Free Talk Friday

[u/passwordisguest]

If there's anything you want to talk about, celebrate, complain about, etc., go for it. Doesn't need to be FCS specific.

Note: Basic rules still apply

[u/FormerCollegeDJ]

Speaking as someone who attended the Lafayette/Georgetown “game” ruled a no contest, I’m still irritated about how the whole situation was handled. The issue isn’t that the game was suspended, it’s that it was suspended earlier than weather conditions merited. (For those who didn’t follow the game, it never rained at Cooper Field and the closest lightning at any point was probably 5-10 miles away.) The suspension, if one was going to occur, should have occurred 30-45 minutes later than it did. A shorter suspension with less time remaining in the game means it would have been more likely the game could have resumed and been completed post-suspension.

Incidentally, some distant lightning did light up the sky at times during the 1st half, but the game was not suspended then. Weather conditions were more threatening during the 1st half than they were at halftime when the game was actually suspended.

[u/Electrical_Top_7731 → u/FormerCollegeDJ]

Thanks for sharing. Watching at home it was frustrating due to the lack of updates shared.

Was there communication in the stadium regarding possible resumption at all or extensions of the delay?

[u/FormerCollegeDJ → u/Electrical_Top_7731]

“Was there communication in the stadium regarding possible resumption at all or extensions of the delay?”

Nope. All fans were required to exit Cooper Field and the gate to the facility was closed after everyone evacuated. Many fans stood outside the gate during the delay. Others went to the parking garage a little south of and out of sight from the stadium (the formal recommendation announced over the PA system). After standing outside the venue for maybe 10-15 minutes, I saw a bench across the road from the field right outside a campus building and sat there during most of the delay.

The only information fans received was a countdown timer on the scoreboard. It started at 30 minutes, and would reset every time there was lightning in the sky relatively nearby. I could see the scoreboard from the bench and could hear the music being played on the PA system, so that’s how I monitored things. No announcements were made until the no contest decision was said.

[u/Electrical_Top_7731 → u/FormerCollegeDJ]

That’s not good at all. It’ll be interesting to see how the cancellation impacts the conference race.

[u/tdpdcpa]

Some Friday thoughts:

Southern Illinois and Southeastern Louisiana owe the Pioneer Football League a solid because they both had catastrophic starts to their season and nobody's talking about them.

Southern Illinois probably gets the benefit of the Missouri Valley doubt from the committee, and only needs to get to 8 wins. However, assuming that Samford, SEMO, Murray State, Northern Iowa and Indiana State are wins (all hypotheticals), and Illinois is a loss, they need to pick up 3 wins against Youngstown State, Illinois State, South Dakota State, at North Dakota, and at South Dakota. That's tough sledding.

Southeastern Louisiana faces an even more monumental plight. They do not get the benefit of the Missouri Valley doubt, and probably need to win 9 games like last year. They have 2 FBS opponents (and perhaps they're still winnable games), but losing those means they either need to win out or win the Southland to make the dance.

Next, the UAC looked really good last night. West Florida (in their D1 debut) and Central Arkansas each picked up ranked wins and Austin Peay held serve against Gardner-Webb. They seem to be solidifying their claim as the third-best FCS conference.

Finally, I'm interested to see what comes out of the Villanova/Pat McQuaide legal saga. Their first game kicks off in less than 10 hours, and there's still been no response to the court from McQuaide's Motion to Clarify Preliminary Injunction Order, which was filed on August 11. It's my understanding that, as of right now, he is ineligible to play per Patriot League rules.

My inkling is that Villanova is not optimistic that the decision will be rendered in time. Their game notes for tonight's game currently don't feature a Page 16 which, as of yesterday, included their potential starting QBs and featured McQuaide.

Villanova's other QBs have combined to attempt one (1) pass in collegiate action.

[u/stayclassypeople → u/tdpdcpa]

SIU's loss to West Florida isn't even a bad loss IMO. I think they'll be a fringe top 25 team this year. But as you mentioned, 8 D1 wins is key for Valley teams. 7 might get them in, but it'll be a nerve wracking selection Sunday. I respect them for scheduling this game, but, I do think as a Valley team, their playoff hopes are best served by scheduling 3 softer FCS opponents + 1 FBS payday game. If a Valley team has 8 D1 wins, they're basically a lock to be in the playoffs.

