PRETENDERS AND CONTENDERS

[Stang Fever]

Its week 5 and after this weekend we will have som sort of Idea of who will fall into the Pretender and Contender brackets....any favorites heading into this week.

[Cap'n Cat]

Pretender: Youngstown State. Paper preseason tigers. Third place conference season chumps.

[dbackjon]

This could be a make/break weekend for NAU. Lose to Montana State at home, we fall in the Pretenders category. Beat MSU, we still don't move into full contender status, but closer.


A win over Montana for Portland State would definately stamp them as contenders.

[Stang Fever]

This could be a make/break weekend for NAU. Lose to Montana State at home, we fall in the Pretenders category. Beat MSU, we still don't move into full contender status, but closer.


A win over Montana for Portland State would definately stamp them as contenders.


AGREED:thumbsup:

[JALMOND]

This could be a make/break weekend for NAU. Lose to Montana State at home, we fall in the Pretenders category. Beat MSU, we still don't move into full contender status, but closer.


A win over Montana for Portland State would definately stamp them as contenders.

The winner of UM/PSU should be considered a contender. The Griz probably are a contender already. Good post.

[TexasTerror]

Pretender: Southern was picked as a possible replacement for Grambling to take over the SWAC West.

They've gone ahead in blowing a big lead to Prairie View, only to lose the game and then they got stomped on by a Div II school, that has not even begun the transition, North Carolina Central, before making it respectful.

Talk about over-rated...

[UNHWildCats]

A-10

Contenders
New Hampshire
Massachusetts
Richmond

Pretenders
Rhode Island
Northeastern
Villanova

In The Middle/Unknown
Towson
Delaware
James Madison
Maine
William & Mary
Hofstra

[Jacks76]

From the Big Sky:

Contenders:

UM
PSU
NAU

Unknown:

MSU
Weber State
UW
Idaho State

Pretenders:

Sac. St.
Northern Colorado

Paul

[UNHWildCats]

From the Big Sky:

Contenders:

UM
PSU
NAU

Unknown:

MSU
Weber State
UW
Idaho State

Pretenders:

Sac. St.
Northern Colorado

Paul

I think NAU belongs in the unknown for now, you beat a DII easily and snuck past a 1-3 Idaho State and lost to 2 I-A teams hardly a contenders resume.

[SunCoastBlueHen]

A-10

Contenders
New Hampshire
Massachusetts
Richmond

Pretenders
Rhode Island
Northwestern
Villanova

In The Middle/Unknown
Towson
Delaware
James Madison
Maine
William & Mary
Hofstra

Wow! After that humiliating loss to you guys NW was forced to leave the Big Ten for the A-10? And labeled a "Pretender" at that! :p

J/K of course - I absolutely agree with your list.

[GOKATS]

From the Big Sky:

Contenders:

UM
PSU
NAU

Unknown:

MSU
Weber State
UW
Idaho State

Pretenders:

Sac. St.
Northern Colorado

Paul

Not sure on the NAU call- tomorrow may give a better idea. I assume UW is actually EWU.

[UNHWildCats]

Wow! After that humiliating loss to you guys NW was forced to leave the Big Ten for the A-10? And labled a "Pretender" at that! :p

J/K of course - I absolutely agree with your list.


OOps I was updating the game info from the Northwestern game just before i made that post.

[Jackluv]

I think NAU belongs in the unknown for now, you beat a DII easily and snuck past a 1-3 Idaho State and lost to 2 I-A teams hardly a contenders resume.


If NAU beats MSU they are contenders. They beat a DII thats ok, and snuck past ISU??? they were beating ISU pretty soundly and ISU had to use trick plays to score points (including their last 5 minute TD). NAU win wasnt a fluke. And they are only DIAA to play 2 bowl winning teams. barely losing to ASU and falling in the 2nd half to Utah....they are for real.:eyebrow:

[GRZZ]

Originally Posted by Jacks76
From the Big Sky:

Contenders:

UM
PSU
NAU

Unknown:

MSU
Weber State
UW
Idaho State

Pretenders:

Sac. St.
Northern Colorado

Paul

...I tend to think that MSU should be in the pretender slot at this point. They had huge win and followed it up with three big losses. That pretty much defines a pretender. They can play there way out of pretender status.
The same logics says that NAU is a contender right now, just needs to keep proving it.

[UNHWildCats]

If NAU beats MSU they are contenders. They beat a DII thats ok, and snuck past ISU??? they were beating ISU pretty soundly and ISU had to use trick plays to score points (including their last 5 minute TD). NAU win wasnt a fluke. And they are only DIAA to play 2 bowl winning teams. barely losing to ASU and falling in the 2nd half to Utah....they are for real.:eyebrow:

MSU is hardly a tough team aside from the Colorado win which looks less and less impressive by the week

Beat PSU or Montana then come see me about being a contender, until then, undecided.

