FCS Selection Committee chair interview on the process

I have to wait for a client to come in so no sneaking out early on Friday for me. Therefore, I listened. Here are some high points from notes I took:

1. Kent Haslam, Montana AD was on with Sam. He is the head of the selection committee. Committee has rep from every league who honestly advocate (his term) for their schools. In addition, each member is assigned a second league to pay more attention to in the process. Members are out of the room when their teams are discussed.
2. They take the AQ teams out and then put everyone on the board. Members vote (cannot vote for own school) and teams which get 70% are put in field with the proviso that only half of the available spots can be filled in any round of voting. There is ongoing discussion between rounds.
3. Once the field is complete, teams are nominated to be seeded and they then go through a similar process.
4. They don't see the bids for hosting until after the field is complete.
5. As to criteria for selection, they added the media poll this year recoginzing that the voters are well informed. They stopped using the Simple Rating System this year. They use an NCAA strength of schedule calculation. Different voters evaluate this differently. FBS wins matter to him, although some FBS wins matter more than others. He said D2 wins can be a problem but then argued that Ferris State (who Montana played) and has scholarships ought not be looked down upon any more than games against non scholarship Pioneer League schools. He said "ranked wins" means at the time of the game. He admitted that sometimes early season ranked wins end up not meaning much. He reminded that the rules say there are no limits to the number of teams in a conference and said he takes that rule quite seriously. Realizes others might look at this differently.  He recognized that there can be a quality loss. 
6. He acknowledged that the second round games are unbalanced and that there is nothing that can be done about that because regionalization matters because of cost.
7. Said that might go to 16 seeds next year which would do away with bids
8. Answered a question about North Dakota having to travel to Weber last year even though ND's bid was better. He said that Weber was the 9th seed and that he thought that they should have been seeded. Without saying it, he opined that HC should not have gotten a seed last year. He also said that ND was one of the last teams in. That apparently justified overriding a higher bid.

I had the exact same thought!!!!!

His comments make me think they will overload at large bids in the playoffs with the big 4 Conferences- Sky, Valley, CAA, and Southern- in some cases fair, but they act like few others play the game

Again if we get in, and right now a very big if, I am not sure what team keeps us below 30. At the same time we have work to do to keep any playoff team below 30- win one at a time and give us a shot at the Griz during the playoffs

One game at a time

After listening to him. it reinforces my belief that we have to win out including a solid win against FBS Army and big wins against our remaining PL FCS opponents.

That would give us a close loss against a P5 BC, a ranked Harvard; and a now ranked Lafayette, assuming they win out and remain ranked. "Good losses" and hopefully a 9 8-3 record with an FBS win. A loss against West Point and even close wins over Lehigh or GU and we are likely on the outside looking in. 

8-3 but with the only losses to a P-5 and the champions of two different FCS leagues.

Harvard and Princeton both 3-1 in IL lead but Princeton losing 10-7 to Dartmouth. Go Harvard!🤮

Dartmouth knocks off Princeton, 23-21 on 3 FGs by their freshmen kicker and an earlier pick 6. Harvard only IL team with 1 loss as of now. 

The committee doesn't care if Harvard is ranked 20th, 10th or first.

It's still a bad loss to them.

I don’t agree.  A loss to a team that could be 9-1 and nationally ranked is not a bad loss.  It may not be a quality loss, but it’s not a bad one. We are in a situation where every little bit helps so I’m looking for BC and Harvard to win out and for Lafayette to lose either two or zero games.  

Was Harvard ranked when we played them? I know they were after we played them

No.