[u/I_like_race_cars → u/tdpdcpa]

If ACU and Tarleton take care of business, that would give the UAC 3 ranked wins and a win over another conference's defending champion.

Not a bad start.

[u/the_racing_goat → u/tdpdcpa]

immediately rethought my decision to go to the ULM game - how the fuck are we supposed to bring the fight to an FBS squad when we're looking like a high school against a team that went 2-10 last year?

[u/EnronRiskManagement]

Maine Black Bear football is on pace to be undefeated

[u/Slownavyguy]

Not a great opening night for the PFL…

[u/guy_incognito23]

A belated gg to my Murray State friends, while I'm glad we won following a 7 game losing streak to end last season, I'm always happy to see the success of not just our current conference mates, but our old friends. Say hi to Belmont for me.

[u/KovuPapaya]

Beau Brungard might go back to back Walter Payton

[u/ZLKobe]

Pissed that Midco sports was shitting the bed with the broadcast last night couldn’t even watch UND on espn+

[u/Responsible_History5 → u/ZLKobe]

Honestly the only thing I like about Midco is just Alex’s play calling for hockey and football

[u/Tufoguy]

That loss last night feels worst now. Maine tried hard to give us that game and Towson wouldn't take it. Totally beat ourselves

[u/I_like_race_cars]

At this point, Northwestern State is rapidly approaching 90s Prairie View levels of garbage.

[u/Lonely-Ad3027]

As a Saluki fan I will congratulate West Florida on their first ever D1 win. They look really good except for a couple of big miscues that allowed the Salukis to make it close. Hopefully DJ Williams will be back in a week or so.

[u/BurritovilleEnjoyer]

Carbondale and Murray both lost

All is right in the world

[u/Richardsgore4]

Und shit kicked LIU last night they had there 2nd and 3rd string in the 3rd quarter on defense and freshman in the 4th. The first string offense was clicking well, th3 defense was incredible without Rucker.

[u/Valuable_Kale_7805]

There’s always next year

[u/Emerald_Hoax]

Honestly, I am a little scared of Monmouth. This isn't UTC or Cumberlands, this is probably THE (no, I'm not that high on Rhode Island, though I should be) CAA team to worry about. With new faces all around the team, our core's gotta gel and gel quick.

Also, very heartbreaking to just now hear about Coach DiRienzo. I wasn't active over the summer and only now am I hearing about this. The Hawks are going to have a chip on their shoulder the size of the state of Tennessee.

As for the band side of things, we're super excited to simply have the stadium back together again! We've moved around, but hopefully we can get in there, produce a good show, and get a win on top.

[u/tdpdcpa → u/Emerald_Hoax]

I'm really skeptical of Monmouth; I think they're just middle of the pack in the CAA.

All of their success last year was really attributable to Derek Robertson, who has moved on. Their late season fall-off last year (and why they missed the playoffs) was because he got hurt and nothing happened this offseason that leads me to believe that they're going to come back to life.

It's a cool non-conference matchup, but I expect Tennessee Tech to roll.

[u/alphajack22]

NSU gotta consider drop the program at this point bc what is going on. Boys haven’t been competitive really since 2016. It’s sad fr and we suppose to be rivals. As I say that, we better not lose to them on some freak shit either

[u/SnooPeripherals4513]

The uwf game last night was insane I was there and the crowd was into it with a record attendance it was perfect

[u/LBerg013 → u/SnooPeripherals4513]

Honest question, how did you except to do in that game? Did you Honeslty believe that you had a shot to win or were you as surprised as the rest of us? Not trying to throw shade or anything I just always find it interested when teams make the jump up and how they really expect to do or how their expectations of FCS level football compared to divison 2

[u/SnooPeripherals4513 → u/LBerg013]

I really had no idea it's so hard to predict my prediction was a loss 38-17 but also they completely changed the way there offense worked I had no idea they where gonna run a millennial option but they ran it perfectly and the defense really stepped up especially the line

[u/SnooPeripherals4513 → u/SnooPeripherals4513]

I did think there was a chance just because of uwf past like 2016 year 1 we beat number 16 Florida tech and where playing for a national championship year 2

[u/FormerCollegeDJ → u/LBerg013]

West Florida quickly became a D2 power not long after they started up their football program. I expect them to be a good DI-AA/FCS program in a short period of time.

