Best FCS teams, besides NDSU, over the past 5 seasons

[KPSUL]

I had some time on my hands today and decided to take a stab at an objective way to determine the 2nd through 10th most successful FCS programs over the past 5 years of NDSU dominance. Here's the results, then I'll describe the methodology:

2nd SHSU 69 pts
3rd JSU 45 pts
4th (3 way tie) CCU 43 pts
4th EWU 43 pts
4th UNH 43 pts
7th ISUred 41 pts
8th MT 33 pts
9th UNI 26 pts
10th (tie) JMU 23 pts
10th (tie) SDSU 23 pts

Every win +1, Loss -1 (includes all regular and playoff games)

BONUS
Making the playoffs but losing in the preliminary or 1st round during a season +2,
Making the playoffs and getting to the Quarterfinals +4
Making the playoffs and getting to the Semi-finals +6
Making the playoffs and getting to the Championship game +9

OK, I've updated the list with 2016 results. I dropped CCU for obvious reasons and it is now the last 6 years because it was too time consuming to rework the 5 year totals:

#2 SHSU 83PTS
#3 EWU 59PTS
#4 JSU 57PTS
#5 JMU 48PTS
#5 UNH 48PTS
#7 ISUred 43PTS
#8 MT 32PTS
#8 SDSU 32PTS
#10 UNI 25PTS

Later I'll determine a 10th team to replace CCU, and I think someone might have past UNI due to 2016 results. I awarded JMU 12 points for winning the championship - there was no need to award any team more than 9 prior to last season since NDSU was the only team that had a championship during the previous 5 years.

[dgtw]

How many points does NDSU have?


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[FearTheBeak]

This seems pretty accurate to me, I think all of these teams have been pretty solid lately. Only thing I could see that would make this skewed is wins against
ranked opponents. I think leaving out ranked wins as a bonus does not justice for some teams.

[KPSUL]

How many points does NDSU have?


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I don't know. I didn't even assign points for a championship since it so obvious that NDSU is the clear top team.

[gregatim]

I don't know. I didn't even assign points for a championship since it so obvious that NDSU is the clear top team.

241 If the championship were worth 13 points. Why 13? 9 plus. The average of 2,4, and 6, which follows the pattern of the scoring you developed.

[clenz]

How the hell is UNI still that high? The last 5 years is the worst 5 year stretch since pre D1 days.

[IBleedYellow]

Just what I said the other day to a friend.

If NDSU isn't in the picture we'd all be talking about how great of a run Sam Houston has been on.

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[IBleedYellow]

241 If the championship were worth 13 points. Why 13? 9 plus. The average of 2,4, and 6, which follows the pattern of the scoring you developed.
....wow.

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[KPSUL]

241 If the championship were worth 13 points. Why 13? 9 plus. The average of 2,4, and 6, which follows the pattern of the scoring you developed.

13 Sounds reasonable; but the points I awarded for making Playoff, Quarters Semis and finals are not cumulative. A team that makes the finals gets 9 points only. So I'm just guessing but I think NDSU has won something like 67 games in the 5 year run. Subtract 6 loses (guessing again) results in 61 points plus a total of 65 pts for the 5 championships equals a total of 126 pts. Almost twice as many as #2 SHSU.

[Nickels]

Just what I said the other day to a friend.

If NDSU isn't in the picture we'd all be talking about how great of a run Sam Houston has been on.

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yeah **** you guys xnonono2x

[Twentysix]

13 Sounds reasonable; but the points I awarded for making Playoff, Quarters Semis and finals are not cumulative. A team that makes the finals gets 9 points only. So I'm just guessing but I think NDSU has won something like 67 games in the 5 year run. Subtract 6 loses (guessing again) results in 61 points plus a total of 65 pts for the 5 championships equals a total of 126 pts. Almost twice as many as #2 SHSU.

71-5 I believe.

15 13-2
14 15-1
13 15-0
12 14-1
11 14-1

[gregatim]

13 Sounds reasonable; but the points I awarded for making Playoff, Quarters Semis and finals are not cumulative. A team that makes the finals gets 9 points only. So I'm just guessing but I think NDSU has won something like 67 games in the 5 year run. Subtract 6 loses (guessing again) results in 61 points plus a total of 65 pts for the 5 championships equals a total of 126 pts. Almost twice as many as #2 SHSU.

That makes more sense, but it was more fun getting to 241 :D, but it's 71 wins over the 5 years for 131.

