FCS Playoff Committee Members
2022 Committee Chair

Patriot League
Bucknell AD Jermaine Truax
Term Expiration: Aug. 2023

Pioneer Football League
Drake AD Brian Hardin
Term Expiration: Aug. 2025

Big South Conference
Robert Morris AD Chris King
Term Expiration: Aug. 2026

Big Sky Conference
Montana AD Kent Haslam
Term Expiration: Aug. 2024

Southern Conference
Chattanooga AD Mark Wharton
Term Expiration: Aug. 2026

Missouri Valley Football Conference
North Dakota State AD Matt Larsen
Term Expiration: Aug. 2025

Colonial Athletic Association
Stony Brook AD Shawn Heilbron
Term Expiration: Aug. 2026

Southland Conference
Houston Christian AD Steve Moniaci
Term Expiration: Aug. 2023

Ohio Valley Conference
Eastern Illinois AD Tom Michael
Term Expiration: Aug. 2024

Northeast Conference
CCSU AD Thomas Pincince
Term Expiration: Aug. 2025

ASUN-WAC
Eastern Kentucky AD Matt Roan
Term Expiration: Aug. 2025

The selection of Montana has set off a lively discussion over on the AGS Forum:

https://www.anygivensaturday.com/showthread.php?318678-Selection-Sunday-2022

Seems pretty clear that the Montana AD has no objectivity whatsoever.

Not too soft or you'll get dinged for strength of schedule.

Sac State - weaker FBS, middle FCS, weaker FCS
Montana State - stronger FBS, 2 weaker FCS
Idaho - 2 FBS, weaker FCS
UC Davis - strong FBS, strong FCS, weaker FCS
Griz - 1 moderate FCS, 2 weaker FCS

Generally in the Big Sky, you're getting risky if you schedule more than 1 tough OOC game. But it depends on who's on your conference schedule - UC Davis played the 4 top Big Sky teams; MSU only had to play 3. Add in that when you're scheduling a team is usually years ahead, so who knows whether they'll be tough or cupcakes by then.

It also depends on your conference - MVFC might get enough schedule strength from just conference games, other conferences might need to be more aggressive in their OOC schedule

https://www.anygivensaturday.com/showthread.php?318678-Selection-Sunday-2022/page32

It's a little bit of a stretch to call Cal strong FBS

All Playoff games this Saturday are on ESPN+, except for the game in SE Missouri State @ Montana game...that's on ESPN 2, of course. Go Redhawks.

Big Sky should should send Northern Colorado AD as the rep. Very little chance of a conflict of interest.

The AD may not have time to serve while trying to find a new head coach…

McCaffrey was fired this afternoon.

I'm not surprised. Welcome to the Boards also.

Items new to me.

CBS Sports: "During McCaffrey's tenure, players alleged that he tampered with scholarships in ways disallowed by the NCAA and showed favoritism to FBS transfers, according to the Loveland Reporter-Herald. The staff also reportedly did not get scouting reports on upcoming opponents and often installed plays one or two days before games. Twenty-eight players transferred from the program after McCaffrey's first full season, ranking for the third-most among FCS teams."

"In another bizarre incident, offensive coordinator Max McCaffrey -- Ed's son who was hired without any previous coaching experience -- was reprimanded after throwing a broken clipboard into the stands and hitting a fan during a game against Montana State. An MSU fan told the Denver Post that he heckled McCaffrey about his pants size after the coach broke a clipboard following an interception."

https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/northern-colorado-fires-ed-mccaffrey-former-all-pro-wr-went-6-16-in-three-seasons-marred-by-controversy/

LOL!

FAMU not in w 9-2 record?

Edit: 7-1 in league.

Another questionable selection to the playoffs is Delaware. They lost 4 of their last 6 games.

Fwiw, FAMU just isn't very good. Lower tier conference. To put in perspective, Northern Arizona would be a favorite over FAMU on a neutral.

Lost every game against a good teams and the Nova loss stands out as a BAD loss. Their win against RI was their best, who was on the playoff fringe. The committee rewarded softer scheduling. If UCD had traded out SDSU or Cal for Utah Tech they are 7-4 and unquestionably in playoffs Its sad the committee got so hung up on 6 wins. UCD wasnt even in the first four out. Just an absolutely pathetic showing and inability to truly look at resumes.

Davis -9 vs Delaware on a neutral if game was lined for this weekend.

I’ve wanted to see that game since the 70s.

And Montana rides on reputation and connections.

Are you saying that Cal's 4-7 record is not indicative of them being a national powerhouse?

Indicative of them needing to find a way to score some damn points!

I asked a question on the anygivensatjurday board, and no one answeted. My question was If you take Montana's schedule and results and placed the name Davidson instead of Montana would they have selected Davidson for the playoffs? My guess is a resounding NO!

I took a quick look at Montana's schedule.

Their first two opponents have a combined record of 6-16. And MSU killed them.

Have you guys seen this article?

406 MT Sports: Big Sky Notebook: Questions swirl around FCS playoff selections

Montana

"Herder and other FCS experts thought the Griz would miss the playoffs after their Brawl loss. Instead, UM was one of the last two in.

