FCS Playoffs

[ST_Lawson]

Given those atrocious attendance numbers, would not surprise me if the NCAA goes back to 16 team format. I know it was Thanksgiving weekend and no students around, but when small high school playoff games draw bigger crowds than D 1 games, you have a problem.

NCAA doesn't really care, they get their bid money either way, and the minimum bid is enough to cover their costs for it.

[wiu712]

NCAA doesn't really care, they get their bid money either way, and the minimum bid is enough to cover their costs for it.

Does the NCAA pay rent money to these colleges that are hosting ???

What happens if no team submits a bid to host ???

[OldHare]

Does anyone know what most bids would come in at? Since last week's games had the majority of games attended in the >2000 to <4000.

[ST_Lawson]

Here's an article that kinda talks about the bid process: http://www.richmond.com/sports/college/ ... a8ae4.html

Minimum bid is $30k
JMU two years ago went with a really aggressive bid to make sure they'd host it, bidding $200k.

Each university that wants to complete the bid process for a game will submit a budget, including things like estimated revenue from ticket sales, operating costs, etc. and they use that info to decide how much they want to "bid". Really though, what it comes down to is, the university says it'll pay the NCAA $X amount to host...that could be $30k, $100k, $200k, etc. That's how much they pay the NCAA if they get awarded the bid to host. If they want to "cover" that by ticket sales, concession sales, private donations, institutional contributions, etc....doesn't really matter to the NCAA, they get their money either way.

If you do not bid, but you host, I believe they just take a % of the ticket revenue or something. The bid process though, is supposed to cover the costs of transportation, housing and other expenses for the traveling team.

I don't know what happens if neither team bids...they must have some way of picking who gets it...maybe the highest average attendance school or something.

[wiu712]

This "bid- to-host" process seems backwards to me. The NCAA should be paying the host school for the use of its facilities.

[sealhall74]

Did not watch much of the YSU@JSU game but from what I did see, have to say that YSU defense is scary good this year.

[wiu712]

FCS Second Round Games (Dec 3):

At South Dakota State: South Dakota State beats Villanova 10-7. Attendance not posted.
At Sam Houston State: Sam Houston State beats Chattanooga 41-36. Attendance = 4,897.
At Eastern Washington: Eastern Washington beats Central Arkansas 31-14. Attendance = 6,085.
At North Dakota: Richmond beats North Dakota 27-24. Attendance = 9,837.
At The Citadel: Wofford beats The Citadel 17-3. Attendance = 10,326.
At James Madison: James Madison beats New Hampshire 55-22. Attendance = 13,231.
At North Dakota State: North Dakota State beats San Diego 45-7. Attendance = 18,305.
At Jacksonville State: Youngstown State beats Jacksonville State 40-24. Attendance = 18,838.

[ST_Lawson]

I heard that there were roughly 8k fans at the SDSU/'Nova game.

MVFC teams were 3-0 today, including a dominant upset of #3 Jacksonville State by Youngstown State.

Next week's games will be:

#8 South Dakota State at #1 North Dakota State (so at least one MVFC team will be knocked out of the playoffs next week)
#5 Sam Houston State at #4 James Madison
Richmond at #2 Eastern Washington
Wofford vs Youngstown State - this one is interesting, both teams unseeded, which means they go to bids. Apparently each team submits bids for each round in case of a situation like this where neither team is unseeded. It hasn't been officially posted on the NCAA site, but according to people on the AGS forum it sounds like it's likely to be at YSU (just noticed that Wofford's athletics site is listing the game being at YSU, so that looks like what will happen).

EDIT - Yup, looks like that was correct. Here's the official times, dates, and locations for the games next weekend:
[tweet]805261136128053248[/tweet]

[meganeck]

Scott, interested to hear your thoughts on San Diego winning their 1st round game, sounds like it was kind of historic.

I'll say it again, I'm surprised Bo Pelini's name is not being mentioned more for FBS jobs. Has turned YSU around and didn't do a bad job at Nebraska.

[ST_Lawson]

Scott, interested to hear your thoughts on San Diego winning their 1st round game, sounds like it was kind of historic.

I'll say it again, I'm surprised Bo Pelini's name is not being mentioned more for FBS jobs. Has turned YSU around and didn't do a bad job at Nebraska.

It was historic. The first time a Pioneer League team has won a playoff game. This is a pretty big deal because Pioneer League teams don't award scholarships for football, so it's kinda a weird situation where the teams are somewhere between a DI team (which they technically are according to the NCAA) and a DIII team (who doesn't award scholarships). You generally don't have the talent level of even a partial scholarship FCS team, but they do have other incentives, plus the ability to participate in the FCS playoffs. And sometimes you get lucky with a really good player that maybe wants to stay local or just otherwise likes the school, like USD's RB Jonah Hodges who averaged 123.7 yards per game and 18 TDs in 11 regular season games, was an all-conference selection, and from what I've heard from Bison fans about their game, he's a guy who could legitimately play on any FCS team. He ran for 93 yards and caught 68 yards against NDSU. Hodges is from Santa Cruz, CA, was on the team at UCLA for two years (redshirt + bench) and played in a couple of games, then transferred to USD and played for 3 years: http://www.usdtoreros.com/sports/m-foot ... 87438.html

As a team, San Diego is really the epitome of a "scrappy" team...not always having the size or obvious talent advantage, but playing together well, being well coached, and knowing how to fight to the end. I do think it's cool that a Pioneer League team won a playoff game, since it kinda validates their autobid...and I'm glad that it didn't end up being Dayton last year

As for Bo, I think a big part of why he's not being mentioned a lot is because of his current contract and situation. The Nebraska money keeps paying him until...maybe 2017 or 2018. Right now Pelini can be in a much more relaxed situation, essentially at "home", and still get paid big $. He gets ~$213k per year from YSU, but because of his contract with Nebraska, they have to continue paying him ~$1.5M per year also. Once that money runs out, as long as he's got YSU still near the top, I think he'll be in line for at least something of a step up. If he wants to stay local, maybe an Ohio MAC team, or possibly even someplace like Pitt. I don't see him going right back to the Big 10, Big 12, SEC, or PAC 12 probably though.