Covering All College Sports Since 2012
All that ends well. Memphis was the top ranked College Football Playoff Top 25 Group of Five going into the championship weekend with Boise State, Cincinnati, and Appalachian State as the other three teams in the rankings. Memphis played Cincinnati in the the American Association title game at home and held on to win the.
BROOKINGS, S.D. — Behind a dominating defensive effort, Northern Iowa rallied for a 13-10 victory over #7 seeded South Dakota State in front of 4,102 fans at Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium. Northern Iowa (10-4) kicker Matthew Cook converted the go-ahead 18-yard field goal with 2:10 left and the UNI defense did what it did the.
FARGO, N.D. — Top seeded North Dakota State set a new FCS record with its 34th consecutive victory, pulling away from Nicholls in the second half for a 37-13 win in the second round of the NCAA Division I FCS Playoffs in front of 15,690 at the Fargodome. North Dakota State (13-0) broke a tie.
Illinois State RB James Robinson followed up his 297 yard effort last week against Southeast Missouri State with a 210 yard rushing game against Central Arkansas, including two touchdowns as the Redbirds defeated Central Arkansas 24-14 in the second round of the FCS Playoffs.
Evans scampered 58 yards with a screen pass from quarterback Zac Thomas on a third-and-15 play less than two minutes into the game and Appalachian was on its way to the decisive 45-38 victory over Louisiana-Lafayette in the second consecutive meeting between the two teams in the conference title clash at Kidd Brewer Stadium.
This weekend eight seeded teams join the FCS Playoff party, including North Dakota State, who has made December dome football a North Dakota tradition, and four teams from the Big Sky, who saw an unprecedented four teams seeded in the playoffs. As a result, seven of the eight games are being played west of the Mississippi River.
Louisiana at Appalachian State When: Saturday, December 7, 12:00 PM EST Where:Kidd Brewer Stadium, Boone, N.C. TV/Streaming: ESPN / WatchESPN Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns (9-2, 7-1 SBC) Sun Belt West Division Champions Location: Lafayette, La. Enrollment: 19,188 Head Coach: Billy Napier, 2nd Season (Career Record: 17-9) Season Recap:With its 31-30 win over ULM, Louisiana clinched its first 10-win season in.
Albany proved its eight win regular season was no fluke as they cruised to a 42-14 win over Central Connecticut State behind a huge second half where they score three times in the opening seven and a half minutes of the third quarter.
FCS Second Round Playoff Matchup: Illinois State at Central Arkansas Where: Estes Stadium, Conway, Arkansas When: Saturday, December 7th, 3:00 PM TV/Streaming: ESPN3 (subscription req’d) Illinois State Redbirds (9-4), Head Coach: Brock Spack Missouri Valley Normal, Illinois In order for Illinois State to come away with a victory in its first-round playoff game.
FCS Second Round Matchup: Monmouth (Big South) at James Madison (Colonial) When: Saturday December 7, 1:00 PM Where: Bridgeforth Stadium, Harrisonburg, Virginia Streaming: ESPN3 Monmouth Hawks (11-2), Head Coach: Kevin Callahan Big South Conference West Long Branch, New Jersey Winners of the Big South Conference, Monmouth is currently riding a nine game winning streak. In.
The Banachs, who combined for five individual national championships while competing for the Hawkeyes, just might have been the major catalysts of the astronomical rise of the Iowa program.
Austin Peay and Sacramento State are both in a position that few pundits imagined at the start of the season: in the second round of the FCS national playoffs. The stakes only get higher for the winner of Saturday’s game.
The oddsmakers don’t give them much of a chance – on a popular gambling site, Nicholls was a 28 point underdog.
This season, I had the pleasure to be included by Craig Haley as a voter in the STATS FCS Top 25 for the first time. Along with the Top 25 vote comes the opportunity to vote for the FCS Legacy Awards: Walter Payton, Buck Buchanan, Eddie Robinson and Jerry Rice. As a voter, I believe.
With the first round of the FCS Playoffs now complete, we give you links to all our recaps and our writers’ impression of the games. Monmouth 44, Holy Cross 27 FCS 1st Round Playoffs: Monmouth Overwhelms Holy Cross 44-27 For Hawks First-Ever Playoff Victory Chuck: Monmouth proved they have a balanced offense that can give.
