FCS Stats Poll 10.31.16 > EWU still at #3

[GreatDayToBeAnEagle]

Rank School Votes Prev
1 Sam Houston State (8-0) 3467 (102) 1
2 Jacksonville State (7-1) 3346 (15) 2
3 Eastern Washington (7-1) 3253 (18) 3
4 North Dakota State (7-1) 3090 (4) 4
5 Citadel (8-0) 2961 (3) 5
6 Richmond (7-1) 2823 6
7 James Madison (7-1) 2762 8
8 Charleston Southern (5-2) 2484 9
9 Chattanooga (8-1) 2464 10
10 Villanova (6-2) 1963 11
11 North Carolina A&T (7-1) 1788 12
12 Western Illinois (6-2) 1786 13
13 South Dakota State (5-3) 1783 7
14 Cal Poly (6-2) 1642 14
15 Youngstown State (6-2) 1603 15
16 North Dakota (7-2) 1526 17
17 Central Arkansas (7-1) 1384 19
18 Coastal Carolina (6-2) 1233 18
19 Montana (5-3) 891 16
20 Samford (6-2) 885 20
21 Grambling State (5-1) 815 21
22 New Hampshire (6-3) 565 NR
23 Harvard (6-1) 476 24
24 Lehigh (7-2) 467 NR
25 Stony Brook (5-3) 124 22
Others: Maine (78) , Eastern Illinois (68) , Albany (49) , South Dakota (48) , Weber State (42) , North Carolina Central (42) , Wofford (33) , San Diego (31) , UNI (29) , Saint Francis U (28) , Liberty (24) , Penn (20) , Sacred Heart (20) , UT Martin (17) , Northern Arizona (12) , Tennessee State (9) , Illinois State (7) , Fordham (4) , McNeese (2) , Nicholls (2) , Kennesaw State (2) , Southern Utah (1) , Southern University (1)

 

[EWU98]

A few more 1st place votes....another week and another ranked team at their place. Should be a good one. I am not sure if any other team will have faced as many ranked opponents this year and an FCS team as we have...we are definitely battle tested.

 

[LDopaPDX]

A few more 1st place votes....another week and another ranked team at their place. Should be a good one. I am not sure if any other team will have faced as many ranked opponents this year and an FCS team as we have...we are definitely battle tested.

Need to keep winning to get that bye during the play-in round. Getting that downtime to refresh will be a huge deal.

 

[EWU98]

:+1:

A few more 1st place votes....another week and another ranked team at their place. Should be a good one. I am not sure if any other team will have faced as many ranked opponents this year and an FCS team as we have...we are definitely battle tested.

Need to keep winning to get that bye during the play-in round. Getting that downtime to refresh will be a huge deal.

 

[Rjones61]

My thoughts exactly. If we can get through Cal Poly, things look bright. We may even snag the #1 seed!

 

[EWU98]

My thoughts exactly. If we can get through Cal Poly, things look bright. We may even snag the #1 seed!

I hope not...I hate the #1 give me the #2 :thumb: I think the Bison are still the #1 IMO

 

[ewueagle2010]

My thoughts exactly. If we can get through Cal Poly, things look bright. We may even snag the #1 seed!

I hope not...I hate the #1 give me the #2 :thumb: I think the Bison are still the #1 IMO

I agree, if everyone keeps winning, I think EWU gets the #2 seed, which I'm completely okay with. NDSU would have the head to head win over us, and we'd still have home field throughout the playoffs.

On the ranked opponents, it's crazy just how tough our schedule has been, even after seeing it play out.

@ Washington State (#25 FBS now)
@ #1 NDSU (#4 now)
#10 Northern Iowa (unranked now)
@#24 Northern Arizona (unranked now)
#16 Montana (#19 now)
@#14 Cal Poly

6 of 11 of EWU's games have been or will be against ranked teams. :shock:

 

[dudeitsaid]

My thoughts exactly. If we can get through Cal Poly, things look bright. We may even snag the #1 seed!

I hope not...I hate the #1 give me the #2 :thumb: I think the Bison are still the #1 IMO

I agree, if everyone keeps winning, I think EWU gets the #2 seed, which I'm completely okay with. NDSU would have the head to head win over us, and we'd still have home field throughout the playoffs.

