Big Sky Power Rankings 9-9

[JALMOND]

Second week in and still many questions. Most of the excitement involved the teams ranked in the bottom half of last week's rankings, which made this week very difficult to handicap. So far this season has been the most difficult of any season tha I've done this. Anyway, with that said, here are this week's power rankings (last week in parenthesis). Should be much discussion, so have at it.

1. Eastern Washington (1)---The Eagles made quite an effort against the Pac-12's Washington team last week, just coming up on the short end of the score. Now, with the benefit of moving their first game up, they get a bye this week.

2. Montana (2)---The Grizzlies did what they were supposed to do last week, disposing of a lower division foe in DII's Central Washington squad. This week they move in to the FCS level with a home game against the Missouri Valley's South Dakota team.

3. Montana State (3)---The Bobcats also did away with an inferior opponent last week, DII's Black Hills State, jumping on them early and not looking back. This week they play their first FCS game of the season, a home game against the Southland power, Central Arkansas.

4. Sacramento State (4)---The Hornets were brought back to reality, losing big at Pac-12 California after beating newcomer Incarnate Word by a hefty margin. Can it translate into conference wins? This week they get it started with a home game against Weber State.

5. Southern Utah (5)---The Thunderbirds threw a scare at Southland power Southeastern Louisiana last week before running out of gas at the end. They stay playing against power FCS teams this weekend with a home game against South Dakota State.

6. Northern Arizona (6)---The Lumberjacks held off FCS newcomer Abilene Christian last weekend for a hard fought win. After two tough games to start the year, they may get a breather this weekend as they welcome DII New Mexico Highlands.

7. UC-Davis (7)---The Aggies rebounded from their loss to Stanford with a resounding win last weekend against DII Fort Lewis. This weekend, they return to the FBS level, hitting the road against Colorado State.

8. Weber State (11)---The Wildcats were not expected to do much against the defending national champion North Dakota State but they did keep it fairly close. Now they start conference games with a game at Sacramento State.

9. Cal Poly (8)---The Mustangs could not get anything going last week on the road at Missouri Valley power South Dakota State. They get to take this weekend off before playing a non-conference game against conference foe Portland State.

10. Portland State (9)---When the Vikings wanted to, they played like a really good team against DII Western Oregon. But, also when they wanted to, they played absolutely terrible. They will need more consistency, especially this week as they play the Pac-12 Washington State team.

11. Idaho State (10)---Two games against the FBS and two big losses for the Bengals. Whatever it means will come out soon but they get a chance to recover and get some positive vibes going this weekend as they welcome DII Chadron State.

12. Northern Colorado (13)---Probably the most shocking of the Bears near miss last week at UNLV was not that they were close, but that they had a shot to win it. No time for rebuilding, could this actually be a good season. This weekend they welcome newcomer Houston Baptist.

13. North Dakota (12)---In a game that no one really seemed to want to win, the No-Names came out ahead of the Northeast's Robert Morris squad. Now they head on the road to the Missouri Valley and face off against Missouri State.

RECAP: 1-2 at the top, 3 inching ahead of a big pack (4-13).

[ALPHAGRIZ1]

No way Montana should be in the top 3

[MTfan4life]

So far this season has been the most difficult of any season tha I've done this.

It's crazy how many question marks there are still surrounding essentially everyone but Eastern Washington. They still have their defense as a question mark, but their offense makes them a clear #1 team. This is definitely a down year so far for the conference as a whole.

[lionsrking2]

5. Southern Utah (5)---The Thunderbirds threw a scare at Southland power Southeastern Louisiana last week before running out of gas at the end. They stay playing against power FCS teams this weekend with a home game against South Dakota State.



I would say "scare" is a bit strong because I don't think we were in danger of losing, but I was impressed with Southern Utah. They're very well coached, play a physical style of football, and are more athletic than you think watching them on tape. Our speed and depth took over in the fourth quarter but they didn't make it easy. They reminded me a lot of the New Hampshire team we played last year. It'll be interesting to see how they fare against South Dakota State this weekend.

[Red & Black]

It's crazy how many question marks there are still surrounding essentially everyone but Eastern Washington. They still have their defense as a question mark, but their offense makes them a clear #1 team. This is definitely a down year so far for the conference as a whole.

Agreed. I try to be objective as I can with our team right now...I don't think there's many teams that will be able to stop the O, but we'll see what happens with our D. Three true Freshman playing on the DL alone and 4 or 5 overall due to the injury situation. Some of those guys are going to be pretty darn good but obviously the game hasn't slowed down for them a couple games into the season.

Montana looks decent as far as I can tell from not having played an FCS opponent yet, and MSU I think will be pretty good as well if their QB can get going like he did last Saturday.

I'd put NAU 4th, followed closely by Sac, but other than that I think it's anyone's guess.

[slostang]

The Cal Poly/SDSU game was still a game late in the 3rd quarter. Cal Poly had 428 yards of offense and only trailed 16-12 at half time. SDSU pulled away in the 4th scoring 3 TDs one of which was a 58 yard TD on a broken play in which the QB fumbled and the ball bounced out of the pile into a SDSU RB's hand who then had an open path to the end zone. SDSU is a top 5 type team. I really do not feel there are 8 other Big Sky teams that are better than Cal Poly.

[robsnotes4u]

Clear cut EWU #1 without a challege. Maybe everyone after EWU should be #2. You can argue for anyone to be #2. If the Big Sky doesn't win some OOC FCS matchups this weekend then the conference might have some problems getting the number of teams in the playoffs they normally do.

