FCS Playoffs. ( CAA. Is WEAK )

[gofurman]

CAA was given 4 teams in playoffs. 4 !

Home teams today went 5 - 3 Overall.
So only 3 teams lost at home. 2 of those 3 losses were CAA teams

Playing at Home UNH lost by THIRTY ONE (!) to
UT Martin. Good grief.

Then Undefeated in CAA play - Richmond - lost at home also…. To Lehigh. Oh, their one regular season FCS loss ? Was to bottom tier SoCon Wofford.

[gofurman]

On other hand. I’m watching Montana as always. … where are we?

[FUBeAR]

Should have been 3 of 4 CA Teams losing

Officials reversed an EKU fumble-recovery Defensive TD that was obviously NOT an incomplete pass giving the game to Villanova, who won by 5. They also wrongly reversed an obvious & called targeting at the Villanova goal line at the end of the game when EKU was going in for the game winning score. Both critical game-changing reversals of clearly correct calls made on the field and both in Villanova’s favor. It was nearly as bad as the Officials’ call in Samford @ Furman in ‘22.

And, the CAA Team that did win legitimately, Rhode Island (who will play at Mercer next Saturday), just barely escaped a 7-5 NEC Central Connecticut State team, 21-17.

CAA Teams, despite their padded records, deserved 0 At-Large bids.

And 6-2 in the Big Sky Northern Arizona looked worse, by far, than any of the bad CAA Teams, losing 24-0 to Abilene Christian…and it wasn’t nearly that close. ACU, playing with their backup QB, who threw 3 drive-killing picks, also killed themselves all day with drive-killing penalties. With a clean game ACU beats NAU 56-0. PFL Champion, Drake (beaten 43-29 by Tarleton today), would easily beat NAU by 2 scores. Below the top 3 or 4, the Big Sky is VERY PFL-like. It was really hard to believe NAU is a scholarship Team.

[gofurman]

Should have been 3 of 4 CA Teams losing

Officials reversed an EKU fumble-recovery Defensive TD that was obviously NOT an incomplete pass giving the game to Villanova, who won by 5. They also wrongly reversed an obvious & called targeting at the Villanova goal line at the end of the game when EKU was going in for the game winning score. Both critical game-changing reversals of clearly correct calls made on the field and both in Villanova’s favor. It was nearly as bad as the Officials’ call in Samford @ Furman in ‘22.

And, the CAA Team that did win legitimately, Rhode Island (who will play at Mercer next Saturday), just barely escaped a 7-5 NEC Central Connecticut State team, 21-17.

CAA Teams, despite their padded records, deserved 0 At-Large bids.

And 6-2 in the Big Sky Northern Arizona looked worse, by far, than any of the bad CAA Teams, losing 24-0 to Abilene Christian…and it wasn’t nearly that close. ACU, playing with their backup QB, who threw 3 drive-killing picks, also killed themselves all day with drive-killing penalties. With a clean game ACU beats NAU 56-0. PFL Champion, Drake (beaten 43-29 by Tarleton today), would easily beat NAU by 2 scores. Below the top 3 or 4, the Big Sky is VERY PFL-like. It was really hard to believe NAU is a scholarship Team.

Go Mercer ! Beat uri

[apaladin]

I don’t think the committee realizes the CAA has had a complete turnover and this is Richmond’s last year too.

[Affirm]

I don’t think the committee realizes the CAA has had a complete turnover and this is Richmond’s last year too.

I am reminded that Richmond is moving to Patriot. I guess UR still hopes to have Villanova and W&M to follow them to Patriot.
… Also, I am reminded that we get to play UR in 2026 and 2027 - as well as getting another chance (home) against W&M in 2025.

[The Jackal]

I don’t think the committee realizes the CAA has had a complete turnover and this is Richmond’s last year too.

I am reminded that Richmond is moving to Patriot. I guess UR still hopes to have Villanova and W&M to follow them to Patriot.
… Also, I am reminded that we get to play UR in 2026 and 2027 - as well as getting another chance (home) against W&M in 2025.

I believe W&M recognized 25 seniors on senior day. By my count, they listed 17 seniors on the two deep against Furman this year.

I suspect the Tribe will be in a spot next year that Furman was in this year.

[PaladinGooner]

Richmond to the Patriot league does't seem right, they should nut up and join the SOCON.

