2024 - Around the FCS (Week 10)

[ST_Lawson]

All games on Saturday, 11/2 and on ESPN+ unless otherwise stated. FCS Rankings are from the STATS FCS Poll.

OVC/Big South
1 PM - Gardner-Webb (2-6) at Charleston Southern (1-7)
1:30 PM - Lindenwood (4-5) at Tennessee Tech (3-5)
5 PM - ORV UT Martin (5-3) at #25 Tennessee State (6-2)
#6 SEMO is on bye

MVFC
12 PM - #15 North Dakota (5-1) at Indiana State (3-5)
2 PM - Youngstown State (3-6) at #21 Illinois State (5-3)
2 PM - Southern Illinois (2-6) at Missouri State (6-2)
2 PM - Murray State (1-7) at #3 South Dakota State (6-2)
2:30 PM - Northern Iowa (2-6) at #1 North Dakota State (8-1)
#5 South Dakota is on bye
 

[meganeck]

Scott, I was wondering and I don't know if this has been addressed, but where would you rate the OVC-BS conference in overall qty. Obviously the MVFC is the best conference. I'm assuming Big Sky is #2, then CAA maybe. i don't know if there is any rankings or not, if not just curious what your opinion is, you follow the FCS closer than I do.

[meganeck]

All games on Saturday, 11/2 and on ESPN+ unless otherwise stated. FCS Rankings are from the STATS FCS Poll.

OVC/Big South
1 PM - Gardner-Webb (2-6) at Charleston Southern (1-7)
1:30 PM - Lindenwood (4-5) at Tennessee Tech (3-5)
5 PM - ORV UT Martin (5-3) at #25 Tennessee State (6-2)
#6 SEMO is on bye

MVFC
12 PM - #15 North Dakota (5-1) at Indiana State (3-5)
2 PM - Youngstown State (3-6) at #21 Illinois State (5-3)
2 PM - Southern Illinois (2-6) at Missouri State (6-2)
2 PM - Murray State (1-7) at #3 South Dakota State (6-2)
2:30 PM - Northern Iowa (2-6) at #1 North Dakota State (8-1)
#5 South Dakota is on bye
 

 

I brought it up earlier, but I will be interested to see what UNI does. they are 0-4 in the conference, will probably lose this week, then they have Illinois St, YSU and Indiana St. They don't play Southern Illinois or Murray St,the other 2 winless teams in conference play. anyway they will probably be lucky if they can win 2 of those final 4 games. Farley has been there a while and I am sure there is some fatigue with him, so there will probably be pressure to get rid of him. 

[wiu712]

The Youngstown State at Illinois State game will also be on Marquee Sports Network.  Game time is 2:00 PM.

[ST_Lawson]

I brought it up earlier, but I will be interested to see what UNI does. they are 0-4 in the conference, will probably lose this week, then they have Illinois St, YSU and Indiana St. They don't play Southern Illinois or Murray St,the other 2 winless teams in conference play. anyway they will probably be lucky if they can win 2 of those final 4 games. Farley has been there a while and I am sure there is some fatigue with him, so there will probably be pressure to get rid of him. 

 

There's definately been some talk over at AGS about him being on the hot seat. UNI had been used to a certain level of success over the years (much of which was with Farley leading things), but they haven't made the playoffs since 2021 and barring some incredible turnaround in their last 6 games, won't be in the postseason this year either for the third year in a row. Three years will be longest stretch that UNI has gone without a playoff appearance since the late '90s. Back then, there were only 16 teams in the playoffs, and they went 4 years in a row without the playoffs despite records of 7-4, 7-4, 8-3, and 7-4...all of which would get an MVFC team into the playoffs nearly every year today. The last time UNI had two seasons back to back with 6 or fewer wins was 1982 and 1983.

UNI is favored in one of their remaining games, with 2 others being essentially a coin flip, with the edge going to the other team, so anything from 2-10 to 5-7 is possible, with probably 4-8 being the most likely scenario. The last time UNI won only 4 games in a season was 1982 (and that was an 11-game season...this is 12 games).