[Thumper 76]

I'm somewhat surprised with how high CCU is

[geaux_sioux]

Where did NDSU JV end up in points?

[dewey]

Where did NDSU JV end up in points?

Higher than UND.

Dewey

[SeattleGriz]

How the hell is UNI still that high? The last 5 years is the worst 5 year stretch since pre D1 days.
Same for Montana. Still don't even have all our scholarships back and we got 8th.

[clenz]

Same for Montana. Still don't even have all our scholarships back and we got 8th.

And people wonder why "power conference" fans get upset by bottom tier conferences getting extra bids. The smaller conferences don't really take advantage of the chances.

[Lehigh'98]

And people wonder why "power conference" fans get upset by bottom tier conferences getting extra bids. The smaller conferences don't really take advantage of the chances.

How many bids did the MVFC get last year?

[Schism55]

How many bids did the MVFC get last year?
Not enough :P
5 to answer your question.

[CappinHard]

This is a cool concept, but I think the biggest flaw would be not taking into account quality of opponents. It could get really complicated, but I think it's the only way to be more accurate in terms of who has had the most successful seasons.

[KPSUL]

Since this seems to be a topic of near endless controversy on the current AGS Poll Results - PRESEASON thread I decide to resurrect it from the dead. I didn't rework the numbers to include last season, but it would be easy enough to do for the top 10 teams since the methodology is included.

[Redbird 4th & short]

Missed this first time around.

SHSU is clear 2nd obviously. SDSU and EWU should be higher. UNI, CCU and Montana should be lower.

Count the playoff records of SDSU and SHSU excluding NDSU. I would go further to say, not only has SDSU been screwed by going to Fargo almost every playoff, but there were at least 2 years they should have been top 8 (2012, 2015), even last season, they had no business being #8 behind UND .. so they once again had to go to Fargo, even as 8th seed.

[KPSUL]

Missed this first time around.

SHSU is clear 2nd obviously. SDSU and EWU should be higher. UNI, CCU and Montana should be lower.

Count the playoff records of SDSU and SHSU excluding NDSU. I would go further to say, not only has SDSU been screwed by going to Fargo almost every playoff, but there were at least 2 years they should have been top 8 (2012, 2015), even last season, they had no business being #8 behind UND .. so they once again had to go to Fargo, even as 8th seed.

OK, I've updated the list with 2016 results. I dropped CCU for obvious reasons and it is now the last 6 years because it was too time consuming to rework the 5 year totals:

#2 SHSU 83PTS
#3 EWU 59PTS
#4 JSU 57PTS
#5 JMU 48PTS
#5 UNH 48PTS
#7 ISUred 43PTS
#8 MT 32PTS
#8 SDSU 32PTS
#10 UNI 25PTS

Later I'll determine a 10th team to replace CCU, and I think someone might have past UNI due to 2016 results. I awarded JMU 12 points for winning the championship - there was no need to award any team more than 9 prior to last season since NDSU was the only team that had a championship during the previous 5 years.

[ElCid]

This is a cool concept, but I think the biggest flaw would be not taking into account quality of opponents. It could get really complicated, but I think it's the only way to be more accurate in terms of who has had the most successful seasons.

Exactly. I was thinking the same thing. It is a good basic objective formula but it misses so much. Say a team played NDSU in the second round. They got beat so they didn't advance. They might still have been better than every other team in the field, but you would never know that by how far they advanced. That was just an example. It could have been in the quarter or semis as well. How far a team advances is not necessarily an true measure of how good they were. Just saying.

Now, if you were to change the question to...."best playoff performance over the last 5 years," it would at least be more accurate, but even then without accounting for opponent strength and score it is only partially correct. Sorry to be anal.

You could use the final Sagarin or Massey rank as well.

[KPSUL]

Final update with 2016 results:

#2 SHSU 83PTS
#3 EWU 59PTS
#4 JSU 57PTS
#5 JMU 48PTS
#5 UNH 48PTS
#7 ISUred 43PTS
#8 MT 32PTS
#8 SDSU 32PTS
#10 Richmond 30PTS

[DFW HOYA]

#8 HARVARD 36 PTS

(Corrected to 44 as I didn't count 2011.)

[KPSUL]

#8 HARVARD 36 PTS

Actually, I just counted 44pts, without playoff appearances I didn't think any team would be that high. But they had three 9-1 seasons and a 10-0 once 2011 - 2016.