Several advantages for the CATS on December 4th

[onceacat]

Depends on how the Cats treat that "pants crapping" loss to their rival. If they use it as intense motivation and come out with their hair on fire...then yeah, the loss to umCC could be considered as an advantage. It just depends on how the Cats react to that loss.
An "easier" second round opponent is not as important. I agree with you there. To be the best, you have to beat the best. Wherever and whenever in the bracket.
Does the um loss motivate this team/coaches?
We will see

There are countless examples in sports in which a huge loss to either a rival or being upset by an inferior team gets the troops rallied and they turn the season around.

I’m not predicting that’s definitely what’s going to happen with the cats. Obviously I hope it is. I was just pointing out that it’s very common for a bad loss to motivate a team and they string together wins.

That’s obviously the best case scenario. It really comes down to what we really are. Perhaps early in the year we had lost the Wyoming game and we were feeling mortal and that added some intensity and attention to detail that we started to lose track of as we piled up Ws. Perhaps we needed a wake up call to refocus and get back to playing to our potential.

Other side of the coin is that we aren’t that good and the griz exposed that. With the Ws against Weber and EWU I’d be surprised if this was the case.

I’m hoping that we come out refocused offensively and that we realize that we can’t let our guard down even momentarily. If this team is as good as we all hoped then that loss may prove to be a great learning moment.

Except that Weber wasn’t remotely good. They were lucky to finish with a winning record.

EWU maybe was good? Tough to say since they lost a home game to Weber…but they didn’t get a seed, so obviously the committee didn’t think they were top 8…

It keeps coming back to this: Cat fans seem to think that our #2 win was impressive. Literally no one else anywhere thinks that. Hanging your hat on a Weber road win is a sure sign that this Cat squad has really never been tested other than the UM game. Even the close loss to a bad Wyoming team is looking less impressive.

The 2019 team started believing it’s own hype…and got b*** slapped by Sac & UND. That got their attention & the team played well down the stretch.

I hoping the meltdown in Missoula provides the same reality check to this years guys who seem to think they were all that after beating up on the little sisters of the poor.

I disagree with most of what you said. Weber was “remotely good”. They managed to beat EWU and are coming off multiple conference titles. To act like it is no big deal to beat them on the road is just not accurate in my opinion.

You seem to give credence to us being tested against UM but that is giving them a lot of credit while being iffy on EWU’s ability. Especially since Eastern beat UM.

I think we had a tough schedule at the end of the year and the team has shown the ability to win tough games. Beating EWU in Cheney when they have arguably the best QB in FCS takes a lot of something.

I think our Cats have been tested and we let ourselves get smoked by the griz by not dealing with glaring issues on offense because we had managed to continue winning. I’m hoping that we have been humbled and we will see some serious work on that side of the football.

Lol, ya... all this. People can discount the body of work this Bobcat team has produced all you want, that's your prerogative. But to say, meh... not sure if EWU is any good? That's just flat out dumb. They have a decent chance at making it to Frisco IMO.

Sorry guys. But there’s a reason why a 9-2 Cats team barely got a seed. And why a 9-2 EWU team didn’t even get a seed. A big part of that is that our 2nd best win came against a 6-5 team. No way EWU

Beating EWU was a really good win. But that’s all the Cats have on the resume. One win against the Top 25…not even sure if it’s a win against the Top 10.

MSU had a super soft schedule, all the computer strength of schedules and the playoff committee agree. There’s just no sugar coating that.

[BleedingBLue]

Depends on how the Cats treat that "pants crapping" loss to their rival. If they use it as intense motivation and come out with their hair on fire...then yeah, the loss to umCC could be considered as an advantage. It just depends on how the Cats react to that loss.
An "easier" second round opponent is not as important. I agree with you there. To be the best, you have to beat the best. Wherever and whenever in the bracket.
Does the um loss motivate this team/coaches?
We will see

There are countless examples in sports in which a huge loss to either a rival or being upset by an inferior team gets the troops rallied and they turn the season around.

I’m not predicting that’s definitely what’s going to happen with the cats. Obviously I hope it is. I was just pointing out that it’s very common for a bad loss to motivate a team and they string together wins.

That’s obviously the best case scenario. It really comes down to what we really are. Perhaps early in the year we had lost the Wyoming game and we were feeling mortal and that added some intensity and attention to detail that we started to lose track of as we piled up Ws. Perhaps we needed a wake up call to refocus and get back to playing to our potential.

Other side of the coin is that we aren’t that good and the griz exposed that. With the Ws against Weber and EWU I’d be surprised if this was the case.

