Brace yourselves, FCS football fans. There are going to be a lot of opinions below — and ornery opinions in general — at Gridiron Heroics.
First of all, let’s state what is becoming increasingly obvious each week — The Big Sky Conference is the top dawg in the FCS realm, top to bottom. I don’t care about the Big Sky-MVFC Challenge that is played on the field mostly in September, as those matchups don’t really line the teams up in a way that proves which conference is truly “tops”.
I do love the Big Sky-MVFC Challenge, it is awesome and should be emulated in the FCS to help us sort things out the week before Thanksgiving in the FCS postseason selection process, but it’s not the top indicator of which conference is best. We’ll get more into that argument below.
Also, as we do every week, let’s recognize the elite “undefeated club” that remains in the FCS after seven weeks of play (and yes, we lost one undefeated team since last week — Montana). The 6-0 realm is held only by Holy Cross, Jackson State, Sacramento State, and Weber State. The 5-0 realm has Princeton and Penn, who start the season a tad bit later and don’t have open dates.
The other undefeated teams when you throw away FBS losses and just go with FCS records (which the FCS playoff committee will do) are the following: SDSU, Montana State, SEMO, Chattanooga, Idaho, Mercer, Samford, and Fordham.
BMAC’S FCS FOOTBALL POLL BALLOT VOTE (OCT. 16): What do you disagree with?
FCS OVER FBS DATABASE: Looking back 20 years — How Often Does it Happen?
FCS PODCAST – BMAC AND THE NACH – ON APPLE PODCASTS
BMAC’S POLL – THE TOP-FIVE DEBATE … OH, AND THE BIG SKY IS NO. 1:
Now it really gets hairy.
As usual, North Dakota State and South Dakota State gave us one of the best games of the FCS calendar, and it’s still early. SDSU came out on top, beating the Bison for the regular season Dakota Marker Trophy for the fifth time since it happened in 2016 (also 2017, spring 2021, and fall 2021). SDSU is the only team in Division I to beat the Bison more than once during their national title dominance dating back to 2011.
There’s no question South Dakota State assumes the No. 1 spot throne, even though the rest of the Jackrabbits’ FCS schedule has been rather weak so far. There’s a very realistic chance SDSU could finish 10-1 overall with the No. 1 overall seed, but the MVFC can be a challenge and four games remain.
NDSU has a chance at finishing 9-2, but a Nov. 12 trip to Southern Illinois could be tricky (see the comment above about the MVFC parity) There’s no question the Bison are wounded perception-wise by this loss. But when has a regular-season loss meant anything to the Bison? By playoff time, they’re always ready. But for now? They have to drop, there’s not enough oxygen at the top right now to make a case for NDSU.
BMAC’S FCS FOOTBALL POLL BALLOT VOTE (OCT. 16): What do you disagree with?
This brings us to the Big Sky gaggle, which gives me my ammo for calling the Big Sky the No. 1 conference in the land of FCS right now … with the MVFC being the No. 2 league with a considerable drop off to No. 3 (arguably SoCon ahead of CAA, but that could change week by week).
Back to the Big Sky, since we’re talking about the top five debate: Weber State and Sacramento State are undefeated and both beat FBS teams handily. Montana State is undefeated against the FCS, but with Eastern Washington and UC Davis struggling this year, the Bobcats don’t have that signature win you’d like to see, while Weber State and Sacramento State have their FBS/G5 blowout wins over Utah State and Colorado State, respectively.
With Montana’s 7-point home loss to Idaho in their 88th matchup for The Little Brown Stein Trophy (a badass beer mug that is HARDLY “little”), the Griz will obviously drop, but how much? Idaho is having its best season so far that it’s had since coming back to the FCS from the FBS, but its wins prior to Montana were over FCS teams that are currently 3-14. Idaho’s two Power Five losses to Indiana and Washington State are respectable (held leads in the first half and never got out of hand) but those won’t be considered come playoff time.
The one cool thing about all of the above is most of these Big Sky teams have to play one another in the next five weeks. Thank goodness (that’s the playoff committee thinking out loud … well, and me typing it).
Right now, no other conference has a top-five team. The SoCon has some interesting candidates though that continue to rise in Chattanooga, Mercer, and Samford, and if one of those takes care of the other two down the stretch they will undoubtedly be a seed and may be in the top-five discussion. Same with the CAA, which is a circular firing squad mess right now. Incarnate Word in the Southland and Holy Cross in the Patriot will be in the seeding discussion if they continue unscathed, but I seriously doubt in the top-five discussion.
Again, we said top-five discussion … but hell, it’s not an easy discussion.
THE RISE AND FALL:
Entering the FCS October Elevator “Going up!”: The risers not already mentioned above in the top-five discussion would have to be Incarnate Word and Southern Illinois (in that order as UIW blew out SIU by 35 in a head-scratching lopsided game early), and the SoCon trio mentioned above (‘Nooga, Mercer, Samford) warrants the “rising” label.
Southern Illinois is on a five-game winning streak and beat the only Power Five opponent that an FCS has toppled this year, the Big Ten’s Northwestern. While it’s confusing that SIU can beat a P5 team only a handful of days after losing by 35 to an FCS team (Incarnate Word), this program is capable of big things, and the MVFC is ripe for SIU to be a top-three program in one of the nation’s top conferences.
