Abilene Christian is ranked #14 and literally just beat SUU last week. SUU is unranked.

For me the main difference between MSU and UCD is how we each played Idaho in our home stadiums. Granted, Idaho was plagued with injuries when they played MSU and Bozeman is not Davis but I still think the margin of victory shows how good MSU is.

All of this just demonstrates how small the margin for error is in the Big Sky, especially this year. The BSC has so many sub-.500 teams that there’s only a couple opportunities to get quality wins. Really makes having a strong OOC schedule important. Idaho is still in conversation for a top 8 seed because although they lost both games in BSC play that were opportunities for quality wins (MSU, UCD), they played a really strong OOC and only lost to #1 FBS Oregon throughout it.

If we beat both teams and win out it would be crazy for the committee to not give UCD at least the #2 seed. We would be undefeated in FCS play, which only one other team (NDSU if they win out) would be able to say. Conference championship would be amazing but I think Saturday’s game is also for home field advantage throughout playoffs, until Frisco.

yeah that’s not a knock on Biggs. He accomplished so much with far fewer resources than most others would have been able.

Biggs shared on the podcast how the Hayward miracle win really solidified the team’s identity and philosophy in a way that launched the 37 year winning season streak. Every win helps your season but some do a lot more for your program than others do. That’s the metric I’m trying to apply here (without the benefit of foresight) but I completely agree that by other equally valid metrics the Stanford game was probably the greatest win in Aggie history.

Stanford was definitely the bigger upset but I don’t know if it advanced the program all that much. We were a below average Division 1AA team stuck in neutral for most if not all years from 2005 until when Hawk took over. The jury is obviously still out for how this season will shape up, how Plough will be able to build on its success, and what role this win has in all that but it just seems like in the larger context, this win has the chance to matter a lot more for the trajectory of Aggie football than the Stanford win did. Here’s hoping, at least.

Montana’s AD was until recently. This year the big sky rep is the sac state AD.

I wasn’t around during the D2 days but imo it was the biggest win in program history given all the context/implications:

- The game itself: Did not just win, but won comfortably, in a very hostile environment, where all 3 phases showed up in a big way
- The season: Even losing to MSU and beating sac gives us a resume for top 4 seed.
- The program: Take the above 2 things and add a national television audience, and handily defeating not just another top 10 team this season but also one of the most successful programs in FCS. The win is huge for the momentum of our season but also for the momentum of our program. And another solid performance under the brightest lights by Lan could only have helped his draft stock, which is also ultimately good for the program.
- The record books: Establishes a new win streak for # of undefeated games in D1.

It’s hard to think of another game that comes close. Maybe our home playoff game in 2018 or the 2005 Stanford win.

I’ve been very interested this season in following other fan podcasts and forums, and the general consensus has been that UCD is good but not really that great (the Tubs guys still think Idaho would beat UCD if they played again, and a lot of Big Sky fans treat our PSU game as a loss). The team has had to prove itself over and over again and maybe after this game it will finally get the respect it deserves. To me, this game was the definition of a statement win: our coaching staff, players, and program announcing to the rest of FCS that UCD football is on the rise.

I'm curious how Massey has 3-5 Sac State favored over 7-1 UCD?

I think that as of 2023, both the STATS poll and coaches poll are actually official criteria that are taken into consideration by the selection committee:

https://www.ncaa.com/news/football/article/2023-10-26/south-dakota-state-montana-state-lead-fcs-football-committees-top-10

EDIT: This was just 2023. Sam Herder reported today that the committee will no longer consider the two polls in seeding and at-large berth determinations.

https://x.com/SamHerderFCS/status/1850964365588984100

I don’t know if this would help us? Wouldn’t it be to our benefit for MSU to be ranked as high as possible entering our game with them? If we lose we won’t drop too far and if we win we move up and have a top 3 win for the playoff committee’s consideration. Winning a share of the title with MSU where they have the H2H doesn’t seem as important as our playoff seeding.

Great episode as always. Thanks for all that you two and what you've done to make even better what's turning out to be a special season. The perspective at the end is important: regardless of whether this will be a meteoric rise or if things ultimately fall apart, let's enjoy every moment of this. That's true of football as it is of life.

I think 7 wins (5-3 BSC) including a win over a Top 10 team at least gets SAC on the road again for Round 1 — Kadeezy

Also, you literally just described UCD last year (Sac was no. 6 entering Causeway and we ended the season with 7 wins, 5-3 BSC). And that was an 11 game season. Most playoff teams this year will likely have 8 wins or more.

UCD was 7-3 in the FCS and Sac was 7-4 overall. But the committee said it was comparing two 7-4 teams and, despite the H2H, said Sac deserved to be in because of its win over FBS Stanford. So if Sac does get to 7 wins I'm really hoping the committee takes the same approach as last year and leaves Sac out as as a 7-5 team.

But back to your original point -- yes, we all remember how conflicted we felt knowing that Sac had to enter Causeway highly ranked for that game to significantly help us. Time for you to visit the UCD bookstore and buy some Aggie gear between now and Causeway.

Villanova will drop out of the top 5 but I don’t think SDSU will. On Monday, NDSU will be #1, SDSU and MSU will be #2 and #3 (probably in that order since SDSU barely lost), USD will be #4, and UCD will be #5 (!).

Next weekend, MSU and UCD have byes, NDSU gets 1-6 Murray State, and SDSU plays USD. Unless the SDSU/USD score is very lopsided I don’t see how we would jump either team to get into the top 4. USD losing a close game to SDSU probably won’t cause voters to rank UCD higher and SDSU losing a close game to USD probably means they just switch places.

It's fun to watch. Hutton can run like a RB, Tompkins can throw like a QB, and Larison obviously can throw, run, and catch.

Sac was pretty much in the same position we were in early in the 4th... up by 17 and about to score. However, they tried a HB pass in the red zone that became a pick six and suddenly Weber had life again. Why go with a trick play when you're up 17 points and can ice the game away with a couple rushes into the endzone?!

Villanova got blown out by Maine today, so on Monday the Ags will be the #5 team in the nation.

This is what we all look forward to every Tuesday morning.

Same, “madness” really is the perfect word to describe what happens when they do it. The crowd gets noticeably louder than it is the rest of the game. I always thought that Aggie Pack should save Tube Sock Madness for the opponents’ critical late game 3rd and 4th down plays. If Plough wants a hostile home environment we can start by picking strategic times to shoot tube socks at our fans.