I’m hoping that we come out refocused offensively and that we realize that we can’t let our guard down even momentarily. If this team is as good as we all hoped then that loss may prove to be a great learning moment.

Except that Weber wasn’t remotely good. They were lucky to finish with a winning record.

EWU maybe was good? Tough to say since they lost a home game to Weber…but they didn’t get a seed, so obviously the committee didn’t think they were top 8…

It keeps coming back to this: Cat fans seem to think that our #2 win was impressive. Literally no one else anywhere thinks that. Hanging your hat on a Weber road win is a sure sign that this Cat squad has really never been tested other than the UM game. Even the close loss to a bad Wyoming team is looking less impressive.

The 2019 team started believing it’s own hype…and got b*** slapped by Sac & UND. That got their attention & the team played well down the stretch.

I hoping the meltdown in Missoula provides the same reality check to this years guys who seem to think they were all that after beating up on the little sisters of the poor.

I disagree with most of what you said. Weber was “remotely good”. They managed to beat EWU and are coming off multiple conference titles. To act like it is no big deal to beat them on the road is just not accurate in my opinion.

You seem to give credence to us being tested against UM but that is giving them a lot of credit while being iffy on EWU’s ability. Especially since Eastern beat UM.

I think we had a tough schedule at the end of the year and the team has shown the ability to win tough games. Beating EWU in Cheney when they have arguably the best QB in FCS takes a lot of something.

I think our Cats have been tested and we let ourselves get smoked by the griz by not dealing with glaring issues on offense because we had managed to continue winning. I’m hoping that we have been humbled and we will see some serious work on that side of the football.

Lol, ya... all this. People can discount the body of work this Bobcat team has produced all you want, that's your prerogative. But to say, meh... not sure if EWU is any good? That's just flat out dumb. They have a decent chance at making it to Frisco IMO.

Sorry guys. But there’s a reason why a 9-2 Cats team barely got a seed. And why a 9-2 EWU team didn’t even get a seed. A big part of that is that our 2nd best win came against a 6-5 team. No way EWU

Beating EWU was a really good win. But that’s all the Cats have on the resume. One win against the Top 25…not even sure if it’s a win against the Top 10.

MSU had a super soft schedule, all the computer strength of schedules and the playoff committee agree. There’s just no sugar coating that.

Villanova's schedule was just as bad, and they got the 5 seed. Their lone FCS loss was to a team a lot worse than the Griz in William & Mary. The only reason we dropped to 8 is because of our last weekend performance. If we lost to the Griz mid-season then won 4 straight we would have been higher guaranteed, a la Villanova. Also Eastern didn't get seed because in the committee's eyes they were 8-2.

[AFCAT]

Talk to everyone you can and try to get them out to the game. If you want a real advantage, make it a rocking, loud, and packed Bobcat stadium that throws off UTM’s young o-linemen.

[onceacat]

Depends on how the Cats treat that "pants crapping" loss to their rival. If they use it as intense motivation and come out with their hair on fire...then yeah, the loss to umCC could be considered as an advantage. It just depends on how the Cats react to that loss.
An "easier" second round opponent is not as important. I agree with you there. To be the best, you have to beat the best. Wherever and whenever in the bracket.
Does the um loss motivate this team/coaches?
We will see

There are countless examples in sports in which a huge loss to either a rival or being upset by an inferior team gets the troops rallied and they turn the season around.

I’m not predicting that’s definitely what’s going to happen with the cats. Obviously I hope it is. I was just pointing out that it’s very common for a bad loss to motivate a team and they string together wins.

That’s obviously the best case scenario. It really comes down to what we really are. Perhaps early in the year we had lost the Wyoming game and we were feeling mortal and that added some intensity and attention to detail that we started to lose track of as we piled up Ws. Perhaps we needed a wake up call to refocus and get back to playing to our potential.

Other side of the coin is that we aren’t that good and the griz exposed that. With the Ws against Weber and EWU I’d be surprised if this was the case.

I’m hoping that we come out refocused offensively and that we realize that we can’t let our guard down even momentarily. If this team is as good as we all hoped then that loss may prove to be a great learning moment.

Except that Weber wasn’t remotely good. They were lucky to finish with a winning record.

EWU maybe was good? Tough to say since they lost a home game to Weber…but they didn’t get a seed, so obviously the committee didn’t think they were top 8…

It keeps coming back to this: Cat fans seem to think that our #2 win was impressive. Literally no one else anywhere thinks that. Hanging your hat on a Weber road win is a sure sign that this Cat squad has really never been tested other than the UM game. Even the close loss to a bad Wyoming team is looking less impressive.

