2009 FCS Playoffs
 

Brackets:
hxxp://www.ncaa.com/brackets/2009/ncaa_bracket_FCS_football.html

#1 Montana vs. South Dakota St
Stephen F Austin vs. Eastern Washington
#4 Richmond vs. Elon
App St vs. SC State

#2 Villanova vs. Holy Cross
McNeese St vs. New Hampshire
#3 Southern Illinois vs. Eastern Illinois
Weber St. vs. William & Mary

I may actually try to catch the Villanova game (I live approximately 4 miles away from Villanova Stadium).

Go Eastern Illinois!

Some good second round match-ups.

Montana vs. Stephen F Austin
Richmond vs. Appalachian State

Villanova vs. New Hampshire
SIU vs. William & Mary

SIU vs. W&M looks to be the game of the week. SIU has one of the best running backs, Deji Karim was named a finalist for the Walter Payton Award, and a pretty good running QB while W&M has one of the best running defenses in the country.

On a sadder note, on the trip back home from Carbondale, Eastern Illinois assistant coach Jeff Hoover was killed in a car accident after swerving to avoid a deer. :(

Nobody is beating Nova this year.

That is unfortunate. Condolences to his family, for sure.

Do you know, did he hit the deer, or something else?

I've been told, since moving out here, that risk of injury is greater when swerving than otherwise. I'm curious if that was the case here.

Everything I've read makes it seem as though he didn't hit it.

Correction - best running defense in the country.

I'm VERY excited, but nervous about this game. I really wanted to go, but the cost and time to get out there were just too much too swing.

No mention of what happened in the Montana-South Dakota State game?

The Grizzlies were down 41-14, but scored 47 of the next 54 points to win 61-48.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/foo...9_summary.html

Oh boy, the team's long snapper is in one of my classes and the prof asked him who they play this week and his response was "St. Mary's, they're from Virginia. Well it's not called St. Mary's, but it's some school from Virginia."

How a player on a team cannot know the name of the team they are preparing to play against is.....just...wow.

To be fair, it's not like the opposing team/players has any effect whatsoever on his job. :)

Nice to see the CAA dominating as expected, even if UMass looks unlikely to get back there for a few years, if ever. Richmond has to go through App St and the somehow still there Armanti Edwards, but the other side has 3 of 4 CAA schools.

You're right about Edwards - it feels like he's been there for about 20 years.

With that said, App State looked very beatable against SC State. Tons of turnovers on both sides of the ball. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that it was a 12:00 game, and App State didn't really come out with their "A" game due to the fact that it was a lesser opponent. It should be a good one on Sat night.

As for the CAA, it really is a great conf. I'm pretty sure half the teams in this division could beat up on the MAC pretty easily (and this is coming from a big Temple fan)

Yeah, but the status quo clearly can't last. Hofstra just joined Northeastern in dropping football and UMass, one of the last standard-bearers for football in the north with UNH and to a lesser extent Maine, is slipping into irrelevancy by choosing the cheapest option for HC. The CAA could move both Villanova and Delaware to the north (which would be great) or they could go after Fordham and a SUNY or two (Stony Brook? Albany?) but that would eliminate many of our options for bus-trip OOC opponents.

There's been a lot of talk on the UMass boards about what recent changes mean, and the options range from going FBS (MAC, waiting for the BE split), to trying to keep the CAA together and go FBS, to staying FCS but getting FCS scholarships reduced from 63 to either 53 or 42.5, to going non-scholarship (which would clearly just be a prelude to dropping football entirely). Either way, it's clear UMass, the CAA, and FCS football in general is at a real turning point, particularly in the northeast.

Fordham definitely has CAA-level ambitions, that scholarship ultimatum was a gutsy move. They also don't like the AI restrictions, so I think it is only a matter of time before they leave the PL altogether.

Of course, Fordham's facilities are currently terrible, so they have a lot of work to do in that department.

I know a lot of people who love the FCS format and would rather be in the CAA than a lower-tiered FBS conference. Jumping from the CAA to the FBS would require a major financial commitment from a lot of these schools, so I think that option is remote at best.

Football-wise they've talked about being able to use Yankee Stadium for games vs. Army, Rutgers and someone else. I just don't see any way they can realistically upgrade their facilities in the neighborhood they're in unless they have some T. Boone Pickens benefactor who doesn't care about ROI.

