FCS Playoffs -- SLC

[purplestorm]

Very nice to see three SLC teams in the second-round of the FCS Playoffs, especially after two nice wins by Nicholls State and SLU in week one. Conversely, the SLC is way, way down when it comes to competing with nationally-ranked teams from other conferences. The average margin of defeat today in the SLU at Montana, Nicholls State at NDSU, and Illinois State at UCA? About 26 points per game. UCA loses at home to Illinois State by 10, Nicholls valiantly plays NDSU hard for one half and a bit, but is beaten by 24, and SLU put up a fight for a quarter-and-a-half against Montana, but winds up losing by 45 points. We know that feeling of getting drilled in Missoula, for sure. Right now, it seems the days of the SLC making it to the quarterfinals, semifinals and NC games on a regular basis seem to be in the rearview mirror for now. Which university will return to playoff glory in the future? I think it's wide open as subpar FCS parity seems to have settled in over the league over the past few years. To close, we lost to Nicholls by 10 points, SLU by 17 points and UCA by one point. That's an average of 9 points per game, roughly. Does that mean we're 35 points away (26 point avg today and 9 points from SLC opponents) from playoff success and glory? I sure hope not because I'm not sure that much ground can be covered very easily. We have a LOT of work to do to be successful again. I wish Coach Laird and company the best in this endeavor. 

[Cajundemon11]

I do think the conference as a whole is improving. I think Nicholls could've made a run had they not been sent to Fargo in the second round, thats just a rough draw. UCA beat Austin Peay early in the season and Southeastern beat a very good Villanova team and we all know that getting sent to missoula in december is no walk in the park. So the seeding and bids play a huge factor and the southland has always been on the short end of that stick being sent out west and up to fargo early in the playoffs. Sam houston has shown in the past that the southland is capable of winning and making runs. Not sure what happened to UCA yesterday, i didn't watch that game but a poor showing by a team who got a seed and earned a first round bye, was hoping they would get that win but once again would have their season end the next week in fargo.

[purplestorm]

The SLC hasn't won a NC since 1987. In the 41 years of FCS/I-AA Championship games, we've had six teams play for NC's -- La Tech, Arkansas State, NLU, SFA, McNeese 2x, SHSU 2x -- and we've won one NC in 41 years. Outside of the Patriot League, that is the worse record in FCS/I-AA playoff history. My only point for the post was whoever decides to chase a NC title has an unbelievable amount of work ahead of them. It is doable? It has to be or we're just fielding teams for entertainment only. Whichever SLC program wins the next NC will have accomplished quite a feat based on our playoff history. That's all I'm saying.

[Cajundemon11]

Yea and i wasn't disagreeing with you I just think there are several factors and reasons for the lack of success of the southland in the playoffs. As long as its not Sam or Sfa I'd love to see a southand team take the crown. North Dakota state shares the state with one other program while we share our small state with 10 other division one football programs, from a financial, recruiting and name brand standpoint its insanely difficult to compete with that and the oversaturation of schools is certainly a factor in my humble opinion. Like you though, I do think its doable but it'll take the right circumstances, good seeding, and a team that can match up physically with those dakota teams and big sky programs.

[jneal318]

Before I address the post about the past in the playoffs, I would like to address our own history going back to 2004. On the field, we beat SHSU, but what happens, they send us to Missoula to get beat up on while SHSU gets a home game and a semifinal run in the playoffs that year. We all know why it happened, the Southland Conference has a personal agenda and I believe the Louisiana schools get the short end of the stick. We should have been the ones playing Western Kentucky at home and potentially Eastern Washington in the next game, but I don't mean to bring back history that has not been on our side....I'm just saying that we aren't one of the favored schools in this conference. Now to the current state of the conference, I hate to be brutally honest but the only team out of the 3 that really had a chance to go somewhere was Nicholls due to their moxie on the defensive side. And they will be hell to deal with next year with Lindsey Scott (LSU, Missouri) replacing Fourcade at QB. UCA, of course, beat Western Kentucky, but they started trending downward in my book after I saw what we did to them. Playing a strong Missouri Valley team in Illinois State was no easy draw and we know it is the strongest conference in the FCS. To me, we must get some of these Missouri Valley teams on our schedule in the non-conference. It is a good measuring stick to see where you are as a program. SLU was a fringe team getting into the playoffs, to begin with, but made a valiant effort as stated before for a little over a quarter before the "cold" weather school just took over. Outside of the money games, The Missouri Valley, Big Sky, OVC, and maybe the SoCON need to pop-up on some schedules. If we expect to get back to some respectability, we need to challenge ourselves early on which will only make you better during the season.

At the end of the day, I have faith that we can turn this thing around and get back to being an FCS powerhouse but as stated before this is a tough state to recruit in. And we aren't even considering the fact that the states that are around us pluck players from the area all the time. And this requires finding those gems that the big programs do not want. Sully Laiche is a prime example, the big schools looked but the one thing about measurables is they do not include a kid's heart and passion. 4 years later, Nicholls, once a bottom feeder in the SLC is now a respectable program which includes the scare they gave at Sanford Stadium a few years back.

[purplestorm]

Dec 9, 2019 19:38:16 GMT Cajundemon11 said:

Yea and i wasn't disagreeing with you I just think there are several factors and reasons for the lack of success of the southland in the playoffs. As long as its not Sam or Sfa I'd love to see a southand team take the crown. North Dakota state shares the state with one other program while we share our small state with 10 other division one football programs, from a financial, recruiting and name brand standpoint its insanely difficult to compete with that and the oversaturation of schools is certainly a factor in my humble opinion. Like you though, I do think its doable but it'll take the right circumstances, good seeding, and a team that can match up physically with those dakota teams and big sky programs.

I didn't take it that way. I just wasn't sure I explained myself well. Our differing opinions are also an example of how different people see games differently. I think we all agree we'd like to see NSU back in the playoff fray. Bottom line, it's going to take a LOT of work from the coaches and the players.