As someone who has a good feel on the landscape on FCS, I’d rather face anyone else on the Ags side of the bracket except UNI from that first round group. I think they will beat Lamar. They are a tough physical team, defense will remind you of the EWU group. OL gonna need to be ready. That said UNI downfall was their performance on the road this year. UCD needs to sell the place out and make it a big advantage.

Not having game on Thanksgiving weekend will help!!!

Buy your tickets now and get your popcorn ready!!!!

Jesus... If we manage to not have a full stadium FOR OUR FIRST D1 PLAYOFF GAME, I will lose it. Get the students there, shut down everything on campus.

And then if we win, we likely travel to EWU for a quarterfinal game / rematch??!!

First things first.

So when will tickets be on sale?

Two weeks to prep, 2 weeks to heal.

Humm baby!

Where should we be looking to buy tickets?

Yup EWU would be a potential rematch.

UNI will smoke Lamar, when they come to UCD They will be a 1 Point fav (if game was played this week). Every other team would be an underdog at UCD on the Ags side of the bracket. Just info so there is some relativity in how teams stack up.

The rest helps. Get healthy. Hit the film room and be ready for the (new) biggest game in Aggie history in 17 years. :)

Also give the smoke a chance to clear out

EWU reportedly had 2-3 injuries in their PSU game.

https://twitter.com/UCDfootball/status/1064211774864424960?s=20

Start telling the students now that the game will be on ESPN of some variety. Get that section ROCKING.

So let me get this straight...we won the conference, are a 6th seed in the playoffs, and are getting a new performance center next year?

The things this will do for recruitment...

yeah, pretty good week

Qualified yes. And ESPN exposure.

It sounds like the grass practice field will come next year. Performance Center. Who knows how long it will take for an architect, campus, UC, state and environmental approval. Plus bidding, design, change orders, etc. But it sounds like ICA is moving quickly.

Blue said that the facility was going to break ground soon after the field. I don't think he has reason to not be truthful about that.

Ticket link

I'd be surprised if we don't sell out.

He's optimistic, which is good. I believe we are also after another 10% ($4 Million?).

90% is more than enough to break ground on a project.

If a project is consistent with the LRDP doesn’t that circumvent much of the approval process? Not in my area of expertise.

UNI will not be favored. Ags will be at least a 7-pt favorite

can tell you with 100% certainty that if the line we’re set today UCD would be a pick em to 1 point underdog pending how much value you assign home field! Trust me. I bet FCS religiously.

Don’t believe me check sagarin which is great way to assign a power rating and determine where 5 dimes will open the game (if it were tomorrow). Again this Is where the line would open. I would expect there to be action on the Aggies and they wound be a favorite by kickoff.

Sagarin:
UNI - 64.42
UCD - 60.64

This says on a neutral field UNI would be a 4 Point favorite. If you assign the typical 3 points for HFA that would make UCD as 1 point dog. Could argue it opens at a pick em but you get my point.

Tomorrow UNI Will open at 26-27 point favorite over LAMAR

These ratings will adjust based on what happens with UNI. if they go out and win by 10 points the rating may shift and UCD opens as a small favorite.

UNI has a ton of respect playing in the best confernce in FCS & having played the toughest schedule in FCS.

Other lines I expect to see tomorrow:
JMU will open around an 18 pt fav over Delly
Montana St about a 12-13 pt fav over IW
Nicholls about an 18 pt fav over USD (former Ags opponent)

Sagarin is only one of many computer rankings, at it weights prior season. It you look at the Massey composite rankings, Sagarin is way down on the list. JMU will be 11-12 fav, Nicholls about 10, and UNI about 20. You're way too bullish on the favorites here.

UNI is not an offensive team. (90th FCS, and 5.1 per play). They actually allow more yards than they gain. If you can't pass, they'll keep the points down. Excellent run defense, so-so pass defense that can be exploited, thus opening up the run. YSU did that. Statistically on offense, similar to Idaho. University of Idaho. Defense has kept them above average.

I’ll post the spreads here later when they drop. I think you’ll be very surprised. If they open the lines you mentioned above they can have all my money on all three favs. That would be way too low. In no world is Nicholls only a 7 Point fav over USD on a nuetral.

Sagarin opens the year weighting prior season, but after about six games prior season out of the picture.
The Sagarin ranking is an average of three rankings one of which is just “recent” games. I notice our ranking in recent games is higher than theirs.
One of the reasons other rating systems have us higher than Sagarin is the they factor in wins and not just points. Sagarin is just points and strength of schedule. We’re higher than Northern Iowa in systems that include wins, they are higher than us based in comparative scores and strength of schedule.
NIU Is middle of the pack in their conference statistics. One thing that jumps out when looking at their depth chart is their offensive linemen are very big guys. Not just heavy but 6’5 to 6’8”. Our defense might be expected to have trouble seeing their QB except he’s 6’5” 238

RIveraggie hits on the most important point imo. The difference between UNI and every other team on UCD’s schedule will be trench play. They are a typical MVFC team. Big, Strong, and Physical along the lines. AGS will have way more talent than them at the QB/skill spots bit it’s going to come down to trench play. If UCD holds their own they’ll beat them. If they have issues like against EWU gonna be a bigger challenge. There will be so much to talk about as It relates to the game but that is the best/easiest way to simplify it.

MVFC is the best confernce in FCS loaded with team with similar profiles as UNI. The panthers have played a loaded schedule and some of their stats are a results of playing some of the best offenses in the land: NDSU, SDSU, Illy St, USD (plus game vs Iowa).

Maybe Lamar surprises us and gives them a game but I don’t see it.

NIU doesn’t have the super big guys on defense, like Eastern’s Jay-Tee Tiuli.
Not saying they aren’t better, but size wise a typical team.

Per this thread on AGS, seems UNI is a dark horse to win it all. Don’t let the 6 wins fool you. It’s a team that’s inconsistent- can beat or lose to anyone. They beat a tough SDSU-the 5th seed in these playoffs (holding them to 9 points) and hung around NDSU for 3 quarters

http://www.anygivensaturday.com/showthread.php?218510-Playoff-Dark-Horse/