Spring Football Week 10+ around the region (FCS Playoffs)

[ST_Lawson]

Going to just use this as the final thread for spring and I'll just keep adding to it each weekend. The FCS playoff bracket has been announced. It's a 16-team bracket this year, with only the top 4 seeded. Out of those 16 teams, 5 of them are MVFC teams...that's 4 of the 6 at-large selections.

2:00 PM - Holy Cross at #1 South Dakota State
2:30 PM - Eastern Washington at North Dakota State
3:00 PM - Southern Illinois at Weber State
3:00 PM - Missouri State at North Dakota

Other than SDSU getting the #1 spot, the rest of the seeds are #2 Sam Houston State, #3 James Madison, and #4 Jacksonville State.

The full bracket is available here: https://www.ncaa.com/brackets/football/fcs/2021

Other Games
6 PM - Truman State at University of Indianapolis (GLVC Championship game, DII)
Baker (KS) at Morningside (IA) - NAIA tournament
Northwestern (IA) at Grand View (IA) - NAIA tournament

Here were the results of last weekend's NAIA games: https://www.naia.org/sports/fball/2020- ... ound-Recap

[wiu712]

FCS Playoffs: First Round Games:

#4 Jacksonville State beat Davidson 49-14. Attendance at Jacksonville State = 5,326.

#2 Sam Houston State beat Monmouth University 21-15. Attendance at Sam Houston State = 2,078.

#3 James Madison beat VMI 31-24. Attendance at James Madison = 6,011.

#1 South Dakota State beat Holy Cross 31-3. Attendance at South Dakota State = 2,998.

Southern Illinois beat Weber State 34-31. Attendance at Weber State = 4,033.

North Dakota State beat Eastern Washington 42-20. Attendance at North Dakota State = 3,587.

North Dakota beat Missouri State 44-10. Attendance at North Dakota = 3,074.

Delaware beat Sacred Heart 19-10. Attendance at Delaware = 3,175.


GLVC Championship Game:
U-Indy beat Truman State 46-29. Attendance at Indianapolis = 600.

[ST_Lawson]

Here's the FCS Playoff games this weekend. Since there's only 4 and 3 of them involve MVFC teams, I'll go ahead and list them all:
2 PM - North Dakota State at #2 Sam Houston State (ESPN)
2 PM - Delaware at #4 Jacksonville State (ESPN3)
5 PM - North Dakota at #3 James Madison (ESPN2)
8 PM - Southern Illinois at #1 South Dakota State (ESPN2)

Over with the NAIA, last weekend Northwestern (IA) beat Grand View (IA) 27-24, and Morningside (IA) beat Baker (KS), 45-29.
So, in that bracket, Northwestern will play at Morningside next weekend with the winner going on to the NAIA championship game to play the winner of Keiser (FL) at Lindsey Wilson (KY).

EDIT - Didn't realize initially, but this weekend's FCS playoff games are all taking place on Sunday (I assume so they don't have to compete with the NFL draft).

[wiu712]

#2 Sam Houston State beat North Dakota State 24-20. Attendance at Sam Houston State = 4,984.

Delaware beat #4 Jacksonville State 20-14. Attendance at Jacksonville State = 8,023.

#3 James Madison beat North Dakota 34-21. Attendance at James Madison = 5,854.

#1 South Dakota State beat Southern Illinois 31-26. Attendance at South Dakota State = 3,547.

[ST_Lawson]

FCS Playoffs Semifinals Games
5/8 at 11 AM - Delaware at South Dakota State (ESPN)
5/8 at 1:30 PM - James Madison at Sam Houston State (ABC)

In the NAIA, Northwestern (IA) beat Morningside (IA), 44-41. Morningside was the 2-time defending champions and their last loss before Saturday was in the NAIA playoffs in 2017. Northwestern will take on Lindsey Wilson (KY) at Eddie G. Robinson Stadium in Grambling, LA on May 10th at 6 PM for the NAIA championship game.

[meganeck]

So what is the deal with North Dakota St? did they just have a lot of opt outs? not really caring? Obviously Lance would make a huge difference . Just curious, can't really get into spring football.

[ST_Lawson]

So what is the deal with North Dakota St? did they just have a lot of opt outs? not really caring? Obviously Lance would make a huge difference . Just curious, can't really get into spring football.

• Lost a few key players who decided to go for the NFL draft
• the "next man up" QB is not quite up to the level of the last 4-5 QBs
• just a "down year" for NDSU
• they lost to Sam Houston State, who probably has the best defense in the FCS right now. SHSU beat #7 Nicholls 71-17 and #25 UIW 42-14 earlier this season. They're averaging 17.5 points allowed per game with much of that in a high-scoring win against #18 Southeastern LA (43-38).

So, a number of things, but most people on AGS aren't ready to consider the Bison Dynasty "over" until we see how they do in the fall. There have been some grumblings that maybe Entz can't quite recruit as well as Bohl and Klieman did, and that we're now starting to see the drop off as Klieman's recruits are starting to be replaced by Entz's recruits, but it's still pretty early in that process, so I think more data is needed before that hypothesis is proven true or not.

[meganeck]

So what is the deal with North Dakota St? did they just have a lot of opt outs? not really caring? Obviously Lance would make a huge difference . Just curious, can't really get into spring football.

• Lost a few key players who decided to go for the NFL draft
• the "next man up" QB is not quite up to the level of the last 4-5 QBs
• just a "down year" for NDSU
• they lost to Sam Houston State, who probably has the best defense in the FCS right now. SHSU beat #7 Nicholls 71-17 and #25 UIW 42-14 earlier this season. They're averaging 17.5 points allowed per game with much of that in a high-scoring win against #18 Southeastern LA (43-38).

So, a number of things, but most people on AGS aren't ready to consider the Bison Dynasty "over" until we see how they do in the fall. There have been some grumblings that maybe Entz can't quite recruit as well as Bohl and Klieman did, and that we're now starting to see the drop off as Klieman's recruits are starting to be replaced by Entz's recruits, but it's still pretty early in that process, so I think more data is needed before that hypothesis is proven true or not.

Yeah I won't judge their downfall until I see how they do in the fall, thanks for kinda the rundown on whats going on with them

[wiu712]

FCS Semi-Final Games:

#1 South Dakota State beat Delaware 33-3. Attendance at South Dakota State = 4,527.

#2 Sam Houston State beat #3 James Madison 38-35. James Madison led at the half 24-3. Sam Houston State scored 28 points in just 5 minutes. Attendance at Sam Houston State = 4,538.

[sealhall74]

Gronowski is a beast. How did he not end up in the B1G playing a lot closer to home? I wonder if some coaches shied away because he also played some hoops and baseball at Nequa Valley in Naperville.