Butler is the Pioneer's first playoff team

[kdinva]

http://www.sportsnetwork.com/merge/tsnform.aspx?c=sportsnetwork&page=cfoot2/news/news.aspx?id=4641331

so, perhaps Butler @ Youngstown on 30 November? thoughts?

[Lehigh'98]

Congratulations Butler!!! Although the San Diego incident puts a stain on the season, this will be a historic year for the Pioneer League.

[bonarae]

Congratulations!

[Go Green]

I believe that this is only the second time in Dartmouth's history that we've beaten a FCS playoff participant in the regular season. We also beat Colgate in 2005.

Hopefully, this will be the first time we've beaten a team that advances in the playoffs, but I'm not holding my breath on that....

[clenz]

http://www.sportsnetwork.com/merge/tsnform.aspx?c=sportsnetwork&page=cfoot2/news/news.aspx?id=4641331

so, perhaps Butler @ Youngstown on 30 November? thoughts?

That seemingly guarantees YSU is in even if they lose.....

Sent from my S4 using Tapatalk

[danefan]

Congrats to Butler. Playoffs can change a program.

[maine612]

Congrats Butler! Perhaps you can get a little Brad Stevens magic going and make a little run. Great news for the program!!

[TypicalTribe]

Quickest trip would be to Tennessee State in Nashville.

[WileECoyote06]

Quickest trip would be to Tennessee State in Nashville.

Samford and UTC are closer to Nashville (should two of the aforementioned three be selected).

Butler to Youngstown seems more likely.

And congratulations Butler, welcome to the big party!

[Catbooster]

Congratulations Butler

[Gil Dobie]

Congrats Butler

[UNHWildcat18]

Feel bad for Marist seeing as their loss was closer vs san diego than butlers, also they lost to NEC champ Sacred Heart, and to Bucknell who beat the ( I hope PL champ Lehigh) and beating( I know it doesnt mean much) an fcs team in Georgetown. To this in my mind is better than beating two division 2 schools, losing to middle of pack Ivy Dartmouth, and Crushed by potential playoff member SDSU. So the choice really baffles the hell out of me, but still GOOD LUCK BUTLER AND CONGRATULATIONS!

[RichH2]

Congratulations to Butler. Best of luck in the playoffs

[Fox 94]

The whole tie breaker thing was really baffling. First the PFL changed the tiebreaker rules at the last moment. They were originally supposed to use the SRS or something which I heard had Marist ahead of Butler. These new rules said they were going to consider all of these polls which I think would still need the results of this Saturdays games to calculate and then all of a sudden the league puts out an announcement that Butler is in.

Huh?

[Model Citizen]

New to the playoff scene, but isn't Youngstown State ranked too high for a first round game?

Agree with the W&M poster that TSU is a possibility. Or maybe Fordham--if they go at-large with 2 losses?

[Model Citizen]

They were originally supposed to use the SRS or something which I heard had Marist ahead of Butler.

Speculation. The SRS hasn't been released.

[clenz]

New to the playoff scene, but isn't Youngstown State ranked too high for a first round game?

Agree with the W&M poster that TSU is a possibility. Or maybe Fordham--if they go at-large with 2 losses?
Not if they lose this weekend.

The thought was YSU may be out if they lose...but Butler may have just saved YSU's playoff fate no matter what.

[Lehigh'98]

New to the playoff scene, but isn't Youngstown State ranked too high for a first round game?

Agree with the W&M poster that TSU is a possibility. Or maybe Fordham--if they go at-large with 2 losses?

Home games in the first round (Thanksgiving weekend, no seeded teams involved) are decided by how much $ a school is willing to bid. Has nothing to do with records.

[Lehigh'98]

Not if they lose this weekend.

The thought was YSU may be out if they lose...but Butler may have just saved YSU's playoff fate no matter what.

Do you see any scenario where UNI gets in over YSU? YSU at 8-4 and UNI at 7-5, UNI has h2h win plus a much tougher OOC schedule with an FBS win and a W over McNeese big. YSU has a joke of an OOC schedule with no good wins. Obviously, the conference record is killing UNI, but the games were close and they were missing their best players for some of the games, not SIU.

[FUBeAR]

Congratulations to Butler. Good luck in the playoffs (unless you happen to meet my Paladins, of course).