On the ranked opponents, it's crazy just how tough our schedule has been, even after seeing it play out.

@ Washington State (#25 FBS now)
@ #1 NDSU (#4 now)
#10 Northern Iowa (unranked now)
@#24 Northern Arizona (unranked now)
#16 Montana (#19 now)
@#14 Cal Poly

6 of 11 of EWU's games have been or will be against ranked teams. :shock:

It's incredible to think that the top two SOS have produced two of the top five ranked teams in the country. NDSU has the #1 SOS, we have #2. It isn't uncommon to hear arguments for teams being good with too many losses because they play a tough SOS. How many of the top ten would have one OT loss with our sched?

 

[93bird]

Does anyone still think Eastern should have scheduled a MVSU-style team instead of WSU or NDSU? Is it maybe possible that Eastern's difficult schedule could help the Eagles earn a 1 or 2 seed?

 

[clawman1]

My thoughts exactly. If we can get through Cal Poly, things look bright. We may even snag the #1 seed!

I hope not...I hate the #1 give me the #2 :thumb: I think the Bison are still the #1 IMO

I agree, if everyone keeps winning, I think EWU gets the #2 seed, which I'm completely okay with. NDSU would have the head to head win over us, and we'd still have home field throughout the playoffs.

On the ranked opponents, it's crazy just how tough our schedule has been, even after seeing it play out.

@ Washington State (#25 FBS now)
@ #1 NDSU (#4 now)
#10 Northern Iowa (unranked now)
@#24 Northern Arizona (unranked now)
#16 Montana (#19 now)
@#14 Cal Poly

6 of 11 of EWU's games have been or will be against ranked teams. :shock:

We keep playing and beating ranked teams and that knocks them down the polls. Good problem to have!

 

[LDopaPDX]

Does anyone still think Eastern should have scheduled a MVSU-style team instead of WSU or NDSU? Is it maybe possible that Eastern's difficult schedule could help the Eagles earn a 1 or 2 seed?

I certainly would prefer to go a little lighter. The WSU game is a must because we need that BCS game for the money.

It's easy to look through the lens of today and say "well, we made it, so it must be alright." We were two plays away from being 0-3 to start the season. That's not a lot of margin for error. Had we started 0-3, it would have been a nightmare.

I think you need to analyze both the positives and negatives from your scheduling. Obviously, if you're as good as we've been, we can work through a difficult schedule. But look at the converse, what happens if we're not quite as good? Suddenly you miss the playoffs because you scheduled a loss when you could've scheduled a win. Then it becomes devastating.

 

[ewueagfan]

Does anyone still think Eastern should have scheduled a MVSU-style team instead of WSU or NDSU? Is it maybe possible that Eastern's difficult schedule could help the Eagles earn a 1 or 2 seed?

I certainly would prefer to go a little lighter. The WSU game is a must because we need that BCS game for the money.

It's easy to look through the lens of today and say "well, we made it, so it must be alright." We were two plays away from being 0-3 to start the season. That's not a lot of margin for error. Had we started 0-3, it would have been a nightmare.

I think you need to analyze both the positives and negatives from your scheduling. Obviously, if you're as good as we've been, we can work through a difficult schedule. But look at the converse, what happens if we're not quite as good? Suddenly you miss the playoffs because you scheduled a loss when you could've scheduled a win. Then it becomes devastating.

I look at it a little differently. If we're a bubble type team with 3 or more losses and end up making it in because we played 1-2 easy games in OOC play, does it really matter? It that scenario, we're probably not a very good team and not going far in the playoffs anyway. Getting seeded high is what matters, and I don't think you can grab one of those top two seeds anymore without a really good resume. That probably means an FBS win. Case in point, if both NDSU and EWU win out I have no doubts that they will get the 1 and 2 seeds due to the fact that both have P5 wins. I think there's zero chance an 11-0 Sam Houston will be placed higher if all three win their remaining games.