The teams in the Big Sky that don't play Weber State this year, are lucky. They looked good against the Bison,and only get better.

[SactoHornetFan]

The SAC/WSU game is a non-conference game. This year and next both schools do not play each other in the rotation so they opted to continue the rivalry with a pair of home and home non-league games.

[Grizalltheway]

Sac and Weber have a rivalry? xconfusedx

[SactoHornetFan]

Sac and Weber have a rivalry? xconfusedx

Have split the last 14 meetings. We finally won in Ogden last year. They only have one win in Sacramento since 1998 (in 2008 when Mac had that really good squad).

[Rjones61]

It's crazy how many question marks there are still surrounding essentially everyone but Eastern Washington. They still have their defense as a question mark, but their offense makes them a clear #1 team. This is definitely a down year so far for the conference as a whole.

Indeed, a lot of teams are entering a rebuild year. Montana and Cal Poly were looking to be good playoff teams. But Montana had their slate of injuries on the line and Cal Poly had that robbery incident. Montana still has a chance at playoffs, but not really as a contender. Cal Poly has pretty much fallen off the map. This is a rebuild year for MSU, but they seem to be handling it well. I don't think they make the playoffs, though.

[cpalum]

Second week in and still many questions. Most of the excitement involved the teams ranked in the bottom half of last week's rankings, which made this week very difficult to handicap. So far this season has been the most difficult of any season tha I've done this. Anyway, with that said, here are this week's power rankings (last week in parenthesis). Should be much discussion, so have at it.

1. Eastern Washington (1)---The Eagles made quite an effort against the Pac-12's Washington team last week, just coming up on the short end of the score. Now, with the benefit of moving their first game up, they get a bye this week.

2. Montana (2)---The Grizzlies did what they were supposed to do last week, disposing of a lower division foe in DII's Central Washington squad. This week they move in to the FCS level with a home game against the Missouri Valley's South Dakota team.

3. Montana State (3)---The Bobcats also did away with an inferior opponent last week, DII's Black Hills State, jumping on them early and not looking back. This week they play their first FCS game of the season, a home game against the Southland power, Central Arkansas.

4. Sacramento State (4)---The Hornets were brought back to reality, losing big at Pac-12 California after beating newcomer Incarnate Word by a hefty margin. Can it translate into conference wins? This week they get it started with a home game against Weber State.

5. Southern Utah (5)---The Thunderbirds threw a scare at Southland power Southeastern Louisiana last week before running out of gas at the end. They stay playing against power FCS teams this weekend with a home game against South Dakota State.

6. Northern Arizona (6)---The Lumberjacks held off FCS newcomer Abilene Christian last weekend for a hard fought win. After two tough games to start the year, they may get a breather this weekend as they welcome DII New Mexico Highlands.

7. UC-Davis (7)---The Aggies rebounded from their loss to Stanford with a resounding win last weekend against DII Fort Lewis. This weekend, they return to the FBS level, hitting the road against Colorado State.

8. Weber State (11)---The Wildcats were not expected to do much against the defending national champion North Dakota State but they did keep it fairly close. Now they start conference games with a game at Sacramento State.

9. Cal Poly (8)---The Mustangs could not get anything going last week on the road at Missouri Valley power South Dakota State. They get to take this weekend off before playing a non-conference game against conference foe Portland State.

10. Portland State (9)---When the Vikings wanted to, they played like a really good team against DII Western Oregon. But, also when they wanted to, they played absolutely terrible. They will need more consistency, especially this week as they play the Pac-12 Washington State team.

11. Idaho State (10)---Two games against the FBS and two big losses for the Bengals. Whatever it means will come out soon but they get a chance to recover and get some positive vibes going this weekend as they welcome DII Chadron State.

12. Northern Colorado (13)---Probably the most shocking of the Bears near miss last week at UNLV was not that they were close, but that they had a shot to win it. No time for rebuilding, could this actually be a good season. This weekend they welcome newcomer Houston Baptist.

13. North Dakota (12)---In a game that no one really seemed to want to win, the No-Names came out ahead of the Northeast's Robert Morris squad. Now they head on the road to the Missouri Valley and face off against Missouri State.

RECAP: 1-2 at the top, 3 inching ahead of a big pack (4-13).



This is a difficult thing to do right now; the last two weeks really dont say much about the quality of most of the Big Sky teams. If you really look at it about 2/3 of the teams have wins over DII or teams transitioning to FCS. #2 Montana and #3 Montana State for example both have DII wins and Montana didn't really look great in victory. Although I would have called NMSU a very winnable game for Cal Poly the truth is that they are 0-2 after road losses to a FBS and a top 10 FCS. Does that really mean there are 8 BSC teams better? Davis got thrashed by Stanford and then won at home against DII Ft Lewis, a game pretty much any BSC school would win on most days. Sac St beat Incarnate World?!?! is that a Sci Fi show? and then got whipped by Cal....does that mean they are good? Hell...ISU lost to two FBS squads...would anybody other than EWU have had a chance to win those? UNC had a near win at UNLV and then a bye week...hard to say they are 12th best based on that. North Dakota has an FCS win that is more than you can say for all but maybe three teams above them.


To me there is EWU who is clearly top of the conference and then everybody else. It'll be a couple more weeks till this is meaningful but your guess is as good as mine