ursus arctos horribilis
December 12th, 2019, 05:12 PM
PLAYOFF SCHEDULE/RESULTS (number indicates seed and not national ranking)
QUARTERFINALS
Friday, Dec. 13
UNI at #2 James Madison, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN2
Austin Peay at #5 Montana State, 8 p.m. ET, E3
#6 Montana at #3 Weber State, 10 p.m. ET, E2
Saturday, Dec. 14
Illinois State at #1 North Dakota State, Noon ET, ESPN
FIRST ROUND -- Saturday, Nov. 30
at Nicholls 24, North Dakota 6
Illinois State 24, at SE Missouri State 6
at Albany 42, Central Connecticut State 14
at Austin Peay 42, Furman 6
Kennesaw State 28, at Wofford 21
at Southeastern Louisiana 45, Villanova 44
at UNI 17, San Diego 3
at Monmouth 44, Holy Cross 27
SECOND ROUND -- Saturday, Dec. 7
at #1 North Dakota State 37, Nicholls 13
Illinois State 24, at #8 Central Arkansas 14
at #5 Montana State 47, Albany 21
Austin Peay 42, at #4 Sacramento State 28
at #3 Weber State 26, Kennesaw State 20
at #6 Montana 73, Southeastern Louisiana 28
UNI 13, at #7 South Dakota State 10
at #2 James Madison 66, Monmouth 21
WALTER PAYTON FINALISTS – Northern Arizona QB Case Cookus (Sr.), Monmouth RB Pete Guerriero (Jr.), North Dakota State QB Trey Lance (r-Fr.) and Sacramento State QB Kevin Thomson (Jr.) Winner will be announced Friday, Jan. 10, at STATS FCS Awards Banquet.
BUCK BUCHANAN AWARD FINALISTS – DE Ron'Dell Carter of James Madison (Sr.), DE Sully Laiche of Nicholls (Sr.) and LB Dante Olson of Montana (Sr.) Winner will be announced Friday, Jan. 10, at STATS FCS Awards Banquet.
JERRY RICE AWARD WINNER (announced Dec. 11) – QB Trey Lance, North Dakota State
EDDIE ROBINSON AWARD WINNER (announced Dec. 12) – Troy Taylor, Sacramento State
FCS 101 – FCS and FBS are both Division I. The key differences are scholarship limits (85 for FBS and 63 for FCS), the number of allowable assistant coaches, and resources. FCS stands for Football Championship Subdivision. There are currently 130 FBS programs and 126 FCS programs.
THE FCS CHAMPIONSHIP – It started in 1978, as a four-team field. Now in its 42nd year, the FCS Championship has 24 teams, and the title game is played each January in Frisco, Texas. ESPN provides television coverage of all rounds. The title game this year will be on ABC.
The Big Sky (4), Missouri Valley Football (4), CAA Football (3) and Southland (3) conferences have the most representatives of any league. With four top-8 seeds, the Big Sky set an FCS playoff record. The previous record was 3 (also by the Big Sky, in 2018). The MVFC, meanwhile, has had two Top 8 seeds for an FCS-record six-straight seasons.
At 10-straight appearances, North Dakota State's playoff appearance streak is best in the FCS. South Dakota State, meanwhile, has a streak of eight-straight trips, which is second-best among active FCS schools. UNI, making its 21st appearance, trails only Montana (24) for overall FCS championship appearances.
GREAT PLAYERS – The FCS has developed some of the finest athletes in the game. Arguably two of the greatest players of all-time (RB Walter Payton at Jackson State and WR Jerry Rice at Mississippi Valley State) played at an FCS school. The NFL's all-time leading scorer – Adam Vinatieri of South Dakota State -- did, too. This year, a whopping 167 players from current FCS schools were on opening-day NFL rosters (that's the equivalent of more than 3 full teams). Notably, there are 39 inductees in the Pro Football Hall of Fame who represent current FCS institutions. Former JMU LB/DE Charles Haley was the first player to be a member of five teams that won Super Bowls (2 with the 49ers, 3 with the Cowboys). He's in the Pro Football Hall of Fame (2015).