 

[LDopaPDX]

Does anyone still think Eastern should have scheduled a MVSU-style team instead of WSU or NDSU? Is it maybe possible that Eastern's difficult schedule could help the Eagles earn a 1 or 2 seed?

I certainly would prefer to go a little lighter. The WSU game is a must because we need that BCS game for the money.

It's easy to look through the lens of today and say "well, we made it, so it must be alright." We were two plays away from being 0-3 to start the season. That's not a lot of margin for error. Had we started 0-3, it would have been a nightmare.

I think you need to analyze both the positives and negatives from your scheduling. Obviously, if you're as good as we've been, we can work through a difficult schedule. But look at the converse, what happens if we're not quite as good? Suddenly you miss the playoffs because you scheduled a loss when you could've scheduled a win. Then it becomes devastating.

I look at it a little differently. If we're a bubble type team with 3 or more losses and end up making it in because we played 1-2 easy games in OOC play, does it really matter? It that scenario, we're probably not a very good team and not going far in the playoffs anyway. Getting seeded high is what matters, and I don't think you can grab one of those top two seeds anymore without a really good resume. That probably means an FBS win. Case in point, if both NDSU and EWU win out I have no doubts that they will get the 1 and 2 seeds due to the fact that both have P5 wins. I think there's zero chance an 11-0 Sam Houston will be placed higher if all three win their remaining games.

Ok... Well let's talk about a couple of scenarios. Let's say we played Mississippi Valley State and Montana played North Dakota State (basically meaning we'd have traded those games with each other).

In that scenario, we're 8-0 today and probably ranked #1 in the country. Does that make us the top seed? Maybe, maybe not, but definitely at or near the top.

Montana, on the flip, would be 4-4 and all but out of the playoffs. Having a better strength of schedule is useless if you aren't winning.

I see us playing a little lighter schedule as having no downside. It's not like anyone advocates playing all NAIA schools; we'd be basically talking about moving one "feature" FCS team to a lower-tier FCS team. That's not a dramatic impact. However, if you lose a game you could otherwise win, the impact of having the tougher schedule is hugely negative.

 

[marceagfan5]

Does anyone still think Eastern should have scheduled a MVSU-style team instead of WSU or NDSU? Is it maybe possible that Eastern's difficult schedule could help the Eagles earn a 1 or 2 seed?

I certainly would prefer to go a little lighter. The WSU game is a must because we need that BCS game for the money.

It's easy to look through the lens of today and say "well, we made it, so it must be alright." We were two plays away from being 0-3 to start the season. That's not a lot of margin for error. Had we started 0-3, it would have been a nightmare.

I think you need to analyze both the positives and negatives from your scheduling. Obviously, if you're as good as we've been, we can work through a difficult schedule. But look at the converse, what happens if we're not quite as good? Suddenly you miss the playoffs because you scheduled a loss when you could've scheduled a win. Then it becomes devastating.

I look at it a little differently. If we're a bubble type team with 3 or more losses and end up making it in because we played 1-2 easy games in OOC play, does it really matter? It that scenario, we're probably not a very good team and not going far in the playoffs anyway. Getting seeded high is what matters, and I don't think you can grab one of those top two seeds anymore without a really good resume. That probably means an FBS win. Case in point, if both NDSU and EWU win out I have no doubts that they will get the 1 and 2 seeds due to the fact that both have P5 wins. I think there's zero chance an 11-0 Sam Houston will be placed higher if all three win their remaining games.

Two things...

1.) Look at the two teams ranked ahead of us and their schedule. So far playing cupcakes hasn't hurt them the least bit, now it may hurt them come seeding time, but they are both likely top 4 seeds if they win out...

2.) What if we didn't beat WSU. We can't rely on winning a Pac 12 game every year, although its great. If we didn't beat WSU, we are probably sitting around 8-10 in the country, looking at a borderline seed.

I don't look at Eastern being a bubble team every year (the last 4 times we made the playoffs, we were seeded) so I look at what we can do to finish the regular season as best we can. We get tested enough in conference, I think we can give ourselves at least ONE easy game every year in Non Conference play. The FBS game is a must and I like another challenging FCS game, but add in a 3rd and its makes our schedule really tough. It worked out this year, but has also bitten us in years past...