First-Round of Playoffs

[technoCat]

I actually want to see all of the BSC teams roll until they have to play us. So tired of the MVFC getting SOS credit because they are perceived as the best conference.

I agree with this. Except the perception part. They are the better conference. They’ve won every championship for the last dozen years except 2 and routinely have better non conference results. They’ve had a couple all conference title games.

No time like the present to change it though. I think it’s the weakest they’ve been.

What teams other than NDSU & SDSU have won a title or played in it. SDSU success is more recent. BSC has had EWU, MSU, UM and others who have been to semi.

Sam Houston won the '21 spring and JMU won in '17. Neither of those teams are Big Sky. I hate the MVFC bros as much as anyone but until the Cats and other BSC teams start knocking them off and winning the Championship they are the top dogs. If everything goes chalk these playoffs it will be 1 BSC team and 3 MVFC teams in the semifinals.
You could argue in the past, and I have, that the Big Sky is deeper but need to win the last game to really take the steam out of any argument that the Valley is better.

And the 2nd best Big Sky team technically has a chance to knock off a top MVFC team to guarantee a Big Sky vs. MVFC title game. Big Sky needs to prove it eventually.

Yes, but they have also almost exclusively got to the chipper playing all home games. Its created this cycle where everyone just expects that every team in the MVFC is better than every team in the BSC so playing there gives you a big bump in SOS and gets you more home games. And like I said, I want the BSC to win this year to prove it. That's why I was just saying that I was rooting for them unless they play us. Would love to meet UM in the chipper for a rematch!

[Prodigal Cat]

I actually want to see all of the BSC teams roll until they have to play us. So tired of the MVFC getting SOS credit because they are perceived as the best conference.

I agree with this. Except the perception part. They are the better conference. They’ve won every championship for the last dozen years except 2 and routinely have better non conference results. They’ve had a couple all conference title games.

No time like the present to change it though. I think it’s the weakest they’ve been.

What teams other than NDSU & SDSU have won a title or played in it. SDSU success is more recent. BSC has had EWU, MSU, UM and others who have been to semi.

Sam Houston won the '21 spring and JMU won in '17. Neither of those teams are Big Sky. I hate the MVFC bros as much as anyone but until the Cats and other BSC teams start knocking them off and winning the Championship they are the top dogs. If everything goes chalk these playoffs it will be 1 BSC team and 3 MVFC teams in the semifinals.
You could argue in the past, and I have, that the Big Sky is deeper but need to win the last game to really take the steam out of any argument that the Valley is better.

And the 2nd best Big Sky team technically has a chance to knock off a top MVFC team to guarantee a Big Sky vs. MVFC title game. Big Sky needs to prove it eventually.

I think Davis has an extremely good chance in Vermillion. USD's strength is it's run defense but they are weak in the backend. And as much as I hate them would love for the griz to put together their first complete game and put the scare in the Jacks. Same for NAU. Like you said, gotta start proving it.

[tetoncat]

Too lazy to look. How often has the top 2 teams in BSC been paired on same side of bracket. When they have gotten a home semi have they won and gotten to championship. It seems like a 2 loss BSC team would not host even if loss was to FBS and another top 4 BSC team. So some parity in BSC hurts. MVFC doesn't seem like that. Partly because the conference has not stepped up to compete against NDSU and SDSU until last few years.

[MSU01]

Too lazy to look. How often has the top 2 teams in BSC been paired on same side of bracket. When they have gotten a home semi have they won and gotten to championship. It seems like a 2 loss BSC team would not host even if loss was to FBS and another top 4 BSC team. So some parity in BSC hurts. MVFC doesn't seem like that. Partly because the conference has not stepped up to compete against NDSU and SDSU until last few years.