GREAT COACHES – Eddie Robinson (Grambling) retired in 1997 with a record of 408–165–15. Robinson coached every single game from the field and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1997. Current NFL head coaches and their alma maters include Buffalo's Sean McDermott (William & Mary), Chicago's Matt Nagy (Delaware), Dallas' Jason Garrett (Princeton), Houston's Bill O'Brien (Penn), Minnesota's Mike Zimmer (Illinois State), New Orleans' Sean Payton (Eastern Illinois), Oakland's Jon Gruden (Dayton), and Pittsburgh's Mike Tomlin (William & Mary). Notably, Dennis Erickson played at Montana State, coached at Idaho and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame this month. Joe Taylor played at Western Illinois, coached at Howard, Virginia Union, Hampton, and Florida A&M and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame this month. He is the all-time winningest coach in Hampton football history.
GREAT HISTORY – Two of the nation's oldest Division I conferences compete at the FCS level. The Southwestern Athletic Conference was founded in 1920 and the Southern Conference was founded in 1921. Ivy League member Princeton played in the first-ever college football game in 1869. 12 of the 13 FCS conferences have been established for more than 30 years.
GREAT TEAMS – This decade the FCS has averaged 9 wins each year against FBS programs. North Dakota State, which has won 7 of the past 8 FCS championships, has six-straight wins against FBS schools, which includes wins at Power 5 schools Minnesota, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State and 11th-ranked Iowa.
GREAT STORIES – One of the greatest stories in NFL history has its roots in the FCS. Northern Iowa's Kurt Warner was stocking shelves at a grocery store before his rise to NFL stardom, earning a Super Bowl title, an NFL MVP honor and a spot in the NFL Hall of Fame.
BIG SKY -- For the second straight year, the Big Sky Conference has three teams competing in the quarterfinals of the FCS Playoffs. The Big Sky is tied with the MVFC with three teams left amongst the field, followed by the Colonial and Ohio Valley conferences with one apiece.
The semifinals will take place on Dec. 21. The last time the Big Sky had at least one team in back-to-back years in the semifinals was 2008-12. The league has never had two teams advance to the semifinals in the same year.
The Last Time The Big Sky
Had 3 teams make the playoffs - 2019: UM, MSU, SAC, WSU | Had 4 teams make the playoffs - 2019: UM, MSU, SAC, WSU
Had 3 teams in the second round - 2019: UM, MSU, SAC, WSU | Had 4 teams in the second round - 2019: UM, MSU, SAC, WSU
Had a team make the quarterfinals - 2019: UM, MSU, WSU | Had 2 teams make the quarterfinals - 2019: UM, MSU, WSU
Had 3 teams make the quarterfinals - 2019: UM, MSU, WSU
Had a team make the semifinals - 2018: EWU
Had a team make the championship - 2018: EWU | Had a team win the championship - 2010: EWU
CAA FOOTBALL -- Second-seeded James Madison set playoff program records for points (66) and yards (623) in a 66-21 victory over Big South champ Monmouth in the second round of the FCS playoffs. Quarterback Ben DiNucci accounted for 339 yards of offense and 4 TD's as the Dukes won their 12th straight game. JMU hosts a nationally televised Friday quarterfinal game for the third time in last four years against Northern Iowa. The Dukes beat Sam Houston St., 65-7, in 2016, and Weber State, 31-28, in 2017.
CAA Football has had at least one team in the quarterfinals of the FCS playoffs every year since 1991. The league has an all-time record of 25-30 in the quarterfinals. CAA Football has had a team advance to the semifinals of the playoffs in each of the past six years - Towson (2013), New Hampshire (2014), Richmond (2015), JMU (2016, 2017) and Maine (2018) - and 25 semifinalists overall.
James Madison enters Friday's quarterfinal game against Northern Iowa ranked among the top three in FCS in rushing defense (1st/65.1 ypg), total defense (3rd/276.9 ypg) and scoring defense (16.1 ppg). The Dukes haven't given up more than 270 total yards over their last six games.
UAlbany quarterback Jeff Undercuffler threw a school-record 41 TD passes in 2019, shattering the FCS record for TD passes by a freshman. The previous mark of 31 was held by New Hampshire's Ricky Santos in 2004 and Elon's Scott Riddle in 2007. Undercuffler's 41 TD passes are the most in FCS this season, while Villanova's Daniel Smith ranks 2nd in FCS with 35 TD passes.
MISSOURI VALLEY --The MVFC is 64-26 (.711) since 2010 in the playoffs -- which includes 10 intra-conference games (meaning the league is 54-16 against teams from other leagues.) Only one other league has a winning record in the playoffs since 2010 (CAA Football is 42-38). Since the playoff bracket expanded to 20 teams in 2010 (3 years) and 24 in 2013 (7 years), the MVFC has had a minimum of two teams in the quarterfinals eight times. Three times the league has had three quarterfinal teams (2015, 2016, 2019).