The 2019 team started believing it’s own hype…and got b*** slapped by Sac & UND. That got their attention & the team played well down the stretch.

I hoping the meltdown in Missoula provides the same reality check to this years guys who seem to think they were all that after beating up on the little sisters of the poor.

I disagree with most of what you said. Weber was “remotely good”. They managed to beat EWU and are coming off multiple conference titles. To act like it is no big deal to beat them on the road is just not accurate in my opinion.

You seem to give credence to us being tested against UM but that is giving them a lot of credit while being iffy on EWU’s ability. Especially since Eastern beat UM.

I think we had a tough schedule at the end of the year and the team has shown the ability to win tough games. Beating EWU in Cheney when they have arguably the best QB in FCS takes a lot of something.

I think our Cats have been tested and we let ourselves get smoked by the griz by not dealing with glaring issues on offense because we had managed to continue winning. I’m hoping that we have been humbled and we will see some serious work on that side of the football.

Lol, ya... all this. People can discount the body of work this Bobcat team has produced all you want, that's your prerogative. But to say, meh... not sure if EWU is any good? That's just flat out dumb. They have a decent chance at making it to Frisco IMO.

Sorry guys. But there’s a reason why a 9-2 Cats team barely got a seed. And why a 9-2 EWU team didn’t even get a seed. A big part of that is that our 2nd best win came against a 6-5 team. No way EWU

Beating EWU was a really good win. But that’s all the Cats have on the resume. One win against the Top 25…not even sure if it’s a win against the Top 10.

MSU had a super soft schedule, all the computer strength of schedules and the playoff committee agree. There’s just no sugar coating that.

Villanova's schedule was just as bad, and they got the 5 seed. Their lone FCS loss was to a team a lot worse than the Griz in William & Mary. The only reason we dropped to 8 is because of our last weekend performance. If we lost to the Griz mid-season then won 4 straight we would have been higher guaranteed, a la Villanova. Also Eastern didn't get seed because in the committee's eyes they were 8-2.

Nova beat the #3 seed. Generally a "good" win helps in the committees eyes a lot more than a "bad" loss. Very comparable strength of schedule with MSU...and, yes, finishing the season on a winning streak puts them in a better place.

If Weber was such a "tough" team, then why didn't the committee give EWU credit for losing to such a great team? Obviously, the committee thinks that losing to a "meh" Weber team isn't really any more noteworthy than 'Nova losing to W&M.

Heres another way to think about it: Whats the BEST out of conference win for a Big Sky team this season? UM at 4-8 UW? EWU beating 6-6 UNI? NAU over Arizona? On the other hand, Sac lost to UNI, NAU got shellacked by Sammy, Davis got crushed by SDSU, Weber lost a close-ish one to JMU. The problem is that nobody in the Big Sky can compete with the big boys in other conferences. Weber State & EWU were both "one and done" in the spring playoffs too.

Until Big Sky teams prove that they can beat decent out of conference teams...and unless the bottom of the conference really picks up its game, its going to be really hard to make the case that beating middle of the pack BSC teams is something to write home about.

[Common Cat]

You know who had an easier schedule than the cats...the griz.

[BleedingBLue]

Depends on how the Cats treat that "pants crapping" loss to their rival. If they use it as intense motivation and come out with their hair on fire...then yeah, the loss to umCC could be considered as an advantage. It just depends on how the Cats react to that loss.
An "easier" second round opponent is not as important. I agree with you there. To be the best, you have to beat the best. Wherever and whenever in the bracket.
Does the um loss motivate this team/coaches?
We will see

There are countless examples in sports in which a huge loss to either a rival or being upset by an inferior team gets the troops rallied and they turn the season around.

I’m not predicting that’s definitely what’s going to happen with the cats. Obviously I hope it is. I was just pointing out that it’s very common for a bad loss to motivate a team and they string together wins.

That’s obviously the best case scenario. It really comes down to what we really are. Perhaps early in the year we had lost the Wyoming game and we were feeling mortal and that added some intensity and attention to detail that we started to lose track of as we piled up Ws. Perhaps we needed a wake up call to refocus and get back to playing to our potential.

Other side of the coin is that we aren’t that good and the griz exposed that. With the Ws against Weber and EWU I’d be surprised if this was the case.