Looking at the last five "normal" playoffs, excluding the weird Spring 2021 season that UM and MSU didn't participate in (they only seeded 4 teams and no Big Sky team was seeded):

2023: UM was #2, Idaho was #4 (opposite) - UM won home semi
2022: Sac was #2, MSU was #4 (opposite) - Sac lost in QF
2021: Sac was #4, UM was #6 (opposite) - Sac lost in 2nd round, MSU won home semi as #8 seed
2019: Weber was #3, Sac was #4 (opposite - Big Sky had #3, 4, 5, and 6 seeds this year) - no home semifinals
2018: Weber was #2, EWU was #3 (same) - Weber lost to Maine in QF but EWU beat them at home in the semis

So the Big Sky has had three home semis in that time span and won them all. The last Big Sky team to lose a home semifinal was EWU against Youngstown State in 2016.

[tetoncat]

Too lazy to look. How often has the top 2 teams in BSC been paired on same side of bracket. When they have gotten a home semi have they won and gotten to championship. It seems like a 2 loss BSC team would not host even if loss was to FBS and another top 4 BSC team. So some parity in BSC hurts. MVFC doesn't seem like that. Partly because the conference has not stepped up to compete against NDSU and SDSU until last few years.

Looking at the last five "normal" playoffs, excluding the weird Spring 2021 season that UM and MSU didn't participate in (they only seeded 4 teams and no Big Sky team was seeded):

2023: UM was #2, Idaho was #4 (opposite) - UM won home semi
2022: Sac was #2, MSU was #4 (opposite) - Sac lost in QF
2021: Sac was #4, UM was #6 (opposite) - Sac lost in 2nd round, MSU won home semi as #8 seed
2019: Weber was #3, Sac was #4 (opposite - Big Sky had #3, 4, 5, and 6 seeds this year) - no home semifinals
2018: Weber was #2, EWU was #3 (same) - Weber lost to Maine in QF but EWU beat them at home in the semis

So the Big Sky has had three home semis in that time span and won them all. The last Big Sky team to lose a home semifinal was EWU against Youngstown State in 2016.

So 3 #2s with 2 of 3 losing, but a 3 and 8 getting home thru upsets and winning. Some of this is the split schedules where not sure best team always finishes on top. Haven't beat each other up as much as I would have guessed.

[BLACKnBLUEnGOLD]

Sac being a bunch of choke artists has hurt the conference more than head-to-head games in the playoffs have. That's for sure.

[autocat]

Tennessee State Tigers 21

Chopblock/Ankle Twist University 20

[BleedingBLue]

Pretty crazy how different SEMO's offense is without Geno Hess at RB. 45 pass attempts per game.

[MSU01]

The first round is underway! SEMO and Illinois State are tied 7-7 and URI/CCSU is still scoreless. The UNH/UTM game that will determine MSU's second round opponent kicks off in about half an hour.

[BelgradeBobcat]

Great seeing Rhode Island in the playoffs. They haven't been since 1985. They were also in the 1984 playoffs-and we all know what happened then.
Teams that we played in our 1976 and 1984 Championship runs that are not playing in the FBS are involved again. NDSU, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island.

[catatac]

I guess RI has a receiver on the team nicknamed Touchdown Tommy. lol

[BleedingBLue]

I guess RI has a receiver on the team nicknamed Touchdown Tommy. lol

And he has a whopping 3 TDs this season.

[BelgradeBobcat]

SEMO-ISU is a turnover-fest

[AFCAT]

Martin-New Hampshire game just started on ESPN+

[AFCAT]

You are a receiver and get hurt and you punch the ground as hard as you can with your fist. Probably not a smart move.

[BelgradeBobcat]

My wife's comment when seeing the UT-Martin offense take the field, "Those guys are big, we don't want to play them!" My response, it's okay, we have big guys too.

[SparkCat]

Just with the eye test right now, our 2’s and 3’s will get time in.

[AFCAT]

UTM QB is tall but mobile.

[AFCAT]

6-0 UTM with the XP upcoming

[AFCAT]

My wife's comment when seeing the UT-Martin offense take the field, "Those guys are big, we don't want to play them!" My response, it's okay, we have big guys too.

I need to see some more images but at first it looked like most of the o-line was shorter than their 6-4 QB.