Don't have a dog in the PFL Playoff fight (anymore), but there is a carton of cans of worms around this outcome. Maybe these cans are best left unopened, but I think there is some merit in at least identifying them in case someone wants to look for an opener.

1). Allowing USD's PFL victories & loss to stand & stand unexamined - Those victories impact all of the algorithms that drive the computer rankings and the mathematics that drives the SRS. They do not affect both teams equally as there was a difference in the scores and because different schedules were played. For example, eliminating Mercer's loss to USD would impact Marist positively, but not Butler since Butler did not play Mercer. Also, what if USD used ineligible players vs. Marist, but those players did not play vs. Butler? Perhaps Butler's loss should count, but Marist's should not. One would think, at least, losses to USD would be changed to 1-0 victories or wins & losses would just be expunged from their opponent's records.

2). If my understanding of the SRS is correct (and it may not be), it is a simple, yet tedious & cumbersome, iterative mathematical process with the input required being every score of every college game played this season & which team was home or away. Once that data is input, adjusted margins of victory & strength of schedule are iteratively calculated based on actual results and rankings are determined. There is no 'secret sauce' to the SRS, just simple formulae, a solid knowledge of how to use Excel, and A LOT of data input. Rather than changing the rules at the end of the game, could the PFL have just hired a Statistics Professor/Consultant to oversee the process & a few students to input the data to calculate their own SRS? Again, my understanding of the SRS is not complete, but I believe there is absolutely no value placed on pre-season ranking/position in this calculation, while I believe the computer rankings that were used have some pre-season positioning 'baked' into them. If so, this favors Butler. In a recent 'unofficial' SRS I saw online before last Saturday's games, Marist was only 2 positions & hundredths of points behind Butler.

3). People have already 'called out' not waiting until this weeks' games are played. That does seem strange. I get that it is very unlikely that Marist could pass Butler in the rankings systems where there are large margins of difference, but if it is now 4-3 in the GPI & what if Marist passes Butler in the SRS (as I believe very well could be the case)? They would still be tied. No?

There may be other 'cans,' but these are the 3 that I find most 'interesting.'

Again, best of luck to Butler, but it is just so unfortunate & a bit of a head-scratcher that the PFL's 1st AQ Bid is going to a team that did not beat any of the other top 3 teams in the league - USD, Marist, & Mercer (assuming the Bears are fortunate enough to beat a rapidly improving Stetson team this Saturday).

[Go...gate]

Congratulations to Butler!

[citdog]

Congratulations to Butler!


http://img2-2.timeinc.net/ew/dynamic/imgs/070821/belv_l.jpg

[ursus arctos horribilis]

Congrats Butler.

[clenz]

Do you see any scenario where UNI gets in over YSU? YSU at 8-4 and UNI at 7-5, UNI has h2h win plus a much tougher OOC schedule with an FBS win and a W over McNeese big. YSU has a joke of an OOC schedule with no good wins. Obviously, the conference record is killing UNI, but the games were close and they were missing their best players for some of the games, not SIU.
UNI has a chance but it's slim.

The YSU/SDSU game is really a catch 22 for UNI. SDSU wins and they are in putting YSU on the bubble. YSU has a better record that UNI but lost the H2H and played crap for a schedule. YSU wins and that puts SDSU at the same record as UNI with a decent OOC SOS and a H2H win over UNI.

I hope the committee sees that UNI is starting to get the 2nd and 3rd stringers that are playing are starting to gel at game speed. The talent level is still on par with pretty much anyone in the nation with our subs but it took 3-4 weeks for it to all gel together. Now that is has UNI has beaten a top 15 rated YSU, beaten a streaking MSU team that will finish top 3 in the conference (somehow) and hopefully a drubbing of WIU. UNI will have to hang a ton of points this week - style points if you will. That's typically not Farley's style.

However, 3 straight OT losses and 5 straight overall will damper anyones chances of making the playoffs.

There's a chance but it's going to take a lot of things going right on Saturday with the number of teams sitting between 6-8 wins.

[JayJ79]

However, 3 straight OT losses and 5 straight overall will damper anyones chances of making the playoffs.

5 straight losses damper playoff chances, yes. don't really think the OT factor matters much. if anything, it would be more of a positive (kind of like how hockey teams get 1 pt in the standings for OT losses), though likely in the case of football, a loss is probably viewed just as a loss, whether it's OT or not.