Playing more than 1 I-A team a year??? Good Idea?

[Jackluv]

I've noticed that some d1aa teams are scheduling more than1 D1a team a year. (Portland State last year played OSU and Boise State) Is this a good idea or not?? Cant this really hurt teams win loss records and hold them from going to the playoffs? This is what happened to MSU...if they wouldnt have lost to Oklahoma State and had an easy dII win there, they would be playoffbound.

Just asking because NAU vs. ASU Aug 31st and the next week NAU vs. UTAH:hurray:

[*****]

Welcome Jackluv! Teams need seven D-I wins to be in serious playoff contention so playing multiple I-A teams (and losing) can certainly hurt those chances.

BTW, I think I'll officially initiate you by saying our classification is I-AA, not 1aa. The NCAA uses roman numerals and capitals. The other football played in D-I but can never win an NCAA championship is I-A.

[paytonlives]

I've noticed that some d1aa teams are scheduling more than1 D1a team a year. (Portland State last year played OSU and Boise State) Is this a good idea or not?? Cant this really hurt teams win loss records and hold them from going to the playoffs? This is what happened to MSU...if they wouldnt have lost to Oklahoma State and had an easy dII win there, they would be playoffbound.

Just asking because NAU vs. ASU Aug 31st and the next week NAU vs. UTAH:hurray:


Portland State has 3 IA games- Their season is already over.:bang:

[Ronbo]

How many times has PSU made the playoffs? Once I think. They may as well take the money. Sac State too.:smiley_wi

[TexasTerror]

Almost the entire SLC has atleast two games against I-A foes outside of Texas State - San Marcos...

[Tod]

I've noticed that some d1aa teams are scheduling more than1 D1a team a year. (Portland State last year played OSU and Boise State) Is this a good idea or not?? Cant this really hurt teams win loss records and hold them from going to the playoffs? This is what happened to MSU...if they wouldnt have lost to Oklahoma State and had an easy dII win there, they would be playoffbound.

Just asking because NAU vs. ASU Aug 31st and the next week NAU vs. UTAH:hurray:

A D-II win is not much better than a I-A loss, if it's any better at all.

[*****]

Welcome Jackluv! Teams need seven D-I wins to be in serious playoff contention so playing multiple I-A teams (and losing) can certainly hurt those chances...Right. Same goes for playing multiple non-D-I teams regardless of winning.

[catamount man]

WCU in 1986 had 3 I-A games and still wound up 6-5, but these days, I wouldn't suggest it. 2 at the absolute most.

GO CATAMOUNTS!!!

[SoCon48]

WCU in 1986 had 3 I-A games and still wound up 6-5, but these days, I wouldn't suggest it. 2 at the absolute most.

Yep and you opened in Boone with a loss to ASU. Just had to throw that in.
You guys also had Marshall on that sched as they were still in the SoCon.
That had to be the toughest I-AA schedule in the country that year.

[SoCon48]

I've noticed that some d1aa teams are scheduling more than1 D1a team a year. (Portland State last year played OSU and Boise State) Is this a good idea or not?? Cant this really hurt teams win loss records and hold them from going to the playoffs? This is what happened to MSU...if they wouldnt have lost to Oklahoma State and had an easy dII win there, they would be playoffbound.

Just asking because NAU vs. ASU Aug 31st and the next week NAU vs. UTAH:hurray:

App played kansas and LSU last year and still made the play-offs..and well uh won the Nat Championship.
But you're right it sure can hurt. The money is needed by most of us.

[Jackluv]

--- smack deleted ---

[blukeys]

How many times has PSU made the playoffs? Once I think. They may as well take the money. Sac State too.:smiley_wi

Those who complain of an East Coast bias might consider the PSU situation. In 2000, The Vikings came to Newark as the 2nd place Big Sky team and most UD fans were looking forward to a formidable opponent. At least the media hype suggested this and I confess I was one who bought it.

Instead we witnessed a team that would have had difficulty giving the worst A-10 team a game and a d-back who taunted the Hens crowd when his team was down by 28 points!!!!!! (It only took 3 series for the PSU coach to yank this jerk!!!!!)

Many Hen fans left that game with a view that the Big Sky was a REALLY bad conference. A NewsJournal reporter subsequently wrote an opinion piece about the "BIG FLUFFY SKY CONFERENCE" which detailed just how soft PSU appeared on that Saturday. Tubby Raymond promptly put that reporter in his place and told him in no uncertain terms that no more derogatory columns about the Big Sky would be printed. (Too Bad Ralph didn't ask about this in his interview!!!!) But the damage had already been done and many who were there still view the Big Sky as Montana and the 7 dwarfs!!!!!

