Playoff Picture

[LDopaPDX]

Please try to do your homework. Here's Craig Haley's own words on EWU not getting seeded after predicting a 5 seed for them yesterday:

"Who did Eastern Washington annoy (yes, that’s kind) at the NCAA? Not only were the Eagles (9-2) the odd team out when it came to shoehorning nine teams into the eight seeds, but the Big Sky power – ranked fifth nationally – was placed in the mini-bracket of death."

https://theanalyst.com/na/2021/11/five-reactions-to-the-2021-fcs-playoff-pairings/

He asks a rhetorical question, but we already know the answer. We annoyed Kent Haslam. And the NCAA chose to listen to that fraud.

 

[GoldenEagle]

DOPA, I have no problem with Bobby Hauck either. He knows his limitations, was tenderized at the FBS level and scurried home to UM.

Now, Haslam is a different story. He went to the FCS Playoff selection committee, likely distracted because he was getting sued by a UM legend, the ex coach of the women's basketball team. It's pretty obvious he failed in the playoff selection process because a team with EWU's performance this season was denied a seed.

I don't think he screwed EWU on purpose. I simply think he is inept and above his head.

 

[rontheoldwiseeagle2]

I founded this easy to explain.
Sac won conference got best seed
Montana schools will give the NCAA the most $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.
Not going to put 4 Big Sky in the top eight.
No fan support for Eagles we are lucky we get a home game with our $ bid.
They will do great. and I love winning in Montana.

 

[LDopaPDX]

DOPA, I have no problem with Bobby Hauck either. He knows his limitations, was tenderized at the FBS level and scurried home to UM.

Now, Haslam is a different story. He went to the FCS Playoff selection committee, likely distracted because he was getting sued by a UM legend, the ex coach of the women's basketball team. It's pretty obvious he failed in the playoff selection process because a team with EWU's performance this season was denied a seed.

I don't think he screwed EWU on purpose. I simply think he is inept and above his head.

I hung out with Bobby Hauck one time... seemed like a really good dude. He was "tenderized at the FBS level" because he was at UNLV. That's just a terrible place where no one succeeds. It's like coaching at Idaho State. Arroyo was considered a great hire, and he's won all of two games in two seasons. If you can get to .500 with any consistency at UNLV, you're killing it.

I don't think Haslam is inept. I think this was conscious and pre-conceived. He probably saw the ways things were shaking out and figured he could kneecap Eastern with a first round game and then catch the winner in Missoula on a 6-day turnaround. There's just not any reason for it; the metrics and polls are what they are. Massey and Sagarin are said to be used in FCS, but were clearly ignored. The only reason to ignore metrics would be if you had a plan and the metrics didn't fit your plan... so you worked around the data to reach a destination. How else can it be explained? I get the $$$ reason noted before, but the committee shouldn't be considering that for the seeds; those are supposed be based solely on merit. Unless Kent Haslam is part of the committee, than it becomes whatever meets his fancy.

Whatta dildo. The good news is that we can still make things right by beating UNI and then beating his precious Griz that he advocates so hard for. In truth, I haven no problem advocating for his program... it makes sense whether it is morally right or not. But internationally trying to cause harm to a rival is hardly meritous. It's just cronyism, or anti-cronyism if you will.

 

[LDopaPDX]

Here's yet another piece based on how the committee actually seeded the teams in a tournament format. Everyone past the last 8 is regionalized, but assuming the seeds carry in to the first round, the committee made Eastern a 22 seed. It's semantics, but it shows just show lowly they really thought of Eastern.

https://masseyratings.com/tourn?t=1470

 

[marceagfan5]

We got screwed with the selection, 2nd time of recent memory…getting left out in 2019 was crap as well.

I don’t feel we do a great job fighting for our case. Best should be pissed, hickey should be pissed…when the polls come out this week, we are probably ranked 4th, yet we don’t get a top a top 8 seed, it’s a joke.

The only thing we’ve learned from this process is we need to schedule absolute cupcakes in non conference…forget difficult games, all that matters to the committee is wins…

 

[LDopaPDX]

We got screwed with the selection, 2nd time of recent memory…getting left out in 2019 was crap as well.

I don’t feel we do a great job fighting for our case. Best should be pissed, hickey should be pissed…when the polls come out this week, we are probably ranked 4th, yet we don’t get a top a top 8 seed, it’s a joke.

The only thing we’ve learned from this process is we need to schedule absolute cupcakes in non conference…forget difficult games, all that matters to the committee is wins…

Starting be a bit worried about Hickey. She's presided over some tough times. And I don't think she's navigated it well. Firing Bodnar and replacing him only to watch the soccer team turn to shit under new leadership was just bad. This wasn't an upgrade at all, and we took a top-of-conference program and made the mid-tier at best. Hiring Riley may wind up being all good, but losing a quality coach and watching everyone transfer was ugly. Maybe there's not much we could've done given the NCAA rules changes, but we didn't even address it at the management level.

