r/fcs

Let's hear your hot take FCS opinions. The ones you know in your heart of hearts are right, but for some reason aren't embraced by the FCS community (or particular fanbases) en masse!

Could be controversial (the Ivy League very well might be the best FCS conference on the East Coast), unpopular but you know is true (Sam Houston was at least as good a team as JMU from 2011 through the "2020" season), or even somewhat popular but still liable to rankle some folks (the Walter Payton award should go to the "best" offensive player, not just the offensive player with the best stat line because they played a weak schedule).

Sorted by controversial for maximum spiciness

---

Rules

• Keep it somewhat relevant to the FCS

• Takes are welcome whether they're looking back historically or in reference to current games/rankings/polls/etc.

• Try to keep it civil (basic /r/CFB and /r/FCS rules still apply)

No matter what happened, it's not all bad. Say something nice about your team or their performance.

The BCS system for rankings combined in equal parts the media poll, coaches poll, and multiple compuer rankings, which provides a good consolidated ranking. For computer rankings this post uses an average of the r/FCS sportsbook computer ratings, Massey ratings, Sagarin ratings, and my Massey/Colley composite.

RANK	TEAM	CHANGE	MEDIA	COACHES	COMPUTER	POINTS
1	South Dakota State	+1	#1	#1	#1	75
2	Montana	+1	#2	#3	#5	68
3	Stephen F Austin	-	#7	#4	#3	64
4	Tarleton State	+2	#3	#2	#10	63
5	Montana State	-4	#6	#6	#4	62
6	North Dakota	-1	#4	#7	#7	60
7	Youngstown State	-	#8	#9	#2	59
7	Lehigh	+1	#5	#5	#9	59
9	Austin Peay	-1	#9	#8	#8	53
10	South Dakota	+2	#10	#12	#6	50
11	Illinois State	-1	#12	#13	#11	42
12	Lamar	+2	#11	#10	#16	41
13	Northern Arizona	+3	#13	#14	#13	38
14	Tennessee Tech	-4	#15	#16	#14	33
15	Harvard	+4	#18	#19	#12	29
16	Idaho State	-4	#16	#17	#17	28
17	UC Davis	-	#14	#11		27
18	Mercer	+3	#20	#18	#15	25
19	Campbell	+5	#17	#20	#19	22
20	Richmond	+3	#19	#15		18
21	Colgate	+1	#23	#23	#21	11
22	SC State	-7	#21	#21		10
23	Southern Illinois	-3	#25		#18	9
24	Jackson State	+1	#22	#22		8
25	ETSU	NR	#24		#22	6

#Bracketology

These rankings can be used to create bracketology- the projected playoff bracket based on the current landscape of the FCS.

The bracket is available in image form in the comments.

I've taken the time to calculate total OOC records for each conference, along with head to head results in OOC games between conferences. 131/157 total OOC games have been played by my count, so the majority of the OOC games for the season are included in this data. The rankings directly below only include FCS vs FCS games (and leaves out games against FBS teams and non D1 teams).

Rankings by W%

1. Missouri Valley 19-4
2. United Athletic 16-9
3. Ivy League 10-6
4. MEAC 13-8
5. Southland 6-4
6. Big Sky 10-7
7. CAA 14-11
8. Patriot League 9-8
9. SoCon 10-11
10. Independants 4-5
11. Ohio Valley 8-14
12. SWAC 4-8
13. Pioneer League 5-18
14. Northeast 2-17

Below I've listed each conference's head to head record against all other conferences they faced.

Big Sky

MVFC 1-3

NEC 1-0

PFL 5-2

SL 2-1

SoCon 1-0

UAC 0-1

FBS 2-12

Non D1 2-0

CAA

Ind. 1-1

Ivy 3-2

MEAC 2-7

NEC 3-0

OVC 1-0

Patriot 1-0

PFL 1-0

SoCon 2-1

FBS 2-12

Non D1 2-0

Ind.

CAA 3-3

Ivy 0-1

NEC 1-0

UAC 0-1

FBS 0-2

Non D1 0-0

Ivy

CAA 2-3

Ind. 1-0

NEC 1-0

Patriot 6-3

MEAC

CAA 7-2

NEC 1-1

OVC 0-1

Patriot 1-2

SoCon 1-1

SWAC 3-1

FBS 0-7

Non D1 6-0

MVFC

Big Sky 3-1

NEC 5-0

OVC 5-2

PFL 5-0

SoCon 1-0

UAC 0-1

FBS 1-9

Non D1 1-0

NEC

Big Sky 0-1

CAA 0-3

Ind. 0-1

Ivy 0-1

MEAC 1-1

MVFC 0-5

OVC 0-1

Patriot 0-1

PFL 1-1

UAC 0-2

FBS 0-14

Non D1 4-2

OVC

CAA 0-1

MEAC 1-0

MVFC 2-5

NEC 1-0

PFL 1-0

SoCon 1-1

SWAC 1-2

UAC 1-5

FBS 0-10

Non D1 2-0

Patriot

CAA 0-1

Ivy 3-6

MEAC 2-1

NEC 1-0

PFL 1-0

SoCon 2-0

FBS 0-9

PFL

Big Sky 2-5

CAA 0-1

MVFC 0-5

NEC 1-1

OVC 0-1

Patriot 0-1

SoCon 1-2

SWAC 0-1

UAC 1-1

Non D1 12-3

SL

Big Sky 1-2

SoCon 0-1

SWAC 2-0

UAC 3-1

FBS 1-9

Non D1 5-1

SoCon

Big Sky 0-1

CAA 1-2

MEAC 1-1

MVFC 0-1

OVC 1-1

Patriot 0-2

PFL 2-1

SL 1-0

UAC 4-2

FBS 1-6

Non D1 2-0

SWAC

MEAC 1-3

OVC 2-1

PFL 1-0

SL 0-2

UAC 0-2

FBS 0-9

Non D1 15-1

UAC

Big Sky 1-0

Ind. 1-0

MVFC 1-0

NEC 2-0

OVC 5-1

PFL 1-1

SL 1-3

SoCon 2-4

SWAC 2-0

FBS 1-7

Non D1 1-0

I was browsing the odds for the FCS National Championship today and found them pretty interesting. This is from Sportsbet Montana which is our states only legal sportsbook. I'm not even sure where to look this up for Vegas so results may vary... But they still have MSU as 2nd in odds just behind SDSU. Even with the way the Cats have looked and all the injuries the number for them hasn't moved much this season. But what's REALLY interesting is some of these other teams.

YSU is 3rd at +550 despite the loss to SDS . Illinois State is Sixth with TWO conference losses. Obviously nobody believes in Lehigh or Tarleton state because they're all the way down at +2200 and +2500. Just strange that the polls have these guys in the top 5 but the betting market is very very down on them. Thoughts?

The Black Bears ranked a whopping 118th out of 124 FCS teams in scoring offense.