[ATrain]

When Karcher was still the coach at Liberty, he added Wake Forest to next year and got Rutgers to verbally commit...Rocco has since replaced the Rutgers game with a DII. There was also talk of Auburn being somewhere on the schedule in the future.

[Jackluv]

i wouldnt quite call it the BIG FLUFFY SKY CONFERENCE haha...both the a10 and the big sky have a problem with having several talented teams that end up killing themselves before the end of the season (destroying each others chances for playoffs) PSU, MSU, and of course montana are always dangerous. ISU with Guittierez might be scary. WSU came out of no where last year. NAU always gets better as well....but u cant classify a whole conference by 1 win 6 yrs ago. Delaware was hott than and psu was descent. Delaware has since NOT BEEN HOTT and PSU got better. Its like Montana vs. Northeastern

[blackfordpu]

Almost the entire SLC has atleast two games against I-A foes outside of Texas State - San Marcos...

Most of the SLC wants to update their facilities too.:)

Tx St already has a pretty nice field and field house in the endzone. Plus, if they pad their schedule they have a better chance of "repeating" this season. :boring:

[McNeeserocket]

I've noticed that some d1aa teams are scheduling more than1 D1a team a year. (Portland State last year played OSU and Boise State) Is this a good idea or not?? Cant this really hurt teams win loss records and hold them from going to the playoffs? This is what happened to MSU...if they wouldnt have lost to Oklahoma State and had an easy dII win there, they would be playoffbound.

Just asking because NAU vs. ASU Aug 31st and the next week NAU vs. UTAH:hurray:

McNeese played two I-A teams in 2002 (UL-Monroe and Nebraska). They beat UL-Monroe and made a good showing at Nebraska. They also played in the National Championship Game against Western Kentucky (a team they had beaten earlier in the regular season). McNeese regular season record was 10-1. The entire record for 2002 was 13-2.

This year McNeese plays two I-A teams, Toledo and Southern Florida. Most of McNeese fans believe that there is a good chance that we walk away with at least one of these wins.

[Jackluv]

i do believe that maybe playin 2 I-A teams might be a good idea, if you CAN win because you gain alot of respect. Playing Arizona State and Utah is a hell of a lot different than playing Toledo and South Florida. NAU should have at least scheduled a team in there that they could possibly win....maybe Idaho, Utah State, New Mexico State, North Texas, etc

[Dallas Demon]

Northwestern St. plays three I-A games this year (Kansas, Baylor, and Ole Miss). We've never been shy about playing I-A schools - however, 3 BCS schools in one year will be quite a challenge. The one good thing is that it will pay the bills, much needed after massive budget cuts because of the hurricanes last year. It will be fun, but if we continue to do this on an annual basis we might as well move to I-A.

[slostang]

Cal Poly is playing two I-A games, San Jose State and San Diego State. Cal Poly is also playing a DII game against Fort Lewis. Cal Poly does not play in a conference with an auto-bid so it will make getting back to the playoffs difficult this year. If they lose both I-A games, they will only be able to lose one I-AA game and make the playoffs. That will be tough with road games to Weber State, Montana and NDSU and home games against SDSU and UC Davis. The only good thing is I think Cal Poly has a shot at an upset in both I-A games. It will be fun to watch.

[dbackjon]

Jackluv - welcome from a fellow Lumberjack!

While unfortunate that we have to play two I-A's, budget neccesitated it. And Utah and Arizona State are relatively close teams, so that cuts down on travel expenses.

[CrunchGriz]

Those who complain of an East Coast bias might consider the PSU situation. In 2000, The Vikings came to Newark as the 2nd place Big Sky team and most UD fans were looking forward to a formidable opponent. At least the media hype suggested this and I confess I was one who bought it.

Instead we witnessed a team that would have had difficulty giving the worst A-10 team a game and a d-back who taunted the Hens crowd when his team was down by 28 points!!!!!! (It only took 3 series for the PSU coach to yank this jerk!!!!!)

Many Hen fans left that game with a view that the Big Sky was a REALLY bad conference. A NewsJournal reporter subsequently wrote an opinion piece about the "BIG FLUFFY SKY CONFERENCE" which detailed just how soft PSU appeared on that Saturday. Tubby Raymond promptly put that reporter in his place and told him in no uncertain terms that no more derogatory columns about the Big Sky would be printed. (Too Bad Ralph didn't ask about this in his interview!!!!) But the damage had already been done and many who were there still view the Big Sky as Montana and the 7 dwarfs!!!!!

Delaware fans always mention that year's PSU team when they want to smack the Big Sky as "weak" beyond Montana. This is a perfect example of improper statistical sampling.

