The Bobcat Nation

Just looked it up and the Bobcat women are currently ranked #55 overall in the country (as of 2/3/25). Pretty dang impressive ladies!!!

https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/basketbal ... t-rankings

TIrwin24 wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 03, 2025 3:08 pm

Just looked it up and the Bobcat women are currently ranked #55 overall in the country (as of 2/3/25). Pretty dang impressive ladies!!!

https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/basketbal ... t-rankings

And 13th in the women's mid-major poll

RUACAT wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 03, 2025 3:18 pm

And 13th in the women's mid-major poll

The new poll should come out tomorrow. Any guesses as to how many spots (if any) the Cats move up?

rfischer94 wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 03, 2025 3:23 pm

RUACAT wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 03, 2025 3:18 pm

And 13th in the women's mid-major poll

The new poll should come out tomorrow. Any guesses as to how many spots (if any) the Cats move up?

Likely only one position to 12. All the teams ahead of MSU won last week except for #11 Quinnipiac who lost to #10 Fairfield.

RUACAT wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 03, 2025 3:18 pm

And 13th in the women's mid-major poll

It's a dang shame that there is not a "mid major" division like FCS in football. I guess I am confused as to why this is not the case.
The FCS football playoffs are always so exciting. Imagine the excitement if we had such a division in basketball. Last night I watched
the Duke vs NC State game on ESPN. Both have 17-4 records and will probably be top 4 seeds in the NCAAs. As I watched the game I realized that there is no way our MSU ladies could match up with either one of those teams. We would lost by 20 points to either one of them, and that's no knock at all on our MSU women's team. Just like we know that our football team would not be able to play with most of the Power FIve football conferences.

Right now we are excited about the possibility of winning the Big Sky and then the Big Sky tournament. But then we have to go play a Duke or NC State. Something needs to change regarding basketball and this is ESPECIALLY true in this age of NIL and the transfer portal.

As expected, MSU is up to #12 in this week's mid-major poll.

https://collegeinsider.com/womens-mid-major-top-25

rivercat wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 03, 2025 9:45 pm

rfischer94 wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 03, 2025 3:23 pm

RUACAT wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 03, 2025 3:18 pm

And 13th in the women's mid-major poll

The new poll should come out tomorrow. Any guesses as to how many spots (if any) the Cats move up?

Likely only one position to 12. All the teams ahead of MSU won last week except for #11 Quinnipiac who lost to #10 Fairfield.

@River Rat was right. Mid-major poll for today just updated.
MSU sitting at #12. NAU was at #18 and is now at #17.

aucat wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 04, 2025 12:28 pm

RUACAT wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 03, 2025 3:18 pm

And 13th in the women's mid-major poll

It's a dang shame that there is not a "mid major" division like FCS in football. I guess I am confused as to why this is not the case.
The FCS football playoffs are always so exciting. Imagine the excitement if we had such a division in basketball. Last night I watched
the Duke vs NC State game on ESPN. Both have 17-4 records and will probably be top 4 seeds in the NCAAs. As I watched the game I realized that there is no way our MSU ladies could match up with either one of those teams. We would lost by 20 points to either one of them, and that's no knock at all on our MSU women's team. Just like we know that our football team would not be able to play with most of the Power FIve football conferences.

Right now we are excited about the possibility of winning the Big Sky and then the Big Sky tournament. But then we have to go play a Duke or NC State. Something needs to change regarding basketball and this is ESPECIALLY true in this age of NIL and the transfer portal.

Would this be for all sports or just basketball and football? If all sports that option kinda already exists with D-2. How would you split it? With football the split is with a big difference in scholarships, but basketball and other sports the scholarship numbers won't really make a decisive split. I get the sentiment I just don't think it would work.

It’s a good idea, and D-II is already on place. However FCS gets no publicity, and D-II gets even less. Everyone wants to follow the big dog. Or cat.

This must be the best Mid-Major ranking ever for the ‘Cats. Awesome!!

