Some damn good games - and each gets their own time slot essentially. Gonna be cold for those Nacogdoches, TX boys up there in Bozeman for the 6 pm local game. Could be snow.

If Davis beats Illinois State.
....and if Nova beats Tarleton.

I like the parity this year! Of the top 8 seeds in the Quarters, only 5 are left.

appears that way. In our time block, ABC conflicts with the other game, ESPN has men’s basketball, ESPNU has women’s basketball, and ESPN2 has women’s volleyball regional. So we are on ESPN+, unless something gets bumped or time changed.

The production quality was so much better than what we have seen before. Even if we can’t afford to rent cameras of that quality on the regular, hopefully we saved the number for some of those operators.

Former fcs JMU makes FBS playoffs. Crazy!

I think if we can beat ISU that next game is much harder to pick a favorite

Wow!

I was watching the Bobcat radio broadcast feed while getting some work done yesterday before the game. After Montana State secured the win there were some fireworks on the sideline between 7th year RB Julius Davis and HC Brent Vigen:



I don't have any insider information, but man, that is not a program that resides in trust, unity and togetherness if they let one player get that pissed off over literally nothing. FWIW, Adam Jones has been Davis' committee RB partner for the majority of the season. You watch Davis, and given his pedigree, maybe he wants the bulk of the carries and he's getting frustrated.

I've never "met" an "old friend" in that particular fashion..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wK9lA_XpwLM

Pretty good FCS podcast from some RI guys.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/FCSFansNation/permalink/25856022837368072/?mibextid=Nif5oz

UC Davis is given a 2.9% chance or about 1 in 34 chance to win the championships in Facebook's FCS group link above.

It would have been nice to have 1k on the redbirds against ndsu :).

What would the payout be?

Is MSU that unbeatable? It seems the one titan was taken down, and ISU has to be as solid as any remaining team?

Was NDSU lax, unmotivated?

The Fargo Dome only drew about 10K, and their fans are blaming restrictive tailgate rules, hostile PD / staff, farm economy, unlimited TV options, and uncompetitive games / need to go FBS.

Arguing about restrictive tailgate rules vs. just getting people to show up to tailgate - not the worst problem to have.

I hate computers.

Yeah me too, none of those make sense to me - even Montana State looked a little vulnerable vs. Yale -- though Vigen kept it very vanilla all game.

Nova's at 12.8% after squeaking by Lehigh?

I think South Dakota is playing some very good football and they are a pain in the ass physically. It would not shock me to seem them win in Missoula.

Not sure what to think of Nova. I watched the first quarter against Harvard and they completely outclassed the Ivy boys as far as the eyeball test and just roughing them up.

From what I have watched, Tarleton is the team to beat, not MSU (I wonder if the Bobcat coach will escort me out of my office yelling at me for saying that)

Tarleton has the max potential to run away with it if they get hot - they can be extremely explosive offensively, and I was impressed how they handled UND defensively, they were very physical and looked well prepared.

Interesting that HC at Tarleton Todd Whitten is in his 3rd stint at the University there. They must have a very solid relationship. The 'Slow Mesh RPO' offense they run is unique at most levels of football...I think in D1 only Wake Forest runs a similar concept. We've seen Plough run a couple of variations of it with Pinnick, especially on goal line, when we pop to the Tight End, but it isn't the core philosophy of the Offense.

You are spot on

The 'mesh' offense they run is unique at most levels of football.

Reminds me of Wake Forest. Looks weird but I guess offense is looking to get defense to commit one way or another. Seems like some sort of defensive penetration would mess it up - I’m sure DCs have tried different approaches.

North Dakota State seemed uninspired. Their QB doesn't seem.very animated, which gives team a robotic look. But for whatever reason Illinois State dominated their offensive line.
On offense Illinois State ran over 90 plays. Illinois State has a big running back, better than Rhode Island's. Two outstanding receivers. Going to be a tough opponent.

Nova being at 12.8% whereas UCD and Illinois St are a combined 3.9% is nuts. One of the two of us is guaranteed to be in the semifinals whereas Nova has to beat the team that has a 29.7% chance to win the title (according to Opta) just to make the semis. Massey and Sagarin have the three teams as all pretty similar. Seems to me that both us and Illinois St should have better odds than Nova for the simple fact that it's not a lock either of us has to face Tarleton, who is the best team remaining on our side of the bracket.

Montana St seems a bit high too considering their semifinal game will be a tough one if they beat SFA. But them and Tarleton are rightly the two favorites.

I told people for weeks on the FCS reddit page that Montana State (my winner pick) or Tarleton would win it all and people thought I was crazy.

It's just crazy, NDSU really put together the best regular season - just to let the Redbirds take that season away.

Going to be a lot more fun watching the FCS playoffs starting this weekend, the two Dakota States are out as well as the Fighting Hawks, the only representative left is doing prep work this week in Vermillion, and they look damn good. Wide open quarterfinals, let's go!

NCAA takes a stab at "re-ranking" all the remaining teams based on their current play and trajectory vs. their upcoming opponents:

https://www.ncaa.com/news/football/article/2025-12-08/re-ranking-final-8-fcs-playoff-teams-quarterfinals?amp