[kats89]

I am of the belief after looking at the schedule, SHSU could be in the mix of things in the SLC. If the Kats can get a win at NW St. next weekend, we have McNeese, Nicholls St and Tx State at home.

[UNHWildCats]

I am of the belief after looking at the schedule, SHSU could be in the mix of things in the SLC. If the Kats can get a win at NW St. next weekend, we have McNeese, Nicholls St and Tx State at home.


From the way things are looking down there, that conference could be a free for all with any team able to come out ahead.

[Jackluv]

it doesnt really matter cause no1 regards UNHWildcats to be a top DIAA columnist anyways haha jkin :)

[biobengal]

they were beating ISU pretty soundly and ISU had to use trick plays to score points (including their last 5 minute TD). NAU win wasnt a fluke.

Total BS!!!! Take off the blinders luver.

Both NAU and ISU are pretenders, get over it.

[HiHiYikas]

So far, it's looking to me like

Furman (1 loss, to I-A N. Carolina)
App State (1 loss, to I-A NC State)

One of these teams may well run the conference. Even if not, more than 2 conference losses seems very unlikely.

Then there's a cluster, in no particular order, of could-be's...
Chattanooga (2 losses, 1 vs. I-A Memphis)
Elon (1 loss, to #19 Towson)
Western Carolina (1 loss, to #3 Furman)
Wofford (2 losses, 1 vs. I-A S. Carolina)
Georgia Southern (2 losses, not looking good, but could easily become a spoiler team)

This middle cluster will probably start to ease upward or downward by the end of the day. I'm not surprised if one of these teams gets away with 2 or 3 conference losses. Appalachian and Furman should beat everybody in this cluster

Citadel (3 losses, might be 9 or 10 by season's end)

[Dallas Demon]

I am of the belief after looking at the schedule, SHSU could be in the mix of things in the SLC. If the Kats can get a win at NW St. next weekend, we have McNeese, Nicholls St and Tx State at home.

The NW St/SHSU game will be huge next weekend. xsmileyclapx

[FUwolfpacker]

So far, it's looking to me like

Furman (1 loss, to I-A N. Carolina)
App State (1 loss, to I-A NC State)

One of these teams may well run the conference. Even if not, more than 2 conference losses seems very unlikely.

Then there's a cluster, in no particular order, of could-be's...
Chattanooga (2 losses, 1 vs. I-A Memphis)
Elon (1 loss, to #19 Towson)
Western Carolina (1 loss, to #3 Furman)
Wofford (2 losses, 1 vs. I-A S. Carolina)
Georgia Southern (2 losses, not looking good, but could easily become a spoiler team)

This middle cluster will probably start to ease upward or downward by the end of the day. I'm not surprised if one of these teams gets away with 2 or 3 conference losses. Appalachian and Furman should beat

Citadel (3 losses, might be 9 or 10 by season's end)

HiHiYikas pretty much nailed it for the SoCon. Good job Yikas:nod: . It will be interesting to see which one of those middle teams will emerage.

[Jacks76]

NAU is certainly better than last season when they went 3-8. Jason Murrietta looks back to his old form in 2003. And that's bad news for Big Sky defenses.

Paul

[Dallas Demon]

NAU is certainly better than last season when they went 3-8. Jason Murrietta looks back to his old form in 2003. And that's bad news for Big Sky defenses.

Paul

NAU is going to be tough this year, at least in the top 3 of the Big Sky and will challenge for the championship IMO.

[HiHiYikas]

HiHiYikas pretty much nailed it for the SoCon. Good job Yikas:nod: . It will be interesting to see which one of those middle teams will emerage.
This is the only day for the rest of the season that has every team in the SoCon in a conference matchup.

Citadel has Chattanooga down 10-7 in the second quarter.

Elon at App State and Furman at Wofford kick off at 3:30; GaSo @ WCU starts at 6. Things ought to be a lot clearer at about 9 pm.

[Hansel]

This could be a make/break weekend for NAU. Lose to Montana State at home, we fall in the Pretenders category. Beat MSU, we still don't move into full contender status, but closer.


A win over Montana for Portland State would definately stamp them as contenders.
MSU/NAU is a loser out game for the Big Sky title IMHO

[Frosty The Snowbuff]

Pretender: Southern was picked as a possible replacement for Grambling to take over the SWAC West.

