College Sports Journal OVC Preview, Week of 4/3/2021
As the calendar turns to April with the promise of flowers blooming soon, plenty must first be settled on the football field as the contenders for the FCS playoffs begin to rise to the top.
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As the calendar turns to April with the promise of flowers blooming soon, plenty must first be settled on the football field as the contenders for the FCS playoffs begin to rise to the top.
An already-crazy Patriot League season still had some craziness left to reveal this week, as the 156th meeting between Lafayette and Lehigh was postponed due to a Tier 1 exposure in the Lafayette program.
VMI is now in the drivers seat for the Southern Conference title. With a win this week against East Tennessee State, they would clinch that berth – and avoid a boatload of potential tiebreaker headaches for the SoCon League office in terms of autobid determination.
Last week was a lost week for over half the MVFC squads and this week looks to be same. Two games last week were postponed or cancelled due to COVID-19 reasons with the North Dakota at Youngstown State and North Dakota State at South Dakota games both called off last week. The UND-YSU game will.
James Madison/Richmond was postponed this week “due to CoVID protocols at Richmond”, according to James Madision’s official release, and Delaware/Albany was cancelled due to Albany suspending their spring season due to a very large number of injuries. This leaves two games on the CAA schedule this weekend.
This week was full of surprises and highlights in the Big Sky, including a Sports Center Top Play of Weber State winning by a 50-yard Hail Mary throw to Justin Malone. In a week that should have been “blowout week” all but one contest was way closer than it should have been. In fact, those.
Sam Houston head coach K.C. Keeler feels like this could be his best team yet; Northwestern State head coach Brad Laird is in a rebuilding year and knows his team must start games better.
North Dakota State cancellation, Chattanooga opting out – lots happened this past week, and CSJ’s staff writers mulled over the impacts as the dust settled.
Another week, another round of upsets in the FCS. Jacksonville State and Chattanooga were both top 10 teams last week. Both lost. We nearly had a second straight week where our number one team lost, but Weber State got a 50 yard hail mary on the last play of the game to preserve the win. VMI has moved within one win of the Southern Conference title. Our eyes will be on them this weekend.
Using the Sagarin ratings from this week alone to project the 2021 Spring Division I FCS playoffs, along with the automatic bid for the conferences that receive a bid, the following would be the playoff teams. These teams are seeded 1 through 16 for the 16 teams that make the FCS playoffs for this spring.
Below are the Top 25 rankings based on the Sagarin rankings for the week ending March 28th. These rankings are amongst the now 91 schools participating in the spring schedule. NOTE: the Ivy League and Mid-Eastern (MEAC) conferences are not participating in the 2021 spring schedule. The Big Sky Conference was the big winner.
A full Sunday of OVC action is going on today.
The race for the SoCon title looks to be down to three teams, Chattanooga, VMI and East Tennessee State. ETSU only has one loss and still plays both of the unbeatens. As of now, VMI and Chattanooga do not play.
Scoreboards may break as one of the biggest games of the week features two of the best spring offenses squaring off.
This week with just four games, the biggest appears to be Southern Illinois at Missouri State with the winner staying in the MVFC title and FCS playoff race and the loser likely will be on the outside. Here are all the previews and my predictions for the MVFC games this week.
In a way it’s fitting during this strange season that two of the teams playing this weekend are in their season openers, while their opponents are coming off of two weeks off after winning their openers. It is a byproduct of this crazy Patriot League spring, and results in two fascinating games that are basically playoff games. And with no game film on Bucknell or Fordham, it feels like anything can happen.
James Madison returns to action after a two week pause of their own, while a huge clash looms between Delaware and Rhode Island for first place in the CAA North.
Our number one team from last week went down. North Dakota State dominated both sides of the trenches to beat North Dakota. Sam Houston continue to roll in the Southland. VMI and Chattanooga kept their unbeaten starts going by a combined 3 points. And in the CAA Rhode Island is 2-0 with two ranked wins, as everyone predicted (not exactly).
We’re about at about the midpoint of the spring season, and the writers at CSJ get together to take stock of the season so far.
Using the Sagarin ratings from this week alone to project the 2021 Spring Division I FCS playoffs, along with the automatic bid for the conferences that receive a bid, the following would be the playoff teams. These teams are seeded 1 through 16 for the 16 teams that make the FCS playoffs for this spring.
Below are the Top 25 rankings based on the Sagarin rankings for the week ending March 21st. These rankings are amongst the now 91 schools (Illinois State just announced it will forgo the rest of its spring schedule) participating in the spring schedule. NOTE: the Ivy League and Mid-Eastern (MEAC) conferences are not participating in.
This week was shaping up to be a good week for the CAA. But both games between two ranked teams have been postponed due to Covid protocols: #23 Richmond at #1 James Madison and #12 Delaware at #20 New Hampshire.
VMI and Chattanooga are the two remaining teams without a conference loss. Furman is waiting in the wings if they falter.
SIU now gets South Dakota State at home this week. The Jackrabbits had a nail bitter against winless Youngstown State at home last week. The Jacks led the Penguins 16-7 through three quarters of play but YSU came back with 10 straight points to take the lead. SDSU though managed to drive in the wanning seconds of the game to get into field goal position where K Cole Frahm kicked a 29-yard field goal with 31 seconds remaining to lift the Jacks to the victory.
It was another topsy turvy week in the FCS. 2 of our top five from last week lost. Things have been changing week by week and this week is no different. We have a new #1 team at College Sports Journal this week but only by one single vote..