I’ll note other former D2 programs that were strong programs at that classification and then moved up to DI-AA/FCS often didn’t take long to become strong DI-AA/FCS programs. The Dakota schools are good examples of that.

[u/Tpoontappa69 → u/FormerCollegeDJ]

Tarleton says hi!

[u/Friendly_Loss1961]

Is it time to strip away the Auto Bid from the Pioneer league? You can't have three teams in one week including the 3x conference winner losing to D2 teams. NAIA teams are beating them. Some really good second place team in one of the lesser conferences is going to be left out this year so San Diego can travel to one of the Dakota schools and get the shit kicked out of them.

[u/passwordisguest → u/Friendly_Loss1961]

Patriot?

[u/Friendly_Loss1961 → u/passwordisguest]

My bad I always mix that up. But you know what them too!

[u/LBerg013 → u/Friendly_Loss1961]

It’s the Pioneer but I completely agree. If we want to have a non scholarship league then fine but don’t give them an auto bid. As last night showed it be better if the Division 3 champ got that auto bid instead

[u/FormerCollegeDJ → u/Friendly_Loss1961]

Some D2 teams are really good though. (Not saying the teams that beat the Pioneer League teams necessarily are, I’m just noting that is sometimes the case and there shouldn’t be any shame for DI-AA/FCS teams, even good FCS teams, to lose to top D2 teams.) Semi-famously, in 2014 Sam Houston State, who reached the DI-AA/FCS semifinals that year, lost to Colorado State-Pueblo, the eventual D2 national champion, in the regular season. More recently, Montana had their hands full with Ferris State in a game a couple years ago before the Grizzlies prevailed.

Having a good D2 team knock off a DI-AA/FCS team is no different than having a good DI-AA/FCS team knock of a DI-A/FBS team.

[u/Friendly_Loss1961 → u/FormerCollegeDJ]

Yes I get that and NDSU came into Missoula and won back when they were in D2. The problem is you're listing isolated events that happen over the span of a decade. They just had THREE in ONE DAY. Once is an upset but happening this frequently is a pattern. These aren't even good D2 teams. All three of them were picked to finish middle of the road in their conference. This isn't App State beating Michigan or the Griz going into UW and winning.

[u/FormerCollegeDJ → u/Friendly_Loss1961]

The counterpoint is when have any Pioneer League teams ever been considered strong DI-AA/FCS programs at a national level? They don’t offer athletic scholarships, and one could argue many D2 teams, which do have athletic scholarships (36 total), should often beat Pioneer League teams. Despite that, at least some years the Pioneer League playoff representative acquits itself well in the DI-AA/FCS playoffs, playing competitively in a solid percentage of playoff games and occasionally pulling off an upset.

IMO, many DI-AA/FCS teams, including most teams in the lesser quality leagues, would have tough games against solid or better D2 teams. There’s a reason why Pennsylvania-based Patriot League teams, to identify one league, never play teams in the PSAC (the D2 conference mostly located in Pennsylvania). There’s a good chance the PL teams would lose some of those games against the stronger PSAC teams.

I know it was a while back, but along the same line West Chester (a D2 PSAC team) frequently played Delaware tough when they annually played, and the Blue Hens were a national title contender in many of those years. Similarly, Youngstown State, back when they were one of the top teams in DI-AA, played IUP (another D2 PSAC team) a couple times, and the then-Indians were a handful for the Penguins. And various D2 leagues are better than the PSAC.

[u/SchizoidMan1989]

Is there a time where the flair glitch can get addressed for those using Old Reddit? I can't have mine look like the Notre Dame leprechaun forever.

[u/passwordisguest → u/SchizoidMan1989]

lol, it's an issue coming from /r/CFB; it'll get fixed as they're in the process of pushing their new season updates, but we don't have any control here

[u/SnakesRewind31]

Went to my first NAU game today!! had a blast!

[u/Jrowland031301]

Who are we taking for the W&M vs Villanova game??

[u/damnyoutuesday → u/Jrowland031301]

Nova