Winner:
James Madison
This was tough to pick between JMU, Marshall, Texas State & Georgia Southern but no denying how impressive the Dukes have looked so far and are already on the verge of bowl eligibility and a 2-0 lead in conference play.

Loser:
Coastal Carolina
It was tough to pick between Chants & Jaguars but I went with Coastal
as they just seem off despite having McCall back (6 TDs, 6 picks and has taken 10 sacks so far this season).

Honorable mention:
AstAte
Of course I’m going to be a homer this week but considering what a train wreck the Pack has been for the last 4 seasons it was refreshing to see Astate dominate from start to finish against a team they should dominate. I’m not convinced this the turnaround but I’m at least feeling better than I did a month ago.

We’ll give you the best two quarters of football you could ask for.

The two programs that seem to be big surprise is the fall of the Chants and the rise of the red wolves

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(10-01-2023 11:01 AM)RamblinRedWolf Wrote:  no denying how impressive the Dukes have looked so far and are already on the verge of bowl eligibility and a 2-0 lead in conference play.

LOL, way to keep rubbing salt on that open wound!

Memory serves me right can’t they get a spot if bowls are short?

(10-01-2023 11:24 AM)RamblinRedWolf Wrote:  Memory serves me right can’t they get a spot if bowls are short?

Yes, and they should.

There always are short Bowls most years.

Gotta rep my own team here. We were a dog vs 4-0 Georgia State and beat them 28-7 in Atlanta. This Troy team is getting better every week.

(10-01-2023 11:41 AM)TroyFootball05 Wrote:  Gotta rep my own team here. We were a dog vs 4-0 Georgia State and beat them 28-7 in Atlanta. This Troy team is getting better every week.

A ga state team who beat Coastal by more than GS did.

A lot of people calling JMU the “top dog” but they only beat Troy 16-14 and we certainly had our shot to win that one several times.

(10-01-2023 11:26 AM)Johns1124 Wrote:  

(10-01-2023 11:24 AM)RamblinRedWolf Wrote:  Memory serves me right can’t they get a spot if bowls are short?

Yes, and they should.

There always are short Bowls most years.

Does that mean we would only likely get invited to whatever’s left of the dregs?

(10-01-2023 11:50 AM)Dignan Wrote:  Does that mean we would only likely get invited to whatever’s left of the dregs?

Not necessarily. While the bowl slots have to be filled first with the eligible teams, 3 of our 5 guaranteed bowl slots (plus whatever at larges are left) are "ESPN bowl affiliated", and they basically have the ability to place teams among their 13 bowls to create the best matchups they want. So as long as you're in their pool of teams to place (which you would likely be), then I think they get to place you in their lineup with whatever priority you "deserve".

(10-01-2023 11:50 AM)Dignan Wrote:  

(10-01-2023 11:26 AM)Johns1124 Wrote:  

(10-01-2023 11:24 AM)RamblinRedWolf Wrote:  Memory serves me right can’t they get a spot if bowls are short?

Yes, and they should.

There always are short Bowls most years.

Does that mean we would only likely get invited to whatever’s left of the dregs?

Unfortunately yes (though a bowl is a bowl!)

(10-01-2023 11:08 AM)Dukes94 Wrote:  We’ll give you the best two quarters of football you could ask for.

Ha!

(10-01-2023 11:14 AM)hburg Wrote:  The two programs that seem to be big surprise is the fall of the Chants and the rise of the red wolves

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If you look at stAte last year, you’ll see we were close to breaking through. This year started horribly, but once we got our positions settled, things started coming into focus.
We will probably hit a few bumps in the coming weeks, but we’re about to figure it out. We’re a very young team, and we’re being built correctly.

(10-01-2023 11:08 AM)Dukes94 Wrote:  We’ll give you the best two quarters of football you could ask for.

aaawwww no, That’s OUR shtick.

(10-01-2023 12:01 PM)CoachMaclid Wrote:  

(10-01-2023 11:50 AM)Dignan Wrote:  Does that mean we would only likely get invited to whatever’s left of the dregs?

