Playoffs! Small Colleges - FCS championship (+ a fantasy) | Syracusefan.com

Playoffs! Small Colleges - FCS championship (+ a fantasy)

SWC75

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FCS CHAMPIONSHIP

North Dakota State continued their rivalry with the only team that has really been able to compete with them in their decade, downing James Madison 28-20, clinching it with an interception at the goal line on the game’ s penultimate play.
James Madison vs. North Dakota State - Game Recap - January 11, 2020 - ESPN
It was the Bison’s 8th national championship in 9 years, a streak unparalleled in this sport at any level above high school. It was also their 37th straight win. The only team to win a championship besides NDS since 2011 is James Madison, who beat the Bison 27-17 in the 2016 semi-finals and then Youngstown in the final, then lost to the Bison 13-17 in the next year’s final. You wonder if the Dukes are going to be Wisconsin-Whitewater to NDS’s Mount Union: Mount Union dominated D3 for years until Whitewater came up to match them. The Warhawks lost to the Purple Raiders 3 of the first 4 times they met for the title, then won the next 5 in a row. We’ll see. For not they are the one team the Bison have reason to fear bit the Bison are still the champs. By the way the Bison wound up 16-0, the first team to win that man college games since Yale in 1894. They didn’t look tired during the celebration.


The final lines:
NAIA: Morningside (Iowa) 14-0 (735-182) Ranked #1 Post Season: 27-14 with 2 titles
NCAA D3: North Central 14-1 (777-246) Ranked #5 Post Season: 19-13 with 1 title
NCAA D2: West Florida 12-2 (520-281) Ranked #20 Post Season: 8-1 with 1 title
NCAA FCS: North Dakota State 16-0 (596-197) Ranked #1 Post Season: 67-14 with 16 titles

We had an interesting discussion on what the FBS playoff should look like in which I and a couple others expressed the desire that the non-power conference teams and the FCS teams, (from whence they came), should be combined into one division. I wondered what that would look like. That would put the 65 power conference schools in Division 1 and 189 schools in what would then become Division II. I think the current Divisions II and III should be combined with the NAIA in a new Division III that would have 511 teams in it. I’d have an 8 team playoff in D1, 16 in D2 and 32 in D3, with automatic bids for conference champions. Here’s what the first rounds might look like:

DIVISION 1

Wisconsin 10-3 at Louisiana State (SEC) 13-0
Baylor 11-2 at Ohio State (Big 10) 13-0
Oregon (Pac 12) 11-2 at Clemson (ACC) 13-0
Georgia 11-2 at Oklahoma (Big 12) 12-1

DIVISION 2
(FCS has 13 conferences and if you add the Group of Five from FBS, you have 18 conferences for a 16 team tournament. But the Ivy League doesn’t play post season football. The Southwest Athletic Conference doesn’t play in the FCS playoffs, preferring the Celebration Bowl, which used to the Heritage Bowl for historically African-American schools. The Mid-East Conference sends their champion to the Celebration Bowl but let’s their second best team play in the FCS playoffs. This year Florida A&M won the mid-East but they were on probation and couldn’t go anywhere. The second best team, North Carolina A&T, went to the Celebration Bowl. Their third best team was South Carolina State, who stayed home. I decided to put them in this fantasy tournament. So we’ve got the champions of 15 conferences plus the third place team in the Mid-East, using Sagarin to seed them, although I wasn’t able to get Sagarin’s end of regular season rankings so I based it on his latest rankings, dated 11/23).

South Carolina State (Mid-East) 8-3 at Memphis (American) 12-1
Holy Cross, (Patriot) 7-5 at Appalachian State (Sun Belt) 12-1
San Diego (Pioneer) 9-2 at Boise State (Mountain West) 12-1
Central Connecticut (Northeast) 11-1 at North Dakota State (Missouri Valley) 12-0
Monmouth (Big South) 10-2 at Florida Atlantic (Conference-USA) 10-3
Nicholls (Southland) 8-4 at James Madison (Colonial) 11-1
Wofford (Southern) 8-3 at Weber State (Big Sky) 9-2
Austin Peay (Ohio Valley) 9-3 at Miami University (MAC) 8-5

DIVISION 3

NCAA D2 and D3 and the NAIA have 51 conferences. I thought of using a 64 team field like basketball but that seemed a bit much. Instead I opted for a field of the top 32 conference champions, (won outright or tied for). Winning the conference would still be the key to making the playoffs but you had to be impressive enough to rank among the top 32 conference champions. (The New England Conference, like the Ivy League, doesn’t participate in post season play.)

