Skip to main content

Conference Rundown (Preview)

So here we are, in the offseason and yeah we do have to combine soon but even then the number of FCS players invited is low (not really sure why it is) plus lets face it, the combine really blows. Yea we get the intrigue of fastest and the strongest but its all on air and just has become really outdated. But anyway, that's not what this and the next few posts is all about. We gonna do some ranking of the conferences. From the SWAC to the Big South to the MVC...i'm counting them all down in the order of what I feel is the weakest to what I believe is the strongest.

For those who didn't read the Update post...here is a quick breakdown of how things will go.
  1. Placement reasoning
  2. 2017 Recap
  3. Playoff/National Championship contenders
  4. Teams to add/subtract
  5. Best/Worst
    • Stadium
    • Fan Base
    • Tradition
    • Uniforms
    • Nickname
  6. 2018 Outlook
The way I have the conferences ranked is based on how I feel each team stands up with other teams in the other conferences. Basically if Team A from one conference played Team B from another conference on a neutral site who would win? Of course the conference who from top to bottom would beat more teams on any given day would be ranked higher than a conference who has teams that wouldn't win many inter-conference games. I'll get into a bit more detail with the Placement Reasoning section. 

The recap is really straight forward, just giving the quick version of what happened in conference. Same with the contenders section, the playoff contenders will of course be a bigger discussion as some teams will have more teams who have a shot at a playoff birth. The National Championship part will be broken down into (Best option, Others, Sleeper).

The teams to add/subtract is basically what would be the ideal layout for the conference. Of course this is my personal opinion and will include programs from D-II, FBS, schools without a program, or had a program in the past. And sidenote...I will be doing a blog about teams who should start/restart a programs and teams who should move up or down into FCS so look for that one.

Best/Worst is just me having some fun with non traditional stuff. So no best player, coach or anything like that but best stadium, uniforms, etc. This will come from what I have seen on TV and what I have seen in person but admittedly some will be after I look at a schools webpage (sue me)

The outlook is basically how I think things will play out. Who will do well, who will disappoint or surprise, etc. So with all that being said...here is how I see the conferences right now

  1. Missouri Valley
  2. CAA
  3. Big Sky
  4. SoCon
  5. Southland
  6. OVC
  7. Ivy League
  8. Big South
  9. NEC
  10. Patriot League
  11. MEAC
  12. Pioneer
  13. SWAC
So with that the first entry on our lovely list will be...the Southwestern Athletic Conference

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The weekend that was....(Part 2)

Here I am back again...did promise you more. My thoughts on the field of 24 and ranking them 24-1 from least likely to win to most likely to celebrate in Frisco, TX Playoff Selection Thoughts Look, I know, with me writing this I'm playing a "Monday Morning QB" deal but the committee of 10 had one hell of a time picking 24 teams to get in the playoffs. Not everyone will be happy but hey, that's part of the job So getting the nice nice out of the way...the fact that Nicholls, New Hampshire, and S. Dakota made the playoffs is just mind blogging. All three lost their last game, Nicholls lost on the road to SE Louisiana and New Hampshire got shutout by 4-7 Albany. But even while those are bad, the worst entry was S. Dakota...ending a season at 1-4 shouldn't give you a playoff team. But the weirdest twist, all three have a chance at deep runs and two host a playoff game The team with the loudest beef should be Austin Peay. Good story aside, to go 7-1 versus FC...

Quarterfinal Predictions

Not gonna lie I probably should have done this for the entire playoffs but I had been on the fence about doing something like this. We will see how this goes and if I actually get this out before the first game which is in about 3 hours. Maybe if I get the first one out I'll post then update as I go along. But anyways onto the predictions. NO scores or anything like that just what I'm looking out for and who is gonna come out on top. There are some very interesting matchups for the Quarterfinals as only one is really considered a mismatch, and that is only because its NDSU in the FargoDome. Outside of that these are very evenly matched teams who in one case mirror one other so closely. As talked about in the last post, home teams so far in the playoffs are 15-1 and most of the games haven't been close. I will say this, I have at least one road team winning this weekend Onto the picks: No. 7 seed Maine (9-3) at No. 2 seed Weber State (10-2) Kickoff - 8 p.m. ET    Co...
So that's it...2017 season is over. The dynasty continues as North Dakota St won its 6th national championship in 7 years, more on those guys later. The playoffs as a whole were, to quote an old coach "not too stinky" While we got the end matchup everyone hoped for, getting there left a lot to be desired. That's not to say we got a good meal, but if we are being nit-picky about things the playoffs are the equivalent of some dishes not having and seasoning and others have a bit too much. The Bracket This one is the one big gripe from me and almost everyone in the land of FCS. The playoffs this year  were this weird hybrid of seeding with regional requirements that almost guarantees we get conference rematches, an unbalanced bracket, a some team really gets the shaft. This isn't some new problem unfortunately, ever since the playoffs were expanded first to 20 and now to 24 teams, we have seen a bracket and matchups that too often look slanted. In James Madi...