Playoff Hopes

[MilwaukeeJacksAlum]

Re: Playoff Hopes

I meant that "I wish you hadn't brought that up" in the sense of telling your wife "hey honey, I just finished building that coffee table you bought" only to have her point out the pile of pieces left over or that you put the legs on the wrong end.

[jackmd]

Re: Playoff Hopes

I've ponder the fact that our tough schedule may have cost us a playoff spot. I like playing the tougher teams and being proud about that. Fact is, losing those games is what cost us a playoff spot, not scheduling them. We didn't move up to this level to try and pad our schedule. All that said, maybe we shouldn't play two top 10 programs during our OOC schedule. Solution, win the games.

[BTownJack]

Re: Playoff Hopes

But since we are scheduling our football games 2-3-4 years in advance, it is really hard to predict where programs are going to be ranked. It isn't like we can call a few schools come August of next year and tell them we aren't going to play them. Unless we take the lead of say, Montana!

[mitchellrabbit]

Re: Playoff Hopes

Would you trade this season if you had to replace the McNeese St. and Cal Poly games with two low to mid teams such as UNC and SUU knowing that they are likely wins putting the Jacks into the playoffs with a win this week?

I like seeing the tough schedule, but doesn't it seem like our opponents are always have a great year? I'm not sure I would change it though. You can't ensure a win on any given day and if we can't knock off at least 1 top 10 team with 4 chances, would we really have a chance to go far in the playoffs?

I think it will make this team hungry and if we win this week will be yet another decent step up the ladder.

i would never trade the mcneese game ever. that was the funnest jacks game ive ever been to. even if we lost. hold it, maybe last years dakota marker game was the funnest..........

[Chains]

Re: Playoff Hopes

But since we are scheduling our football games 2-3-4 years in advance, it is really hard to predict where programs are going to be ranked. It isn't like we can call a few schools come August of next year and tell them we aren't going to play them. Unless we take the lead of say, Montana!

Gentlemen,

Keep in mind that this years schedule of non conference oponents was in the works long before we were accepted into the now Valley conference. The Valley conference accomodated both NDSU and SDSU and worked around our previous commitments to McNesse, Poly, SFA etc. Next seasons non-conference games were also scheduled before the Valley invite. Georgia Southern, Poly again and the Gophers game. I beleive that after next season we will see a non-conference warm-up, a money game (Neb) and than our Valley schedule.

GBGBGJ

[jackmd]

Re: Playoff Hopes

Gentlemen,

Keep in mind that this years schedule of non conference oponents was in the works long before we were accepted into the now Valley conference. The Valley conference accomodated both NDSU and SDSU and worked around our previous commitments to McNesse, Poly, SFA etc. Next seasons non-conference games were also scheduled before the Valley invite. Georgia Southern, Poly again and the Gophers game. I beleive that after next season we will see a non-conference warm-up, a money game (Neb) and than our Valley schedule.

GBGBGJ

Very well understood and my comment about playing two top 10 teams was tongue-in-cheek. The athletic dept has done an AMAZING job with the FB schedule. I mean AMAZING. We have played teams in Brookings that no one would have thought we would ever play. I wouldn't trade any of it, not one game.

[jackmd]

Re: Playoff Hopes

But since we are scheduling our football games 2-3-4 years in advance, it is really hard to predict where programs are going to be ranked. It isn't like we can call a few schools come August of next year and tell them we aren't going to play them. Unless we take the lead of say, Montana!

See my previous post. I wouldn't trade a single game, now a result, those I would trade a few of.

[rabidrabbit]

Re: Playoff Hopes

Just remember that even with this tough schedule, Jacks are literally 2 plays from sitting at 8-3, still tied for the MVFC championship with UNI, and being a very solid pick for the play-offs.

1) 4th & 21 in 2nd OT vs McNeese.
2) Either interception by SIU.

So we are there as far as competitiveness goes, just need to create our breaks at the right time to get over the hump.

Likewise, Ryan Berry has had a SUPER season, and is one of the leading QBs in FCS, mainly because most of the time, he's had the time to throw.

I think that the three losses to ISU, UNI, and Poly were to FCS teams that will likely go a round or two deep in to the play-offs (UNI being the ??? with suspending their star receivers) and to an FBS that ate up a record-tying (in a bad category) play-making by Berry.

