Rhode Island gets some quality transfers and recruits. Similar to Idaho, in that they can get guys rated in the upper range of 3 stars particularly as transfers
They have QB who threw for over 3,000 yards, and a big running back who transferred from Temple gained 1000 yards. Their backup running back was a seldom used Stanford running back..
However Davis' defense is better than Beckton suggests, since they now have their entire starting lineup back except the Connors. Massey's ratings have Davis better than Rhode Island on both offense and defense.

Might be some Cal Poly guys disenchanted as well..

Good research. I remembered the case but didn’t have the detail.

They deal with integers for the number of games allowed and if .30 times 14 is 4.2 they would treat that as 5.

If i recall correctly Gage Gubrud got an additional year after playing in five games for Eastern Washington in 2018. Eastern played in 15 games that year, and i think but do not know that was the reason he was granted a sixth year.

Oddly enough in the Stats Perform preseason poll, Davis was #8, Rhode Island #9, exactly their seeding in the playoffs.

And Sagarin would have Davis at slightly more than a 2 point favorite on a neutral field. And a 5 to 6 point favorite at Davis, if the game was played this week.

Davis was # 10 when the committee released their poll three weeks ago, since then they beat Idaho and Sac and lost to Montana St.

Their QB threw for 332 yards against Montana.. Marion was a pass game coordinator at Texas It seems on their win streak they decided to just go to their strength and it worked until they met a team they couldn't just steamroll. Game was reminiscent of the old Rose Bowls with Woody Hayes

Sac with 20 sacks now trails Montana (21) in conference game sacks. Tied for third are Davis and Idaho State with 18.

#5 Tarleton going to overtime Austin Peay
They won

I think the interception and end last play defense was Ty Richardsson

Riddick was great, on Sacs last drive He has my vote for defensive player of game. Lots of competition for that.

The live stats show 63 out of 69 tackles were solo.

The argument that they need to attract out of state students because California students are going out of state, which seemed logical for the interviewer, suffers when one considers how many California students aren’t offered admission.

Most of those events you cite don’t involve a hard stop from the facility or pilots.
Davis Mercer was an hour and a half rain delay.
In 2023 Mercer played in the same stadium and had a 76 minute delay. Not an unforeseeable act of god.

At least you finish the game. Davis did fine against Tulsa

The Mercer game was a learning experience, and the lesson should be don’t take night games in the South in August. They had only a five hour window to get the game in, and apparently that wasn’t considered prior to the rain delay.

The Stetson game was scheduled before Sac left the Big Sky. I think they would have to pay Stetson to get out of that game.
Sac may identify as an FBS independent but that is aspirational. I guess the NCAA can revisit, but nothing has changed.

The Sac media teams release refers to a computer rating as a poll.
I know its common to call them polls, but that obscures an important distinction.. Sac is 19th as rated by their performance in scoring and yielding points, the location of the games, and strength of schedule. Davis is ninth. These ratings basically look backward to estimate what rating would explain the team’s results against its schedule
The polls on the otherhand are subjective opinions, by people that don’t have a common idea of what they are voting for. Are they rewarding accomplishment or predicting future results? Different voters would answer differently.
Davis emphasizing their injuries is reflected by the polls, the computer doesn’t factor that in.

Davis is simply responding to the reality that if Sac isn’t part of the conference they are just another team. I’d personally prefer that Davis schedule one beatable FBS team, which is what Sac aspires to be, and skip the P4 games but there are other priorities, like payout and exposure in other markets. A home and home would help finance Sac more than it helps Davis because Sac has more seats. Davis isn’t obligated to make Sac’s schedule more attractive.