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Post by Coyote Fan on Dec 5, 2021 1:23:21 GMT -6
I suppose as good members of the FCS we should probably keep an eye on the playoffs since we should aim to be in the final 8 ourselves someday hopefully soon.
Here is the remaining bracket
1) Sam Houston State 8) Montana State
5) Villanova UR) South Dakota State
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2) North Dakota State 7) East Tennessee State
3) James Madison 6) Montana
Only 1 unseeded team made it through and that was the Jacks. Many other close calls though. I am surprised Sam Houston barely got by Incarnate Word. Villanova barely got by Holy Cross as well. James Madison and NDSU dominated.
In the quarterfinals I really like NDSU to crush ETSU and the Jacks to get by Villanova by a couple of touchdowns. James Madison should be favored but Montana could give them a good game. Sam Houston might be a slight favorite by experience but the Bobcats could pull an upset.
The Coyotes will be playing 3 of these teams next year and all in the first half of the season. I am a bit disappointed in the MVFC as they haven't had as good of a showing as I thought they would. NDSU and James Madison might be the best 2 teams and are on the same side of the bracket.
This tournament is NDSU's to lose IMO.
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Post by Yotes on Dec 5, 2021 9:10:47 GMT -6
Put USD or SIU in literally any other spot in the bracket and I'd wager at least one, if not both, are still playing. Not a stretch at all to say 4 of the best 8 teams in the country hail from the MVFC, yet here we are.
After seeing the FBS conference championships play out yesterday, it crossed my mind that you could make strong cases for Alabama at 1 or 2, and Georgia at 3 or 4. But guess what? There isn't a snowball's chance in hell that the committee will have them at 1/4 or 2/3 and have them play in the first round. Sure would be nice to see that kind of decision making trickle down to the FCS.
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Post by elcoyote on Dec 5, 2021 9:56:06 GMT -6
Sacramento State as a #4 seed was the biggest farce of the entire setup. They wouldn't have even been in the playoffs had they been a member of the MVFC.
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Post by Yotes on Dec 5, 2021 14:05:01 GMT -6
Sacramento State as a #4 seed was the biggest farce of the entire setup. They wouldn't have even been in the playoffs had they been a member of the MVFC. I might not go that far. UNI got in at 6-5. I'm guessing Sacramento State could have gotten to 6-5 out of the MVFC. That it's debatable shows how absurd the whole thing is though.
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Post by elcoyote on Dec 5, 2021 15:13:32 GMT -6
Sacramento State as a #4 seed was the biggest farce of the entire setup. They wouldn't have even been in the playoffs had they been a member of the MVFC. I might not go that far. UNI got in at 6-5. I'm guessing Sacramento State could have gotten to 6-5 out of the MVFC. That it's debatable shows how absurd the whole thing is though. UNI beat Sacramento State 34-16 in a non-conference game earlier this season at Sacramento. Don't think they would have gone 4-4 in the MVFC like UNI did.
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Post by Yotes on Dec 5, 2021 15:18:11 GMT -6
I might not go that far. UNI got in at 6-5. I'm guessing Sacramento State could have gotten to 6-5 out of the MVFC. That it's debatable shows how absurd the whole thing is though. UNI beat Sacramento State 34-16 in a non-conference game earlier this season at Sacramento. Don't think they would have gone 4-4 in the MVFC like UNI did. They also won a game in Missoula. That's a great win in my opinion. I wouldn't expect a 3-5 (or worse) MVFC team to ever take that game.
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Post by elcoyote on Dec 5, 2021 20:30:23 GMT -6
UNI beat Sacramento State 34-16 in a non-conference game earlier this season at Sacramento. Don't think they would have gone 4-4 in the MVFC like UNI did. They also won a game in Missoula. That's a great win in my opinion. I wouldn't expect a 3-5 (or worse) MVFC team to ever take that game. Beating Montana anytime is a great win, but they've also been beaten by UNI and now SDSU at home. How do you think they're going to against the NSDU, USD, UND, Mo State and SIU gamut? Might pick up one upset win, but I don't think they'd fare very well.