BelgradeBobcat wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 04, 2025 6:47 pm

aucat wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 04, 2025 12:28 pm

RUACAT wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 03, 2025 3:18 pm

And 13th in the women's mid-major poll

It's a dang shame that there is not a "mid major" division like FCS in football. I guess I am confused as to why this is not the case.
The FCS football playoffs are always so exciting. Imagine the excitement if we had such a division in basketball. Last night I watched
the Duke vs NC State game on ESPN. Both have 17-4 records and will probably be top 4 seeds in the NCAAs. As I watched the game I realized that there is no way our MSU ladies could match up with either one of those teams. We would lost by 20 points to either one of them, and that's no knock at all on our MSU women's team. Just like we know that our football team would not be able to play with most of the Power FIve football conferences.

Right now we are excited about the possibility of winning the Big Sky and then the Big Sky tournament. But then we have to go play a Duke or NC State. Something needs to change regarding basketball and this is ESPECIALLY true in this age of NIL and the transfer portal.

Would this be for all sports or just basketball and football? If all sports that option kinda already exists with D-2. How would you split it? With football the split is with a big difference in scholarships, but basketball and other sports the scholarship numbers won't really make a decisive split. I get the sentiment I just don't think it would work.

Agreed, maybe it works for basketball but there are other sports in which the "mid-major" schools are highly competitive for national championships without needing their own division. If you don't follow college soccer and I asked you to name the team that won the D-1 men's NCAA Championship this past season, you'd go through a whole lot of guesses of a lot of power conference teams before you got to the team that did win it (Vermont) and the team they beat in the championship match (Marshall).

Even for basketball, if I'm a fan of St. Peter's and you asked me if I'd rather win a mid-major national championship or make the Elite 8 by beating Kentucky and Purdue like they did a few years ago, I'm probably taking the latter of those two options. I do hope that the NCAA eventually moves to run the women's tournament like the men's tournament in terms of having every game played at neutral court sites. I think the fan interest has increased enough at this point to make it viable and not have to worry about playing first/second round games in empty arenas.

As long as you have Cinderellas in the men's side we won't have a separate basketball tourney for men or women. It sucks for the women.

lutecat wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 04, 2025 11:22 pm

As long as you have Cinderellas in the men's side we won't have a separate basketball tourney for men or women. It sucks for the women.

I think what some of you are overlooking is the fact that it will be much more difficult to have "cinderella stories" going forward because of the transfer portal and NIL. Consider Sprinkle's last team. That was about as good a collection of talent we have ever had at MSU with Jubrille Belo, Great Osobar, Raequan Battle, Robert Ford, etc. Anyway, this is pretty much the way it's always been with basketball. It's really great to compete for BIg Sky Conference Championships, that's obviously the primary goal, because winning a game in the NCAAs by the men or women these days would pretty much take a miracle (not counting play-in games like we had last year.) Of course, when you only have five players on a team I guess anything is possible on a given day.

aucat wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 05, 2025 12:13 am

lutecat wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 04, 2025 11:22 pm

As long as you have Cinderellas in the men's side we won't have a separate basketball tourney for men or women. It sucks for the women.

I think what some of you are overlooking is the fact that it will be much more difficult to have "cinderella stories" going forward because of the transfer portal and NIL. Consider Sprinkle's last team. That was about as good a collection of talent we have ever had at MSU with Jubrille Belo, Great Osobar, Raequan Battle, Robert Ford, etc. Anyway, this is pretty much the way it's always been with basketball. It's really great to compete for BIg Sky Conference Championships, that's obviously the primary goal, because winning a game in the NCAAs by the men or women these days would pretty much take a miracle (not counting play-in games like we had last year.) Of course, when you only have five players on a team I guess anything is possible on a given day.

Why does portal stop Cinderella teams. Shouldn't it create more parity

tetoncat wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 05, 2025 8:32 am

aucat wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 05, 2025 12:13 am

lutecat wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 04, 2025 11:22 pm

As long as you have Cinderellas in the men's side we won't have a separate basketball tourney for men or women. It sucks for the women.