PSU had a very good season that year. They were a very good, two-dimensional offense, with an all-conference receiver that made it to the NFL (Terry Charles), an all-conference QB who still has the I-AA record for consecutive passes without an interception (Jimmy Blanchard), and an all-conference cutback-style running back (Chip Dunn).

However, by the time of the playoffs, their offense was running on fumes. Both Blanchard and Dunn were playing injured, Dunn especially. He had severely sprained his ankle earlier in the year, and was playing on guts by the end of the year, pretty much unable to cut with the damaged ankle.

All of this made their offense very one-dimensional by year's end, and much easier to stop. They didn't have a backup running back with Dunn's talents--in the I-AA world, that kind of depth is a luxury a majority of teams just don't have.

Their defense that year was not all conference quality. They depended on their high-powered offense to simply outscore opponents in high-scoring games. When they lost that capability, which happened a couple of weeks before the playoffs, they were done.

Montana also beat PSU that year, at PSU, but only by a couple of touchdowns, before Chip Dunn got severely injured.

Extrapolating from a team with offensive stars with fairly severe injuries to saying that an entire conference is "Fluffy" is a huge, unjustified jump in logic.

Please stop using this as your justification for why you think the Big Sky is "weak" as a conference. I give some credence to Hen fans' arguments about the rest of the Big Sky teams' recent playoff records being less than stellar as indicative of the conference's top-heavy nature, but even there the Big Sky has pulled some big upsets in recent years to even that out (non-UM BSC teams knocking off the top seed in the first round in two of the last three years [NAU waxing McNeese in 2003 and EWU beating SIU in 2004]). To my way of thinking, any conference that gets two or more teams into the top eight in the country is a pretty darn good conference (and that obviously includes when the Gateway, A-10 and Southern have done it).

[Jackluv]

great post Crunchgriz

[Jackluv]

Love to see another Lumberjack Dbackjon!

Yes i agree with the budget problem....they had to take a bus to WSU last year after the cuts!!!

[TheValleyRaider]

Delaware fans always mention that year's PSU team when they want to smack the Big Sky as "weak" beyond Montana. This is a perfect example of improper statistical sampling.

PSU had a very good season that year. They were a very good, two-dimensional offense, with an all-conference receiver that made it to the NFL (Terry Charles), an all-conference QB who still has the I-AA record for consecutive passes without an interception (Jimmy Blanchard), and an all-conference cutback-style running back (Chip Dunn).

However, by the time of the playoffs, their offense was running on fumes. Both Blanchard and Dunn were playing injured, Dunn especially. He had severely sprained his ankle earlier in the year, and was playing on guts by the end of the year, pretty much unable to cut with the damaged ankle.

All of this made their offense very one-dimensional by year's end, and much easier to stop. They didn't have a backup running back with Dunn's talents--in the I-AA world, that kind of depth is a luxury a majority of teams just don't have.

Their defense that year was not all conference quality. They depended on their high-powered offense to simply outscore opponents in high-scoring games. When they lost that capability, which happened a couple of weeks before the playoffs, they were done.

Montana also beat PSU that year, at PSU, but only by a couple of touchdowns, before Chip Dunn got severely injured.

Extrapolating from a team with offensive stars with fairly severe injuries to saying that an entire conference is "Fluffy" is a huge, unjustified jump in logic.

Please stop using this as your justification for why you think the Big Sky is "weak" as a conference. I give some credence to Hen fans' arguments about the rest of the Big Sky teams' recent playoff records being less than stellar as indicative of the conference's top-heavy nature, but even there the Big Sky has pulled some big upsets in recent years to even that out (non-UM BSC teams knocking off the top seed in the first round in two of the last three years [NAU waxing McNeese in 2003 and EWU beating SIU in 2004]). To my way of thinking, any conference that gets two or more teams into the top eight in the country is a pretty darn good conference (and that obviously includes when the Gateway, A-10 and Southern have done it).

At the risk of defending the Hens and their Faithful too much, I think the statement wasn't so much that "We creamed PSU, therefore the Big Sky outside of Montana sucks", it was that since Delaware fans in general haven't seen the Big Sky outside of that one game, they have nothing more to judge the conference on. I'm guessing most of the UD fans on here are well aware that other Big Sky teams are pretty good (despite all the ribbing they'll give you), but the example was only an illustration of general perception. :twocents:

[WCUFLALUM]

Talk about tough 1-A games. WCU has Univ. of Florida on their schedule this year, the week before the App St. game and next year they play Georgia.
I just hope the Gators don't beat them down too much and they aren't ready to play App St. Not the best scheduling idea!!:eyebrow: