College Sports Journal CAA Football Preview Week of 3/6/21
As we enter the third week of the Spring season, the full CAA will join the fun with five games this weekend.
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As we enter the third week of the Spring season, the full CAA will join the fun with five games this weekend.
As expected there was a bunch of movement this week. The biggest shock is the one everyone has been talking about: North Dakota State not only lost, but lost big. It still remains to be seen how the Bison will wind up this Spring, but last week was their worst game in almost a decade.
Below are the Top 25 rankings based on the Sagarin rankings for the week ending February 28th. These rankings are amongst the 92 schools participating in the spring schedule. North Dakota State lost to Southern Illinois this week and moved down to the #2 spot in the rankings. South Dakota State moves up to.
This week we welcome the SWAC, Big Sky, and Big South to the wonderful world of spring FCS football, to go with the Missouri Valley, SoCon and OVC, who started their spring conference slates last week, and Tarleton State, who spent their time crushing FBS New Mexico State 43-17.
Here is this week’s College Sports Journal Top 25 as voted on by the staff.
This weekend saw the best-ever spring weekend of FCS football in history, with a near-full slate of thrilling Missouri Valley conference action, a back-and-forth affair in the OVC, the start of SoCon play, and even a good old-fashioned FCS over FBS upset. It’s like a typical FCS football weekend. Except it’s February 22nd.
Below are the Top 25 rankings based on the Sagarin rankings for the week ending February 21st. These rankings are amongst the 92 schools participating in the spring schedule. Three-time defending champion North Dakota State stays in the top spot following its spring season opening win at home over Youngstown State. South Dakota State.
The top 25 below has been compiled by vote from each member of the College Sports Journal FCS staff. Buckle up ladies and gentlemen, its going to be a weird spring season.
Below are the Top 25 FCS preseason rankings based on the Sagarin rankings for the spring 2021 season. These rankings are amongst the 94 of the total of 127 schools participating in the spring schedule. Three-time defending champion North Dakota State is the preseason top spot with the team the Bison defeated in the last.
This has been an unprecedented past 12 months for college football with the Division I ranks due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This past fall, we saw the FBS subdivision of Division I play through what right now looks like the peak of the pandemic of November and December. All FBS conferences did not start the.
This Spring, the CAA teams will play six conference games and can schedule up to two non conference games. There will only be 11 of the 12 teams taking the field as Towson has opted out of the Spring season.
How do we organize these programs in a way that is enticing for them, without breaking the proverbial bank while also creating a potentially better G5 product overall as well?
Playing a radically shortened season of six “regular-season” games would allow for most teams to only have a season that is marginally longer than what they would do for spring practices. And from those games, it is possible to come up with an FCS Championship.
It seems like nationally, college football people really don’t seem to have any idea about the talent, passion, and tradition that goes on at FCS schools, or what makes them the ideal out-of-conference opponents.
On July 21st, 2020, when David Pollack went on air to suggest that FCS football should permanently become spring football, I cringed.
Sixty student-athletes in the NCAA Division I Football’s Championship Subdivision have been named to the 2020 College Sports Journal Preseason FCS All-America Team.
Of our preseason poll last year, only 6 of the top 10 teams made the playoffs. 13 of the full 25 played past Thanksgiving. Its 2020, the year of complete chaos.
As a JMU fan and alum, it was tough to sit inside a cold Toyota Stadium this past Saturday and watch my team lose. What was even tougher was knowing that JMU lost because North Dakota State simply executed better.
FRISCO, Tex.— Top-seeded North Dakota State defeated the second-seeded James Madison 28-20 at Toyota Stadium to win the 2019 Division I FCS National Championship in front of 17,866 fans. With the win, NDSU completed its second consecutive undefeated campaign and continued its dominance by winning its eighth national title in the past nine seasons and third.
Here are some photos taken as James Madison and North Dakota State had their press conferences ahead of tomorrow’s 2020 national title game. The weather was rainy the past two days and is expected to be dangerous tonight with heavy thunderstorms rolling through Frisco. The front will bring colder weather with highs tomorrow dipping into.
When looking at James Madison’s road to Frisco and the FCS National Championship game this weekend, you have to look farther back than just the beginning of this season.
Here are some photos taken as the field crew prepares the Toyota Stadium field in Frisco, Texas to be ready for the championship for the 2020 Division I FCS National Title game. Both teams had a chance to take team photos and players and coaches had a chance to meet the media on the field..
The FCS National Championship game will be played this weekend in Frisco, Texas and will be televised nationally on ABC. Prior to the game, the College Sports Journal crew – Chuck Burton, Ray Maloney, Ben Schleiger, Kent Schmidt and Jamie Williams – sat down for a Championship game round table to discuss the game.
What: FCS National Championship Where: Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas When: Sunday, January 11, 2020, at 12 p.m. TV Channel: ABC Unfortunately, not all of our teams can make the national championship game as only two teams are eligible. That means 116 teams (126 total, minus these two, minus the Ivy teams – 8) are.
We are just over a week out from the FCS National Championship game in Frisco, TX. By all accounts, this should be a tightly contested, close matchup featuring the two best teams in the country. Let’s take a position by position look at the number two team in the country, the James Madison Dukes.
James Madison powered their way to Frisco and the FCS National Championship Game with a decisive 30-14 win at Bridgeforth Stadium this past Saturday.
It’s the next-to-last weekend of FCS football action, and it’s going to be a jam-packed Saturday with three games to showcase the best of FCS football. The unofficial HBCU National Championship is on the line, while the FCS Playoff Final Four see who advances to Frisco.
Weber State may have taken down the most dangerous team outside of James Madison and North Dakota State. Montana was a fierce competitor that I thought had all the weapons necessary to move past Weber and make a push to Frisco.
The Dukes were not happy with their offensive production. Between penalties, turnovers and missed field goals, Coach Curt Cignetti felt the team left a lot of points on the board. A normally efficient red zone offense struggle to add to the early lead. It didn’t cost them this week, but the coaches know they need to tighten that up the rest of the way.
James Madison used a suffocating defense and just enough offense to defeat Northern Iowa 17-0 in the Quarterfinals of the FCS playoffs.
We’re down to the final eight teams in the FCS Playoffs, as an unprecedented six of those teams face off on Friday evening in an intriguing tripleheader that includes three Big Sky teams. All three games played after sundown could be deeply affected by the weather.
The Panthers play exceptional defense. They allowed only 220 yards against South Dakota State and 213 against San Diego. They will need a similar performance to stay in the game against James Madison.
With the second round of the FCS Playoffs now complete, we give you links to all our recaps and our writers’ impression of the games.
The opening fifteen minutes and five seconds of the second round FCS playoff game between Monmouth and Jamses Madison featured six touchdowns, three by the visiting Hawks and three by the hosting Dukes. After that thrilling start, however, James Madison would score 45 unanswered points on the way to a dominating 66-21 victory.
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 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.
We are down to the last two weeks of the regular season. In the CAA, James Madison is a playoff lock and will claim the outright conference championship with another win. The Dukes should also slide into the seeds when the playoff bracket is released on November 24. Villanova is probably also solidly in the field. From there, its anybody’s guess what other CAA teams will be included on Selection Sunday
At this point the CAA could have five teams get into the FCS Playoffs, or they could have two. Its going to be a tense last three weeks.
Entering week 9, James Madison is the only CAA school remaining without a conference loss. However, there are five teams with only one conference loss. Of the twelve CAA teams, there are nine teams that could still make a run at a playoff berth.
The showdown between Villanova and James Madison lived up to its billing. The game was back and forth until the Dukes took hold in the fourth quarter to pick up the win. Elsewhere in the league, New Hampshire continued its strong start on the road at Stony Brook. Towson and Maine both faltered at home against Albany and Richmond respectively.
Call it “Conference Carnage Week”.
High-profile conference games ended upending conference championship races, and further cementing others on top of the standings.
Villanova and James Madison may have been caught looking ahead to their showdown last week, as both had to survive and win late. Take nothing away from Stony Brook and William & Mary, who gave those two teams all they could handle. The CAA title may well be on the line this week in Harrisonburg.
Villanova and James Madison appear to be on a collision course for an epic showdown next weekend after both posted impressive victories over ranked teams last weekend. The winner of that game on 10/12 will be in the CAA driver’s seat. But neither can get too far ahead of themselves since both of them have tough games this week.
Villanova showed that they are not to be forgotten in the CAA race in 2019. The Wildcats went toe to toe with the best offense in the conference – Towson – and came away victorious. Daniel Smith has been spectacular through four games with 13 touchdowns passing and four more rushing. Most teams in the CAA are getting into conference play from here on out so the path to the playoffs is going to start to clear up.
Towson showed they aren’t going away in the CAA and FCS race. The Tigers easily beat Maine by 22 points last week. In the only other CAA matchup, Elon picked up its first conference win, cruising by Richmond. In a couple more weeks, conference play will be in full swing. But for this week there are only two conference matchups while James Madison plays an interesting out of conference contest at Chattanooga.
Week two brought a mixed bag of results. The highlight of the weekend was the triple OT thriller in Meade Stadium that saw Delaware outlast the host Rhode Island Rams. That game set the stage for what should be an excellent season of conference matchups.
The CAA had a solid showing on opening weekend with all its teams combining to go 7-1 against FCS opponents. The lone loss was suffered by Elon to nationally-ranked North Carolina A&T, 24-21, on a 52 yard field goal as time expired. Against an FBS school, James Madison gave West Virginia all they could handle before ultimately falling to the Mountaineers. On to week two where the CAA faces four more FBS teams and a couple of strong non-conference games.
A new season is finally upon us. The Colonial Athletic Association is always among the top conference in the country and 2019 looks to be no different. Villanova already made a statement in week zero against Colgate. Most everyone else gets going this week.
The CAA had an excellent regular season in 2018 culminating with a record 6 playoff berths. However, once they got there, everyone except for Maine fell flat. The Colonial again looks strong with most every team feeling like they have a shot at the playoffs.