Farley has a lot of friends in the higher-ups at UNI, but you gotta imagine that there's going to be a lot of pressure for him to step down after this season, if not outright firing him.
Then again, over at Panther Nation, the "Fire Farley" thread started in 2015 and is now up to 43 pages long...so...it's not like there hasn't been rumblings for a while, and yet he's still there.

[ST_Lawson]

Scott, I was wondering and I don't know if this has been addressed, but where would you rate the OVC-BS conference in overall qty. Obviously the MVFC is the best conference. I'm assuming Big Sky is #2, then CAA maybe. i don't know if there is any rankings or not, if not just curious what your opinion is, you follow the FCS closer than I do.

 

Once we've gotten more than halfway through the season, the Massey ratings seem to be pretty accurage in general.
Things are kinda split up weirdly, but here's the ranking from there: https://masseyratings.com/cf2024/fcs/ratings?c=1

Essentially:

1. MVFC
2. Big Sky
3. CAA
4. UAC (that's the merger of the ASUN and WAC)
5. Southern
6. Ivy League
7. Ohio Valley
8. Southland
9. Patriot League
10. MEAC
11. NEC
12. SWAC
13. Pioneer

For comparison, Sagarin also does his own conference ranking, and of the FCS conferences, here's what he says:

1. MVFC (which is practically tied with CUSA)
2. Big Sky
3. UAC
4. CAA
5. Southern
6. Ivy League
7. Southland
8. Big South/OVC
9. Patriot
10. MEAC
11. SWAC
12. NEC
13. Pioneer

In general, really it's the MVFC well above everyone else, then Big Sky a solid #2. UAC, Southern, and Ivy League are bunched together pretty well, then Southland and Big South/OVC together right after those three. There's a pretty big drop then to Patriot and MEAC, and then SWAC, NEC, and Pioneer in a group at the bottom. If you want to put them together into "tiers", I'd go with this:
Tier 1A - MVFC
Tier 1B - Big Sky
Tier 2 - UAC, Southern, Ivy League
Tier 3 - Southland, Big South/OVC
Tier 4 - Patriot, MEAC
Tier 5 - SWAC, NEC, Pioneer

[ST_Lawson]

Also, results for this week...

Big South/OVC
Gardner-Webb beat Charleston Southern, 17-14
Tennessee Tech beat Lindenwood, 52-10
UT Martin beat Tennessee State, 28-21

That goes to show how applicable transitive games are...we beat TTU by 16 and lost to Lindenwood by 11. Does that mean Lindenwood is 27 points better than TTU?...nope, Lions got crushed by 42 points.

Current BS/OVC Standings (https://bigsouthovcfootball.com/standin ... tandings=2)

1. SEMO - 5-0 (8-1 overall)
2. UT Martin - 4-1 (6-3 overall)
3. TTU - 4-2 (4-5 overall)
4. TSU - 3-2 (6-3 overall)
5. Lindenwood - 3-3 (4-6 overall)
6. Gardner-Webb - 2-3 (3-6 overall
7. WIU - 2-3 (3-6 overall)
8. EIU - 1-4 (2-7 overall)
9. Charleston Southern - 0-6 (1-8 overall)

MVFC
Illinois State beat Youngstown State, 23-16
Indiana State beat North Dakota, 35-31
Missouri State beat Southern Illinois, 38-17
South Dakota State beat Murray State, 52-6
North Dakota State beat Northern Iowa, 42-19

MVFC Standings

1. NDSU
2. MO State
3. SDSU
4. USD
5. ILSU
6. INSU
7. UND
8. YSU
9. UNI
10. SIU
11. Mu State

[meganeck]

Scott, I was wondering and I don't know if this has been addressed, but where would you rate the OVC-BS conference in overall qty. Obviously the MVFC is the best conference. I'm assuming Big Sky is #2, then CAA maybe. i don't know if there is any rankings or not, if not just curious what your opinion is, you follow the FCS closer than I do.


