FCS Playoffs

[wiu712]

Division III Championship Game (Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl):
Game played at Salem, Virginia.
Wisconsin-Whitewater beats Mount Vernon 43-34.
Attendance was 5,465.

The UW-Whitewater coach now moves on to become the head coach at Buffalo, a member of the Mid-American Conference and the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision. It’s a prodigious career leap, from the NCAA’s smallest pond to its largest — and from the most comfortably fulfilling job he could have dreamed of to one of the toughest challenges he could have carved out for himself.

The Whitewater stadium:
http://uwwsports.com/news/2013/9/19/FAC_0919132917.aspx


NAIA Football National Championship Game
Game played at Daytona Beach, Florida.
Southern Oregon beat Marian 55-31.
Attendance was 1,941.

[ST_Lawson]

I've been to UW-Whitewater's stadium a couple of times. It's smallish but nice (although larger than most Div. II and III stadiums).

Interesting info about the UW-Whitewater stadium - some of you are probably already aware that I spent 7 summers marching with drum and bugle corps (like a professional marching band, but without woodwinds...tours over the summer). The governing organization is DCI (Drum Corps International) which was founded in 1972.
The first DCI World Championships was held in August of '72 at the (then 2 year old) Warhawk Stadium (renamed Perkins Stadium in 1996) at UW-Whitewater.
Also, slightly more than 20 years ago, I performed in my first drum corps show...also at Warhawk Stadium.

[BobLovely]

I lived in Wisconsin after I graduated from Western until 2005 and I attended a number of games at Warhawk Stadium during my time in the Badger state. The program is well supported and game attendance is usually very good to excellent.

The program attracts a lot of kids from small towns and some from larger urban area high schools who do not have the size or speed to play D1 football. With no FCS or DII teams in Wisconsin, the talent level in the state DIII league is generally at a higher than at most DIII programs in other areas of the country. A somewhat unique situation.

The North Dakota State-Sam Houston State was a physically rough game. It was great to see the Bison dominate in the second half. I will be rooting for Illinois State today so we can enjoy an all MVFC FCS championship game. Since they did not play each other during the regular season, the match-up would be a great story line for the conference.

Today, I am attending the DII championship game here in Kansas City, Kansas at Sporting Park. Both Minnesota State-Mankato and Colorado State-Pueblo appear to be excellent football teams and evenly matched. I expect a great game.

Bob

[ST_Lawson]

Today, I am attending the DII championship game here in Kansas City, Kansas at Sporting Park. Both Minnesota State-Mankato and Colorado State-Pueblo appear to be excellent football teams and evenly matched. I expect a great game.

Bob

I'm rooting for the Mavericks in this one...love the purple and gold.



I've also performed at MN St.-Mankato's stadium. It feels like the steepest and closest to the field of any stadium I've been in. It literally feels like if you tripped and fell in the stands, you'd roll down off the front of the stadium and land about 10 yards onto the field.

[ST_Lawson]

And there we are folks. It was a rough game, but Illinois State defeated New Hampshire, 21-18 to set up an all-MVFC National Championship Game.

Time to find out the real MVFC champion.

[sealhall74]

NDSU is banged up with some key players probably out but it will still be a daunting task for the Redbirds. The crowd will be 90% Bison-friendly and they are probably scheming at this moment how to grab as many of the ISU ticket allotment as they can.

On second thought, they probably had that already figured out regardless of who won.

[sealhall74]

CSU-Pueblo looked very convincing in their shutout win over MSU-Mankato. Interestingly, they beat Sam Houston State on the road early in the year by 47-21 margin.

[wiu712]

Division 2 Championship Game:
Game played in Kansas City, KS.
Colorado State-Pueblo beat Minnesota-Mankato 13-0.
Attendance was 6,762.

It was a great victory by the CSU-Pueblo ThunderWolves. Their football program did not exist in 2006. The football program was re-born in 2007.

The ThunderWolves' defense was the story of the game, shutting out a Mavericks' offense which came into the game ranked seventh in the nation in scoring offense at 42.9 points per game.

The win caps a school-record 14-1 season for CSU-Pueblo and gives the university its first Division II National Championship in any sport. The shutout was the first in the national title game since 1997 when Northern Colorado blanked New Haven, 51-0.



Attendance at the FCS Semi-finals:
Illinois State at New Hampshire = 9,497. Illinois State won 21-18.
Sam Houston State at North Dakota State = 18,025. North Dakota State won 35-3.

The championship game will be on January 10.

[Neckfansince71]

12 points folks......12 points! Lost to NDst. at the very end by 7, and a field goal to ISU! Add 12 points to the mix and 5-7 becomes 7-5!!!! Playoffs would have looked a lot different in my opinion! jc

[sealhall74]

12 points folks......12 points! Lost to NDst. at the very end by 7, and a field goal to ISU! Add 12 points to the mix and 5-7 becomes 7-5!!!! Playoffs would have looked a lot different in my opinion! jc

I just did a little boxscore play-by-play calculation. Against those two teams, WIU was either ahead or tied for an incredible 103 of the 120 game minutes.
We are not far from the promised land.