I loved the FCS/CAA format of 4-5 years ago, but clearly that status quo was unsustainable as 2 CAA schools have dropped football in the past week. I'm also pretty sure at least a couple of the "new" southern schools like ODU and Georgia St have already talked about using it as a stepping stone to FBS once the moratorium is lifted - and other teams like JMU and Delaware are planning new 40,000 seat stadiums, which only makes sense if the eventual plan is a move to FBS. William & Mary, Richmond, and Villanova are probably in the right spot (plus Nova would have an automatic BE invite if they upgraded) and I can't imagine URI, UMaine or UNH being competitive up a level, but it's clear that with budgets and endowments being hammered football is losing out at many places.

The actual costs of an FBS move are greatly overstated, at least for UMass. If you want to go respectable FBS yes, but technically UMass' stadium (capacity ~20,000) is large enough, and worst case you can schedule 1 game a year in a pro stadium which counts toward the (unenforced) 15k minimum. The increase in money from a "guarantee" game at a BCS school will cover the increased scholarship costs, and adding a second (or even 3rd) of these will actually turn the football team into a money-maker.

Don't get me wrong - I'd love to stay in a conference like the A10/CAA was the past few years, but it's clear that without a long-term plan there a good chance the entire northern part could collapse - i.e. if one of URI or Maine dropped football it probably wouldn't be long until the other publics followed suit. Even without that there's a chance much of the southern half passes by and moves up. (Heck, it may even by FBS splitting and many of those lower FBS teams separating with the higher FCS ones into a 3rd D1 tier) But as is, at a certain point you're running out of schools competing at the same level (full-scholarship FCS).

The northern defections are different for me. They're easily replaceable from a W&M perspective since we don't have the travel issues that the Northern teams do. The CAA has been, outside of UNH and UMass some, a CAA South dominated conference for a few years now. ODU is going to be a strong program and doesn't have IMMEDIATE sites on FBS and GSU is delusional with their thoughts of FBS.

This level of sports is going to see flux. As long as the CAA has UD/UR/JMU/W&M/Nova they will have a strong core for quality programs. UMass is an odd duck, but I think they do everything they can to stay. If we lost Maine or even UNH, I don't see that as a big loss for the conference overall.

Now what I do worry about is JMU and UD's expansions and what they could mean long term. If JMU and UD decide to go FBS, I think that causes serious problems for the CAA.

I really enjoy the FCS format. I love that we're in a highly, HIGHLY competitive conference. I like that we only seat 13k, but that it's a loud, committed 13k. Always a good seat to be had, but a great atmosphere.


Anyway, I'm digressing some.


Great games this weekend. ASU and UR are building a bit of a rivalry, and there might even be snow in Richmond on Saturday.

W&M/SIU is strength against strength - so that should be entertaining as well.

All of the games are on ESPN360, and some local/regional stations are picking them up as well (MASN in the DC area for both W&M and UR).


Personally I'm rooting for a W&M and UNH win as it would mean W&M hosts again instead of having to go to Villanova.

Maine or UNH may not mean much to you, but while losing Hofstra and N'Eastern (and BU) is bad, as soon as one state U drops it it's not a long stretch to see all 4 doing so. Like you said, UMass is such an odd school I just don't see any conference we match up well with for all sports. We're bigger and should be better than UNH/Maine/URI/UVM, and our past rivals/best matchups are scattered across the Big 10 (Penn St) Big East (WV, UConn, Pitt, Rutgers) CAA (Delaware) ACC (VT, BC) A10 (Charlotte, Temple, GW). Ideally we'd get into the Big East for all sports, particularly if they split into 2 conferences along catholic lines, but if not I wonder if we'll end up going CAA for all sports - it doesn't make sense intuitively, but it's no worse than the A-10 geographically or in terms of the catholic/public small/large perspective.

Sorry for getting the thread off topic. The Hofstra news got me riled up :redface:. I'll definitely be rooting for W&M, but I'll be going against your wishes and supporting Nova in the all-CAA matchup. I love that 3 CAA teams are top 48 in all of D1 in the Sagarin ratings. (EDIT - I forgot to say they announced the CAA will supposedly be going 8 game schedule, no divisions next year.)

