Somehow it doesn't seem right that we we passed SE Louisiana after we beat Texas A&M Commerce, but they lost to Mississippi State, but logic was never the strength of these polls.
I don’t see an argument why Weber is ahead of Idaho, Sac and Davis. They just had a solid but not overwhelming win over a D2 team. If they hadn’t lost so many transfers and their head coach, I could understand but they are not a known quantity They actually moved up after gaining only 306 yards against a D2 team. I’ll be surprised if they upset Northern Iowa.
The FCS and DII and DIII still have regional qualities. A region wants to know that it is important enough to have some teams in the ranking. The thought being that it helps retain interest in the local team and the regional league. When you have play-offs that are large the cream rises, so I just take early rankings and regional basis with a grain of salt.
Holy Cross played SDSU tough on the playoffs last year. They have a hard-nosed QB who can run. They are down only 21-24 against Boston College of the ACC early in the 3rd.
Furman tends to be overranked for the same reason Montana does - past glory years. They were pretty good last year.
yah, BC is not good. HC did as good or better against the Jacks than Montana State. SDSU was just better than everyone else - especially by the end of the season.
Ags move up one place in the STATS Perform FCS Poll (click to enlarge the image).
Big Sky Teams:
#3 Montana State
#4 Sac State
#7 Idaho
#10 Weber State
#13 Montana
#15 Aggies
#28 EWU
Others Receiving Votes (schools listed on two or more ballots): UT Martin 96; Southeastern Louisiana 72; Eastern Washington 68; Northern Iowa 57;Central Arkansas 50; Fordham 37; Campbell 33; Abilene Christian 30; UAlbany 19; Tennessee State 11; Gardner-Webb 8; Tarleton State 8; Austin Peay 6; Eastern Illinois 4; Harvard 2; Stephen F. Austin 2
Montana is always over-ranked. They schedule out of conference patsies - except I guess d2 Ferris State who held Montana to under 200 yards offense. They are the only team I know who could have a .500 record and still get a playoff invite. Of course by padding their OOC schedule - they will likely get 6 wins and that will always get them into the playoffs.
I remembered that the Montanas always seem to have six home games and five away games, while most other FCS teams have five home games and six away games. I haven't checked their schedule lately, but I presume it still holds true.
The division of home and road games is always about money. If UCD were willing to pay someone else what it took to get them to fly in they could have six home games, but they have at least 1 game each year where they play someone who on paper is supposed to squash them (Oregon State) to get a payout. We can say all we want that it's for the players' experience but it's all about the money. That payout likely easily trumps what revenue UCD could have gotten from hosting so there you are. Until UCD stops with the patsy games they will likely always have fewer home games.
There is also the possibility to play FBS teams that aren’t from Power conferences, like San Jose State, Nevada etc. Those two would be great to have on the schedule because the game is likely to be more competitive, and they are close enough so Davis fans could increase the gate receipts.
there are only 3 non-conference games and league games are penciled in far in advance CD and are generally home and home given the inability to play all league teams in a given year. So, to get 6 home games means in average you need 2 of 3 non-conference games at home. Playing an FBS team will be away regardless, so you would need a fixed schedule of 2 patsies that you bring in. Recently UCD has consistently been playing one FBS
Team so that would need to be offset by a consistent scheduling of a team that visits (and not a home and home arrangement. The reason Montana always has more home games is that they bring in patsies (and can afford too with their ticket sales and attendance). So Davis is not scheduling patsies (at least not 2) so I don’t understand your last sentence. I do like RiverAggies thought of scheduling close group of 5 teams. Of course those will be away but more Aggie fans would attend. But those would not get as many Aggie fans as a game with Cal or Stanford.