Will App. State 3-peat?

lol, that's the WCU I know.

 

With two big road wins (Furman/The Citadel) the Apps have moved back into 1st place. Edwards seems to be healthy and the defense has improved.
If the Apps can defeat WCU and UTC at home they should get a high seed in the playoffs.

 

Only 4 seeded positions in the playoffs. Being the So Con champion doesn't even guarantee one of the seeded positions, which it isn't guaranteed that App will get.

If App wins the next two, then they should make it into the playoffs, but only sixteen teams make that, and about half of those are automatic as conference champions. If the cards fall right in the other So Con games next week and App gets the So Con title, then maybe.

Right now, I'd say the 4 seeded teams in the playoffs will be Northern Iowa (9-0), North Dakota State (9-0, though they are an Independent), Montana (9-0), and Massachussetts (7-2) (or Delaware (8-1), whichever wins the CAA). I'd suspect McNeese State (9-0) and Southern Illinois (8-1) would get also get the look before App State (7-2).

Yeah the Southern Conference is tough - it and the CAA are probably the two toughest conferences in I-AA. But if you can survive, it makes good practice for the playoffs...if you can survive.

 

Today's games:

Furman beat Ga. Southern 24-22
The Citadel beat Elon 42-31
Wofford beat Chattanooga 42-16
App. St. beat Western 79-35

Everything fell right for App. St. except for the Wofford-Chattanooga game.

So, the standings now are:

Wofford 5-2
App. St. 4-2 (with Chatt. next week)
Ga Southern 4-3
Elon 4-3
The Citadel 4-3
Furman 3-3 (with WCU next week, not that it matters)
Chattanooga 2-4
Western Carolina 0-6

That puts Wofford as the Southern Conference Champion, as they beat App. State earlier and have the head-to-head tie-breaker.


So App. State will be looking for an at-large bid, and I suspect with the way games have fallen out last week and this week, they'll get one.

The I-AA game I would've loved to see this week: Richmond vs Delaware, five overtimes, and Richmond won 62-56.

The automatic bids that have been solidified so far:

So. Con. - Wofford
MEAC - Delaware St.
Ohio Valley - Eastern Kentucky
Big Sky - Montana
Gateway - Northern Iowa


The not so solidified yet:
Southland - will be the winner of the McNeese St.-Central Arkansas game next week

CAA - they've got a North and South division of the conference, I don't know if they play a championship between the two or if they take the team with the best record, but either way, it's not quite settled yet.

Patriot - should go to Fordham as long as they can handle 2-8 Bucknell next week


The following should be candidates for the at-large bids:
North Dakota St. (I didn't realize until just now that their conference does not have one of the automatic bids)
App. State
Southern Illinois
Richmond
Massachussetts


Maybes:
Yale
Elon
James Madison
Hofstra
The Citadel
Youngstown St.
Dayton


Of course, I could be way off on that. Some say the GPI is the biggest indicator of playoff teams (it's sorta like the BCS ranking). Here's the link for the GPI, which ranked App. St. 5th before today's game:

http://www.collegesportingnews.com/section_front.asp?arttypeid=983

 

North Dakota State is a transitional team and is NOT eligible for the playoffs this year.

ETA: They will become eligible in 2008.

 

Hrm.

 

You are correct AppState. Thanks for the info.

 

Here's the summary of Saturday's important I-AA games leading up to the playoffs, for those that might be interested:

http://www.collegesportingnews.com/article.asp?articleid=88928

 

79-35.....omg....

 

App gets James Madison in the first round Saturday at Boone. Sure hope Dolly can make it.