end, they'll be ranked high enough in the GPI that they won't go on the road in round 1, plus they'll put up a huge bid.

 

Yeah, that's also why App State would almost certainly host a game no matter what they do the rest of the way -- they draw very well and would more than make up the money they drop on a bid. Old Dominion and its guaranteed 19,000 would also more than foot the bill for a bid. Norfolk State, by contrast, is not going to enter a bid because they don't consider the cost worth it.