 

Once we've gotten more than halfway through the season, the Massey ratings seem to be pretty accurage in general.
Things are kinda split up weirdly, but here's the ranking from there: https://masseyratings.com/cf2024/fcs/ratings?c=1

Essentially:

1. MVFC
2. Big Sky
3. CAA
4. UAC (that's the merger of the ASUN and WAC)
5. Southern
6. Ivy League
7. Ohio Valley
8. Southland
9. Patriot League
10. MEAC
11. NEC
12. SWAC
13. Pioneer

For comparison, Sagarin also does his own conference ranking, and of the FCS conferences, here's what he says:

1. MVFC (which is practically tied with CUSA)
2. Big Sky
3. UAC
4. CAA
5. Southern
6. Ivy League
7. Southland
8. Big South/OVC
9. Patriot
10. MEAC
11. SWAC
12. NEC
13. Pioneer

In general, really it's the MVFC well above everyone else, then Big Sky a solid #2. UAC, Southern, and Ivy League are bunched together pretty well, then Southland and Big South/OVC together right after those three. There's a pretty big drop then to Patriot and MEAC, and then SWAC, NEC, and Pioneer in a group at the bottom. If you want to put them together into "tiers", I'd go with this:
Tier 1A - MVFC
Tier 1B - Big Sky
Tier 2 - UAC, Southern, Ivy League
Tier 3 - Southland, Big South/OVC
Tier 4 - Patriot, MEAC
Tier 5 - SWAC, NEC, Pioneer

 

Interesting, thanks Scott, i thought maybe the conference would be a little higher, but don't really know much about the FCS besides MVFC.

[leatherneckcountry]

All games on Saturday, 11/2 and on ESPN+ unless otherwise stated. FCS Rankings are from the STATS FCS Poll.

OVC/Big South
1 PM - Gardner-Webb (2-6) at Charleston Southern (1-7)
1:30 PM - Lindenwood (4-5) at Tennessee Tech (3-5)
5 PM - ORV UT Martin (5-3) at #25 Tennessee State (6-2)
#6 SEMO is on bye

MVFC
12 PM - #15 North Dakota (5-1) at Indiana State (3-5)
2 PM - Youngstown State (3-6) at #21 Illinois State (5-3)
2 PM - Southern Illinois (2-6) at Missouri State (6-2)
2 PM - Murray State (1-7) at #3 South Dakota State (6-2)
2:30 PM - Northern Iowa (2-6) at #1 North Dakota State (8-1)
#5 South Dakota is on bye
 


 

I brought it up earlier, but I will be interested to see what UNI does. they are 0-4 in the conference, will probably lose this week, then they have Illinois St, YSU and Indiana St. They don't play Southern Illinois or Murray St,the other 2 winless teams in conference play. anyway they will probably be lucky if they can win 2 of those final 4 games. Farley has been there a while and I am sure there is some fatigue with him, so there will probably be pressure to get rid of him. 

 

Here’s the answer https://x.com/UNIFootball/status/1855719074250010811
 

[meganeck]

All games on Saturday, 11/2 and on ESPN+ unless otherwise stated. FCS Rankings are from the STATS FCS Poll.

OVC/Big South
1 PM - Gardner-Webb (2-6) at Charleston Southern (1-7)
1:30 PM - Lindenwood (4-5) at Tennessee Tech (3-5)
5 PM - ORV UT Martin (5-3) at #25 Tennessee State (6-2)
#6 SEMO is on bye

MVFC
12 PM - #15 North Dakota (5-1) at Indiana State (3-5)
2 PM - Youngstown State (3-6) at #21 Illinois State (5-3)
2 PM - Southern Illinois (2-6) at Missouri State (6-2)
2 PM - Murray State (1-7) at #3 South Dakota State (6-2)
2:30 PM - Northern Iowa (2-6) at #1 North Dakota State (8-1)
#5 South Dakota is on bye
 



 

I brought it up earlier, but I will be interested to see what UNI does. they are 0-4 in the conference, will probably lose this week, then they have Illinois St, YSU and Indiana St. They don't play Southern Illinois or Murray St,the other 2 winless teams in conference play. anyway they will probably be lucky if they can win 2 of those final 4 games. Farley has been there a while and I am sure there is some fatigue with him, so there will probably be pressure to get rid of him. 


 

Here’s the answer https://x.com/UNIFootball/status/1855719074250010811
 

 

I just saw that, I'm sure it was more retire to save face. Be interesting to see who they hire.