They've gone ahead in blowing a big lead to Prairie View, only to lose the game and then they got stomped on by a Div II school, that has not even begun the transition, North Carolina Central, before making it respectful.

Talk about over-rated...

Grambling "might" fall victim to Prairie View also....

[skinny_uncle]

Gateway is too hard to sort out yet. I'll just say the losers today in conference play will not be contenders. Let the games begin!

[HiHiYikas]

So far, it's looking to me like

Furman (1 loss, to I-A N. Carolina)
App State (1 loss, to I-A NC State)

One of these teams may well run the conference. Even if not, more than 2 conference losses seems very unlikely.

Then there's a cluster, in no particular order, of could-be's...
Chattanooga (2 losses, 1 vs. I-A Memphis)
Elon (1 loss, to #19 Towson)
Western Carolina (1 loss, to #3 Furman)
Wofford (2 losses, 1 vs. I-A S. Carolina)
Georgia Southern (2 losses, not looking good, but could easily become a spoiler team)

This middle cluster will probably start to ease upward or downward by the end of the day. I'm not surprised if one of these teams gets away with 2 or 3 conference losses. Appalachian and Furman should beat everybody in this cluster

Citadel (3 losses, might be 9 or 10 by season's end)
Now everybody in the middle has at least 1 conference loss and 1 non-conference loss. Might as well move El Cid up into the middle of the pack now, after today's great effort and victory against UTC.

App/Furman combined win percentage - .800

The rest of the SoCon - .400

[FUwolfpacker]

Looks like GSU might at the top of that middle pack. I guess that really depends on which GSU team shows up each week. GSU is definitely improving each week, so I'd put them at #3 in the SoCon right now. After that...I'm not even going to try to place teams.

[UNHWildCats]

:nod: :nod: :nod: Yup NAU is a contender :nonono2: :nonono2: :nonono2:

[BULLDOG8180]

Looks like GSU might at the top of that middle pack. I guess that really depends on which GSU team shows up each week. GSU is definitely improving each week, so I'd put them at #3 in the SoCon right now. After that...I'm not even going to try to place teams.

Might put them Bulldogs #3, they are undefeated in the conference!:D

[FUwolfpacker]

Might put them Bulldogs #3, they are undefeated in the conference!:D

Why the heck not! It's not like anyone else wants to seperate themselves from the pack.

[GrizRchattybound]

Contenders:

UNH
Appy
Montana

Pretenders: There are many:

I believe there are 3 maybe 4 teams that will distance themselves as the season goes on with a big drop off from there.


P.S. The Big Sky could have a couple really really tough 7-4 squads come playoff time that get snubbed for berths

PSU for starters!

[Stang Fever]

If the Poly offense doesnt get better they will fall right into the Pretender bracket. NDSU is a Contender but cant get into the playoffs. Lucky for everyone else out there

[FUwolfpacker]

Contenders:

UNH
Appy
Montana



Ouch. I don't know if you can narrow it down to just those 3. I think it would be hard to write off Furman, YSU, Ill. St., Richmond, and SIU so soon.

[Tod]

Ouch. I don't know if you can narrow it down to just those 3. I think it would be hard to write off Furman, YSU, Ill. St., Richmond, and SIU so soon.

Exactly. There are a good 15 teams, at least, that are really good. UNI lost, but showed their mettle today.

It's the rest of the top 25 that's so dang confusing. :confused:

[ButlerGSU]

Looks like GSU might at the top of that middle pack. I guess that really depends on which GSU team shows up each week. GSU is definitely improving each week, so I'd put them at #3 in the SoCon right now. After that...I'm not even going to try to place teams.

That's nice of you to say but I still think we're a long way from being where we need to be.

[FUwolfpacker]

Yeah, but after watching your highlight video against WCU, you looked just as good as any other SoCon team I've seen so far. Granted, that was a highlight video, but I saw a lot of positives from it. The o-line looked solid, Clark seems to be more poised now, etc. Either way, outside of ASU and FU it's still pretty jumbled. You may be a long way from where you NEED to be, but it seems like you are coming along pretty well considering everything that happened to you guys in the offseason. I'm sure the transfers have helped ease some of that pain. Clark and Lewis look like darn good players.

[rcny46]

Ouch. I don't know if you can narrow it down to just those 3. I think it would be hard to write off Furman, YSU, Ill. St., Richmond, and SIU so soon.


I agree 100%.

[PantherRob82]

Gateway:

Contenders:
YSU (played a better 2nd half against tre Bears)
Il St (rested)
UNI (Still have a lot to prove, but looked great last night. First 2 games in the Gateway should be wins if we play our game.)

