Street and Smith and Athlon

[cpacmel]

My guess is that they all were looking for the same thing...a home game to balance the schedule. And when they couldn't find a Division 1 team to travel, they looked at D2 and NAIA. If everyone insists on a home game, then you can't match up these programs.

We think we have it bad paying St. X to drive to Normal. Sac State is paying University of St. Francis (Joliet) to come to California for a game.

Great post . And this is exactly what I think happened with ISU. We refused to budge on giving up that 6th home game for either overpaying for another D1 or hitting the road for a D1. I know there was opportunity for other D1 games. But ISU would have had to buyout st. Xavier in the process. Not ISU's finest job here. Really hope it doesn't cost the Redbirds a play-off spot. St. Xavier game is just dumb.

[StLRedbird]

My guess is that they all were looking for the same thing...a home game to balance the schedule. And when they couldn't find a Division 1 team to travel, they looked at D2 and NAIA. If everyone insists on a home game, then you can't match up these programs.

We think we have it bad paying St. X to drive to Normal. Sac State is paying University of St. Francis (Joliet) to come to California for a game.

Great post . And this is exactly what I think happened with ISU. We refused to budge on giving up that 6th home game for either overpaying for another D1 or hitting the road for a D1. I know there was opportunity for other D1 games. But ISU would have had to buyout st. Xavier in the process. Not ISU's finest job here. Really hope it doesn't cost the Redbirds a play-off spot. St. Xavier game is just dumb.

If memory serves, 4th has also speculated that Spack might have agreed to this to ensure $ to get the coaches he wanted. Bet we’ll never know

[fourthandshort]

My guess is that they all were looking for the same thing...a home game to balance the schedule. And when they couldn't find a Division 1 team to travel, they looked at D2 and NAIA. If everyone insists on a home game, then you can't match up these programs.

We think we have it bad paying St. X to drive to Normal. Sac State is paying University of St. Francis (Joliet) to come to California for a game.

Great post . And this is exactly what I think happened with ISU. We refused to budge on giving up that 6th home game for either overpaying for another D1 or hitting the road for a D1. I know there was opportunity for other D1 games. But ISU would have had to buyout st. Xavier in the process. Not ISU's finest job here. Really hope it doesn't cost the Redbirds a play-off spot. St. Xavier game is just dumb.

If memory serves, 4th has also speculated that Spack might have agreed to this to ensure $ to get the coaches he wanted. Bet we’ll never know

yes, I rationalized that one. If that really came into play in the decision making process, Spack might have reluctantly agreed for the greater good .. meaning, given how much we've lost on defense, he may even be looking ahead to 2019 as our next serious chance for a Natty run. Last year should have been that year .. and we showed so much upside at times .. but it was not, and it was entirely due to maddening inconsistencies on offense .. IMO due largely to OC and OL inexperience/injuries

But Spack should have never been in the position to have to decide whether we could afford to buy our way out of a STX game we should never have scheduled to begin with. it is what it is. We still have a playoff shot if we go 7-4, because that would mean we probably went 5-3 in MVFC .. or we beat Colorado St. But none of us want to be on that bubble at 6-4.

If Spack and new DC Niekamp have this defense competing by week 1 or even by week 5 against WIU,. this will be similarly amazing accomplishment as when Spack turned our bottom 10 defense in 2010 (under DC Elmassian) into a top 10 defense in 2011.

So .. uh ... on behalf of Redbird Nation .. oh, and AD Lyons job .. uh ... GO DEFENSE !!!!!

[isuquinndog]

Man the pitchforks may come out if ISU just misses a playoff spot.

[Chi-bird]

Man the pitchforks may come out if ISU just misses a playoff spot.

And if we make the playoffs while saving some $$$ by scheduling St. X at home, well then, BRAVO!

Although, I'd like to see us make some $$$ with some games on the road (much like @Colorado St, NIU, etc.)

[RedbirdSoxFan]

I bought both publications today and we are getting some love. Athlon has us as #14 nationally and Street and Smith has us at #23 (they show us as an at large pick for FCS playoffs). Once again the conference will be very very tough. Guess who is #1 pick in the country?

[Redbirdfan21]

Pardon my ignorance, but IF we only end up with 6 D1 wins, but one of them is against CSU, would that be enough to get us in? Didn't that happen the year we beat Northwestern???

[ISUBU]

Pardon my ignorance, but IF we only end up with 6 D1 wins, but one of them is against CSU, would that be enough to get us in? Didn't that happen the year we beat Northwestern???

Six D1 wins meets the requirement. Of course at that point your whole body of work for the season is stacked up against the other borderline teams and considered in light of the available slots.

There seems to be a definite push that the MVFC isn't the clear #1 conference any more. Our MVFC members need to go out and win a bunch of noncon games to help ensure multiple bids to the conference schools.

[fourthandshort]

there's been 2 precedence's for 6 win teams getting at large bids .. WIU in 2015 and ISU is 2016. Note this happened because of our conference's absolute dominance of FCS in 2014. Agree with isubu that other conferences have closed the gap on MVFC ... Colonial has re-emerged s a very strong/deep conference again. Big Sky also stepped it up last season, and even Southern has now partly recovered from losing several teams to FBS. Which means, we might not be lock for 4 or 5 teams as it stand today. SDSU, USD, YSU could all slip this season some .. last year they were all top 5 or 10 early in season .. YSU really collapsed after 4 very tough close losses to very good teams, before our blow out.

Point being, we need some quality losses if we finish 7-4 = 6-4 to expect a playoff bid this year .. we can't lay any eggs like NAU and SIU last year, and most if our losses will need to be competitive with the good teams .. for example .. CSU, NDSU, UNI are probably the 3 toughest opponents ... if we lose all 3 of these (just hypothetically), then 2 of 3 need to be competitive losses. We do that, and we will deserve a bid at 6-4, especially since that means we went 5-3 in MVFC.