I’m hoping that we come out refocused offensively and that we realize that we can’t let our guard down even momentarily. If this team is as good as we all hoped then that loss may prove to be a great learning moment.

Except that Weber wasn’t remotely good. They were lucky to finish with a winning record.

EWU maybe was good? Tough to say since they lost a home game to Weber…but they didn’t get a seed, so obviously the committee didn’t think they were top 8…

It keeps coming back to this: Cat fans seem to think that our #2 win was impressive. Literally no one else anywhere thinks that. Hanging your hat on a Weber road win is a sure sign that this Cat squad has really never been tested other than the UM game. Even the close loss to a bad Wyoming team is looking less impressive.

The 2019 team started believing it’s own hype…and got b*** slapped by Sac & UND. That got their attention & the team played well down the stretch.

I hoping the meltdown in Missoula provides the same reality check to this years guys who seem to think they were all that after beating up on the little sisters of the poor.

I disagree with most of what you said. Weber was “remotely good”. They managed to beat EWU and are coming off multiple conference titles. To act like it is no big deal to beat them on the road is just not accurate in my opinion.

You seem to give credence to us being tested against UM but that is giving them a lot of credit while being iffy on EWU’s ability. Especially since Eastern beat UM.

I think we had a tough schedule at the end of the year and the team has shown the ability to win tough games. Beating EWU in Cheney when they have arguably the best QB in FCS takes a lot of something.

I think our Cats have been tested and we let ourselves get smoked by the griz by not dealing with glaring issues on offense because we had managed to continue winning. I’m hoping that we have been humbled and we will see some serious work on that side of the football.

Lol, ya... all this. People can discount the body of work this Bobcat team has produced all you want, that's your prerogative. But to say, meh... not sure if EWU is any good? That's just flat out dumb. They have a decent chance at making it to Frisco IMO.

Sorry guys. But there’s a reason why a 9-2 Cats team barely got a seed. And why a 9-2 EWU team didn’t even get a seed. A big part of that is that our 2nd best win came against a 6-5 team. No way EWU

Beating EWU was a really good win. But that’s all the Cats have on the resume. One win against the Top 25…not even sure if it’s a win against the Top 10.

MSU had a super soft schedule, all the computer strength of schedules and the playoff committee agree. There’s just no sugar coating that.

Villanova's schedule was just as bad, and they got the 5 seed. Their lone FCS loss was to a team a lot worse than the Griz in William & Mary. The only reason we dropped to 8 is because of our last weekend performance. If we lost to the Griz mid-season then won 4 straight we would have been higher guaranteed, a la Villanova. Also Eastern didn't get seed because in the committee's eyes they were 8-2.

Nova beat the #3 seed. Generally a "good" win helps in the committees eyes a lot more than a "bad" loss. Very comparable strength of schedule with MSU...and, yes, finishing the season on a winning streak puts them in a better place.

If Weber was such a "tough" team, then why didn't the committee give EWU credit for losing to such a great team? Obviously, the committee thinks that losing to a "meh" Weber team isn't really any more noteworthy than 'Nova losing to W&M.

Heres another way to think about it: Whats the BEST out of conference win for a Big Sky team this season? UM at 4-8 UW? EWU beating 6-6 UNI? NAU over Arizona? On the other hand, Sac lost to UNI, NAU got shellacked by Sammy, Davis got crushed by SDSU, Weber lost a close-ish one to JMU. The problem is that nobody in the Big Sky can compete with the big boys in other conferences. Weber State & EWU were both "one and done" in the spring playoffs too.

Until Big Sky teams prove that they can beat decent out of conference teams...and unless the bottom of the conference really picks up its game, its going to be really hard to make the case that beating middle of the pack BSC teams is something to write home about.

I'd say a win against #4 Eastern (final stats poll) is about the same as Nova's win against #2 JMU. And again Eastern was punished for their DII win, not their Weber loss. It's all moot now though. We'll see how the final 16 pans out. I'm glad we play SDSU home and home coming up in a couple years.

[utucats]

Depends on how the Cats treat that "pants crapping" loss to their rival. If they use it as intense motivation and come out with their hair on fire...then yeah, the loss to umCC could be considered as an advantage. It just depends on how the Cats react to that loss.
An "easier" second round opponent is not as important. I agree with you there. To be the best, you have to beat the best. Wherever and whenever in the bracket.
Does the um loss motivate this team/coaches?
We will see

There are countless examples in sports in which a huge loss to either a rival or being upset by an inferior team gets the troops rallied and they turn the season around.