Pretenders:
MSU (no I-AA wins)
In St. (they are the Sycamores)

Unknown:
WIU (I thought they would be in it, but the loss to WKU has me wondering. Too early to tell for sure.)
WKU (Didn't think much of the non-conf portion. 1-0 in the Gateway)

[VictorG]

If White (xfer QB) stays healthy the rest of the year I think PSU will climb back into the contenders column. I don't think anyone will want to be playing them come the playoffs. They impressed me!!!

The Big Sky has 2 contenders even still. UM and PSU.

[skinny_uncle]

Gateway:

Contenders:
YSU (played a better 2nd half against tre Bears)
Il St (rested)
UNI (Still have a lot to prove, but looked great last night. First 2 games in the Gateway should be wins if we play our game.)

Pretenders:
MSU (no I-AA wins)
In St. (they are the Sycamores)

Unknown:
WIU (I thought they would be in it, but the loss to WKU has me wondering. Too early to tell for sure.)
WKU (Didn't think much of the non-conf portion. 1-0 in the Gateway)
Gee, Rob. Is there a reason you ignored the SIU Salukis on your list?
I think WIU graduated to pretender in the bluegrass state this weekend.

[Saint3333]

It is wide open, any of the top 10 in the sportsnetwork poll could win it all. The highest ranked pretender is Hampton, a legit top 20 team, but not a threat to win it all.

[mtgrizfan4life]

I agree that both MT and PSU are contenders. Both have NASTY D's and White maybe good enough to have a QB controversy with Smith.

[OL FU]

Before this weekend I thought UNH might be far superior to all other teams in I-AA land.

No longer think that way

[UNH_Alum_In_CT]

Before this weekend I thought UNH might be far superior to all other teams in I-AA land.

No longer think that way

You weren't alone on that one! Many people were going overboard about UNH despite realists like myself attempting to remind you that the defense lost seven starters and the OL didn't return as many veterans as expected.

[TexasTerror]

Southland Conference

Pretender: N/A
Contender: N/A

Unknown: The whole conference

Everyone in the league is going to have their shot to win the SLC title. Whether it 0-5 SFA or 2-2 Sam Houston State. Every team in the conference is going to have to battle the next few weeks for the SLC title, the only chance any school essentially has at getting into the playoffs. Whomever wins the SLC title and heads to the playoffs will surely be battle-tested...

[RabidRabbit]

In the Great West - everybody seems to be a contender.

NDSU - Undefeated, wins over SLC, A-10, MAC teams, and SoCon Giant, and SWAC team before a Big 10 match-up. Then into conference. Can they make it to 6-0 going into the U of MN game?

Cal Poly - Still waiting for their offense to show up. Stifling Defense. Only loss to a solid IA San Jose St. Big Game Sat with UC-Davis, then gets tough.

UC-Davis - 2 loses. TCU ranked BCS team, and a tough YSU team. Will they get the GWFC championship again?

SUU - Beat Tx St. Robbed in SLO by Poly, and Weber St. squeeked by. McNeese & FAU coming up. They pull victories in either of these games....

SDSU - 2-3, right where I expected them to be at this point after a 4 games road adventure against all top 25 teams. 2 wins in the 4, and had UNI down at the half. Still on track to a 6-5, top 40 listing. Even get another top 25 team at Brookings, with UCA coming to town.

[Pard4Life]

Patriot League:

Contenders: ...

Pretenders: Lafayette, Colgate, Lehigh, Holy Cross, Bucknell

No shot: Fordham, G'town

Ugh, how embarassing... Colgate I'd label conteder if they didn't lose to Monmouth.

Nationally, I am surprised Cal Poly has had some close games lately. As someone noted on here earlier, if they can't score... I don't see them getting past round one.

[bostonspider]

I think UMass is a team not many people are talking about that easily could be a contender. Their lone loss was by one point at a tough Navy team that just blew UConn out of the water in East Hartford. I think they could be as good as UNH. JMU also seems to be rolling into form as well. So I think the A10 has two teams in each division that bear watching, UNH and UMass in the north and Richmond and JMU in the south.

[Torero Tradition]

TOREROS equal CONTENDERS...

oh wait... we don't get to contend... we play in the Gridiron Classic

[Stang Fever]

THE BIGGEST PRETENDERS IN ALL OF I-AA GOES TO


USD:hurray: :hurray: :hurray:

[Stang Fever]

THE BIGGEST PRETENDERS IN ALL OF I-AA GOES TO


USD:hurray: :hurray: :hurray:

NO SMACK INTENDED JUST TIRED OF BEATING A DEAD HORSE. WEAK SCHEDULE.