This week's game between North Dakota State and fellow MVFC member Illinois State is the 13th matchup of two MVFC schools in the playoffs. It marks the 7th-such game for NDSU, and the Bison are 6-0 in the previous six MVFC-MVFC matchups. Illinois State is playing in its fifth-such contest, and the Redbirds are 2-2 in their previous four. In 2014, Illinois State and North Dakota State played an all-MVFC championship game -- the only time that's happened in FCS Championship history.
Valley Football schools have combined to go 5-1 in the first two weeks of the 2019 playoffs (including a 4-0 record against non-MVFC teams).
The league is 112-70 in the NCAA FCS playoffs. Included in that overall record is a .500 or better performance against 10 of the 11 conferences faced. The MVFC has an 18-13 all-time record against teams from the CAA.
In the past nine+ playoffs (2010-19), five leagues (Big Sky, CAA Football, MVFC, Southern and Southland) have combined to win 176 of 211 total games. The MVFC has 64 of those 176 wins (36 percent).
OHIO VALLEY -- In the 42 years of the FCS Playoffs (which started in 1978), the OVC has placed at least two teams in the field 23 times, including seven of the last 10 (2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2019) and nine of the last 14 seasons.
With a win over Sacramento State in the second round of the FCS Playoffs Austin Peay became just the 10th team in OVC history to win multiple games in the same season.
Austin Peay is looking to become the second OVC team to advance to the FCS Semifinals since 1991, joining Jacksonville State who went to the title game in 2015. Prior to JSU it was Eastern Kentucky in 1991 who made the semifinal round. Overall OVC teams are 7-10 in the FCS quarterfinals.
Austin Peay is one of 20 programs in FCS Playoff history (out of 114 teams who have competed) to win two or more playoff games in its first-ever playoff appearance. Our of the 20 teams who have accomplished the feat, only six have come over the past 26 years (Florida Atlantic, Wofford, Texas State, North Dakota State, Kennesaw State and Austin Peay).
Austin Peay currently has 11 victories, which established a new single-season record for the program. The team had reached eight wins six times, including three years ago (2017). The turnaround of the program has been remarkable as APSU was 1-45 from 2013-16.
QUARTERFINALS
Friday, Dec. 13
UNI at #2 James Madison, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN2
Austin Peay at #5 Montana State, 8 p.m. ET, E3
#6 Montana at #3 Weber State, 10 p.m. ET, E2
Saturday, Dec. 14
Illinois State at #1 North Dakota State, Noon ET, ESPN
FIRST ROUND -- Saturday, Nov. 30
at Nicholls 24, North Dakota 6
Illinois State 24, at SE Missouri State 6
at Albany 42, Central Connecticut State 14
at Austin Peay 42, Furman 6
Kennesaw State 28, at Wofford 21
at Southeastern Louisiana 45, Villanova 44
at UNI 17, San Diego 3
at Monmouth 44, Holy Cross 27
SECOND ROUND -- Saturday, Dec. 7
at #1 North Dakota State 37, Nicholls 13
Illinois State 24, at #8 Central Arkansas 14
at #5 Montana State 47, Albany 21
Austin Peay 42, at #4 Sacramento State 28
at #3 Weber State 26, Kennesaw State 20
at #6 Montana 73, Southeastern Louisiana 28
UNI 13, at #7 South Dakota State 10
at #2 James Madison 66, Monmouth 21
WALTER PAYTON FINALISTS – Northern Arizona QB Case Cookus (Sr.), Monmouth RB Pete Guerriero (Jr.), North Dakota State QB Trey Lance (r-Fr.) and Sacramento State QB Kevin Thomson (Jr.) Winner will be announced Friday, Jan. 10, at STATS FCS Awards Banquet.
BUCK BUCHANAN AWARD FINALISTS – DE Ron'Dell Carter of James Madison (Sr.), DE Sully Laiche of Nicholls (Sr.) and LB Dante Olson of Montana (Sr.) Winner will be announced Friday, Jan. 10, at STATS FCS Awards Banquet.
JERRY RICE AWARD WINNER (announced Dec. 11) – QB Trey Lance, North Dakota State
EDDIE ROBINSON AWARD WINNER (announced Dec. 12) – Troy Taylor, Sacramento State
FCS 101 – FCS and FBS are both Division I. The key differences are scholarship limits (85 for FBS and 63 for FCS), the number of allowable assistant coaches, and resources. FCS stands for Football Championship Subdivision. There are currently 130 FBS programs and 126 FCS programs.