I’m not predicting that’s definitely what’s going to happen with the cats. Obviously I hope it is. I was just pointing out that it’s very common for a bad loss to motivate a team and they string together wins.

That’s obviously the best case scenario. It really comes down to what we really are. Perhaps early in the year we had lost the Wyoming game and we were feeling mortal and that added some intensity and attention to detail that we started to lose track of as we piled up Ws. Perhaps we needed a wake up call to refocus and get back to playing to our potential.

Other side of the coin is that we aren’t that good and the griz exposed that. With the Ws against Weber and EWU I’d be surprised if this was the case.

I’m hoping that we come out refocused offensively and that we realize that we can’t let our guard down even momentarily. If this team is as good as we all hoped then that loss may prove to be a great learning moment.

Except that Weber wasn’t remotely good. They were lucky to finish with a winning record.

EWU maybe was good? Tough to say since they lost a home game to Weber…but they didn’t get a seed, so obviously the committee didn’t think they were top 8…

It keeps coming back to this: Cat fans seem to think that our #2 win was impressive. Literally no one else anywhere thinks that. Hanging your hat on a Weber road win is a sure sign that this Cat squad has really never been tested other than the UM game. Even the close loss to a bad Wyoming team is looking less impressive.

The 2019 team started believing it’s own hype…and got b*** slapped by Sac & UND. That got their attention & the team played well down the stretch.

I hoping the meltdown in Missoula provides the same reality check to this years guys who seem to think they were all that after beating up on the little sisters of the poor.

I disagree with most of what you said. Weber was “remotely good”. They managed to beat EWU and are coming off multiple conference titles. To act like it is no big deal to beat them on the road is just not accurate in my opinion.

You seem to give credence to us being tested against UM but that is giving them a lot of credit while being iffy on EWU’s ability. Especially since Eastern beat UM.

I think we had a tough schedule at the end of the year and the team has shown the ability to win tough games. Beating EWU in Cheney when they have arguably the best QB in FCS takes a lot of something.

I think our Cats have been tested and we let ourselves get smoked by the griz by not dealing with glaring issues on offense because we had managed to continue winning. I’m hoping that we have been humbled and we will see some serious work on that side of the football.

Lol, ya... all this. People can discount the body of work this Bobcat team has produced all you want, that's your prerogative. But to say, meh... not sure if EWU is any good? That's just flat out dumb. They have a decent chance at making it to Frisco IMO.

Sorry guys. But there’s a reason why a 9-2 Cats team barely got a seed. And why a 9-2 EWU team didn’t even get a seed. A big part of that is that our 2nd best win came against a 6-5 team. No way EWU

Beating EWU was a really good win. But that’s all the Cats have on the resume. One win against the Top 25…not even sure if it’s a win against the Top 10.

MSU had a super soft schedule, all the computer strength of schedules and the playoff committee agree. There’s just no sugar coating that.

Villanova's schedule was just as bad, and they got the 5 seed. Their lone FCS loss was to a team a lot worse than the Griz in William & Mary. The only reason we dropped to 8 is because of our last weekend performance. If we lost to the Griz mid-season then won 4 straight we would have been higher guaranteed, a la Villanova. Also Eastern didn't get seed because in the committee's eyes they were 8-2.

Nova beat the #3 seed. Generally a "good" win helps in the committees eyes a lot more than a "bad" loss. Very comparable strength of schedule with MSU...and, yes, finishing the season on a winning streak puts them in a better place.

If Weber was such a "tough" team, then why didn't the committee give EWU credit for losing to such a great team? Obviously, the committee thinks that losing to a "meh" Weber team isn't really any more noteworthy than 'Nova losing to W&M.

Heres another way to think about it: Whats the BEST out of conference win for a Big Sky team this season? UM at 4-8 UW? EWU beating 6-6 UNI? NAU over Arizona? On the other hand, Sac lost to UNI, NAU got shellacked by Sammy, Davis got crushed by SDSU, Weber lost a close-ish one to JMU. The problem is that nobody in the Big Sky can compete with the big boys in other conferences. Weber State & EWU were both "one and done" in the spring playoffs too.

Until Big Sky teams prove that they can beat decent out of conference teams...and unless the bottom of the conference really picks up its game, its going to be really hard to make the case that beating middle of the pack BSC teams is something to write home about.

Problem is your analysis of our conference vs others is our middle teams against the other conference’s elite.

Sac losing to UNI is no surprise. They may have ended the year on top the conference but funny that we’d talk about weak schedules without including them. If they played our schedule they’d would not be sitting where they are currently. SDSU is also elite and will destroy Sac this weekend.

