Liberty Playoff Question

[matfu]

From Coulson's column.


My question:Where in the world did this ruling etc. come from?



When Liberty finished the 2007 season on the outside of the playoffs, Flames players and coaches vowed that they wouldn't let a slow start to the 2008 campaign do them in again.

The Flames (4-0) took a major step towards a possible playoff berth on Saturday with a 31-28 victory over Youngstown State (2-3), when Matt Blevins blasted a 24-yard field goal on the final play of regulation.

With wins over Youngstown State and Western Carolina, Liberty has the two wins it needs over teams from automatic-bid conference to satisfy one of the elements of the NCAA's new earned access rule.

Should the Flames finish ranked among the top 16 teams in an average of the Sports Network poll, the coaches poll and the Gridiron Power Index, and win the Big South championship, they would earn one of the eight at-large entries into the playoffs.

[BULLDOG8180]

From Coulson's column.


My question:Where in the world did this ruling etc. come from?



When Liberty finished the 2007 season on the outside of the playoffs, Flames players and coaches vowed that they wouldn't let a slow start to the 2008 campaign do them in again.

The Flames (4-0) took a major step towards a possible playoff berth on Saturday with a 31-28 victory over Youngstown State (2-3), when Matt Blevins blasted a 24-yard field goal on the final play of regulation.

With wins over Youngstown State and Western Carolina, Liberty has the two wins it needs over teams from automatic-bid conference to satisfy one of the elements of the NCAA's new earned access rule.
Should the Flames finish ranked among the top 16 teams in an average of the Sports Network poll, the coaches poll and the Gridiron Power Index, and win the Big South championship, they would earn one of the eight at-large entries into the playoffs.

This is what bothers me...............they play such a weak schedule (sorry Elon)

[FCS Go!]

From Coulson's column.


My question:Where in the world did this ruling etc. come from?



....

Back in the spring when the playoff rules and guidelines were changed. Do a search for playoff eligibility and you'll probably hit something.

[WrenFGun]

If Liberty wins the Big South and gets 9 wins, they'd deserve an at-large anyway, I'd suspect. I'm not too concerned with this.

[kirkblitz]

if coastal wins out and goes 10-2 do they deserve a bid?

[Lehigh Football Nation]

http://www.championshipsubdivisionnews.com/index.php?blog=5&title=the-csn-way-how-many-teams&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

This was covered in the "CSN Way":


It was originally reported that all a team needed to do was to achieve eight Division I wins, two wins over schools in autobid conferences (or an FBS win), and an average ranking of at least #16 in the GPI, Sports Network and Coaches polls. The average rankings begin after the 10/25 games.

However, there is a key caveat to this criteria. Not only does the team need to meet these criteria, they need to be the champion of a conference that currently qualifies for an autobid but isn’t currently an autobid conference. Only if they meet those parameters they will receive an at-large bid to the playoffs in 2008.

Based on this criteria by the NCAA, only one conference could achieve an autobid: the winner of the Northeast conference, or NEC.

A 11-0 Liberty or a 10-2 Coastal team would both have an opportunity to make the field as an at-large (as does Cal Poly, or before this weekend UC Davis) but it wouldn't be as a result of these criteria.

[Tribe4SF]

Why does the Big South not qualify? They have more than five teams, and are a full scholarship league.

The challenge for Liberty is to achieve the top 16 ranking. They probably need to beat both Lafayette, and Elon to get there. Even losing one of those, they would be a strong at-large candidate at 11-1, and 9-1 against FCS.

[rokamortis]

Why does the Big South not qualify? They have more than five teams, and are a full scholarship league.


We only went to 6 teams this year with the addition of Stony Brook, we have to be at 6 teams for 2 years before being autobid eligible. PC makes 7 but they are transitional and won't count towards eligibility for a few more years.

[carney2]

I felt in the summer, and still feel, that the absolute garbage on their schedule (North Greenville, Glenville State) will be held against them, and that they would have to do the following to get an at-large bid:

Win the Big South

Win 2 out of 3 vs. Youngstown State, Lafayette and Elon, the only teams with any cache on the schedule.