Woulda-shoulda-coulda about play-offs, but did want to assure that Jacks have been at the edge of qualifying standard each of these last three years, but that Jacks will usually be a "tough" win.

[JimmyJack]

Re: Playoff Hopes

I think there's little doubt that if we had played Central Conn., and Austin Peay as NDSU did, we'd be 8-3 now, looking at a possible 9th win and in that case certainly headed to the playoffs.

I enjoyed the Cal Poly and McNeese games as much as anybody. Both are great programs and an awful lot of fun to watch. But now that we're in such a brutal league, the non-conference schedule needs to reflect that reality.

Maybe a late-season game with UND or (gasp) even USD would be a good idea. They're solid opponents, but they're not Cal Poly, and you'd get a nice crowd for either of those.

I have started to change my thinking about the xSDs this year, mainly because of the brutal MVFC schedule and the need for a 'breather' game against a good, but not top-10 opponent that would draw a nice, post-Hobo Day crowd. The argument before has been that we don't need them. But the post-Hobo Day crowd lethargy suggests that maybe we do.

[WestSideRabbit]

Re: Playoff Hopes

well put... I have started looking along these lines as well

[Jacks#1Fan]

Re: Playoff Hopes

I respect both of the first two posts...but remember this...I am willing to bet they won't come to our house, unless it is a home and home...and I don't think we need to be giving out home and home scheduling to transition teams. Maybe later (although I understand you're probably talking about later as well, since we have schedules pretty well filled for the next two or three years).

[joeboo22]

Re: Playoff Hopes

The only way I could see a possibility of either team being so what mentioned for playoffs would be if one of the teams just romped the other..... If NDSU wins by 30+ and its a legit 30 points not a turnover laden 30 points or SDSU goes up there and just throws all over NDSU and wins by 30 points... Unless that happens neither team will even get mentioned as a possibility.... I still don't see either team getting in though unless some of the teams above us have very bad weeks and it doesn't look like they will and it would have to be a number of teams above us.....

That being said, SDSU is being hurt for the SOS.... NDSU is being hurt for that loss against Youngstown State.... SDSU plays one of the cupcakes NDSU played and NDSU doesn't get beat by Younstown State then we can talk playoffs.... Just looking at it I don't see it happening....

[MilwaukeeJacksAlum]

Re: Playoff Hopes

The only way I could see a possibility of either team being so what mentioned for playoffs would be if one of the teams just romped the other..... If NDSU wins by 30+ and its a legit 30 points not a turnover laden 30 points or SDSU goes up there and just throws all over NDSU and wins by 30 points... Unless that happens neither team will even get mentioned as a possibility.... I still don't see either team getting in though unless some of the teams above us have very bad weeks and it doesn't look like they will and it would have to be a number of teams above us.....

That being said, SDSU is being hurt for the SOS.... NDSU is being hurt for that loss against Youngstown State.... SDSU plays one of the cupcakes NDSU played and NDSU doesn't get beat by Younstown State then we can talk playoffs.... Just looking at it I don't see it happening....

Neither team is making the playoffs regardless of the points. That's just wishful thinking by both team's fan bases. We're a team that is getting votes. NDSU is barely cracking the top 25 and doesn't deserve that ranking. The playoff committee is not going to pick one of our teams over an established east coast/southern team with a better record. Just not going to happen.

[thumper_76]

Re: Playoff Hopes

Neither team is making the playoffs regardless of the points. That's just wishful thinking by both team's fan bases. We're a team that is getting votes. NDSU is barely cracking the top 25 and doesn't deserve that ranking. The playoff committee is not going to pick one of our teams over an established east coast/southern team with a better record. Just not going to happen.

AMEN to that

[joeboo22]

Re: Playoff Hopes

Neither team is making the playoffs regardless of the points. That's just wishful thinking by both team's fan bases. We're a team that is getting votes. NDSU is barely cracking the top 25 and doesn't deserve that ranking. The playoff committee is not going to pick one of our teams over an established east coast/southern team with a better record. Just not going to happen.

I agree with you.... neither team deserves it.... I said if one goes in and just rolls all over the other that would be the only way either team would even be mentioned as a possibility.....