10/14/23 MVFC Game Predictions

[JackJD]

There are several competitive matchups and a few grudge matches in the conference this weekend. Several teams are playing very good football right now and showing the D-1 world that the MVFC is still the best FCS conference in the country. These mid-season games will play a significant role in playoff selections.

My predictions for Saturday:

1:00 kickoff

NDSU 24, UND 14 in Grand Forks.
YSU 38, USD 17 in Vermillion.

2:00 kickoff

Indiana State 3, Illinois State 21 at Normal
Southern Illinois 41, Murray State 13, in Murray
UNI 10, SDSU 35 at Brookings

3:00 kickoff

Missouri State 42, Western Illinois 7 at Macomb

[jakejc795]

There are several competitive matchups and a few grudge matches in the conference this weekend. Several teams are playing very good football right now and showing the D-1 world that the MVFC is still the best FCS conference in the country. These mid-season games will play a significant role in playoff selections.

My predictions for Saturday:

1:00 kickoff

NDSU 24, UND 14 in Grand Forks.
YSU 38, USD 17 in Vermillion.

2:00 kickoff

Indiana State 3, Illinois State 21 at Normal
Southern Illinois 41, Murray State 13, in Murray
UNI 10, SDSU 35 at Brookings

3:00 kickoff

Missouri State 42, Western Illinois 7 at Macomb

I'm hoping the score's reversed for UND and NDSU.

Are you thinking 'Yotes just have an off day or that they punched well above their weight in Fargo?

[Prairiehaas]

They late prediction was pretty close. The early ones not so much.

Looks like trouble in Fargo. USD up 24-3 nearly gave it away before breaking a tie late. ISU red, SIU and MSU did what was expected. The Jacks looked strong today. Barring injury or major errors in execution Jackrabbits should take the conference and host games in December.

[JackJD]

Actual games scores for today's games

NDSU 24, UND 40
YSU 31, USD 34
Indiana State 7, Illinois State 44
Southern Illinois 26, Murray State 6
UNI 6, SDSU 41
Missouri State 48, Western Illinois 7

jakejc795 asked: Are you thinking 'Yotes just have an off day or that they punched well above their weight in Fargo?"

I watched a replay of the USD at NDSU game a couple of days after the game was played. I thought USD was the better team.. But I also thought NDSU would learn something from the USD loss and for the remainder of their season, would play like NDSU of old. I watched UND at SDSU and thought UND was a solid football team but was overmatched in about all aspects of the game.

Today, many of the SDSU fans sitting around me were checking game scores on their phones throughout the afternoon. The game score catching everyone's attention was UND v NDSU. I was really surprised by the UND margin of victory...I had been convinced it would be a much closer score with NDSU pulling it out in the second half.

Wrong on that one!

The two primary FCS polls that should be out by tomorrow, should show USD and UND ranked in the top 10 and NDSU not included in the top 14...not sure how far NDSU will fall. I think the strength of the MVFC -- and specifically the records of USD and UND should influence the poll voters to retain NDSU somewhere in the 15-20 range.

NDSU plays at home the next two weekends and both games -- Western Illinois and Murray State -- should be easy wins for the Bison: After the Murray State game, the NDSU schedule gets stiffer: at SDSU; home against Southern Illinois, and at Northern Iowa. As a result of today's decisive loss to UND, NDSU's path to the playoffs became complicated -- is the Bison home field advantage for playoffs going to be lost?

Today's YSU at USD game surprised me. With today's win over YSU, I won't be surprised any more this season about the capabilities of the Coyotes. In today's game,USD went up 31-10 with a little more than seven minutes left in the third quarter. YSU shifted gears, scoring a touchdown and PAT in third quarter and two more TDs and PATs in the fourth to tie at 31 with 5:48 left in the game. The two teams wrestled back and fourth for most of the remainder of the fourth quarter until USD got the ball with 19 seconds to go. Three plays later, USD kicked the winning, 41-yard field goal.

At this point in the season, USD has established the following:
(1) it is a very good football team and probably has a legitimate claim to the #2 rank in the MVFC;
(2) USD has served notice on its remaining regular-season opponents (ISU-blue; SDSU; SIU; UND and WIU) that USD may be capable of winning their remaining five games -- although I think 3-2 or 4-1 is more realistic -- in any event, USD gets a trip to the playoffs.