Way early playoff bracket

[MSUBRONCO]

Posting because why not
https://www.ncaa.com/news/football/arti ... nth-season

[damnyoutuesday]

I am so happy that they finally are seeding the opening round. No more of that "regionalized" BS when there's only one conference out west

[MSU01]

Interesting bracket. I'll be very surprised if the second best team out of the Big Sky only ends up with the #8 seed.

[Prodigal Cat]

Interesting bracket. I'll be very surprised if the second best team out of the Big Sky only ends up with the #8 seed.

I think its safe to say at this point that the Big Sky has taken a large step back this season. Last year at this point NDSU had lost a couple FCS games so it was SDSU and then 3-4 Big Sky teams to round out the top 5. I'm not sure we have 3 top 10 teams right now. Our OOC has been pretty bad. Loses to Lamar and Mcneese by Weber. Davis squeaking out wins over SUU, Texas A&M Commerce. Eastern losing to Drake and Montana losing to UND. Big Sky is still a solid number 2 (pun intended), but not the conference it was last year.

[MSU01]

Interesting bracket. I'll be very surprised if the second best team out of the Big Sky only ends up with the #8 seed.

I think its safe to say at this point that the Big Sky has taken a large step back this season. Last year at this point NDSU had lost a couple FCS games so it was SDSU and then 3-4 Big Sky teams to round out the top 5. I'm not sure we have 3 top 10 teams right now. Our OOC has been pretty bad. Loses to Lamar and Mcneese by Weber. Davis squeaking out wins over SUU, Texas A&M Commerce. Eastern losing to Drake and Montana losing to UND. Big Sky is still a solid number 2 (pun intended), but not the conference it was last year.

Perhaps. I'm not sure I agree about the Big Sky taking a large step back this season. For teams like Weber and EWU I'd argue that the big step back happened in 2023 and not this year, and based on their records and remaining schedules I think the Cats and Griz have extremely favorable paths to both being Top 5/6 seeds. NAU seems improved this year although they're usually very up and down, so one great result doesn't always carry through to the rest of the season. Idaho is the big question mark, when they're healthy I think they're right there with MSU and UM but the results have been a bit uneven so far having to play so many different guys at QB. If they end up 9-3 with losses to Oregon, Davis, and MSU I think they're still very much in contention for a Top 8 seed.

[coloradocat]

So we would host UND in the quarters and NDSU in the semis? Interesting.

[justafan]

https://www.collegesportsmadness.com/fc ... acketology

this one would be kind of cool if it played out right..could have SD and SDS in the semi's and MSU and mt in the semi's so much will change by mid November tho...

[Team10]

NOPE NOPE NOPE. Wayyyyy too early is right.

[tetoncat]

I am so happy that they finally are seeding the opening round. No more of that "regionalized" BS when there's only one conference out west

Good in theory bit this bracket would have Cats hosting UCD for first game a conference team that they already played.

[MSU01]

I am so happy that they finally are seeding the opening round. No more of that "regionalized" BS when there's only one conference out west

Good in theory bit this bracket would have Cats hosting UCD for first game a conference team that they already played.

That's allowed in the second round and beyond. Same round that the Cats hosted Weber in 2022 in the same season as the long snapper game.

[tetoncat]

I am so happy that they finally are seeding the opening round. No more of that "regionalized" BS when there's only one conference out west

Good in theory bit this bracket would have Cats hosting UCD for first game a conference team that they already played.

That's allowed in the second round and beyond. Same round that the Cats hosted Weber in 2022 in the same season as the long snapper game.

I know it is allowed but OP talked about getting rid of regionalization. Cats were typically seeded so didn't impact them much. Will still have chance to see conference foe in 2nd round. That hasn't changed. Didn't they try to avoid repeat matchups in first round I am not sure I see much difference

[BleedingBLue]

I am so happy that they finally are seeding the opening round. No more of that "regionalized" BS when there's only one conference out west

Good in theory bit this bracket would have Cats hosting UCD for first game a conference team that they already played.

That's allowed in the second round and beyond. Same round that the Cats hosted Weber in 2022 in the same season as the long snapper game.

I know it is allowed but OP talked about getting rid of regionalization. Cats were typically seeded so didn't impact them much. Will still have chance to see conference foe in 2nd round. That hasn't changed. Didn't they try to avoid repeat matchups in first round I am not sure I see much difference

The first round matchups will still be regionalized if possible. The main difference is #16 goes to #1, #15 goes to #2 and so on.

[iaafan]

Interesting bracket. I'll be very surprised if the second best team out of the Big Sky only ends up with the #8 seed.

I think its safe to say at this point that the Big Sky has taken a large step back this season. Last year at this point NDSU had lost a couple FCS games so it was SDSU and then 3-4 Big Sky teams to round out the top 5. I'm not sure we have 3 top 10 teams right now. Our OOC has been pretty bad. Loses to Lamar and Mcneese by Weber. Davis squeaking out wins over SUU, Texas A&M Commerce. Eastern losing to Drake and Montana losing to UND. Big Sky is still a solid number 2 (pun intended), but not the conference it was last year.

Perhaps. I'm not sure I agree about the Big Sky taking a large step back this season. For teams like Weber and EWU I'd argue that the big step back happened in 2023 and not this year, and based on their records and remaining schedules I think the Cats and Griz have extremely favorable paths to both being Top 5/6 seeds. NAU seems improved this year although they're usually very up and down, so one great result doesn't always carry through to the rest of the season. Idaho is the big question mark, when they're healthy I think they're right there with MSU and UM but the results have been a bit uneven so far having to play so many different guys at QB. If they end up 9-3 with losses to Oregon, Davis, and MSU I think they're still very much in contention for a Top 8 seed.

