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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Sept 10, 2023 12:16:59 GMT -5
SD State @ home 20, Montana State 16. (Both were ranked above HC,) ND State 44 Maine 7 W&M 23 Wofford 6
^^^ Four schools in bold above ranked above HC
South Dakota 24 St. Thomas 0 << My error in having ND State playing St. Thomas in the initial list.
SC 47 Furman 21 W. Carolina 30 Samford 7 Central Michigan 45 UNH 42 ------------------- Next opponent #1 SD State: Drake #2 ND State: Central Arkansas #3 Montana State: Stetson # 4 W&M; Charleston Southern # 6 Furman: Kennesaw State # 7 Samford: Auburn #8 Sacramento State: Stanford #9 Weber State: Utah #10 Incarnate Word; Abilene Christian #11 UNH: Dartmouth
#5 held serve
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Post by purplehaze on Sept 10, 2023 12:59:23 GMT -5
For the 2nd week in a row the PL had a winning record against OOC foes - bet that has never happened before
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Post by deep Purple on Sept 10, 2023 13:56:04 GMT -5
North Dakota State beat Maine 44-7
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Post by Sons of Vaval on Sept 10, 2023 14:02:57 GMT -5
For the 2nd week in a row the PL had a winning record against OOC foes - bet that has never happened before I’m sure this has happened plenty of times before around 2002-09 when the Ls and Colgate were all pretty good, and Fordham and HC had their moments. EDIT: I was curious and just checked. If you can believe it, despite an awful OOC performance last year by the PL, they did have winning records in the first two weeks of the season. In week 1, Fordham (Wagner), HC (Merrimack), Georgetown (Marist), and Lafayette (Sacred Heart) won. 4-3 vs OOC. In week 2, Fordham (Monmouth), HC (Buffalo), and Colgate (Maine) won. Lehigh and Georgetown played each other. 3-2 vs OOC.
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Post by longsuffering on Sept 10, 2023 14:30:03 GMT -5
GU is in rarefied air in first place at 2-0. How could SHU go from taking HC to the final seconds in the playoffs 22 months ago to 0-2 and losing soundly to the Hoyas?
1562 tattled around Harvard Stadium for Lehigh at Merrimack. Maybe they waved people without tickets in?
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Post by hcpride on Sept 10, 2023 16:43:56 GMT -5
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Post by cruskater31 on Sept 10, 2023 18:15:24 GMT -5
I think there is very little difference in talent between a top 15 FCS team and a group of 5 team. 3 FCS wins yesterday over G5 teams including two northeast teams. I think HC would have beat Buffalo by 14-21 yesterday.
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Post by efg72 on Sept 10, 2023 19:08:24 GMT -5
Buffalo looked disinterested But Fordham executed and Montes looked like a lesser version of DeMorat but quicker feet
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Post by efg72 on Sept 10, 2023 20:01:55 GMT -5
Sam Herder FCS ballot
FCS Top 25: Sam Herder’s Ballot For The Week Of 9-11-2023 Sam Herder by Sam Herder September 10, 2023 WCU Samford Mark Haskett/WCU Athletics I am grateful to again have a vote in the Stats Perform FCS Top 25 media poll for the 2023 season. I’ll publish my ballot every week and provide some reasoning for my order.
Notes at the bottom.
FCS Top 25 South Dakota State North Dakota State Montana State Holy Cross Idaho Furman William & Mary Sacramento State Incarnate Word Weber State SEMO North Carolina Central Southern Illinois New Hampshire North Dakota Western Carolina Montana UC Davis Southeastern Louisiana University Youngstown State Florida A&M Rhode Island Samford Gardner-Webb Central Arkansas Leaving: UNI, Mercer Entering: SIU, WCU
My Top 4 stayed the same.
No. 3 Montana State came within literal inches of winning at No. 1 SDSU. It wasn’t always pretty for the Jacks, but championship teams just find ways to win and make the winning plays when it matters most.
SDSU stays No. 1, of course, and I kept MSU No. 3. NDSU stays No. 2 for me, even though MSU clearly showed they are now a legit national title contender. The Bobcats went toe-to-toe with SDSU’s elite OL and were getting a good push from their own OL. I certainly get moving MSU up to No. 2, but I’ll keep them No. 3 due to NDSU’s play as well.
