We have a choice between a senior who has hardly played, two 3 star 2024 recruits or 4! projected 3 star star 2025 recruits. They would be foolish not to have a competition.

Perez has two seasons where he played in three or four games, the second of those, last year was due to injury. So he has a redshirt year and a year he could petition for, might be here for two more years.

Davis roster makes no attempt to list eligibility, just academic class level. Look at every recruit from 2023 they are all listed as sophomores. Red shirt years are not declared. I do think they rely on accurate participation records, not something in evidence at Davis.

Alternatively based on Sagarin ratings:

Sac State’s primary reason for offering scholarships and later moving to 1AA was because they couldn’t compete in the non scholarship environment. Within a few years they couldn’t compete with Davis when they were 1AA and Davis was Div 2.

Montana State has played consistently well throughout the season wheras Davis has only played to that same level for the last few games. Davis had a pattern of giving up scores late to make games they had control of early narrow wins. Idaho game is an example of that.
Montana State’s statistical advantage over Davis is their defense, both in points allowed and yardage totals, but Davis is narrowing that gap over the last few games.

Idaho is in the conversation for a top eight seed only by people who haven’t noticed the Davis win over Montana. That ended the but who have they played argument against Davis, as now they can say they beat Idaho and Montana.
Idaho’s out of conference schedule appeared tougher early in the season than it appears now. Wyoming is a weak FBS team and Albany and Abilene Christian are weaker than Southern Utah

I’m not sure if his helmet came off, but i think it was this play:
SG] HASTINGS, Miles pass up the middle complete for 8 yards to DOBBINS, Stacy caught at the UM45 and advanced to the UM45 (GRADNEY, Trevin), 1ST DOWN. PENALTY UM Face mask on GRADNEY, Trevin enforced 15 yards from the end of the play at the UM45 to the UM30 and results in automatic 1ST DOWN.

The next game is a bigger game than yesterday’s., because its for the league title.
I would say it is bigger than a than a first or second round playoff game. Part of that is Davis has such a loss streak going with this team, similar to Eastern Washington.

Davis was not below average 1AA team in most of the Biggs era. 2006 they were ranked half the season and beat Montana State on the road 45-0. In 2008 they lost to a ranked Montana team by five points in Montana
They played in a conference which often has 3 of the 5 teams ranked.North Dakota State, South Dakota State and Cal Poly were all ranked teams. They beat San Jose State in 2010. They did hover around .500 but with a tough schedule.

Delaware is transitioning, which is why they are unranked. Not much of an upset if at all.

It is just math for the computer rankings. No bias, thats what the algorithm yields.
By the way we look better in a tiny way because East Texas A&M won against Stephen F Austin, and SUU beat Northern Alabama.

i don’t think bidding is involved. Sixteen team are seeded top eight get a bye, next eight get a home game.

Plough press availability after game[
https://406mtsports.com/uc-davis-coach-tim-plough-on-30-14-win-at-montana/video_743bfbd6-3f45-597c-8cd1-605e042f5a73.html

This is a big win for all the reasons you mention, but it is far from the biggest upset, that has to be the Stanford game.
This game Davis’ defense really stepped up. They’ve gotten a lot of credit for the last two years, but mostly for drive stopping plays, not for a complete game, like this one where they held the score down, yield little yardage, forced turnovers and turnovers on downs. Won the physical battle.

Biggs mentored Plough as a coach, he and Moroski let Plough call plays when Plough was 25 years old. Plough owes his coaching career to Biggs.

Mateo Perez is not in his last year of eligibility.

I'm a fan of tradition, but that cheer seems like a joke I don’t get. There must be some meaning to it.
The cheerleaders used to stand on metal milk bottles which I’m ok with.

Portland State travels by bus to and from Sacramento. according to the TV broadcast team. Strange considering airports near both cities.

Sagarin now has the ratings for Montana State and Davis separated only by seven points, and Davis will be home.
Montana State hasn’t played their toughest opponents yet, Montana and Davis. Bobcats have looked good winning but no better than Davis the last few weeks. The thing that separates them is Montana State’s defense has been tough all year but Davis has the potential to be better than shown most of the season.

Dobbins played. Why do you think he might be hurt?