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Post by Coyote Fan on Dec 5, 2021 22:46:24 GMT -6
The thing about SDSU is that they have a low floor but they also have a very high ceiling and I am not surprised they beat Sacramento State at all but it isn't necessarily because the Hornets aren't any good. The Jacks crushed Colorado State and beat NDSU. That is a mighty high ceiling there. They just know how to win in the playoffs as long as they don't play the Bison.
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Post by Yote 53 on Dec 6, 2021 9:43:11 GMT -6
The only reason there are only 2 MVFC teams left is because of how the committee set up the bracket. Stacking 3 in one pod assured coming out of round 2 that 2 MVFC teams would already be eliminated. Sending UNI out to EWU was a tough draw but at 6-5 you take what you can get. SDSU is winning just as we all predicted they would. The only surprising thing that has happened was MSU losing to UT-Martin. So there really has only been one game where the MVFC underperformed and that was in a one point loss. Don't stack a pod of MVFC teams and spread them out in the field and there would be more MVFC teams still in the field, probably half the remaining field. Villanova and ETSU are weak and wouldn't even go 4-4 in the Valley, but because of bracketing are in the FCS Quarterfinals.
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Post by sdyotefan on Dec 6, 2021 13:17:49 GMT -6
Seems like it would be more fair to seed all the teams. Thoughts?
One issue would be teams playing teams they just played or same conference foes but I wouldn't care.
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Post by elcoyote on Dec 6, 2021 13:55:01 GMT -6
Seems like it would be more fair to seed all the teams. Thoughts? One issue would be teams playing teams they just played or same conference foes but I wouldn't care. Should be easy to do. Probably wouldn't be much difference between an 18th and 19th seed so if they would happen to match up with a conference opponent simply switch them. I am adamantly against teams from the same conference playing each other in the first round. Half the fun and excitement is in playing someone new and unique. 2017, when we played Nichols State and Sam Houston, was a perfect example
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Post by yoteforever on Dec 6, 2021 23:53:39 GMT -6
Seems like it would be more fair to seed all the teams. Thoughts? One issue would be teams playing teams they just played or same conference foes but I wouldn't care. It honestly would be fair to seed all the teams but this is where the big boys are different than us. Scheduling costs. Pure and simple. If seeded I bet the final 8 would be JMU, SHSU, 4 from MVFC and 2 from Big Sky.
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Post by GoYotes on Dec 7, 2021 8:36:58 GMT -6
The playoffs could be improved by doing the following: 1. Reduce the field to 16 2. Seed all the teams 3. Non scholarship conferences (Pioneer League) don't receive an auto-bid for their conference champion
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Post by Yotes on Dec 7, 2021 13:14:59 GMT -6
The playoffs could be improved by doing the following: 1. Reduce the field to 16 2. Seed all the teams 3. Non scholarship conferences (Pioneer League) don't receive an auto-bid for their conference champion If you cut it to 16 teams there is a real possibility the MVFC only gets 2 teams this year (NDSU and MSU). Dropping the Pioneer leaves 10 conferences still getting autobids. I'm not confident the committee would give the MVFC any more than 1 of those 6 at-large spots. The problem is always going to come back to a mixture of regionalization and giving everyone a seat at the table. Regionalization wouldn't be so bad if the crap teams out east weren't invited, and giving everyone a seat at the table wouldn't be so bad if those crap teams out east had to play appropriate competition. It's never gonna get seeded 1-24 (or 16 or 32). The NCAA really is disincentivised to do so. They cut costs with the few bus trips they get from ruining the bracket, and their revenues aren't impacted because viewers at home have no idea who any of these teams are anyways. Why pay for Holy Cross and Sacred Heart to fly across the country to play USD/SIU when you can have one of them drive 90 miles? No one at home is going to notice if any of these teams aren't present in the later rounds. The NCAA just needs to get seeded teams on the few TV games in the semis/championship and that basically always happens because of how stacked the odds are for the seeds.
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Post by Yotes on Dec 7, 2021 13:23:52 GMT -6
I guess at the end of the day, the system is broken and all we can do is keep getting better so that we might get a seed and a decent shot at winning in the broken system. There could be years where we get lucky and have a draw against teams outside our region/conference, but that's going to be unfortunately common as long as we are unseeded.
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