The Bison look like an improved squad from a year ago, both offensively and defensively. The EWU team NDSU beat 35-10 in Week 1 nearly defeated Fresno State in 2OT. Fresno won 10 games last year and beat the Big Ten’s Purdue in Week 1. Through two games, though, NDSU’s Massey strength of schedule is only 62nd. So it’s not the best gauge just yet, but eye test is enough for me to keep them No. 2. The Bison are tackling better and have better QB play than last year. But No. 2 and 3 are very close, and even Nos. 1-3 are very close, which is a great thing.
Holy Cross remains at No. 4. HC lost 31-28 at P5 Boston College. Matthew Sluka played like a stud, but it’ll be a tough film watch because he broke loose on a run along the sideline that would have been the game-winner, but he accidentally stepped out of bounds. HC had the win within reach, but as I wrote above, football is a game of inches.
I flipped Idaho and Furman at No. 5 and 6. I still really like Furman on both sides of the ball, but Idaho has answered some defensive questions for me while its offense has lived up to the hype. Idaho is 2-0 after crushing FBS Nevada 33-6.
W&M, Sac State, and UIW remain in my Top 10. Weber State also enters my Top 10 after an impressive win at UNI, who dropped out of my Top 25 at 0-2. W&M is very talented. Sac State is looking sharp with the standout play of new QB Kaiden Bennett. And UIW’s offense got it going this weekend.
NC Central, UNH, UND, and Montana are all about in the same spots as last week in the teens. NC Central got a good road win on the road at rival NC A&T. UNH is legit offensively and pushed an FBS team. UND looks the part and is rolling inferior opponents like a Top 15 team should. And Montana looked better in Week 2 than Week 1, but we may not get a good gauge of the Griz for another few weeks. The passing game is still uncertain.
A big riser for me is Southern Illinois. SIU went from unranked to my No. 13. That may seem like too big of a jump, but folks who have been following my Top 25 breakdowns for a bit know that I hate slot voting. I do not copy and paste my previous week’s ballot and just keep it as is if a team wins and slide around a few other teams that lose. Every week gives us a clearer picture. And hey, sometimes it’s OK to admit you were wrong the previous week. Maybe I should have had Team A ahead of Team B, and the weekend’s action proved that. Just because Team A was ahead of Team B last week and both won, doesn’t mean they have to be in that order again. Reevaluating every week > slot voting.
So with SIU, I should have had SIU ranked last week after it demolished Austin Peay, who was receiving votes in the preseason media poll. And then this week, SIU’s defense continued to play incredibly well when the Salukis beat FBS Northern Illinois 14-11. I don’t have a problem boosting a team up that much in a week. I shouldn’t let my hard-headedness last week impact my voting this week.
I think SIU one spot ahead of UNH is fair. SIU beat NIU, and UNH narrowly lost to Central Michigan. NIU was picked to finish one spot ahead of CMU in the MAC preseason poll.
Another high riser is Western Carolina, going from unranked to No. 16. WCU crushed Samford 30-7. WCU was probably in my 30 range last week, and Samford was No. 8. Samford dropped to No. 23 this week. I’m really close to moving WCU up even more, similar to SIU. But there’s still plenty of time in the season to figure out the balance of if WCU is that good, or if I had Samford too highly ranked. That’s the tough balance when an unranked team beats a Top 10 team early in the season.
I’m not going to overthink Southeastern Louisiana University. Are they 0-2? Yes. But those losses are to a ranked P5 team and one of the best G5 teams. Simply put, I believe SLU is one of the 25 best teams in the FCS based on their talent I’ve seen. To say “They’re 0-2 and shouldn’t be ranked” is too lazy of an analysis.
Going back to my anti-slot voting rant. Fans of teams like UC Davis, YSU, FAMU, Gardner-Webb, and Mercer are probably puzzled on how they dropped a spot. How do you punish a team that lost to an FBS opponent? How do you drop down a Gardner-Webb squad that beat a decent Elon team? How do you drop Mercer out of your ranking completely after they won? If you zoom in just on one of those specific teams, yeah it doesn’t make sense. But you have to zoom out at the larger picture. SIU and WCU soared in this ranking, which means it is going to bump teams back.
