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Davidson Wildcats

I hope to see some clean “Air-Udinksi” air strikes today. Take it to the house and no red zone funny business.
 
Expected, but pleasant to see us dominating the game for the most part. The goal line stand was nice. Loved that we were aggressive at the end of the half this game unlike the last game. Lets come out score a TD to start the 2nd and give the starters some rest and our younger guys some playoff experience.
 
As predicted, Davidson is basically like a glorified high school team. Not sure we learned much of anything today. Hopefully we can get to Cali in time to get settled in and be ready for what should be a good game.
 
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Shouldn't be rusty next week. First shutout in 5 years. About as good as a prep game you could ask for. Sac State apparently is a little vulnerable in the secondary. If we win the turnover battle, feel good about our chances. Need to get out to an early lead and have them chase us as well. Hopefully they're a little rusty coming off the thanksgiving break. Will be interesting to see how the D handles the two QB system and the RB they have. Can't imagine were as beat up after this game than we were last week.
 
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Having a team like Davidson in the playoffs is a joke. So many more deserving teams but I get it they're repping their conference
 
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Having a team like Davidson in the playoffs is a joke. So many more deserving teams but I get it they're repping their conference
Feel we were scraping the bottom of the barrel when were pulling 7-4 teams anyway that got embarrassed in their regular season finales. Much debate as to weather Montana even belonged in. No doubt they would kill Davidson, but they also lost to several teams in the playoff field, have no quality wins, and are given a home game in the playoffs?

Giving an auto bid to the PL is good for the growth of the sport. We did it for the Patriot League as well when they were non-scholarship and they won as a 14 seed vs. us in the playoffs. It allows schools to add/maintain the sport cheaply, and if they have enough success often move to full scholarship FCS. (Mercer, Campbell, Austin Peay come to mind.) St. Thomas could be next in line. No FCS schools in Minnesota.
 
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24 teams is too much. Just like 65 teams is too much. But it’s what the NCAA does.

We won very convincingly today. We have a very tough matchup next week but that’s how it should be.
 
Feel we were scraping the bottom of the barrel when were pulling 7-4 teams anyway that got embarrassed in their regular season finales. Much debate as to weather Montana even belonged in. No doubt they would kill Davidson, but they also lost to several teams in the playoff field, have no quality wins, and are given a home game in the playoffs?

Giving an auto bid to the PL is good for the growth of the sport. We did it for the Patriot League as well when they were non-scholarship and they won as a 14 seed vs. us in the playoffs. As it allows schools to add/maintain the sport cheaply, and if they have enough success often move to full scholarship FCS. (Mercer, Campbell, Austin Peay come to mind.) St. Thomas could be next in line. No FCS schools in Minnesota.
Fair points Ferrum.

I'm inclined to agree with the other posts about today being a glorified scrimmage. I guess we should just enjoy it and be glad our guys got rest. Sac State sort of got a short stick with us basically getting a Bye too.
 
Davison has some good athletes, but I wonder how they are able to get them to come to Davison with
no scholarship money, and keep them?
My thinking is that they are auditioning for the transfer portal.
 
Fair points Ferrum.

I'm inclined to agree with the other posts about today being a glorified scrimmage. I guess we should just enjoy it and be glad our guys got rest. Sac State sort of got a short stick with us basically getting a Bye too.
Honestly the biggest injustice of it all was St. Thomas and Merrimack being left out for an antiquated rule. As far as Davidson, no doubt today was a glorified scrimmage and wasn't suggesting it wasn't. But they got the auto bid from the conference and should be rewarded for it. Unlike retreads who didn't when they had their shot. I just don't have sympathy for 4 loss teams upset that they didn't make the playoffs. Ill gladly take the pre-season warmup for the real test after playing 3 straight opponents that are in the playoffs.
 
Davidson team and fans realized they weren’t playing the Barton Bellas on the first possession of the game. Udinski played damn near perfect 28-31. Wheeler was in on about every tackle and both lines played great. Just an all around ass whipping. Davidson fans were back in NC before the end of the game.
 