Finish 10-1 and in the top 20.

Having said that, they look like the real deal and should have a shot.

[SuperJon]

Actually, what we've learned in the past week is that the earned access does NOT apply to us.


In addition, the cabinet approved a change in the committee's selection criteria to provide an avenue of access for those conferences that qualify for automatic qualification but do not receive it because of the size of the bracket.

Unfortunately, that doesn't apply to us. The only thing we can get is an at-large this year.

[Libertine]

With Albany's loss to Delaware on Saturday, Earned Access has become a moot point anyway. There's no one left in the NEC that can meet the "2 wins vs. autobid conference teams" criterion.

[danefan]

With Albany's loss to Delaware on Saturday, Earned Access has become a moot point anyway. There's no one left in the NEC that can meet the "2 wins vs. autobid conference teams" criterion.

Yup. No earned access bid this year.

Same deal as last year. Could be some very disserving teams staying home this year. The addition of NDSU and SDSU as two very strong teams will cause some headaches for the committee I think. xreadx

[jcmanson]

I felt in the summer, and still feel, that the absolute garbage on their schedule (North Greenville, Glenville State) will be held against them, and that they would have to do the following to get an at-large bid:

Win the Big South

Win 2 out of 3 vs. Youngstown State, Lafayette and Elon, the only teams with any cache on the schedule.

Finish 10-1 and in the top 20.

Having said that, they look like the real deal and should have a shot.

Agreed, if we are 11-0 going into the Elon game I think we will be in the top 10, and win or lose would have a strong case to make the playoffs. If we were to win, we would definitely make it, if we were to lose it would be a nail biter on selection Sunday.

Nonetheless, that’s a lot of “if’s” and we need to beat Coastal Saturday or all of this talk is pointless.

[Lehigh Football Nation]

if coastal wins out and goes 10-2 do they deserve a bid?

Coastal's situation is very interesting and I'm watching it closely. If they go 10-2 their only losses would be to Colgate and FBS Penn State, and they'd have a quality win against a Top 25 (Liberty) in there as well.

I'd say their postseason chances are dependent on beating Liberty this weekend and how Colgate does in the Patriot League race. They are also probably dependent on Liberty as well beating either Elon or Lafayette down the road as well, and probably both.

If at the end of the year Coastal is seen to have lost an early game to the Patriot League Champs 23-19 on the last play, that carries a lot more weight than having lost to a 5-6 or 6-5 middle-of-the-pack Patriot League team. The Chants will need to point to that game as "not a bad loss". They also need to point to the Liberty game as a "good win", too.

IMO, Coastal is in the discussion, but a lot is out of their control.

[Tealblood]

ifin we go 10-2 all 10 wins would be FCS-no D2's

[appfan2008]

I think Liberty deserves a shot especially if they go 11-1... they sure have been playing well

[IaaScribe]

And I hope people would look at the circumstances in the Colgate game ... i.e., the lightning delay, the bad work by the home timer, etc.

[kirkblitz]

Coastal will NEVER play another D2 school again according to our AD because of situations where you have a 10 win season but like 2 or 3 are D2

[SuperJon]

Why would they schedule two D2 games?

We had the one Division II game scheduled as the home opener (North Greenville). We had JMU back out on our game October 18. We also had another Division I school back out of our game scheduled for September 20. We were left with three open dates: Week 2, Week 4, and Week 8. After filling Week 8 with Lafayette, we were left with having to fill a game in Week 2 or Week 4. Our staff didn't want to play 11 straight games, so we chose to pursue a game in Week 2. With it being that late in the game looking for teams, the only game available in Week 2 was the Division II school.

Next year we have no Division II schools and our schedule is already finalized.

[ElonFirefighter]

This was the first year I can remember that we did not have a D2 game. Last year we ended the season ranked and 7 wins but only 6 DI. Needless to say we were home come november