Mercer got bumped out with two new teams moving in. Mercer is 2-1 overall and 2-0 vs. the FCS. It beat North Alabama 17-7 in Week 0, and UNA just lost 52-31 at Tarleton. Mercer also beat Morehead State 48-22 this weekend, a game that was only 29-22 entering the 4th. Morehead State went 2-9 last year and barely beat non-D1 West Virginia State last week.
Other teams like Rhody and UCA held their spots at No. 22 and No. 25. Rhody is looking good, especially offensively. UCA has great talent, and we’ll see what it can do at NDSU this week.
Morgan State and UAlbany were just outside my Top 25.
Morgan State really should have beaten FBS Akron. All it needed was a first down to win. Instead, the Bears fumbled, which was scooped up and scored by Akron in the final minute for a 24-21 win. This was after Morgan State beat ranked Richmond. So why didn’t I rank the Bears? I wasn’t high on Richmond all offseason. And I don’t think Akron (2-10 last year, picked to finish second to last in the MAC East) would be a Top 25 FCS squad.
UAlbany is 1-2, but two of those Ls were competitive FBS losses (21-17 at Marshall, and 31-20 at Hawaii this weekend). Fordham was one of three FCS teams to get an FBS win this week, beating Buffalo. But you can’t rank Fordham and not rank UAlbany ahead of them, because UAlbany beat Fordham 34-13 in Week 0. At this point in the season and with records/resumes not as built out, head-to-head results carry even more weight. The Great Danes are close, but I ran out of room in my Top 25.
I hope you enjoy my Top 25 breakdown here. I’m never going to say my Top 25 is right. Because it’s impossible to know at the time. I also have said that there is no such thing as a good Top 25. It’s all just one’s opinion, and most people reading this will disagree with at least one thing, while those who call it trash are probably just focused on one team or one conference that they cheer for. So there are no good Top 25s out there. Because what determines that? That’s why I like to go somewhat in-depth with my order. It’s OK to have disagreements on the order. Heck, sometimes I’ll go back a few days later and realize my analysis was off. There isn’t a good Top 25 anywhere. But a Top 25 can be a fine ranking as long as you can provide a reasoning for your order and defend any changes.
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Post by efg72 on Sept 10, 2023 20:25:33 GMT -5
Craig Halley ballot
My #StatsPerformFCSTop25 ballot: 1-SDSU 2-NDSU 3-Montana St 4-W&M 5-Holy Cross 6-UNH 7-Idaho 8-Furman 9-Sac St 10-So Illinois 11-Weber St 12-N Dakota 13-Montana 14-SE Missouri 15-UIW 16-Rhody 17-UCD 18-NCCU 19-'Nova 20-Cent Ark 21-SE La 22-UDel 23-YSU 24-Samf 25-Mercer over G-W
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Post by crusader12 on Sept 11, 2023 10:32:48 GMT -5
HC Remains #5 Fordham jumps to #22
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Post by cruskater31 on Sept 11, 2023 12:33:12 GMT -5
Holy Cross drops one in the Stats Poll. I am crying foul! Fordham RV.
RANKING SCHOOL RECORD POINTS PREV
1 South Dakota State (52) 2-0 1,396 1
2 North Dakota State (3) 2-0 1,335 2
3 Montana State 1-1 1,263 3
4 William & Mary 2-0 1,208 4
5 Idaho (1) 2-0 1,141 7
6 Holy Cross 1-1 1,092 5
7 Furman 1-1 989 6
8 Sacramento State 2-0 986 9
9 Weber State 2-0 926 12
10 UIW 1-1 906 10
11 New Hampshire 1-1 830 11
12 Montana 2-0 764 13
13 Southeast Missouri State 1-1 666 14
14 North Dakota 2-0 620 17
15 Southern Illinois 2-0 552 24
16 UC Davis 1-1 540 15
17 North Carolina Central 2-0 467 18
18 Samford 1-1 390 8
19 Southeastern Louisiana 0-2 369 16
20 Mercer 2-1 264 20
21 Rhode Island 1-1 245 22
22 Delaware 1-1 241 19
23 Florida A&M 1-1 150 23
24 Villanova 2-0 135 NR
25 Youngstown State 1-1 105 25
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Post by deep Purple on Sept 11, 2023 12:46:31 GMT -5
Gotta suck it up and root for BC for the rest of the season.
