UND games count as conference games but UND can't win the league.

The Big Sky is probably the only league in the country where a non-conference team can affect your conference record and sometimes a conference team can't.

I think Bige70 is referring to the playing time for punters, which were in abundance for both Schmidt and Wadman during their times with the team.

Yeah, this is interesting because it does suggest that losing to an FBS will still hurt your consideration. Most people just assume that an FBS loss just gets thrown out. Of course, it does say SRS isn't dispositive so I'm sure a loss to a team like Cal wouldn't be the sole reason for not making it in. And a win over Cal will still matter more than a win over SJSU.

What a way to make up for previously going winless against Montana in 7 tries!

In case anyone's interested: http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/gwfc/sports/m-footbl/auto_pdf/GWFCPreview-Part2.pdf

So crazy to see the trajectories that the GWFC teams have taken over the past decade, and to remember the level of competitiveness among those teams week in and week out.

I just took a 6 am trip down memory lane by reading some of your 2006-2007 Great West write-ups. Was a student back then and really enjoyed following the team through your written coverage seeing as how we couldn't just turn on ESPN for GWFC analysis. Seeing names like John Faletoese, Jon Grant, Tony Kays, Chris Carter ... good times!

Why did he pull himself from the game?

I hope Hawk doesn't take that same approach next year with Cal and NDSU. There's no way Memorial Stadium could prepare a team for the Fargodome. And we won't be able to take half the game off against the Bison.

Theyre going to split the UCD fan vote

I'm really curious whether the selection committee's picks on 10/31 will reflect or consider the STATS and Coaches poll, or how much it will depart from them. Kennesaw State is currently #2 in both polls despite playing a fairly weak schedule (although, they have been dominating all of their opponents). Their only loss was a 20-24 defeat to FBS Georgia State, currently 2-6.

Kennesaw State has an OOC game against Jacksonville State in the last week of the season, which will probably be our best chance of stealing the #2 seed from them if we win out. It's just odd to me that a 10-1 Big Sky team might be seeded lower than a 10-1 Big South team just because of polling momentum (again, assuming the selection committee looks at what the media and coaches are thinking), especially when the Big Sky team actually has the FBS win whereas the Big South team doesn't.

I think the disparity between KSU and UCD in both polls really helps reveal that East Coast bias is alive and well. Comparing the two teams this year is like comparing apples to apples: Both programs are looking at their first FCS playoff berth, so it's not like KSU is getting the institutional memory benefit of the doubt that other programs like Montana would enjoy (KSU football is only in its 3rd year of existence). Both teams are undefeated in FCS play, but one plays in a conference with 7 teams in the Massey top 50 (8 if you count common opponent UND) and the other plays in a conference with only 2 teams in the Massey top 50. Both programs played an FBS team with only 1 FBS win so far (SJSU would be 2-6 as well if they had beaten us), but we won ours and they lost theirs.

Not trying to look ahead too much, but this conversation is worth having right now especially since the selection committee will be releasing their preliminary picks on Wednesday. #3 would of course be fantastic, but #2 would mean not having to fly cross country to Georgia to play KSU if both teams make it to the semifinals.

We used to consistently be one of the first teams out of playoff eligibility (as defined by not being able to get to 7 Division I wins). This season, we're one of the first -- only 2 other teams have 7+ Division I wins at this point in the season. NDSU (8-0) got there last week and Colgate (7-0) got there yesterday along with us.

Hawk getting that penalty might have helped ignite a fire in the team. It sucks to lose 15 yards, but sometimes players need to see that their coach has their back and will go to bat for them.

It think we've all just been conditioned for the past decade to not expect comebacks like the one we saw today or two weeks ago vs ISU. At halftime I felt that same disappointing, defeated feeling that a win would be highly unlikely.

Today's game showed that we have an entirely different team now requiring a different (and more enjoyable) fan mentality. Two years ago, 3-21 would have turned into 3-52 or something ridiculous by late in the 4th quarter. But instead it turned into 49-21 -- similar to the 3 possession comeback we mounted vs. ISU. Exciting times!

ISU 24 MSU 17 8:24 left in the 4th

Do they drive that thing to every away game? I wonder who is stuck doing that!

I'm in the same boat. Started at UCD in 2006. That summer orientation was the first one after the Stanford win, and also after a year of beating Stanford in 5 major sports or something. We were pumped up for the transition to D1, and there was this general "it's a great time to be an Aggie" feeling among a lot of us. Aggie Pack had great leadership and we were about to begin a new era with a new stadium. A few months later, we barely secure a winning season with close losses to teams like NDSU (their last visit to Toomey was such a heartbreaker), but the future still looks bright as we prepare for our D1 grand entrance.

The next year, we open Aggie Stadium with a loss to D2 Western Washington and also give up the 37 year streak, and its pretty much downhill from that point on with only a few brief highlights (last minute win against USD, Hail Bakari, playing competitively against Chris Petersen's #5 Boise State, one shared conference championship, and some excellent Causeway Classics). But during that span of a little over a decade, the one thing we could still hang our hat on was the fact that our program has a very deep history of really strong core values, tradition, and character (as evidenced by our coaching legacies). And for a fan that has really only ever seen the Aggies disappoint on the scoreboard or conference standings, that's what Aggie Pride has meant to me since 2006. The recent winning is of course very nice, but that's not how I've learned to enjoy UCD football or support Aggie student athletes.

I don't think they have much of a choice, we're 6-1 coming from an FCS power conference. The problem is that 5 of those 6 wins are over pretty bad teams (maybe 4 if we exclude SJSU as a "good" opponent for FCS teams). These next 3 weeks should tell us a lot.

One thing I appreciate about playing a program like Montana is that I can visit the opponents' fan forum and see constant activity about our upcoming matchup. Most of the teams in the Big Sky just don't have that kind of online following (unless I'm not looking in the right places?). I get that most of the teams we've been playing aren't doing well and have depressed fan bases, but I'd say even during the Gould years we had some pretty regular posters here week in and week out.

More like going for the autopsy. Maier holding that ball until the last second under pressure and throwing a long bomb to a double covered Doss... If that had resulted in an injury, it would have been devastating.

What happened to Ulonzo Gilliam? Have only seen Tehran Thomas take the ball since that fumble

Also the reference to playing for the love of each other. That's what Aggie Pride is about.