I think what some of you are overlooking is the fact that it will be much more difficult to have "cinderella stories" going forward because of the transfer portal and NIL. Consider Sprinkle's last team. That was about as good a collection of talent we have ever had at MSU with Jubrille Belo, Great Osobar, Raequan Battle, Robert Ford, etc. Anyway, this is pretty much the way it's always been with basketball. It's really great to compete for BIg Sky Conference Championships, that's obviously the primary goal, because winning a game in the NCAAs by the men or women these days would pretty much take a miracle (not counting play-in games like we had last year.) Of course, when you only have five players on a team I guess anything is possible on a given day.

Why does portal stop Cinderella teams. Shouldn't it create more parity

I think it's really hard to build any continuity when good players are forever coming and going. This affects mid major more because it's harder to replace talented players.

I could imagine that NIL money and the portal could maybe increase parity for the top 5 - 10% of schools with the most NIL money. But over all I think the chasm between the top 20% of teams and the bottom 80% of teams will be much larger than ever in all sports.

Joe Bobcat wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 05, 2025 1:51 pm

I could imagine that NIL money and the portal could maybe increase parity for the top 5 - 10% of schools with the most NIL money. But over all I think the chasm between the top 20% of teams and the bottom 80% of teams will be much larger than ever in all sports.

It (the chasm) will be bigger. That’s why things have evolved (been changed) the way that they have. Nothing major will ever be done that increases parity.

MSU01 wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 04, 2025 9:03 pm

BelgradeBobcat wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 04, 2025 6:47 pm

aucat wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 04, 2025 12:28 pm

RUACAT wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 03, 2025 3:18 pm

And 13th in the women's mid-major poll

It's a dang shame that there is not a "mid major" division like FCS in football. I guess I am confused as to why this is not the case.
The FCS football playoffs are always so exciting. Imagine the excitement if we had such a division in basketball. Last night I watched
the Duke vs NC State game on ESPN. Both have 17-4 records and will probably be top 4 seeds in the NCAAs. As I watched the game I realized that there is no way our MSU ladies could match up with either one of those teams. We would lost by 20 points to either one of them, and that's no knock at all on our MSU women's team. Just like we know that our football team would not be able to play with most of the Power FIve football conferences.

Right now we are excited about the possibility of winning the Big Sky and then the Big Sky tournament. But then we have to go play a Duke or NC State. Something needs to change regarding basketball and this is ESPECIALLY true in this age of NIL and the transfer portal.

Would this be for all sports or just basketball and football? If all sports that option kinda already exists with D-2. How would you split it? With football the split is with a big difference in scholarships, but basketball and other sports the scholarship numbers won't really make a decisive split. I get the sentiment I just don't think it would work.

Agreed, maybe it works for basketball but there are other sports in which the "mid-major" schools are highly competitive for national championships without needing their own division. If you don't follow college soccer and I asked you to name the team that won the D-1 men's NCAA Championship this past season, you'd go through a whole lot of guesses of a lot of power conference teams before you got to the team that did win it (Vermont) and the team they beat in the championship match (Marshall).

Even for basketball, if I'm a fan of St. Peter's and you asked me if I'd rather win a mid-major national championship or make the Elite 8 by beating Kentucky and Purdue like they did a few years ago, I'm probably taking the latter of those two options. I do hope that the NCAA eventually moves to run the women's tournament like the men's tournament in terms of having every game played at neutral court sites. I think the fan interest has increased enough at this point to make it viable and not have to worry about playing first/second round games in empty arenas.

I might agree with you if making the Elite 8 even just very occasionally was a semi-realistic possibility for the BSC representative in the NCAA tourney, but it's been 48 years since that happened, and 43 years since a BSC team has even made the Sweet Sixteen. BSC teams were much more competitive in the tourney when I first started following college basketball in the mid 70's and into the early 80's. UM, Idaho, ISU and Weber all got to the Sweet 16 at least once during that era. I don't know why it's changed so dramatically since those days. The BSC was truly a mid-major back then. Now it's a very low major, with no realistic chance of ever advancing a team as far as the Elite 8. I think that has a lot to do with the decline in fan interest in MBB. It's just not as interesting when the best you can hope for is a BSC title and a "one and done" in the Big Dance, as compared to a football team that expects to be in the playoffs every year, has been to the national semis 4 out of the last 5 years, and made the NC game twice in the last 4 years.