THE FCS CHAMPIONSHIP – It started in 1978, as a four-team field. Now in its 42nd year, the FCS Championship has 24 teams, and the title game is played each January in Frisco, Texas. ESPN provides television coverage of all rounds. The title game this year will be on ABC.
The Big Sky (4), Missouri Valley Football (4), CAA Football (3) and Southland (3) conferences have the most representatives of any league. With four top-8 seeds, the Big Sky set an FCS playoff record. The previous record was 3 (also by the Big Sky, in 2018). The MVFC, meanwhile, has had two Top 8 seeds for an FCS-record six-straight seasons.
At 10-straight appearances, North Dakota State's playoff appearance streak is best in the FCS. South Dakota State, meanwhile, has a streak of eight-straight trips, which is second-best among active FCS schools. UNI, making its 21st appearance, trails only Montana (24) for overall FCS championship appearances.
GREAT PLAYERS – The FCS has developed some of the finest athletes in the game. Arguably two of the greatest players of all-time (RB Walter Payton at Jackson State and WR Jerry Rice at Mississippi Valley State) played at an FCS school. The NFL's all-time leading scorer – Adam Vinatieri of South Dakota State -- did, too. This year, a whopping 167 players from current FCS schools were on opening-day NFL rosters (that's the equivalent of more than 3 full teams). Notably, there are 39 inductees in the Pro Football Hall of Fame who represent current FCS institutions. Former JMU LB/DE Charles Haley was the first player to be a member of five teams that won Super Bowls (2 with the 49ers, 3 with the Cowboys). He's in the Pro Football Hall of Fame (2015).
GREAT COACHES – Eddie Robinson (Grambling) retired in 1997 with a record of 408–165–15. Robinson coached every single game from the field and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1997. Current NFL head coaches and their alma maters include Buffalo's Sean McDermott (William & Mary), Chicago's Matt Nagy (Delaware), Dallas' Jason Garrett (Princeton), Houston's Bill O'Brien (Penn), Minnesota's Mike Zimmer (Illinois State), New Orleans' Sean Payton (Eastern Illinois), Oakland's Jon Gruden (Dayton), and Pittsburgh's Mike Tomlin (William & Mary). Notably, Dennis Erickson played at Montana State, coached at Idaho and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame this month. Joe Taylor played at Western Illinois, coached at Howard, Virginia Union, Hampton, and Florida A&M and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame this month. He is the all-time winningest coach in Hampton football history.
GREAT HISTORY – Two of the nation's oldest Division I conferences compete at the FCS level. The Southwestern Athletic Conference was founded in 1920 and the Southern Conference was founded in 1921. Ivy League member Princeton played in the first-ever college football game in 1869. 12 of the 13 FCS conferences have been established for more than 30 years.
GREAT TEAMS – This decade the FCS has averaged 9 wins each year against FBS programs. North Dakota State, which has won 7 of the past 8 FCS championships, has six-straight wins against FBS schools, which includes wins at Power 5 schools Minnesota, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State and 11th-ranked Iowa.
GREAT STORIES – One of the greatest stories in NFL history has its roots in the FCS. Northern Iowa's Kurt Warner was stocking shelves at a grocery store before his rise to NFL stardom, earning a Super Bowl title, an NFL MVP honor and a spot in the NFL Hall of Fame.
BIG SKY -- For the second straight year, the Big Sky Conference has three teams competing in the quarterfinals of the FCS Playoffs. The Big Sky is tied with the MVFC with three teams left amongst the field, followed by the Colonial and Ohio Valley conferences with one apiece.
The semifinals will take place on Dec. 21. The last time the Big Sky had at least one team in back-to-back years in the semifinals was 2008-12. The league has never had two teams advance to the semifinals in the same year.