BMAC’S FCS FOOTBALL POLL BALLOT VOTE (OCT. 16): What do you disagree with?
You’ll need to add Rhode Island to that rising list after it knocked off a surging Elon at home, and it’s hard to ignore what Monmouth and New Hampshire have done of late. Until its Elon win, Rhody hadn’t really beaten a strong team, but it looks like the Rams could be in the mix in the CAA. They’ve flirted with it in the recent past, but haven’t taken that next step when it comes to clutch time late in the season.
There were a lot of key “open date” schedules in the FCS, so I’d argue that 10 of the top 30 or so teams weren’t in action, but we did learn some things.
As for the “Going down!”? As mentioned above, Elon will fall some, as will Eastern Kentucky, even though the Colonels have an FBS win. Overall though, it wasn’t the bloodiest of weekends for the FCS’ elite teams.
THE HBCUs and IVYs:
It is becoming more and more obvious that Jackson State and North Carolina Central — out of the SWAC and MEAC respectively — can’t wait to tear each other up in the Celebration Bowl before Christmas. But, folks … we still have five weeks to play.
JSU is looking pretty good so far, who are we kidding? The Tigers and Coach Prime (that’s Deion Sanders for those of you born after 2000 or who have been hiding on another planet for a couple of decades) won’t lose an HBCU game this year unless they sleepwalk through a game as they did in last year’s Celebration Bowl against South Carolina State.
The Tigers’ biggest challenge of 2022 could come this weekend when Big South favorite Campbell comes to Mississippi. We’ll see.
BMAC’S FCS FOOTBALL POLL BALLOT VOTE (OCT. 16): What do you disagree with?
JSU should win the East Division of the SWAC and will play somebody from the West Division who likely won’t be able to keep up. But N.C. Central out of the MEAC is intriguing, as it is 5-1 with only a blowout loss to Campbell (see why I brought this game up above with JSU?). But N.C. Central’s blowout win over CAA-leading New Hampshire is an indication of what NCCU can do on a good day. That all confuses me, to be honest.
In the Ivy League, Princeton and Penn are undefeated halfway through the season and their matchup in New Jersey on Nov. 19 is looming large. But don’t forget about Harvard and Yale. Here’s the most predictable thing you’ll read in this column — damn, I wish the Ivys would participate in the FCS Playoffs. There, I did it again! That’s the 500th time I’ve typed that. In all seriousness? Some of these teams are easily Top 25 level if not Top 15 and would fit in well into the FCS postseason.
BMAC’S BONUS FCS FOOTBALL TALKING POINTS.
Let’s scrap the five quick-blasts portion this week and focus on the most interesting games remaining, shall we? First, let’s say this — any game in the Big Sky involving the Weber State, Sacramento State, and Montana schools playing one another? They’re critical to the national picture and next weekend we have Sacramento State hosting Montana and Weber State traveling to Bozeman to face Montana State. These are critical. In general, these Big Sky matchups will be key in the postseason picture. Idaho, unfortunately, doesn’t play Montana State or Weber State this year due to schedule rotation. This is also a key point. The Vandals will travel to Sacramento State — and honestly? That’s probably Idaho’s big chance to make a splash on Oct. 29.
In the SoCon, where we see Chattanooga, Mercer, Samford, and Furman playing? Those are critical too in the big picture. And thank goodness the SoCon teams all play each other, as there is no schedule rotation.
BMAC’S FCS FOOTBALL POLL BALLOT VOTE (OCT. 16): What do you disagree with? (COMING SOON)
Outside of the Big Sky and SoCon and the cloudy conference (at this point), there is the CAA. One note about the CAA — New Hampshire is 4-0 and in the conference lead but was blown out by the best team in the MEAC (North Carolina Central). The CAA really needs the cream to rise in the next 14 days or so or it may not host a game past the second round, or potentially even the first.
Aside from that? Holy Cross hosting Fordham on Oct. 29 looms as the best game in the Patriot League since Fordham and Colgate faced off in 2015. Jackson State playing host to Big South favorite Campbell this upcoming weekend is probably the last chance the Tigers could trip up in the 2022 regular season, but then again — the Tigers are having homecoming and have drawn two massive home crowds already (28K and 34K).
In the Missouri Valley, now that NDSU vs. SDSU has happened? It’s hard to pinpoint the best couple. I’d have to go with NDSU traveling to Southern Illinois on Nov. 12 and maybe South Dakota State going to North Dakota this weekend. Believe it or not? The MVFC doesn’t have a whole lot of marquee, national-impact matchups left, at least based on the results we’ve seen so far.
RELATED STORY: The Top ESPN 30 for 30 Shows in College Football — We Rank Them
FCS NUTS AND BOLTS: All of the key facts for the 2022 FCS season
For More Great Football Content
Follow us on Twitter at @GridironHeroics for more great content. We appreciate you taking time to read our articles. To interact more with our community and keep up to date on the latest in Football news, JOIN OUR FREE FACEBOOK GROUP by CLICKING HERE
1 Comment
Pingback: FCS Football Poll Ballot: BMac's Week 7 Vote - Gridiron Heroics