That's also why I'm adamantly opposed to moving up to FBS, because then the football team will be in essentially the same situation as the basketball teams. We're never going to make the playoffs even if the field was increased to 16 or 24 or even 32 teams. We'd also have far fewer Montana kids on the roster than we do now. I fear the combination of fewer Montana kids and no longer being competitive nationally (doesn't that sound suspiciously like the situation with MBB?) would mean a decline in attendance for football too. I don't think it would drop off to the level of the "bad old days" of the 90's, when 8,000 was considered a good crowd, just because football games have become so much of an event now, regardless of the W-L record of the team. I suspect we may no longer draw 22,000 for every home game though, if we were a .500 FBS team with no prospects for any meaningful post-season success. I don't consider winning some stupid bowl game as "meaningful".

John K wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 07, 2025 9:54 am

I might agree with you if making the Elite 8 even just very occasionally was a semi-realistic possibility for the BSC representative in the NCAA tourney, but it's been 48 years since that happened, and 43 years since a BSC team has even made the Sweet Sixteen. BSC teams were much more competitive in the tourney when I first started following college basketball in the mid 70's and into the early 80's. UM, Idaho, ISU and Weber all got to the Sweet 16 at least once during that era. I don't know why it's changed so dramatically since those days. The BSC was truly a mid-major back then. Now it's a very low major, with no realistic chance of ever advancing a team as far as the Elite 8. I think that has a lot to do with the decline in fan interest in MBB. It's just not as interesting when the best you can hope for is a BSC title and a "one and done" in the Big Dance, as compared to a football team that expects to be in the playoffs every year, has been to the national semis 4 out of the last 5 years, and made the NC game twice in the last 4 years.

That's also why I'm adamantly opposed to moving up to FBS, because then the football team will be in essentially the same situation as the basketball teams. We're never going to make the playoffs even if the field was increased to 16 or 24 or even 32 teams. We'd also have far fewer Montana kids on the roster than we do now. I fear the combination of fewer Montana kids and no longer being competitive nationally (doesn't that sound suspiciously like the situation with MBB?) would mean a decline in attendance for football too. I don't think it would drop off to the level of the "bad old days" of the 90's, when 8,000 was considered a good crowd, just because football games have become so much of an event now, regardless of the W-L record of the team. I suspect we may no longer draw 22,000 for every home game though, if we were a .500 FBS team with no prospects for any meaningful post-season success. I don't consider winning some stupid bowl game as "meaningful".

I agree, the chances of a Big Sky team making a run to the Sweet 16 or Elite 8 these days are nonzero but still very small. It's a long time now since Weber and UM got their men's NCAA wins and I don't think a women's team has even come close to winning a game since the Selvig/Griz heyday of the '80s and '90s. As I said in my other post, splitting Division 1 basketball into "FBS" and "FCS" style divisions that each have their own championships might work, but at the same time FCS football as it exists right now has a very limited audience outside of fans of the schools that play in the division. Personally I've never felt less interested in following MSU and Big Sky basketball because the teams are competing largely for conference championships instead of national championships, but maybe others feel differently. I also think splitting D-1 athletics as a whole into two different divisions would be a huge mistake, as it would punish schools in some of the other sports (Vermont soccer, NAU T&F/XC, Pepperdine golf, etc) which have won recent national championships even when competing against the power conference schools.

The Bobcats moved up two spots to #53 in the Net rankings after beating the Griz yesterday and are now #1 in the country in steals per game. Their Net ranking should put them on the 12 line for NCAA seeding although of course the committee doesn't base it entirely on that.