The Last Time The Big Sky
Had 3 teams make the playoffs - 2019: UM, MSU, SAC, WSU | Had 4 teams make the playoffs - 2019: UM, MSU, SAC, WSU
Had 3 teams in the second round - 2019: UM, MSU, SAC, WSU | Had 4 teams in the second round - 2019: UM, MSU, SAC, WSU
Had a team make the quarterfinals - 2019: UM, MSU, WSU | Had 2 teams make the quarterfinals - 2019: UM, MSU, WSU
Had 3 teams make the quarterfinals - 2019: UM, MSU, WSU
Had a team make the semifinals - 2018: EWU
Had a team make the championship - 2018: EWU | Had a team win the championship - 2010: EWU
CAA FOOTBALL -- Second-seeded James Madison set playoff program records for points (66) and yards (623) in a 66-21 victory over Big South champ Monmouth in the second round of the FCS playoffs. Quarterback Ben DiNucci accounted for 339 yards of offense and 4 TD's as the Dukes won their 12th straight game. JMU hosts a nationally televised Friday quarterfinal game for the third time in last four years against Northern Iowa. The Dukes beat Sam Houston St., 65-7, in 2016, and Weber State, 31-28, in 2017.
CAA Football has had at least one team in the quarterfinals of the FCS playoffs every year since 1991. The league has an all-time record of 25-30 in the quarterfinals. CAA Football has had a team advance to the semifinals of the playoffs in each of the past six years - Towson (2013), New Hampshire (2014), Richmond (2015), JMU (2016, 2017) and Maine (2018) - and 25 semifinalists overall.
James Madison enters Friday's quarterfinal game against Northern Iowa ranked among the top three in FCS in rushing defense (1st/65.1 ypg), total defense (3rd/276.9 ypg) and scoring defense (16.1 ppg). The Dukes haven't given up more than 270 total yards over their last six games.
UAlbany quarterback Jeff Undercuffler threw a school-record 41 TD passes in 2019, shattering the FCS record for TD passes by a freshman. The previous mark of 31 was held by New Hampshire's Ricky Santos in 2004 and Elon's Scott Riddle in 2007. Undercuffler's 41 TD passes are the most in FCS this season, while Villanova's Daniel Smith ranks 2nd in FCS with 35 TD passes.
MISSOURI VALLEY --The MVFC is 64-26 (.711) since 2010 in the playoffs -- which includes 10 intra-conference games (meaning the league is 54-16 against teams from other leagues.) Only one other league has a winning record in the playoffs since 2010 (CAA Football is 42-38). Since the playoff bracket expanded to 20 teams in 2010 (3 years) and 24 in 2013 (7 years), the MVFC has had a minimum of two teams in the quarterfinals eight times. Three times the league has had three quarterfinal teams (2015, 2016, 2019).
This week's game between North Dakota State and fellow MVFC member Illinois State is the 13th matchup of two MVFC schools in the playoffs. It marks the 7th-such game for NDSU, and the Bison are 6-0 in the previous six MVFC-MVFC matchups. Illinois State is playing in its fifth-such contest, and the Redbirds are 2-2 in their previous four. In 2014, Illinois State and North Dakota State played an all-MVFC championship game -- the only time that's happened in FCS Championship history.
Valley Football schools have combined to go 5-1 in the first two weeks of the 2019 playoffs (including a 4-0 record against non-MVFC teams).
The league is 112-70 in the NCAA FCS playoffs. Included in that overall record is a .500 or better performance against 10 of the 11 conferences faced. The MVFC has an 18-13 all-time record against teams from the CAA.
In the past nine+ playoffs (2010-19), five leagues (Big Sky, CAA Football, MVFC, Southern and Southland) have combined to win 176 of 211 total games. The MVFC has 64 of those 176 wins (36 percent).
OHIO VALLEY -- In the 42 years of the FCS Playoffs (which started in 1978), the OVC has placed at least two teams in the field 23 times, including seven of the last 10 (2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2019) and nine of the last 14 seasons.
With a win over Sacramento State in the second round of the FCS Playoffs Austin Peay became just the 10th team in OVC history to win multiple games in the same season.
Austin Peay is looking to become the second OVC team to advance to the FCS Semifinals since 1991, joining Jacksonville State who went to the title game in 2015. Prior to JSU it was Eastern Kentucky in 1991 who made the semifinal round. Overall OVC teams are 7-10 in the FCS quarterfinals.
Austin Peay is one of 20 programs in FCS Playoff history (out of 114 teams who have competed) to win two or more playoff games in its first-ever playoff appearance. Our of the 20 teams who have accomplished the feat, only six have come over the past 26 years (Florida Atlantic, Wofford, Texas State, North Dakota State, Kennesaw State and Austin Peay).
Austin Peay currently has 11 victories, which established a new single-season record for the program. The team had reached eight wins six times, including three years ago (2017). The turnaround of the program has been remarkable as APSU was 1-45 from 2013-16.