And now she's let a rival AD screw us in the worst possible fashion. She's needs to utilize whatever leverage she's got. When Sac State, Montana State, and Montana get seeded with less of a resume while you don't, there needs to be some animated discussions about how they screwed us. I only hope she remembers, because she'll likely be on a committee one day as well. Remember what Montana did to us. Retribution is in order. No 9-2 team from the Big Sky has ever been unseeded before, to my knowledge, no surprise Haslam made sure we were the first.

 

[LDopaPDX]

We got screwed with the selection, 2nd time of recent memory…getting left out in 2019 was crap as well.

I don’t feel we do a great job fighting for our case. Best should be pissed, hickey should be pissed…when the polls come out this week, we are probably ranked 4th, yet we don’t get a top a top 8 seed, it’s a joke.

The only thing we’ve learned from this process is we need to schedule absolute cupcakes in non conference…forget difficult games, all that matters to the committee is wins…

Again on Hickey, she's doubling down on road games and Power 5 games. We don't even play a DI home basketball game this year, and she's contracted our football team to go to both Oregon and Florida. Let's say we win 7 of our other 9, I guarantee Haslam would make sure he picked anyone but us. We have to deal with the asshole as part of the committee for the next 3 years.

 

[dudeitsaid]

I'm honestly not surprised. Had a feeling this was going to happen with UM beat MSU, and the recency an dominance of the win was going to weigh heavily in the committee's eyes. I figured MSU wouldn't fall out of the rankings, and Sac State completely dominated UCD. Best case was that they still saw EWU as being more worthy than ETSU, but I think they got a lot of flack when their were four seeded teams from the Big Sky in 2019, and that weighed into the discussion. It's just a mess. I think that bye was critical. Could've even handled a tough bracket, but I think the bye was absolutely necessary. We would have to go through a 9 game stretch with the five postseason gauntlet of the most challenging bracket to win the NC. But, as mentioned before, we do that, there is no doubt.

 

[EagInTexas]

Wow, thanks for coming over and explaining "Regionalization" to us. Now it makes total sense why the EAGS were not seeded, and the princess of FCS the EAGS beat was seeded 6.

Well unfortunately it is extremely obvious that very few here understand the concept based on the pages of questions on why you have to play UNI and then Montana.

Hey bud, regionalization has nothing to do with why EWU was not seeded when it’s pretty clear that they should have been. Posters on this forum have done a good job in describing all the various reasons why that should have been the case.

It’s also pretty clear that we got fucked hard by the committee here. We know it, you know it, even all of the pundits know it who picked us as high as #5 seed. The question is why and I don’t think it’s a stretch at all to question whether or not we were fairly represented in those discussions by the person who was supposed to advocate for the conference; in this case your POS AD.

I honestly hope Best and the team is pissed off by this disrespect and can channel that energy.

 

[EagInTexas]

"Who did Eastern Washington annoy (yes, that’s kind) at the NCAA? Not only were the Eagles (9-2) the odd team out when it came to shoehorning nine teams into the eight seeds, but the Big Sky power – ranked fifth nationally – was placed in the mini-bracket of death."

Exactly.

 

[Seattle Eagle]

Hey guys, let’s show a little empathy for Montana here. :lol: Does anyone REALLY think that they want to play us again in their first game? To be fair the committee REALLY didn’t do them any favors with the draw.

 

[GoldenEagle]

Well, regardless of whether Haslam was incompetent, or shrewd, he failed. He is made for UM and that soft, spongy, fan base.

 

[GSmith42]

Wow, thanks for coming over and explaining "Regionalization" to us. Now it makes total sense why the EAGS were not seeded, and the princess of FCS the EAGS beat was seeded 6.

Well unfortunately it is extremely obvious that very few here understand the concept based on the pages of questions on why you have to play UNI and then Montana.

Ok, explain why we didn’t get what we deserved then? We got screwed by the playoff committee plain and simple. I’d love to hear the argument for why a team like ETSU who plays in a marginal conference gets seeded?

BTW, I also believe Montana deserved to be seeded. This isn’t an either/or situation for me personally.

 

[GSmith42]

Well, regardless of whether Haslam was incompetent, or shrewd, he failed. He is made for UM and that soft, spongy, fan base.

I doubt it was deliberate but it seems fair to ask the question. What was the reasoning?

 

[marceagfan5]

We got screwed with the selection, 2nd time of recent memory…getting left out in 2019 was crap as well.

I don’t feel we do a great job fighting for our case. Best should be pissed, hickey should be pissed…when the polls come out this week, we are probably ranked 4th, yet we don’t get a top a top 8 seed, it’s a joke.