"Truax [Bucknell AD] provided several reasons for UM’s inclusion in an interview with the Missoulian’s/406mtsports.com’s Lucas Semb. The main factors: the Griz had a tough schedule (all four losses were to ranked teams), finished with seven Division I wins, played without starting quarterback Lucas Johnson for all or most of two losses and challenged themselves in cross-conference matchups.

"Unseeded teams place bids to host playoff first-round games, and the higher bid usually gets a home game (more on this below). That’s why the Griz will face Southeast Missouri State in Missoula on Saturday. While the committee doesn’t know bid figures until after it makes playoff selections, that element “does factor in” to the committee’s decision-making, Truax said. UM has a history of placing high bids...."

UC Davis

"UC Davis wasn’t even one of the first four teams out of the playoffs, despite having an arguably better resume than UM’s.

"Both teams have four FCS losses, all to ranked teams. Like the Griz, Davis lost one-score games to Sacramento State and Weber State and suffered a multiple-score loss at Bobcat Stadium (MSU beat Davis 41-24). The Aggies also fell at South Dakota State 24-22 and at the Pac-12’s Cal 34-13.

"Both Davis and UM played Idaho. The Griz lost to the Vandals 30-23 at home, while the Aggies rolled 44-26 in Moscow, Idaho.

"It’s not just UM’s selection that Davis could quibble with. UND has no win as impressive as an 18-point win at Idaho, and other teams with more wins played softer schedules than Davis did. The committee has selected 6-5 teams before, including Gardner-Webb this year, although the committee had no choice there. Gardner-Webb got an automatic playoff bid because it won the Big South Conference title.

"Ultimately, the Aggies were punished for their tough nonconference schedule.

“In a crowded field, it was hard when you only have six D-I wins,” Truax told Semb. “UC Davis made a late push to get in there … and while they showed well, they only finished with six D-I wins … every other team we were talking about had seven.”

https://406mtsports.com/college/big-sky-conference/montana-state-university/big-sky-notebook-questions-swirl-around-fcs-playoff-selections/article_0a554efa-6a0d-11ed-8980-7b6c0d4f24ff.html

I don’t know how committee members (at least some) could keep a straight face with the reverse engineered argument to get Montana in the playoff. I am convinced that Montana was selected prior to their game against MSU and no matter how badly they were embarrassed it would not have made a difference. I honestly think the committee is lazy and doesn’t want to do objective analysis. I actually am ok with the Aggies not getting in - it’s just the double standard given to Montana.

"Truax [Bucknell AD] provided several reasons for UM’s inclusion ... challenged themselves in cross-conference matchups. — movielover

Boy they sure did challenge themselves when their three cross-conference opponents had a combined record of 9-24. You know who actually did challenge themselves? UC-effing-Davis. One of our non-conference opponents single handedly had more wins than all three of Montana's combined.

“UC Davis made a late push to get in there … and while they showed well, they only finished with six D-I wins … every other team we were talking about had seven.” — movielover

If only we had the ability to look a bit beyond just the record of the teams in question. If only we could, say, look at head to head results or the quality of opponents the teams played. If we could do that, we'd realize that despite Idaho having a better record than UC Davis, Idaho not only got their ass kicked at home by UC Davis but complied that superior record while playing a weaker schedule.

These idiots have no good reason to have left us out other than "well, they went 6-5 which is worse than 7-4 therefore we must not consider them". It's beyond awful. Like we’re not even asking them to pick between a team from the Big Sky, the MVFC and the CAA where they might not even have any common opponents. These are three teams from the same conference where we have a ton of data points to evaluate.

I thought two days later I was mostly over this and had moved on to the World Cup but nope. Clearly this would hasn’t healed yet.

Sounds like you better have DI 7 wins or be really juiced in. I think our scheduling team is taking this seriously judging by future opponents. Wouldn't sleep on TAM Commerce, in the middle of a huge recruiting bed in a state that worships Football. They'll be tough on the road to open 2023, and they'll only get better.

They just fired their head coach today

It's win or get out there, I wouldn't be surprised if they're on a fast track to a non-Power 5 conference at this point, they've been playing lower level football for decades. South Alabama came to Davis in year 3 of their program's existence and won. By year 5 they were in the Sun Belt.

Maybe TAMC has an academic standard or something. Reading up on their history, and having just hired (and fired) a former Rice Head Coach, that sounds like they needed someone to manage some real student-athletes.

Learning here that former Vikings QB Wade Wilson is a TAMC alum.

Oh yeah, I wasn't insinuating that they'll be easy or anything (although I do think that we should be able to win this game). I agree that they are likely pushing to go FBS ASAP

IN DEFENSE OF MONTANA:
Not over Davis, but over the teams that did not make it in. First, I believe there was an agreement to only consider 7-win teams. That's on the Committee, not Montana. Second, of the 7-win teams, Montana was deserving over the teams that did not make it in, notwithstanding their lackluster resume.

I doubt it, most schools stay at FCS level. No history, small college, no evidence of massive investment in Athletics, very small college town.