Doesn't look pretty based on the stats (36% on FGs and 22 TO's) but a win is a win in the tourney.

Now get a day off before Irvine on Friday.

For sure. Of the lower seeded teams, I'm sure we're the team the top 4 didn't want to play.

After blowing it in the tourney a couple years when we were clearly the best team, plus not having a chance in 2020, we're owed an underdog run.

Last 5 years in the league: 64-10
This year in the league: 7-8

The last 5 years were a hell of a run and hopefully this year is just a blip. Of course we are losing 3 senior starters who are averaging a combined 90 minutes per game this year so some younger players are going to need to step up next year.

Having it in Vegas is a very dumb idea. You're basically giving a middle finger to all the fans. Anaheim was great because it was nearby all the SoCal schools.

Home sites for each round wouldn't work because of too much travel and they like having the games on consecutive days. However, it is relatively common in the smaller conferences to have the #1 seed host the whole tournament.

No need speculating what next year is going to be right now when we don't even know where we're going to be in 2 months. For example, the rolling 7 day average for new cases yesterday was 215K in the US. On December 9, the rolling 7 day average for new cases was 122K. So Omicron completely blew up and is just as quickly going away in the US in the span of 2 months. We can only hope that not only do the variants continue to be less and less serious, but that they start becoming less transmissible as well.

If Covid is essentially the flu by next season (which, as it currently stands, Covid is still way worse than the flu) then I imagine we'll treat it as such.

Todd Graham is awful. Just willing to take the money that’s out there. I wouldn’t believe a thing the dude said if I was a parent of a kid he was recruiting.

Left Rice after 1 year to go to Tulsa, who was in the same conference so it’s not like he went to a bigger school. Also left Pitt after 1 year to go to Arizona St. This was when Pitt was in the Big East and that conference still got a BCS bowl bid so it’s not like he went from a non Power 5 to a Power 5 school.

Repeatedly leaving after 1 year at a school is not a good look, especially under the circumstances Graham did it under where it wasn’t a real upgrade.

From what I've read on these things, the more contagious a variant is, the less deadly it is, which is what we're seeing with Omicron. Makes sense because if it's more deadly, it kills people before it can spread as much. Less deadly means people don't get nearly as sick and therefore the virus can spread easier.

And that tracks with the stats movielover posted. Omicron cases shot up out of nowhere and in some places, have started to drop dramatically also. Hospitalization and death rates have been much lower than Delta. One thing I saw was that Omicron spreads in the upper respiratory system but not the lungs, which is where it does the most damage.

We'll have to see what the next variant brings though.

That was my instinct as well on the spread. If it gets over the 10, I might jump on it.

First spread I've seen is NDST -9.5.

None this year according to wikipedia. They've got a list of all FCS over FBS wins.

Last time it happened was in 2019, Central Arkansas beat Western Kentucky, which went 9-4 and played in a bowl. Also happened once in 2018 and 2017. In 2016 though, 5 FCS team beat FBS teams that went to bowls. That appears to be an outlier though.

So it happens, but it's still fairly rare. Most of the FCS over FBS upsets involve FBS teams that end the year with 3 or fewer wins.

Random little fun fact:

Starting in 2010, Montana State has been in the playoffs 7 times, including this year. Of their six losses, three were to NDST (10, 18, 19), two were to Sam Houston St (11, 12) and one was to SDST (14). They've knocked off two of those teams already and get to face the third in the final.

I'd also recommend repeating what they did defensively this year against Sam Houston and SDST (19 points and 17 points) rather than what they did in the six previous playoff losses (34+ points allowed in all six games, 40+ in five of the six games) if they want to win in three weeks.

Also, good to see another Big Sky team make the final. Only the second time since EW won it in 2010 (EW in 2018).

That was a good game.

Totally agree on the outside hire part. It was absolutely necessary in this case.

North Dakota St -4.5 over JMU
South Dakota St -4.5 over Montana St.

Hopefully the games are as close as the spreads are.

South Dakota State is going to get the chance to eliminate three Big Sky teams if this result holds. Nice to see at least one of the teams make the semis.

Glad to finally see some actual ESPN games rather than ESPN+. Unfortunately, one of the two on ESPN2 is the North Dakota St game which is likely to be the worst game of the weekend.

Montana-JMU on Friday at 4 though.

JMU -6.5 over Montana
SDST -7.5 over Villanova
Sam Houston -5.5 over Montana St
NDSt -23.5 over East Tennessee

And there goes my cover. Ugh.

It was 24-3 at halfitme. This is the first time they've had the ball in the Sac St half in the 2nd half and it's because of an onside kick.