I’d say Weber has taken “another” step backwards this year. They beat Idaho and only lost by 1 to Davis last year. NAU seems to pull off an upset annually so I’m not reading much into that. I don’t think Idaho is that good healthy or not. Defense, yes, but I think there offense is suspect.

[iaafan]

A team to keep an eye on is Cal Poly. They host ISU in what could be a trap game for the Bengals. CP was tied with Stanford just before halftime.

[MSUBobcat04]

A team to keep an eye on is Cal Poly. They host ISU in what could be a trap game for the Bengals. CP was tied with Stanford just before halftime.

I assume this was said in jest. Cal Poly lost to non-scholly San Diego. IF they can beat Idaho State, there's a good chance that's the only win they get the rest of the year.

[iaafan]

A team to keep an eye on is Cal Poly. They host ISU in what could be a trap game for the Bengals. CP was tied with Stanford just before halftime.

I assume this was said in jest. Cal Poly lost to non-scholly San Diego. IF they can beat Idaho State, there's a good chance that's the only win they get the rest of the year.

San Diego doesn’t suck. They went on the road and gave UND a game. Not saying UND is great but they did beat the gris fwiw.

[MSUBobcat04]

A team to keep an eye on is Cal Poly. They host ISU in what could be a trap game for the Bengals. CP was tied with Stanford just before halftime.

I assume this was said in jest. Cal Poly lost to non-scholly San Diego. IF they can beat Idaho State, there's a good chance that's the only win they get the rest of the year.

San Diego doesn’t suck. They went on the road and gave UND a game. Not saying UND is great but they did beat the gris fwiw.

They may not suck, but they aren't good either, which makes Poly less than good. I think you're giving San Diego too much credit for "giving team X a game for 2 quarters". UND seems to sleep-walk thru the first half of games. They were down 17 to UM at half, down 4 to USD and even Murray State was within a FG half way thru the 2nd quarter last weekend. I'd bet a week's salary that Poly doesn't finish .500 or above. Massey has the game vs Idaho State as their best chance for a win the rest of the year, at a whopping 34% chance. I could maybe even see them pulling a big upset over NAU or @ BBQ. That still puts them at 5-6 (4 FCS wins) if they beat the Bungles, Jacks and the Grills. They'd have to find at least 2 more wins @ Davis, @ Idaho, vs UM or vs Sac St just to be considered for the playoffs. Realistically, they probably need to win 8 games due to having a D2 win. 6 DI wins in a 12 game season likely doesn't cut it.

[iaafan]

A team to keep an eye on is Cal Poly. They host ISU in what could be a trap game for the Bengals. CP was tied with Stanford just before halftime.

I assume this was said in jest. Cal Poly lost to non-scholly San Diego. IF they can beat Idaho State, there's a good chance that's the only win they get the rest of the year.

San Diego doesn’t suck. They went on the road and gave UND a game. Not saying UND is great but they did beat the gris fwiw.

They may not suck, but they aren't good either, which makes Poly less than good. I think you're giving San Diego too much credit for "giving team X a game for 2 quarters". UND seems to sleep-walk thru the first half of games. They were down 17 to UM at half, down 4 to USD and even Murray State was within a FG half way thru the 2nd quarter last weekend. I'd bet a week's salary that Poly doesn't finish .500 or above. Massey has the game vs Idaho State as their best chance for a win the rest of the year, at a whopping 34% chance. I could maybe even see them pulling a big upset over NAU or @ BBQ. That still puts them at 5-6 (4 FCS wins) if they beat the Bungles, Jacks and the Grills. They'd have to find at least 2 more wins @ Davis, @ Idaho, vs UM or vs Sac St just to be considered for the playoffs. Realistically, they probably need to win 8 games due to having a D2 win. 6 DI wins in a 12 game season likely doesn't cut it.

Okay. When I say keep an eye on them I don’t mean watch them qualify for the playoffs. I’m just saying they might be improved. They might be catching ISU at the right time. They beat UNC (on the road) much easier than Abilene Christian did. They played USD on the road and only lost by 7. USD lost to Drake, which beat EW in Cheney by the same count (3) as the gris did. And, no, I don’t think comparing scores is a great way to figure out how good a team is, but it’s about all we got. Feel free to not keep an eye on CP. I’ll do that for you. lol

[BleedingBLue]

https://www.collegesportsmadness.com/fc ... acketology

This bracket always cracks me up. There is no possible way for USD to be the 4 seed if NDSU and SDSU are 1-2. There's a slim chance they could even get a seed with 3 losses since they didn't get to beat up on PSU and would only be 8-3.

[MSU01]

https://www.collegesportsmadness.com/fc ... acketology

This bracket always cracks me up. There is no possible way for USD to be the 4 seed if NDSU and SDSU are 1-2. There's a slim chance they could even get a seed with 3 losses since they didn't get to beat up on PSU and would only be 8-3.

If an 8-3 MSU team was able to get the #6 seed last year with losses to SDSU, Idaho, and UM I'm not sure I'd completely put it past the committee to put an 8-3 USD team at #4 with losses to Wisconsin, SDSU, and NDSU. The committee clearly values strength of schedule, loves the MVFC (rightfully so with how many NCs they've won lately compared to any other conference), and takes into consideration who you lose to and not just how many losses you have.