It’s the nightmare scenario for any playoff team – seeing your starting quarterback go down midway through the second quarter with an injury. That’s exactly the scenario Kennesaw State found themselves in against Wofford, a battle between triple-option teams with hard-running quarterbacks.
To the delight of Owl fans, QB Jonathan Murphy was able to carve his name on the plank of champions as he rallied his team to a thrilling 28-21 win.
Monmouth piled up 502 yards of total offense as the Hawks beat Holy Cross 44-27 in the first-ever FCS Playoff appearance for the program and the only head coach they have ever had, Kevin Callahan.
When the bracket was released last Sunday, many fans pointed to the Villanova/Southeastern Louisiana as the most potentially entertaining game and the one most likely to see a lot of scoring. The two teams did not disappoint, scoring a total of 89 points in a 45-44 Lion win that went down to the very last minutes of the game.
Julien Gums and Dontrell Taylor combined for 267 yards on the ground and quarterback Chase Fourcade completed all but two of his 16 pass attempts as Nicholls State defeated North Dakota 24-6 on Saturday on Manning Field at John L. Guidry Stadium.
The Albany Great Danes, behind a tremendous performance by QB Jeff Undercuffler and defeated the Central Connecticut Blue Devils 42-14 on Saturday in the first round of the FCS Playoffs.
It took a while, but the last train to Clarksville ran all over Furman and left a mark of mammoth proportions.
The FCS playoffs are finally here! Enjoy the picks of the staff of the College Sports Journal and find out who we think will win the FCS National Championship.
Austin Peay, the winners of the OVC for the first time since 1977, plays Furman in the first round of the FCS playoffs. It is the first playoff appearance in the history of Austin Peay. The winner of Saturday’s game will move on to face No. 4-seed Sacramento State in the second round of the playoffs next weekend.
Are the Wildcats just a streaky team? Can they continue their hot streak into the playoffs? A matchup with a strong Southeastern Louisiana Lions team will certainly test Villanova on both sides of the ball.
Perhaps no other matchup in this year’s opening round of the FCS playoffs pits two teams with such a varying discrepancy in terms of history and achievement in the sport of football. But, in the end, history will be made for one team as the sun sets on the day after North Dakota and Nicholls State meet for the first time in the history of the two schools.
FCS First Round Playoff Matchup: Kennesaw State (Big South) at Wofford (Southern) Where: Gibbs Stadium, Spartanburg, South Carolina Saturday, November 30th, 4:00 PM TV/Streaming: ESPN3 (subscription req’d) Kennesaw State Owls (10-2), Head Coach: Brian Bohannon Big South Conference Kennesaw, Georgia The 2019 season for the Owls hasn’t really been that far off their more recent.
FCS First Round Playoff Matchup: San Diego (Pioneer) at Northern Iowa (Missouri Valley) Where: UNI-Dome, Cedar Falls, Iowa When: Saturday, November 30th, 2:00 PM EST TV/Streaming: ESPN3 (subscription req’d) San Diego Toreros (9-2), Head Coach: Dale Lindsey Pioneer Football League San Diego, California The PFL Champion Toreros enter their fourth straight trip to the FCS.
Who: Illinois State at SEMO When: Saturday, November 30th Time: 2 pm Location: Cape Girardeau, Missouri How to Watch: ESPN 3 Playoff time is the true holiday for FCS and football fans across the country. There are familiar matchups and first-time meetings to spice up the bracket with old and new opponents. These two teams.
Picked to finish twelfth in the twelve team CAA, no one expected to see Albany’s name pop up in the playoff bracket. But the Great Danes had an excellent season finishing alone in second in the conference behind James Madison.
Though they tripped up against 4-8 Lafayette, behind a strong, young defense the Crusaders pulled off an early upset of New Hampshire early and used their defense to outlast their opponents. If this game is to remain close, Holy Cross will need to make this game a slow-down, field-position battle.
Two-time defending national champion North Dakota State (12-0) tops the bracket as the number one seed after winning the Missouri Valley Football Conference. The Bison are making their 10th consecutive and 15th overall appearance in the championship.
The dark days are over! Robert Morris caps off an incredible season finishing 7-5 with their most recent victory coming over Sacred Heart 16-14.