Also I think calling teams bad because of close losses in the playoffs in innapropiate. Sure CCSU was bad in the regular season, but they were probably very up for this game. And who knows, maybe they had some early season growing pains and/or injuries.

I doubt Mercer would blowout any of these "weak" CAA teams.

[PaladinGooner]

CAA was given 4 teams in playoffs. 4 !

Home teams today went 5 - 3 Overall.
So only 3 teams lost at home. 2 of those 3 losses were CAA teams

Playing at Home UNH lost by THIRTY ONE (!) to
UT Martin. Good grief.

Then Undefeated in CAA play - Richmond - lost at home also…. To Lehigh. Oh, their one regular season FCS loss ? Was to bottom tier SoCon Wofford.

Mercer lost by 20 to bottom tier SOCON Samford, should they not be in the playoff?

[FUBeAR]

I doubt Mercer would blowout any of these "weak" CAA teams.

We’ll get to see how the Bears fair against the undefeated-in-the-(playoff eligible) CAA, CAA Champion, Rhode Island Rams, in just a few days.

Mercer had no trouble beating Wofford 22-3 in SparkeCity just 2 weeks after the AnkleBiters went on the road and beat the undefeated-in-the-CAA, CAA Champion, obviously overrated, Richmond Arachnids…

Wofford College Terriers
Sat 09-07 at Richmond W 26 19
Sat 09-28 Mercer L 3 22

[FUBeAR]

CAA was given 4 teams in playoffs. 4 !

Home teams today went 5 - 3 Overall.
So only 3 teams lost at home. 2 of those 3 losses were CAA teams

Playing at Home UNH lost by THIRTY ONE (!) to
UT Martin. Good grief.

Then Undefeated in CAA play - Richmond - lost at home also…. To Lehigh. Oh, their one regular season FCS loss ? Was to bottom tier SoCon Wofford.

Mercer lost by 20 to bottom tier SOCON Samford, should they not be in the playoff?

Mercer was the SoCon Autobid. So, that’s a moot point.
And, Samford finished 5th in the SoCon. Hard for reasonable people to describe that as anything other than “mid-tier SOCON” in a 9 Team Conference.

Chattanooga losing to 4-7 Samford by 23 is why the Mocs did not make the Playoffs.
WCU losing to 3-9 Campbell by 8 is why the Catamounts did not make the Playoffs.
ETSU losing by 3 to 3-8 Furman is why the Bucs did not make the Playoffs.

Most likely, if Mercer had not captured the Autobid, the Committee would have, once again, proven their amazing contortionist capabilities and rattled off a seemingly plausible line of BS justifying their ‘sound’ reasons for leaving a 10-2 (Overall) / 10-1 (FCS) SoCon Team at home.

…but, FUBeAR (slightly) digresses…let’s get back to the snubbing of 3 playoff-quality SoCon Teams in favor of CAA & Big Sky At-Large Teams

Team | FCS Record | SoS Rank | SoS Rating
Chattanooga | 7-3 | 24 | 31.31
W Carolina | 7-4 | 28 | 31.12
Northern Arizona | 7-4 | 29 | 30.91
New Hampshire | 8-3 | 33 | 30.68
ETSU | 6-4 | 39 | 29.66
Villanova | 9-2 | 57 | 26.88
Rhode Island | 10-2 | 59 | 26.54

Richmond was CAA Autobid, so they are omitted, but their SoS was 82nd & 24.02, if interested...about the same as Lehigh's. The Spiders are already playing Patriot League level Football.

(BTW - Hate using SoS numbers because they are biased voodoo, but the Committee uses it...so...)

Nova & URI can be, reasonably justified by their records, and ETSU can be justifiably left home with only 6 D1 wins...but Northern Arizona and New Hampshire had no business in the Playoffs ahead of Chatt & WCU, much less having UNH Seeded!!! … and they each demonstrated their lack of playoff quality last Saturday.

Playoff quality SoCon Teams are gonna take 1 “bad loss” / year, usually in Conference. That’s a given, but those SoCon Teams have also proven they are going to compete, and likely win their 1st round games and, as we saw the last 2 years, advance beyond.

SoCon Teams with good records AND a “bad loss” ARE playoff-quality. The Committee should ‘punish’ those Teams with lower or no seeds / no byes / away games, but leaving them home in favor of clearly inferior Teams with fluffy, "high-calorie" records, is not good for FCS Football.