The only thing we’ve learned from this process is we need to schedule absolute cupcakes in non conference…forget difficult games, all that matters to the committee is wins…

Again on Hickey, she's doubling down on road games and Power 5 games. We don't even play a DI home basketball game this year, and she's contracted our football team to go to both Oregon and Florida. Let's say we win 7 of our other 9, I guarantee Haslam would make sure he picked anyone but us. We have to deal with the asshole as part of the committee for the next 3 years.

The basketball schedule has always been awful, it’s very rare we get a non conference D1 school to play in Cheney and I find it baffling…the football schedule next year is horrendous and we may have scheduled ourselves out of the playoffs because of it.

I feel that we get the short end of the stick because we just accept it…EWU coaches and everyone in the athletic dept should be pissed about the football selection and making it known.

 

[eaglesfootball]

Well, regardless of whether Haslam was incompetent, or shrewd, he failed. He is made for UM and that soft, spongy, fan base.

I doubt it was deliberate but it seems fair to ask the question. What was the reasoning?

I intend to ask exactly that. If anyone else is interested in doing the same, here’s his email:

mailto:[email protected]

 

[LDopaPDX]

We got screwed with the selection, 2nd time of recent memory…getting left out in 2019 was crap as well.

I don’t feel we do a great job fighting for our case. Best should be pissed, hickey should be pissed…when the polls come out this week, we are probably ranked 4th, yet we don’t get a top a top 8 seed, it’s a joke.

The only thing we’ve learned from this process is we need to schedule absolute cupcakes in non conference…forget difficult games, all that matters to the committee is wins…

Again on Hickey, she's doubling down on road games and Power 5 games. We don't even play a DI home basketball game this year, and she's contracted our football team to go to both Oregon and Florida. Let's say we win 7 of our other 9, I guarantee Haslam would make sure he picked anyone but us. We have to deal with the asshole as part of the committee for the next 3 years.

The basketball schedule has always been awful, it’s very rare we get a non conference D1 school to play in Cheney and I find it baffling…the football schedule next year is horrendous and we may have scheduled ourselves out of the playoffs because of it.

I feel that we get the short end of the stick because we just accept it…EWU coaches and everyone in the athletic dept should be pissed about the football selection and making it known.

One thing that I think we've lacked for a long time, probably since the the early 2000s, is any kind of scheduling creativity. I know finances work against us, but they've always worked against us. As bad as the financial situation is today- and it's largely an issue on hemorrhaging enrollment, not the AD- it's nowhere even close to as bad as it was in the 80s. Remember, Eastern was so poor financially at that time the school almost got absorbed by WSU. Yet, during that period, we played home basketball games against Washington, Washington State, and Gonzaga. We always had some good home games, even team like St. Mary's, Miami-Ohio, Air Force, UC Santa Barbara--- kind of random DI teams made their way to Cheney. It feels like we can't get games like that any more.

In football, part of the issue is we play home-home dates without ever getting a return. We traveled to Fordham without a return trip. We traveled to South Dakota without a return trip. We scheduled home-homes with Nicholls and Jacksonville State and let them buy out their return. Anyone think we actually get a return trip from Western Illinois?

 

[EWU98]

Trying to look at this as objectively as possible.

We are a 8-2 FCS team (the Central game does not count)

We beat a UNLV team that won 2 games and would probably be middle of the road team in the Sky.

We lost to Weber State who was barely over .500 at HOME!!! who also lost to Portland State

We lost to MSU at HOME!!!

We beat Montana early - they are streaking now at the end of the season and demolished MSU who we lost too.....at HOME!

We are 2-2 in the last 4 games.

I am grateful we got a home game.

Polls are subjective...I've known a lot of people who have no business filling out the polls but still do so.

Did we get a tough draw absolutely. But as a 8-2 team we are where we are. The only way the boys can prove themselves is on the field. Let's go 1-0 this week.

 

[EWURanger]

Trying to look at this as objectively as possible.

We are a 8-2 FCS team (the Central game does not count)

We beat a UNLV team that won 2 games and would probably be middle of the road team in the Sky.

We lost to Weber State who was barely over .500 at HOME!!! who also lost to Portland State

We lost to MSU at HOME!!!

We beat Montana early - they are streaking now at the end of the season and demolished MSU who we lost too.....at HOME!

We are 2-2 in the last 4 games.

I am grateful we got a home game.

Polls are subjective...I've known a lot of people who have no business filling out the polls but still do so.

Did we get a tough draw absolutely. But as a 8-2 we are where we are. The only way the boys can prove themselves is on the field. Let's go 1-0 this week.

Apparently the playoff committee looked at our next opponent, UNI, as a 5-5 team since they also played a DII team.

I mention this because I don’t know how much stock to put into the “DII wins don’t count” argument. Is that specifically stated somewhere?

It’s curious to me how some think a win over a non-scholarship or limited scholarship FCS program from the Pioneer League like San Diego (MSU olayed two of those) is somehow more meaningful than a win against a scholarship DII team. In a good year CWU would smoke many of those programs.