EWU is a premier Big Sky program and they handled UNI fairly easily. NAU losing to SHSU is exactly the point. 4-4 in conference play. I’m not sure we’d expect them to beat the #1 team in the country.

You say nobody in the Big Sky can compete with the big boys in other conferences. I’d argue that the “big boys” have only played nobody’s in the Big Sky. We’ll see how the playoffs unfold but your examples are not top tier vs top tier.

[onceacat]

Depends on how the Cats treat that "pants crapping" loss to their rival. If they use it as intense motivation and come out with their hair on fire...then yeah, the loss to umCC could be considered as an advantage. It just depends on how the Cats react to that loss.
An "easier" second round opponent is not as important. I agree with you there. To be the best, you have to beat the best. Wherever and whenever in the bracket.
Does the um loss motivate this team/coaches?
We will see

There are countless examples in sports in which a huge loss to either a rival or being upset by an inferior team gets the troops rallied and they turn the season around.

I’m not predicting that’s definitely what’s going to happen with the cats. Obviously I hope it is. I was just pointing out that it’s very common for a bad loss to motivate a team and they string together wins.

That’s obviously the best case scenario. It really comes down to what we really are. Perhaps early in the year we had lost the Wyoming game and we were feeling mortal and that added some intensity and attention to detail that we started to lose track of as we piled up Ws. Perhaps we needed a wake up call to refocus and get back to playing to our potential.

Other side of the coin is that we aren’t that good and the griz exposed that. With the Ws against Weber and EWU I’d be surprised if this was the case.

I’m hoping that we come out refocused offensively and that we realize that we can’t let our guard down even momentarily. If this team is as good as we all hoped then that loss may prove to be a great learning moment.

Except that Weber wasn’t remotely good. They were lucky to finish with a winning record.

EWU maybe was good? Tough to say since they lost a home game to Weber…but they didn’t get a seed, so obviously the committee didn’t think they were top 8…

It keeps coming back to this: Cat fans seem to think that our #2 win was impressive. Literally no one else anywhere thinks that. Hanging your hat on a Weber road win is a sure sign that this Cat squad has really never been tested other than the UM game. Even the close loss to a bad Wyoming team is looking less impressive.

The 2019 team started believing it’s own hype…and got b*** slapped by Sac & UND. That got their attention & the team played well down the stretch.

I hoping the meltdown in Missoula provides the same reality check to this years guys who seem to think they were all that after beating up on the little sisters of the poor.

I disagree with most of what you said. Weber was “remotely good”. They managed to beat EWU and are coming off multiple conference titles. To act like it is no big deal to beat them on the road is just not accurate in my opinion.

You seem to give credence to us being tested against UM but that is giving them a lot of credit while being iffy on EWU’s ability. Especially since Eastern beat UM.

I think we had a tough schedule at the end of the year and the team has shown the ability to win tough games. Beating EWU in Cheney when they have arguably the best QB in FCS takes a lot of something.

I think our Cats have been tested and we let ourselves get smoked by the griz by not dealing with glaring issues on offense because we had managed to continue winning. I’m hoping that we have been humbled and we will see some serious work on that side of the football.

Lol, ya... all this. People can discount the body of work this Bobcat team has produced all you want, that's your prerogative. But to say, meh... not sure if EWU is any good? That's just flat out dumb. They have a decent chance at making it to Frisco IMO.

Sorry guys. But there’s a reason why a 9-2 Cats team barely got a seed. And why a 9-2 EWU team didn’t even get a seed. A big part of that is that our 2nd best win came against a 6-5 team. No way EWU

Beating EWU was a really good win. But that’s all the Cats have on the resume. One win against the Top 25…not even sure if it’s a win against the Top 10.

MSU had a super soft schedule, all the computer strength of schedules and the playoff committee agree. There’s just no sugar coating that.

Villanova's schedule was just as bad, and they got the 5 seed. Their lone FCS loss was to a team a lot worse than the Griz in William & Mary. The only reason we dropped to 8 is because of our last weekend performance. If we lost to the Griz mid-season then won 4 straight we would have been higher guaranteed, a la Villanova. Also Eastern didn't get seed because in the committee's eyes they were 8-2.

Nova beat the #3 seed. Generally a "good" win helps in the committees eyes a lot more than a "bad" loss. Very comparable strength of schedule with MSU...and, yes, finishing the season on a winning streak puts them in a better place.

