Leatherneck Nation

Right, it's not about the team being good or not. They could be an NAIA team that the week before went down to Tuscaloosa and knocked off Alabama, but it still wouldn't count for us in terms of playoff eligibility. This also applies to any DII or DIII teams....St. Xavier, Quincy, Truman State, Northwest Missouri State, University of Indy....as far as the FCS playoff committee is concerned...they do not count.

As far as the playoff committee is concerned, we play 10 games next season:
Our regular conference games - 8
Our return game at Northern Arizona - 1
Our (hopefully) FBS $ game - 1

If we do schedule an FBS game, and we don't win it, then we're down to 9 winnable games, meaning if we lose 3 others (NAU and/or conference games), we're essentially out of the playoffs (we got the benefit of the doubt on a 6-5 season with the toughest schedule in the FCS...we will not get that benefit if we finish with 6 wins with our current schedule).

Compare that to this season, we're playing 11 games that count, so assuming we lose our FBS game (not assured, obviously...it's still "winnable"), then we can lose 3 other games and still finish 7-4 overall, which will get us into the playoffs.

7-4 record is no guarantee of getting into playoffs. Just ask the Penguins who were 8-4 back in 2013. If you are trending poorly at end of season, you ain't going nowhere. The committee wants the 24 best teams going forward. They definitely will be considering "What have you done for me lately?".

Northern Arizona did not get an invite last year with their 7-4 record.

They were 5-3 in the Big Sky Conference finishing behind Southern Utah (7-1), Portland State (6-2), and Montana (6-2).

Some valid points on the & 7-4.

I think the committee last year agreed that MVFC was the strongest conference in FCS.

Western was third in the standings in the MVFC with the all important tie breakers over UNI and SDSU. Western also had the strongest SOS in the land (1 or 2).

Committee can't very well give other conferences more than 3 teams in and not let the 3rd team in from the strongest conference.

Strength of Schedule matters as did some all important tie breakers. Yes it does appear consideration is given to how a team is trending also.

As for the committee wanting the best 24 teams in.

I will never understand why the Pioneer Football League got an Auto bid. They don't play scholarship football. There are some weird quirks. So a win against Valpo counts but a win against Northwest Missouri St. or Grand Valley St. doesn't. Pioneer football is D-III in sheeps clothing.

RedNeck wrote:As for the committee wanting the best 24 teams in.

I will never understand why the Pioneer Football League got an Auto bid. They don't play scholarship football. There are some weird quirks. So a win against Valpo counts but a win against Northwest Missouri St. or Grand Valley St. doesn't. Pioneer football is D-III in sheeps clothing.

Schedule update for 2016, kickoff time for the NIU game in two weeks is set for 2:30 PM.

[tweet]775409420171968512[/tweet]

so i was on the usd board and they were talking conference scheduling i was wondering if anyone knows what formula is used to decide who we don't play for a 2 year period.

leatherneckcountry wrote:so i was on the usd board and they were talking conference scheduling i was wondering if anyone knows what formula is used to decide who we don't play for a 2 year period.

I'm not really sure, I know that it rotates, and I know that there was some stipulation that the eastern teams wouldn't have to go to the Dakota schools as often to save on travel costs, but I don't know what it was specifically. If you want to take a look and see if you can parse out a pattern, here's the three "bye matchups" that we've had so far for the conference (instituted when USD joined the conference in 2012). I don't have any actual info on what the next set will be in 2018, just fyi.

2012/2013
Western Illinois & North Dakota State
Northern Iowa & Indiana State
Illinois State & South Dakota State
Missouri State & Youngstown State
South Dakota & Southern Illinois

2014/2015
Northern Iowa & Youngstown State
North Dakota State & Illinois State
South Dakota & Indiana State
Western Illinois & Missouri State
South Dakota State & Southern Illinois

2016/2017
Western Illinois & Youngstown State
Indiana State & South Dakota State
Southern Illinois & North Dakota State
South Dakota & Missouri State
Illinois State & Northern Iowa

What I can tell you is that if you divide the conference by the Mississippi River (which would put 5 teams on each side), there's only two of the pairings (out of 15 so far) that don't cross the river. All the rest would involve a flight from one side of the river to the other. The two that would not are both this season: WIU & YSU (still a pretty far distance since we're the closest to the river and YSU by quite a bit the furthest east team) and USD & MSU (which is a pretty fair distance North/South although doesn't cross the Mississippi).

So, take from that what you will, but it looks like that's the general idea they're going for.

If that is indeed the rough "pattern" they're going for, then the "cross-river" pairings that have not happened yet are:
WIU and SDSU or UNI
ISUr and USD or MSU
SIU and UNI or MSU
ISUb and NDSU or MSU
YSU and a Dakota school

Which means that, if the conference makeup stays the same and that's what they're going for, then you could likely see something like one of these in 2018/2019:

WIU & SDSU
ISUb & NDSU
YSU & USD
ISUr & MSU
SIU & UNI

or

WIU & UNI
SIU & MSU
ISUr & USD
ISUb & NDSU
YSU & SDSU

Anyway, those are just a few "educated guesses" based on what I've heard from other conference members and what we've seen in terms of scheduling so far. Most of what I've heard from other conference members is essentially some of the people at the far western conference members not real happy that they always get paired up with an eastern conference member. It's not always the case, but the last few years, it seems like the "strength" of the conference has been concentrated on the west side (NDSU, SDSU, UNI). That's starting to turn around now with Illinois State having done well the last couple of years, ourselves getting better, and YSU apparently getting a bit better as well. But what it's meant is that the "stronger" schools over the last few years have rarely been paired with other "strong" schools, which makes their route through the conference a bit tougher.

We had Patty V in the house last weekend and nobody asked her how the scheduling rotation was handled? I am losing faith in y'all.