Dayton and Drake finished tied for second place in the league standing with identical 6-2 records, while Davidson placed fourth after compiling a 5-3 record.
One team made a strong bid for a top seed and another did all it could to nail down a playoff berth of its own as Monmouth and Kennesaw State posted huge wins to close the 2019 Big South Conference season.
Austin Peay rolled all over Eastern Illinois to win the Ohio Valley Conference championship for just the second time in school history and the first time since 1977 with a 35-7 win over the Panthers on Saturday.
The Bobcats may have been 30-point underdogs against one of the elite teams in the Group of Five, but TSU trailed just 14-13 midway through the third quarter. At that point, Appalachian finally unleashed tailback Darrynton Evans, who rushed for 154 yards on 21 carries and three second-half touchdowns to finally lift the Mountaineers (10-1 overall, 6-1 in the SBC) to their comfortable 35-13 win.
Using the Sagarin ratings from this week alone to project the 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 24 for the 24 teams that make the FCS playoffs. The seven Division I win criteria was.
The FCS Playoff Committee has a pretty unenviable job this time around in trying to determine the playoff seeds. With a crazy day of upsets of Montana, South Dakota State, Illinois State and others, teams who looked like certain seeds suddenly look like they are going to be practicing on Thanksgiving Day instead.
It is rare that the MVP of the Lehigh/Lafayette game is a kicker, but that’s exactly what happened this afternoon at Murray Goodman Stadium as the Leopards beat their bitter Mountain Hawk rivals for the first time in five years in a 17-16 win.
Perhaps no bigger matchup looms than when Drake travels to play Davidson. Both teams are tied for second place, along with Dayton, with 5-2 league records. A win by any of those teams will assure them of no worse than a share of second place.
Everything has been decided in the Southern Conference with one week to go in the season. Wofford was able to clinch the conference title with its win over Furman coupled by a large blown fourth quarter lead by The Citadel against Chattanooga. Furman should also easily find its way into the field.
This season, though, there isn’t the same feeling of continuity that permeated many of these other games. Part of that comes from the fact that, unusually for The Rivalry, both teams are packed with young underclassmen, many of them playing in their first Rivalry ever. Normally, The Rivalry is filled with narratives. This season, it feels like the master narrative is waiting to be written with two teams that, even at this late date, have unknowns.
KSU can ill afford a loss in the regular season finale against Gardner-Webb. If that happens, it could open the door to a realm of possible scenarios when the playoff field is announced Sunday. The Owls would finish the regular season with a 9-3 overall record, again, a mark that would normally get a team a postseason opportunity.
The CAA has its champion. James Madison handily defeated Richmond and claimed the outright CAA title. Joining the Dukes in the playoffs should be Villanova, Albany and Towson who each have seven division one wins on the season.
BOONE, NC – The college football season is winding down and almost all of the talk is concerning the College Football Playoffs and the four available spots that accompany it. Will it be defending national champion Clemson, LSU, Ohio State, Alabama, Georgia or somebody else? Just as important to the group of five conferences is.
So balanced has the conference been over the years that 12 times there has been at least two teams that have shared the conference title. This year could possibly make it 13 as Austin Peay and Southeast Missouri head into the final week of the regular season with identical 6-1 records in OVC play. Both are expected to be selected to play in the FCS playoff when the field is announced on Sunday.
It has taken until the last week of the regular season, but we finally have some clarity in the Southland Conference.
There were very few changes in the BOXTOROW Coaches and Media Polls as the teams that were expected to win did.
Just like that, we are down to the last week of the regular season. Selection Sunday comes to your airwaves thus Sunday November 24th at 11:30 AM on ESPNU. This past week, six of the ten automatic bids were sewn up. Those bids went to Monmouth (Big South), James Madison (CAA), North Dakota State (MVFC), Central Connecticut State (NEC), San Diego (Pioneer), Wofford (Southern). The Southland will be decided on Thursday night, while the Big Sky, Patriot and Ohio Valley will be decided on Saturday. The top 25 this week will look at each team from the prism of the playoffs.
The Toreros had little trouble in steamrolling their way to another Pioneer Football League championship with an impressive win over Morehead State on Saturday.