W&M @ SIU on MASN, ESPN360, and other local/regional channels at noon today!


GO TRIBE!!!

Headed out shortly to a local restaurant with a bunch of Tribe supporters to watch both the football game and a big home basketball game against VCU that is also on TV (Comcast).

I'll be headed out to the stadium for what will more than likely be SIU's last game at it win or lose in a little bit. (We're getting a new stadium next season after 73 years at our current one) Should be a great game, but I'm going to freeze my ass off. Weather says it's should "feel" like 28, but it sure feels a hell of a lot colder than that.

Well SIU loses. That W&M offense is like a freight train. Takes awhile to get going, but once it does......

I'm uploading pics from the game right now and will post them when they're done.

Nova rolling UNH right now. Should be a good one vs. W&M next week!

WADE MOORE AND SUBBY CAN SUCK WILDCAT BALLZ

;)

I just can't get over how good that W&M defense is. In all the SIU games I went to this year, no team was able to constantly get into the backfield like they were. It was like toddlers trying to stop Warren Sapp out there.

Nova will take care of them next week, don't you worry illinifan.

How bout them Mountaineers!!! What a game!

Next week is going to be great. Some really good matchups.

App State lucks out as the weather doesn't look like it'll be too bad next weekend in Missoula.

Heck of a game by Richmond and App State tonight. AE might be the best FCS player I've ever seen. I think he has a good chance at becoming the next Josh Cribbs (and that's not a bad thing) at the next level.

This is a good looking Final 4 for the FCS. Can anyone slow down Montana?

It's FCS playoffs - they don't need to. Just win 52-49 in a shootout :) (which App St certainly can do.)

App State / Montana is going to be the game of the year. I'm a Nova fan, and I'm guessing that whoever wins this game will end up winning the whole thing.

It's even more impressive when you realize that many of these same kids were giving up about 35 points a game two years ago.

The defense is VERY impressive. We have two seniors (#97 and #93) that might even be drafted. People consistently don't understand what we mean about this defense until they play them.

VU got spotted 14 points last time with a flea-flicker and then a stupid personal foul by W&M. I don't expect it to happen this time.

It's going to be a battle in Philly. I think whoever wins that game takes the National Title.

I'll be there freezing my butt off.

If we equate the talent of W&M to Wade's FOF MP skills, then 'Nova should win in a cakewalk. :D

Thankfully, they're far better than that ;).

About to finalize packing, get ready, etc to head out in an hour or so. We're driving up, having a cheesesteak, and seeing the city a bit (I haven't been since I was about 8 and my wife has never been).


GO TRIBE!!!!!!!!!!

ESPN2, 8PM, tonight!!!

For those on the fence on who to support tonight, just remember that at least Villanova respects indians and indian culture!

Go Tribe!!!

Will be cheering from Nova sitting in my warm house about 30 minutes from campus.

Should be a great game. On ESPN 2 tonight for those interested.

Ping: Wade

Looks like only Mary showed up last night!

:D

GO NOVA! BEAT THE MONTANITES OR APPALACHIAN GOOBERS

Heh. I live on the Main Line (Wynnewood) about three miles down from the stadium. While I was at VLS, my apartment was one block away from Villanova Stadium. Despite this, I never went to a 'Nova football game nor know anyone who has.

So, it wasn't surprising to see all those empty bleacher seats last night at the game (although it is finals time for the University).

Pretty good game between Montana and App St. on ESPN right now. 17-17 4th Q. Montana just picked off App St in the red zone.

Damn this game is freaking exciting. Come on, Appy State!

Very exciting game. Makes me wish for what could be.

Tribe + pts yesterday and 2h under snow storm Grizz sweat out today.

THANKS FOR PAYING FOR MY XMAS FCS!

Ding dong, Armanti Edwards' FCS career is finally over. Definitely not his fault though - about 9 drops by his receivers today - and an absolute joy to watch even when he was beating my team. Can't wait to see what he does in the NFL. Close reviewed play for Montana's TD, but I think the refs got the call right.

Now let's go CAA and finish off Montana.

Good finish to a great game. Definitely makes me wish we could see that on the biggest college stage.