If Weber was such a "tough" team, then why didn't the committee give EWU credit for losing to such a great team? Obviously, the committee thinks that losing to a "meh" Weber team isn't really any more noteworthy than 'Nova losing to W&M.

Heres another way to think about it: Whats the BEST out of conference win for a Big Sky team this season? UM at 4-8 UW? EWU beating 6-6 UNI? NAU over Arizona? On the other hand, Sac lost to UNI, NAU got shellacked by Sammy, Davis got crushed by SDSU, Weber lost a close-ish one to JMU. The problem is that nobody in the Big Sky can compete with the big boys in other conferences. Weber State & EWU were both "one and done" in the spring playoffs too.

Until Big Sky teams prove that they can beat decent out of conference teams...and unless the bottom of the conference really picks up its game, its going to be really hard to make the case that beating middle of the pack BSC teams is something to write home about.

Problem is your analysis of our conference vs others is our middle teams against the other conference’s elite.

Sac losing to UNI is no surprise. They may have ended the year on top the conference but funny that we’d talk about weak schedules without including them. If they played our schedule they’d would not be sitting where they are currently. SDSU is also elite and will destroy Sac this weekend.

EWU is a premier Big Sky program and they handled UNI fairly easily. NAU losing to SHSU is exactly the point. 4-4 in conference play. I’m not sure we’d expect them to beat the #1 team in the country.

You say nobody in the Big Sky can compete with the big boys in other conferences. I’d argue that the “big boys” have only played nobody’s in the Big Sky. We’ll see how the playoffs unfold but your examples are not top tier vs top tier.

I'm not saying that any of the top BSC teams are bad. Just that none of them have proven much of anything up to this point.

And, to your point (bolded above): our "average" teams like Weber & NAU lost games to elite out of conference teams.

Weber is an average BSC team. Not sure why any of the fans here are hanging their hats on an "impressive" win at a "middle" team.

I fully expect a Cat win by 2-3 scores this Saturday. And I expect the Cats to give Sammy a really competitive game after that. But I don't think this team has exactly been tested by fire because they beat an average Weber team.

[CelticCat]

I think there is a misconception sometimes about top 10 teams having run through some sort of gauntlet. That does happen but I think it's far more common for teams to have a resume similar to MSU - 1-2 top 15 wins and a lot of wins against teams with losing records.

I mean look at JMU, their OOC was Morehead State, Maine and Weber State. Their best wins are 6-5 W&M, 6-5 Richmond, 6-5 Elon, 6-5 Maine. Not a single win against a playoff team.

[Helcat72]

We can hang with Sammy with our defense, but our offense needs a lot of improvement to stay with them . They've got speed to burn!

[BleedingBLue]

I think there is a misconception sometimes about top 10 teams having run through some sort of gauntlet. That does happen but I think it's far more common for teams to have a resume similar to MSU - 1-2 top 15 wins and a lot of wins against teams with losing records.

I mean look at JMU, their OOC was Morehead State, Maine and Weber State. Their best wins are 6-5 W&M, 6-5 Richmond, 6-5 Elon, 6-5 Maine. Not a single win against a playoff team.

Thank you! This is the exact reason UNI got in at 6-5. They beat 3 other playoff teams. Nobody else did that. NDSU beat 2, SDSU beat none! They lost to every playoff team, until last weekend of course.

[91catAlum]

We can hang with Sammy with our defense, but our offense needs a lot of improvement to stay with them . They've got speed to burn!

Sammy can stop the run, too. We'd have to be very balanced to beat them, like we were at EWU (minus the 2 turnovers and the 2 empty red zone trips).

[The MICKSTER]

If you've listened to the UT Martin coaches press conference this week, he said they'd fly on TH and have 2 nights in a motel.......gotta think that doesn't help their cause not only for the travel but it leaves them with one less day of practicing for us......although they'll most likely do a walk thru on Friday at the stadium.

[kwcat]

We can hang with Sammy with our defense, but our offense needs a lot of improvement to stay with them . They've got speed to burn!

The challenge we would have to overcome to beat a team like Sam Houston would be our slow developing offensive plays. There are not enough movements to keep defensive eyes busy. There are not enough gap schemes in the blocking currently. Not sure why that is beings we have the same line coach? And our passing game is slow to develop. We overcome those things by a split second or maybe a full second and we will be competitive offensively.

[coloradocat]

If you've listened to the UT Martin coaches press conference this week, he said they'd fly on TH and have 2 nights in a motel.......gotta think that doesn't help their cause not only for the travel but it leaves them with one less day of practicing for us......although they'll most likely do a walk thru on Friday at the stadium.

