Penn @ Princeton shouldn't matter for playoff implications, right? Since the Ivies don't participate in playoffs?

True, but I'm glad the Sac State seniors will get to be honored on a neutral site instead of Aggie Stadium (awkward). Besides, can't we just do senior night celebrations when we host a playoff game?? :wink:

I think SDSU finally got an indoor stadium, but could be wrong

Nice! Was John Faletoese the last Aggie on the Buchanan watch list?

The loss itself will matter more than our ultimate place in the Big Sky standings. And, I'm pretty sure that the tiebreakers are for determining who gets the autobid but not for anything else -- the three teams would be conference co-champions with all the same glory other than the autobid. The autobid is much more important for our basketball teams because only one Big West squad will get to the Big Dance ... in FCS football, we're in a power conference and finishing 9-2 is what the committee will care about more.

TLDR: I don't think losing to EWU would deny us the #1 spot in the standings (assuming we beat Sac State), but it would deny the autobid which doesn't matter for our qualification. But losing will of course still affect playoff placement.

Yep just finished watching it. They had a 3rd and 21 with 40 seconds left on the clock. QB completed a pass to get 19 of those yards but on 4th and 2 they can't spike the ball and QB snaps the ball without a play called. As he's trying to direct WRs from the backfield with time expired, he gets strip sacked and ISU escapes with the win.

We definitely want ISU to win. If they lose, it's very likely we go into EWU with 0 wins against top 25 opponents. Conference championship would be nice but a playoff seed is more important IMO. That, and if we don't win the Big Sky it will likely be because of EWU or Weber.

I gusss anything can happen in the BSC but I just can't imagine ISU, Weber, and EWU all losing on Saturday along with UCD winning. Too remote of a scenario.

UND games count as conference games but UND can't win the league.

The Big Sky is probably the only league in the country where a non-conference team can affect your conference record and sometimes a conference team can't.

I think Bige70 is referring to the playing time for punters, which were in abundance for both Schmidt and Wadman during their times with the team.

Yeah, this is interesting because it does suggest that losing to an FBS will still hurt your consideration. Most people just assume that an FBS loss just gets thrown out. Of course, it does say SRS isn't dispositive so I'm sure a loss to a team like Cal wouldn't be the sole reason for not making it in. And a win over Cal will still matter more than a win over SJSU.

What a way to make up for previously going winless against Montana in 7 tries!

In case anyone's interested: http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/gwfc/sports/m-footbl/auto_pdf/GWFCPreview-Part2.pdf

So crazy to see the trajectories that the GWFC teams have taken over the past decade, and to remember the level of competitiveness among those teams week in and week out.

I just took a 6 am trip down memory lane by reading some of your 2006-2007 Great West write-ups. Was a student back then and really enjoyed following the team through your written coverage seeing as how we couldn't just turn on ESPN for GWFC analysis. Seeing names like John Faletoese, Jon Grant, Tony Kays, Chris Carter ... good times!

Why did he pull himself from the game?

I hope Hawk doesn't take that same approach next year with Cal and NDSU. There's no way Memorial Stadium could prepare a team for the Fargodome. And we won't be able to take half the game off against the Bison.

Theyre going to split the UCD fan vote

I'm really curious whether the selection committee's picks on 10/31 will reflect or consider the STATS and Coaches poll, or how much it will depart from them. Kennesaw State is currently #2 in both polls despite playing a fairly weak schedule (although, they have been dominating all of their opponents). Their only loss was a 20-24 defeat to FBS Georgia State, currently 2-6.

Kennesaw State has an OOC game against Jacksonville State in the last week of the season, which will probably be our best chance of stealing the #2 seed from them if we win out. It's just odd to me that a 10-1 Big Sky team might be seeded lower than a 10-1 Big South team just because of polling momentum (again, assuming the selection committee looks at what the media and coaches are thinking), especially when the Big Sky team actually has the FBS win whereas the Big South team doesn't.

I think the disparity between KSU and UCD in both polls really helps reveal that East Coast bias is alive and well. Comparing the two teams this year is like comparing apples to apples: Both programs are looking at their first FCS playoff berth, so it's not like KSU is getting the institutional memory benefit of the doubt that other programs like Montana would enjoy (KSU football is only in its 3rd year of existence). Both teams are undefeated in FCS play, but one plays in a conference with 7 teams in the Massey top 50 (8 if you count common opponent UND) and the other plays in a conference with only 2 teams in the Massey top 50. Both programs played an FBS team with only 1 FBS win so far (SJSU would be 2-6 as well if they had beaten us), but we won ours and they lost theirs.

Not trying to look ahead too much, but this conversation is worth having right now especially since the selection committee will be releasing their preliminary picks on Wednesday. #3 would of course be fantastic, but #2 would mean not having to fly cross country to Georgia to play KSU if both teams make it to the semifinals.

We used to consistently be one of the first teams out of playoff eligibility (as defined by not being able to get to 7 Division I wins). This season, we're one of the first -- only 2 other teams have 7+ Division I wins at this point in the season. NDSU (8-0) got there last week and Colgate (7-0) got there yesterday along with us.

Hawk getting that penalty might have helped ignite a fire in the team. It sucks to lose 15 yards, but sometimes players need to see that their coach has their back and will go to bat for them.

It think we've all just been conditioned for the past decade to not expect comebacks like the one we saw today or two weeks ago vs ISU. At halftime I felt that same disappointing, defeated feeling that a win would be highly unlikely.

Today's game showed that we have an entirely different team now requiring a different (and more enjoyable) fan mentality. Two years ago, 3-21 would have turned into 3-52 or something ridiculous by late in the 4th quarter. But instead it turned into 49-21 -- similar to the 3 possession comeback we mounted vs. ISU. Exciting times!