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Post by hchoops on Sept 11, 2023 12:59:11 GMT -5
Gotta suck it up and root for BC for the rest of the season. Ugh Do not disagree, but Easier said than done
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Post by purplehaze on Sept 11, 2023 13:04:10 GMT -5
Just saw that the GU - SHU game was stopped with 12 minutes left in the game with the Hoyas declared the winner based on the score at that time. Someone mentioned to me on Saturday that such a conclusion might have happened with our game if the weather persisted (i.e. 31-28 win for BC and final 1:58 not played)
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Post by hchoops on Sept 11, 2023 13:13:26 GMT -5
Just saw that the GU - SHU game was stopped with 12 minutes left in the game with the Hoyas declared the winner based on the score at that time. Someone mentioned to me on Saturday that such a conclusion might have happened with our game if the weather persisted (i.e. 31-28 win for BC and final 1:58 not played) GTown was up 27-10
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hc69
Crusader Century Club
Posts: 219
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Post by hc69 on Sept 11, 2023 14:09:02 GMT -5
GTown was up 24-10 at halftime. Halftime was two hours because of the weather and the game then resumed. When the game was called in the fourth period GTown was up 27-10.
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Post by hchoops on Sept 11, 2023 14:31:09 GMT -5
Thanks Corrected
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Post by nycrusader2010 on Sept 11, 2023 15:08:06 GMT -5
Just saw that the GU - SHU game was stopped with 12 minutes left in the game with the Hoyas declared the winner based on the score at that time. Someone mentioned to me on Saturday that such a conclusion might have happened with our game if the weather persisted (i.e. 31-28 win for BC and final 1:58 not played) Would've been totally ridiculous. Worst case scenario, you literally could've put the teams on buses to Worcester and finished the game here.
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hc69
Crusader Century Club
Posts: 219
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Post by hc69 on Sept 11, 2023 15:28:00 GMT -5
The GTown - SHU outcome would have required the agreement of both teams. They were probably looking at another lengthy delay which would have totally disrupted SHU's travel plans. In our game, since both teams are local they would have waited as long as necessary. There was one game Saturday that had a six hour delay.
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Post by Crosser on Sept 11, 2023 20:44:44 GMT -5
Gotta suck it up and root for BC for the rest of the season. Only if you believe that your rooting could actually affect the outcome of the game.😁
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Post by cruskater31 on Sept 12, 2023 5:24:00 GMT -5
Gotta suck it up and root for BC for the rest of the season. Only if you believe that your rooting could actually affect the outcome of the game.😁 For our sake, I suppose it would not be a bad thing if BC turns it around. (I still don't think they win more than 2-3 games). I will not, however, be rooting for the Beagles.
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Post by hcpride on Sept 12, 2023 6:15:58 GMT -5
Gotta suck it up and root for BC for the rest of the season. Only if you believe that your rooting could actually affect the outcome of the game.😁 The general consensus seems to be that they have the easiest schedule in the ACC. (Topped off by an OOC that the BC faithful once believed was a complete cupcake OOC). Not sure they have the talent to win more than a couple of games (and their coaching is highly questionable). They may beat Army. Florida State (3 in the National AP Poll) Saturday won't be fun.
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Post by nycrusader2010 on Sept 12, 2023 6:24:31 GMT -5
Holy Cross is 4th in the Any Given Saturday poll, our highest ranking ever in that poll (AGS didn't exist in 1987, of course). Kind of surprising, given the "they're a PL team from New England, they can't be that good" mentality on that site. A big reason for our ranking is likely the earned respect of the Dakota-centric clientele who vote in that weekly poll.
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Post by sader1970 on Sept 12, 2023 6:28:39 GMT -5
It’s the poll at the end of the season that counts.😊
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