Hopefully they're at least staying in Bozeman/Belgrade. Didn't one of the teams in 2019 stay in Big Sky? Imagine flying half way across the country and then having to take a bus an hour to your hotel and then another hour back to the stadium the next day. That's a lot of travel.

[HelenaCat95]

We can hang with Sammy with our defense, but our offense needs a lot of improvement to stay with them . They've got speed to burn!

The challenge we would have to overcome to beat a team like Sam Houston would be our slow developing offensive plays. There are not enough movements to keep defensive eyes busy. There are not enough gap schemes in the blocking currently. Not sure why that is beings we have the same line coach? And our passing game is slow to develop. We overcome those things by a split second or maybe a full second and we will be competitive offensively.

This +1000!
That's been my issue with the Offense.....especially with our Cat/Griz gameplan.
Just look at last years (2019) Cat/Griz. We played against the same style of Defense, and same D-Coordinator and we gashed them. Yes, our Oline isn't as good as it was. But, we froze their aggressive style of Defense. Presnap motions - swapping TE's presnap - lot's of fly/jet sweep action. Post snap pulling Guards. Post snap pulling TE's and H-backs. Backfield misdirection. All of this movement causes the blitzing backers to hesitate and negates a good bit of their aggressiveness. And when they aren't playing fast, they aren't playing as well as they can. The presnap movement can cause them to revert to their base defense, which means no blitzing backers at all.

Instead, this year we just ran Inside Zone and Outside Zone. How about running Power (pulling a backside Guard to a playside LB). How about GY (pulling a Guard and TE...in other words Counter). How about Split Zone (pulling the backside TE or H-Back to kickout the playside DE). In other words like kwcat says GAP schemes.
Anyway - rant over.

[AFCAT]

If you've listened to the UT Martin coaches press conference this week, he said they'd fly on TH and have 2 nights in a motel.......gotta think that doesn't help their cause not only for the travel but it leaves them with one less day of practicing for us......although they'll most likely do a walk thru on Friday at the stadium.

Hopefully they're at least staying in Bozeman/Belgrade. Didn't one of the teams in 2019 stay in Big Sky? Imagine flying half way across the country and then having to take a bus an hour to your hotel and then another hour back to the stadium the next day. That's a lot of travel.

Sounds fine to me. I don’t wish them any advantage.

[91catAlum]

If you've listened to the UT Martin coaches press conference this week, he said they'd fly on TH and have 2 nights in a motel.......gotta think that doesn't help their cause not only for the travel but it leaves them with one less day of practicing for us......although they'll most likely do a walk thru on Friday at the stadium.

Hopefully they're at least staying in Bozeman/Belgrade. Didn't one of the teams in 2019 stay in Big Sky? Imagine flying half way across the country and then having to take a bus an hour to your hotel and then another hour back to the stadium the next day. That's a lot of travel.

Yes, Austin Peay did. And I remember the roads weren't great that weekend, probably a treacherous bus ride from Big Sky to Bozeman for those southern boys!

[Montanabob]

If you've listened to the UT Martin coaches press conference this week, he said they'd fly on TH and have 2 nights in a motel.......gotta think that doesn't help their cause not only for the travel but it leaves them with one less day of practicing for us......although they'll most likely do a walk thru on Friday at the stadium.

Hopefully they're at least staying in Bozeman/Belgrade. Didn't one of the teams in 2019 stay in Big Sky? Imagine flying half way across the country and then having to take a bus an hour to your hotel and then another hour back to the stadium the next day. That's a lot of travel.

Yes, Austin Peay did. And I remember the roads weren't great that weekend, probably a treacherous bus ride from Big Sky to Bozeman for those southern boys!

Must be looking to get them used to the elevation and the weather. Either that or wants them to get a chance to check out the Cat's Paw.

[84CatGrad]

According the USA Today Sagarin ratings, our strength-of-schedule was 46.45 (the higher the number, the tougher the schedule). Other FCS notables:

Kennesaw St: 41.59
Tennessee-Martin: 44.90
Sam Houston: 45.07
SELA: 45.40
ETSU: 45.59
JMU: 45.77
Villanova: 46.18
UIW: 46.86
Sac St: 47.40
UM: 48.18
NDSU: 52.68
EWU: 52.97
South Dakota State: 55.79
SIU: 55.33
Missouri State: 56.02

Obviously playing a high-level FBS team (like Missouri State playing OK St) will give SOS a big boost. Draw your own conclusions.....