It's pretty early for this, but that's what fans are for. This might be the best case scenario for us this season - is it possible?
Final Conference Standings
Team: Conference Record:
Northern Iowa 6-2
Western Illinois 6-2
South Dakota State 6-2
Southern Illinois 5-3
North Dakota State 3-5
Illinois State 3-5
Youngstown State 3-5
Indiana State 2-6
Missouri State 2-6
This is obviously dependent on us winning out first and foremost (forgot 1-0 each week, we are fans). I don't see UNI losing more than one more game this season (at WIU hopefully). Since UNI beat us head to head, we would have to hope for a three way tie atop the league with another team that beat UNI (WIU defeating UNI the last game of the season at Macomb). Since all three teams would then be tied and would have each defeated one of the others, the tiebreaker would move to the three teams record against the team in fourth. Our best hope would be for SIU to be in fourth. We have already beat SIU and UNI has already lost to SIU, and in my scenario WIU will beat SIU in a few weeks. If that happens, then UNI would be eliminated and the conference title would be determined by SDSU vs. WIU head to head - in other words, we would be conference champions.
Now...can this actually happen? A couple key games that have to go right. SIU and SDSU have to win in Fargo, WIU has to beat UNI the last week of the season, and the anticipated favorites need to win the rest of the conference games.
This scenario can also work if SIU runs the table, as they would flip flop with WIU in the standings then and the tiebreaker would come down to UNI losing to WIU (thus eliminating the Panthers) and then our head to head win over the Salukis.
Final Conference Standings
Team: Conference Record:
Northern Iowa 6-2
Western Illinois 6-2
South Dakota State 6-2
Southern Illinois 5-3
North Dakota State 3-5
Illinois State 3-5
Youngstown State 3-5
Indiana State 2-6
Missouri State 2-6
This is obviously dependent on us winning out first and foremost (forgot 1-0 each week, we are fans). I don't see UNI losing more than one more game this season (at WIU hopefully). Since UNI beat us head to head, we would have to hope for a three way tie atop the league with another team that beat UNI (WIU defeating UNI the last game of the season at Macomb). Since all three teams would then be tied and would have each defeated one of the others, the tiebreaker would move to the three teams record against the team in fourth. Our best hope would be for SIU to be in fourth. We have already beat SIU and UNI has already lost to SIU, and in my scenario WIU will beat SIU in a few weeks. If that happens, then UNI would be eliminated and the conference title would be determined by SDSU vs. WIU head to head - in other words, we would be conference champions.
Now...can this actually happen? A couple key games that have to go right. SIU and SDSU have to win in Fargo, WIU has to beat UNI the last week of the season, and the anticipated favorites need to win the rest of the conference games.
This scenario can also work if SIU runs the table, as they would flip flop with WIU in the standings then and the tiebreaker would come down to UNI losing to WIU (thus eliminating the Panthers) and then our head to head win over the Salukis.
Comment