I found one source, Sorenson, who ranks all NCAA and NAIA teams: College Football 2019 Chi Square Linear Win - Difference - Ratio
Here’s the field I assembled:

Wisconsin-Oshkosh (Wisconsin) 8-2 vs. Ferris State (Great Lakes) 10-0
Salisbury (New Jersey) 9-0 vs. Minnesota State (Northern Sun) 11-0
Delaware Valley (Middle Atlantic) 9-1 vs. Valdosta State (Gulf South) 10-0
Bridgewater (Old Dominion) 10-0 vs. Tarleton State (Lone Star) 11-0

Keiser (Mid-South) 9-0 vs. Northwest Missouri (Mid-America) 10-1
Miles (Southern Intercollgiate) 9-2 vs. Central Missouri (Mid-America) 10-1
Mary Hardin-Baylor (American Southwest) 10-0 vs. Colorado Mines (Rocky Mountain) 11-0
Mount Union (OhIo) 10-0 vs. Slippery Rock (Pennsylvania) 11-0

St. John’s (Minnesota) 9-1 vs. Lenoir-Rhyne (South Atlantic) 11-0
Ouachita Baptist (Great American) 11-0 vs. College of Idaho (Frontier) 9-0
Lindsey Wilson (Mid-South) 10-0 vs. Notre Dame College (Mountain East) 10-1
Western Oregon (Great Northwest) 8-3 vs. Wheaton (College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin) 10-0

Bowie State (Central Collegiate) 11-0 vs. Lindewood (Great Lakes Valley) 8-3
Grand View (Heart of America) 11-0 vs. Morningside (Great Plains) 10-0
Wisconsin-Whitewater (Wisconsin) 9-1 vs. Marian (Mid States) 9-0
Muhlenberg (Centennial) 10-0 vs. Tiffin (Great Midwest) 9-1
 
I don’t know that tournament is all FCS has other than the regional rivals and occasional cross conference game non of which get any TV attention. I love having so many bowl games I watch them all. Most people would watch the worst FBS bowl game over any FCS playoff game shown at the same time. Hard no from me to less bowl games.

So it would only work if you’re rewarding non Bowl Teams with tournament bids and that sounds dumb. Not many teams make the FCS tournament. Take Colgate’s league only the best teams getting in unless you have 2 top 10 teams which doesn’t happen.

It would be cool to make the FBS winner play the FCS winner the next year since there’s always one scheduled. Sorry LSU you can’t play South Carolina St you gotta play the Bizon. That would work.
 
I don’t know that tournament is all FCS has other than the regional rivals and occasional cross conference game non of which get any TV attention. I love having so many bowl games I watch them all. Most people would watch the worst FBS bowl game over any FCS playoff game shown at the same time. Hard no from me to less bowl games.

So it would only work if you’re rewarding non Bowl Teams with tournament bids and that sounds dumb. Not many teams make the FCS tournament. Take Colgate’s league only the best teams getting in unless you have 2 top 10 teams which doesn’t happen.

It would be cool to make the FBS winner play the FCS winner the next year since there’s always one scheduled. Sorry LSU you can’t play South Carolina St you gotta play the Bizon. That would work.


Actually the FCS title game drew more viewers than 23 bowl games and four times as many as the least viewed bowl game: College Football TV Ratings

I'm interested in champions and fair and balanced competition. Every school should be competing against like schools for a championship that actually have a chance to win. Bowl games don't have to go away. An 8 team FBS playoff wouldn't prevent them. if the preliminaries were held in December, the teams who don't make the final could be in bowl games. The others could continue to exist, except there are far too many of them. Bowls games should be rewards for outstanding seasons. Today they reward mediocrity. I usually watch about half a dozen of them , including those in the playoff. I'll watch one of the many lesser bowls if Syracuse is in them but I don't expect anyone not a fan of SU or it's opponent to be watching.
 

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