In a way, the opening drive which ended with zero Lehigh points summed up the entire afternoon.
Using the Sagarin ratings from this week alone to project the 2021 Spring Division I FCS playoffs, along with the automatic bid for the conferences that receive a bid, the following would be the playoff teams. These teams are seeded 1 through 16 for the 16 teams that make the FCS playoffs for this spring.
Below are the Top 25 rankings based on the Sagarin rankings for the week ending March 14th. These rankings are amongst the 92 schools participating in the spring schedule. NOTE: the Ivy League and Mid-Eastern (MEAC) conferences are not participating in the 2021 spring schedule. North Dakota State moves back into the top spot.
The NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament bracket was announced on March 14th. The #1 overall seed was from a High Major in Gonzaga, who is the only undefeated team through the regular season. The NCAA tournament begins Friday, March 19th with the four First Four games and will continue through to the national championship.
Below are the Top 25 Mid-Major rankings based on the Sagarin rankings for the week ending Mar. 14th, 2021. This will be the final regular season rankings as the NCAA Tournament begins later this week. A final rankings will be published after the national championship game on April 5th. Colgate moves into the top spot.
Below are the Top 25 High-Major rankings based on the Sagarin rankings for the week ending March 14th. This will be the final regular season rankings as the NCAA Tournament begins later this week. A final rankings will be published after the national championship game on April 5th. Gonzaga remains atop the standings and stays.
The CSJ’s NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament using the Sagarin rankings to field of the 68 teams that make-up the tournament for games through the week of March 13th. This will be the final projections before the actual tournament bracket will be announced later today, Sunday March 14th with this year’s tournament being fully located in the.
BETHLEHEM, PA – The Holy Cross Crusaders beat the Lehigh Mountain Hawks 20-3 at Murray Goodman Stadium in the first college football game contested by both schools in over 450 days.
Depending on what happens there could be as many as five teams with one loss by the end of the day and making the second half of the spring schedule even more critical with a smaller playoff field this spring.
It is uncharted waters for both teams, with plenty of questions to answer playing an unprecedented Patriot League spring football season. But many of the principal contributors in that 24-17 game more than a year ago in Bethlehem will be suiting up tomorrow.
William & Mary at James Madison is postponed this weekend, but there are still five games on the schedule to enjoy.
The conference schedule for the eight teams that will play in the Pioneer Football League begin this week. The PFL will play a six-week sprint of a spring season before the champion of the league advances to the NCAA Division I FCS playoffs.
Nicholls at Sam Houston is a must-see game – it could decide the Southland. If you like offense, this game is a must-see. The winner has the inside track to the autobid to the FCS Playoffs, and potentially even a seed. The loser isn’t done, but there will be nervous weeks ahead. Is Sam Houston back among the top FCS teams? Is Nicholls ready for that next step?
This week the most intriguing match-up appears to the Northern Iowa at Southern Illinois as we have all MVFC games this week played on Saturday, March 13. The two schools both have a loss and getting their second loss as we will enter the mid-point of the spring schedule will likely result in the loser having to win out the rest of the season to get a playoff berth.
Last week was an excellent week of Southern Conference football with two games going to overtime and VMI continuing its hot start. Chattanooga was able to survive against The Citadel with a gutsy 2-point conversion shovel pass in over time. Furman fell behind 24-7 and 34-20 before saving their season with a touchdown and fumble recovery in overtime. With the games on tap this week, don’t be surprised to see more games come down to the final play.
For this Lehigh team, who has gone through this unique journey back to playing games that count, it feels like this weekend is almost as much a celebration of what football means to them as much as it is a Patriot League conference game against Holy Cross at Murray Goodman Stadium at noon this Saturday.
As chaotic as last week was, this week was as docile. The highest ranked team from last week’s College Sports Journal top 25 that lost was #13. We do have a new #1 team here at College Sports Journal this week.
In one of the more normal weeks of college football the Big Sky saw a trio of close contests at four, five, and ten point differences. Weber State outlasted a gutsy performance from UC Davis. Southern Utah pulled far enough away from Cal Poly before they started to awaken. And Eastern Washington stormed back from.
Compared to the chaos of the final week of February, where we saw half the top 25 lose, the results of the first week in March could instead be called “March Mildness”.
It’s been a very, very long wait, but this weekend, finally, we have a weekend of Patriot League football to look forward to.
Below are the Top 25 rankings based on the Sagarin rankings for the week ending March 7th. These rankings are amongst the 92 schools participating in the spring schedule. The Missouri Valley Football Conference is well represented with the Top 4 teams in the rankings. In total, the MVFC has eight teams in the.
The CSJ’s NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament using the Sagarin rankings to field of the 68 teams that make-up the tournament are currently projecting Gonzaga as the overall number one seed for the week ending March 7th, 2021. Another High Major team in Houston is also projected as the second #2 seed. A total of eight.
Below are the Top 25 Mid-Major rankings based on the Sagarin rankings for the week ending Mar. 7th, 2021. Toledo moves into the top spot this week despite splitting its two MAC conference games this past week–losing at Central Michigan and defeating Ball State at home. The Rockets now will play Ball State again in.
Below are the Top 25 High-Major rankings, as well as overall, based on the Sagarin rankings for the week ending March 7th. Gonzaga remains atop the standings and stays as the #1 team overall after not playing a game this past week. Gonzaga plays Saint Mary’s in the WCC Conference Tournament semi-finals tonight. Houston remains.
Maynard, who became an outstanding dual-sport standout for the Miners while at Texas Western, was front and center for plenty of history in professional football.