FCS Playoffs

If you want to talk about Monmouth University Football, Quincy University Basketball, Notre Dame Men's Soccer, or whatever, this is the place.
wiu712
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Attendance at Eastern Washington = 5,233.

Attendance at the NAIA Championship game in Daytona Beach = 2,500.
leatherneckcountry
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I know that I should root for the MVFC team but no way can I ever root for a Pelini coached team.
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sealhall74
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Once again, we see solid proof that championship caliber teams find a way to do two things: 1) run the ball and eat up the clock and 2) stop the run on defense making the opponent one-dimensional. YSU had the ball for damn near 40 minutes. EWU was far more efficient scoring points but you cant score if you dont have the ball. No mystery to this strategy. NDSU has been doing it that way for years.
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ST_Lawson
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wiu712 wrote:Northwest Missouri State beat North Alabama 29-3 for the NCAA Division 2 Championship.

The game was played in a steady snow. The student fan buses from North Alabama never got out of Alabama. And both bands were told to stay home.

Attendance at Kansas City, KS = 9,576.
Immediately following the game, it was announced that NW Missouri State Head Coach Adam Dorrell will be taking over as the head coach at Abilene Christian: http://www.acusports.com/sports/2016/12 ... spx?id=888
ACU plays in the Southland conference and his contract is reportedly ~$250k (base) per year for 5 years, which immediately makes him one of the higher-paid coaches in the FCS. Dorrell has a lot of ties to NW Mo State, but he's won three championships with perfect 15-0 records and had pretty much "maxed out" what he can do at that level. Barring a move up to FCS by NWMSU, he didn't really have anywhere else to go, but considering his history with the program, I did figure it'd take a pretty significant offer to get him to go elsewhere....which he apparently received.

He's only 42, so he's still got a good 20 years of coaching ahead of him (if he wants to). It'll be interesting to see where he goes in 4-5 years if he's successful at ACU.

ACU will also be unveiling a brand new football stadium next season that looks like it's going to be really beautiful: http://www.acusports.com/news/2015/10/1 ... 52957.aspx

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wiu712
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Interesting to note that while UW-Oshkosh is the 3rd largest university in Wisconsin with 14,000 students, they play at the NCAA Division 3 level. Their football team was playing in the Division 3 championship game on Friday night.

I think that about one-half of the UW's play at the Division 3 level.

That might be an option for some of our state universities in Illinois who are in financial difficulties due to the current budget battle.

Currently UIS plays at the NCAA Division 2 level, and Governor's State University plays NAIA.

Northeastern Illinois University used to be in the Mid-Con, but they now function at the Club Sports level.

Former Summit League member Centenary now plays at the NCAA Division 3 level.
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ST_Lawson
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wiu712 wrote:Interesting to note that while UW-Oshkosh is the 3rd largest university in Wisconsin with 14,000 students, they play at the NCAA Division 3 level. Their football team was playing in the Division 3 championship game on Friday night.

I think that about one-half of the UW's play at the Division 3 level.

That might be an option for some of our state universities in Illinois who are in financial difficulties due to the current budget battle.

Currently UIS plays at the NCAA Division 2 level, and Governor's State University plays NAIA.

Northeastern Illinois University used to be in the Mid-Con, but they now function at the Club Sports level.

Former Summit League member Centenary now plays at the NCAA Division 3 level.
I believe that there's some rule in the UW system where only Madison can have a DI football team. Milwaukee and Green Bay are DI, but do not offer football. Parkside is DII, but does not offer football. The majority of Wisconsin public universities are in the DIII Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference: Eau Claire, La Crosse, Oshkosh, Platteville, River Falls, Stevens Point, Stout, and Whitewater, along with UW-Superior as an affiliate. All except for Superior offer football. It works for them, plus when you have players in Wisconsin that are good enough to be higher than DIII, but not good enough to be a part of the Badgers, then other teams in neighboring states have sometimes been able to pick up decent players. For example, we have 9 players on our roster from Wisconsin (tied with Missouri for the #2 state where our players come from) including Sean McGuire and Isaiah Lesure.

UW-Whitewater is actually VERY similar to Western, in their student population, town size, ruralness...even their primary color is purple (and their stadium is really nice too). If they were allowed to by the state, they could do very well at the FCS level, being situated about halfway between Madison and Milwaukee, and not too far from the northern Chicago suburbs.

Centenary College...with a total student population of less than 700, had absolutely no business being DI.
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sealhall74
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I think Wisconsin has the right system to be competitive at ALL levels. In Illinois, there are simply not enough quality D1 football and basketball athletes (talking true D1 here, i.e. the quick and explosive types) to feed all of the current D1 programs in the state. If you don't reach out to the warmer climes like Florida, Texas, and Arizona to find your skill players, it is going to be a tough row to hoe. I just looked at Northwest Missouri State football roster. About 14 kids from Florida, Texas, and west coast, most in DB and WR positions. Comparing to our roster, only about 8 or 9 kids. Bo Pelini has about 20 at YSU.
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Here's a bit more about the ending of the YSU@EWU game on Saturday: http://wkbn.com/2016/12/18/how-bo-pelin ... ulous-win/
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BobLovely
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sealhall74 wrote:I think Wisconsin has the right system to be competitive at ALL levels. In Illinois, there are simply not enough quality D1 football and basketball athletes (talking true D1 here, i.e. the quick and explosive types) to feed all of the current D1 programs in the state. If you don't reach out to the warmer climes like Florida, Texas, and Arizona to find your skill players, it is going to be a tough row to hoe. I just looked at Northwest Missouri State football roster. About 14 kids from Florida, Texas, and west coast, most in DB and WR positions. Comparing to our roster, only about 8 or 9 kids. Bo Pelini has about 20 at YSU.
Excellent observations on a number of points. As the only D1 program in the state, UW-Madison attracts a lot of "walk-ons" who later develop into starters and even stars. I agree, Western needs to attract athletic skill position football players from the states that produce ample football talent, far beyond Illinois. Northwest Missouri State looks a lot like a FCS team on the field.

Bob
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BobLovely
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I just saw on the crawl on ESPN that James Madison has suspended (7) players from the football team...

Bob
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