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Save your money. Sacramento State is the real deal
Our players really don't deserve fans like you.

St. Thomas recruited players under more-lenient Division II qualifying rules, players who may not have been eligible under D1 qualifying rules. Making them go through a transition period so they are playing by the same rules as everyone else in FCS is absolutely the right thing to do.
 
I am sorry you feel that way. Honestly I am here to win titles and championships. Todays game was a gloried scrimmage some high school teams would have beaten Davidson.
 
I‘m not, and my guess is that you’re not, acquaintEd with the offensive schemes that
Sac State plays against. I’m hoping our offense can win the day!
 
Our players really don't deserve fans like you.

St. Thomas recruited players under more-lenient Division II qualifying rules, players who may not have been eligible under D1 qualifying rules. Making them go through a transition period so they are playing by the same rules as everyone else in FCS is absolutely the right thing to do.
Think you mean D3. Valid point, to be fair, they played by the rules of their conference and was kicked out for being so dominant. They had no choice but to move up. I’m not that up in arms over the rule since it prevents JMU from being in a bowl this year too. It just sucks for the guys that are there.
 
D3 in fact has no standard initial eligibility requirements. Generally speaking, if you meet your own school's standards, then you're good to go. (I suppose conferences may also impose certain standards.)
 
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Highland springs and Phoebus
One who thinks a high schoolers, even great high school teams w/ many D1 offers, can so easily beat a D1 football team doesn't understand the jump. Maybe you don't seriously mean this and its just frustration, bc looking at your posts, most of them are negative.
 
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Fair points Ferrum.

I'm inclined to agree with the other posts about today being a glorified scrimmage. I guess we should just enjoy it and be glad our guys got rest. Sac State sort of got a short stick with us basically getting a Bye too.
Every season has teams people think should not be in. Remember London saying after Championship Game victory that there were people who said Spiders did not deserve to be there. One game at home then beat the 2 3 4 seeds on the road for first two and in Chattanooga, showed we deserved it more than the rest. It happens, teams get hot, injured players get healthy.

If rules are not change by NCAA there will be 24 every year, since there has to be more at larges than auto bids. People complained about Montana, Idaho and Delaware at 7-4 getting in, but two won and one lost on the road in a competitive game.

We needed a game where starters got pulled early IMO, so maybe we caught a break with our pairing. Let's hope any that were not able to play yesterday can make the trip after a week of healing.
 
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If rules are not change by NCAA there will be 24 every year, since there has to be more at larges than auto bids.
I've seen this cited as a reason for expansion before, but I've never been able to find such a rule/policy...feel like it's a myth. If it's true, it must be a football-specific policy because there are other sports like lax where there are more autos than at-larges.

Regardless, there are currently 11 auto bids, but that should drop to 10 next year since the OVC and Big South are combining their football conferences since MVC is losing Murray State and Big South is losing NC A&T and Campbell. I assume the WAC-ASUN partnership will have to continue as neither will have enough on its own for an auto again.

Anyway, I don't really have a problem with the current size and conferences like the PFL getting bids. They're still part of the subdivision and it's a bit like hoops...the 15- and 16-seeds are almost always going to get killed, but every once in a while they pull an upset. (I do recognize the difference that PFL is non-scholarship while at least in hoops everybody is playing with the same number of scholarships.)

What does throw a wrinkle into things is the bye system. With fully a third of the teams getting first-round byes, those PFL teams are not getting matched up against the cream of the crop and instead it's a "mid-tier" qualifier like us who benefits from the matchup. You can consider Elon and us as having very similar résumés, yet we got a cakewalk while Elon faced what the polls said was an equal in Furman.

The other issue is that the PFL is really an outlier with their non-scholarship status, so whoever gets matched up with them really lucks out. You might put NEC and perhaps Big South in a similar but slightly higher bucket, although even their champs played some respectable games against quality OOC foes (including Saint Francis against us).
 
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