As I'd posted the last few weeks - we're now 3 weeks from the end of the regular season and its time to shine. We've got some big games around the country this week.
The obvious one #7 Sacramento State vs #4 Montana - my scouting report will be up tomorrow!
#9 South Dakota vs #10 Southern Illinois - USD and SIU both recently lost to SDSU. USD has only 1 conference loss while SIU has 2 (lost to Youngstown). USD goes right on to North Dakota after this and SIU goes to NDSU. Brutal run of weeks for a lot of MVFC teams. Winner of this game can still win out and grab one of the last few seeds, loser is hoping to win out and finish on the right side of the bubble.
#11 North Dakota State vs #1 South Dakota State - NDSU has their backs to the wall, they're headed to face SDSU who has been just killing teams and is looking like the absolute best team in all of the FCS. Then they host Southern Illinois, then they go to Northern Iowa. NDSU probably needs to go 2-1 in this stretch to get in, wild to think they may not make the playoffs. Meanwhile SDSU follows this one against Youngstown and finishes with Missouri State.
#8 Incarnate Word vs Nicholls - Why would a 7-1 vs a 3-4 team be worth following? Both IUW and Nicholls are undefeated in the Southland. UIW has kind of been narrowly beating out teams but is on a 7 game win streak. Nicholls just lost an out of conference game to SEMO. The cancellation of NW State's season has kind of thrown a wrench in how this conference is handling games (I saw they released an announcement on that today). A UIW win gets them the conference auto-bid. They will have the following week off and then face 4-4/2-2 Houston Baptist. They would hold tiebreakers over the other 1 loss conference teams. A Nicholls win is going to probably push a team off the bubble if they can win out and win the conference auto-bid.
#23 Albany vs #24 William and Mary - W&M is 5-3 while Albany is 6-3. Albany only has 1 conference loss while W&M has 2. Albany is out if they lose, they have a bye and two weak games after. W&M still has to play Richmond as well, a win here and a Richmond win could really jump them up - but it does seem whoever loses this game is probably not going to see the post season.
#2 Furman @ #14 Chattanooga - Fascinating game here. Chatty has 1 conference loss (52-50 to Western Carolina), but this is their last conference game of the year. They have a bye after this and then they play Alabama. Meanwhile Furman is undefeated in conference and plays two more games against currently a 3 win VMI and winless Wofford, so I'll assume they *should* win both of those. Meaning... this game will determine the auto-bid
#19 Austin Peay @ Eastern Kentucky - This is that odd coalition conference with the WAC and and ASUN. Austin Peay is 6-2 and 4-0 in conference while EKU is 4-4 but also 4-0. This game will not really determine the auto-bid just yet - as there's also Central Arkansas who is 2-1 in conference. EKU plays UC next week and AP plays them the week after. Central Arkansas is the top "RV" team right now. It would seem that this conference is only going to send 1 team and all 3 that have the best shot at it meet up over the next few weeks.
The obvious one #7 Sacramento State vs #4 Montana - my scouting report will be up tomorrow!
#9 South Dakota vs #10 Southern Illinois - USD and SIU both recently lost to SDSU. USD has only 1 conference loss while SIU has 2 (lost to Youngstown). USD goes right on to North Dakota after this and SIU goes to NDSU. Brutal run of weeks for a lot of MVFC teams. Winner of this game can still win out and grab one of the last few seeds, loser is hoping to win out and finish on the right side of the bubble.
#11 North Dakota State vs #1 South Dakota State - NDSU has their backs to the wall, they're headed to face SDSU who has been just killing teams and is looking like the absolute best team in all of the FCS. Then they host Southern Illinois, then they go to Northern Iowa. NDSU probably needs to go 2-1 in this stretch to get in, wild to think they may not make the playoffs. Meanwhile SDSU follows this one against Youngstown and finishes with Missouri State.
#8 Incarnate Word vs Nicholls - Why would a 7-1 vs a 3-4 team be worth following? Both IUW and Nicholls are undefeated in the Southland. UIW has kind of been narrowly beating out teams but is on a 7 game win streak. Nicholls just lost an out of conference game to SEMO. The cancellation of NW State's season has kind of thrown a wrench in how this conference is handling games (I saw they released an announcement on that today). A UIW win gets them the conference auto-bid. They will have the following week off and then face 4-4/2-2 Houston Baptist. They would hold tiebreakers over the other 1 loss conference teams. A Nicholls win is going to probably push a team off the bubble if they can win out and win the conference auto-bid.
#23 Albany vs #24 William and Mary - W&M is 5-3 while Albany is 6-3. Albany only has 1 conference loss while W&M has 2. Albany is out if they lose, they have a bye and two weak games after. W&M still has to play Richmond as well, a win here and a Richmond win could really jump them up - but it does seem whoever loses this game is probably not going to see the post season.
#2 Furman @ #14 Chattanooga - Fascinating game here. Chatty has 1 conference loss (52-50 to Western Carolina), but this is their last conference game of the year. They have a bye after this and then they play Alabama. Meanwhile Furman is undefeated in conference and plays two more games against currently a 3 win VMI and winless Wofford, so I'll assume they *should* win both of those. Meaning... this game will determine the auto-bid
#19 Austin Peay @ Eastern Kentucky - This is that odd coalition conference with the WAC and and ASUN. Austin Peay is 6-2 and 4-0 in conference while EKU is 4-4 but also 4-0. This game will not really determine the auto-bid just yet - as there's also Central Arkansas who is 2-1 in conference. EKU plays UC next week and AP plays them the week after. Central Arkansas is the top "RV" team right now. It would seem that this conference is only going to send 1 team and all 3 that have the best shot at it meet up over the next few weeks.