Not necessarily. While the bowl slots have to be filled first with the eligible teams, 3 of our 5 guaranteed bowl slots (plus whatever at larges are left) are "ESPN bowl affiliated", and they basically have the ability to place teams among their 13 bowls to create the best matchups they want. So as long as you're in their pool of teams to place (which you would likely be), then I think they get to place you in their lineup with whatever priority you "deserve".

But I believe they would have to be “last resort/selection” due to NCAA transitional rules (so if it came down to say BGSU and James Madison for the Bahamas bowl; they would have to take falcons in that case)

(10-01-2023 12:01 PM)CoachMaclid Wrote:  

(10-01-2023 11:50 AM)Dignan Wrote:  Does that mean we would only likely get invited to whatever’s left of the dregs?

Not necessarily. While the bowl slots have to be filled first with the eligible teams, 3 of our 5 guaranteed bowl slots (plus whatever at larges are left) are "ESPN bowl affiliated", and they basically have the ability to place teams among their 13 bowls to create the best matchups they want. So as long as you're in their pool of teams to place (which you would likely be), then I think they get to place you in their lineup with whatever priority you "deserve".

I would be curious to see which bowl has had “at large”/wild card teams in recent years

First time this season, I've watched the Dukes. VERY impressed with their defense. I don't think the announcers were too far off when then they said (a couple of times) that JMU's front 4 (7) was on par with a P5 program. I'm sure not going to pick against them very often (if at all).

The most impressive win this week was Troy. The least impressive team was USM. Coastal has obviously made a bad hire. You shouldn’t have the best QB in the league and be nearly eliminated after two conference games. If they lose one more game they’re out.

(10-01-2023 12:39 PM)RamblinRedWolf Wrote:  

(10-01-2023 12:01 PM)CoachMaclid Wrote:  

(10-01-2023 11:50 AM)Dignan Wrote:  Does that mean we would only likely get invited to whatever’s left of the dregs?

Not necessarily. While the bowl slots have to be filled first with the eligible teams, 3 of our 5 guaranteed bowl slots (plus whatever at larges are left) are "ESPN bowl affiliated", and they basically have the ability to place teams among their 13 bowls to create the best matchups they want. So as long as you're in their pool of teams to place (which you would likely be), then I think they get to place you in their lineup with whatever priority you "deserve".

But I believe they would have to be “last resort/selection” due to NCAA transitional rules (so if it came down to say BGSU and James Madison for the Bahamas bowl; they would have to take falcons in that case)

Correct.

Quote:On August 2, 2012, the NCAA Division I Board of Directors approved a significant change to the process to determine bowl eligible teams, going so far as to potentially allow 5–7 teams to go to a bowl, in case there were not enough regular bowl-eligible teams to fill every game. If a bowl has one or more conferences/teams unable to meet their contractual commitments and there are no available bowl-eligible teams, the open spots can be filled – by the particular bowl's sponsoring agencies – as follows:

1)Teams finishing 6–6 with one win against a team from the lower Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), regardless of whether that FCS school meets NCAA scholarship requirements. Until now, an FCS win counted only if that opponent met the scholarship requirements—specifically, that school had to award at least 90% of the FCS maximum of 63 scholarship equivalents over a two-year period. As of the 2021 season, programs in three FCS conferences cannot meet the 90% requirement (56.7 equivalents)—the Ivy League, which prohibits all athletic scholarships; the Pioneer Football League, which does not currently award football scholarships; and the Northeast Conference, which limits football scholarships to 45 equivalents. In addition, Georgetown does not offer football scholarships despite playing in the Patriot League, a conference which has allowed football scholarships since 2013.

2)6–6 teams with two wins over FCS schools. (This provision was later removed in 2017.)[citation needed]

3)Teams that finish 6–7 with loss number seven in their conference championship game. (These teams received automatic waivers starting in 2014.)

4)6–7 teams that normally play a 13-game schedule, such as Hawaii and their home opponents. The NCAA permits Hawaii and teams who play at Hawaii to play an additional game during the regular season to recoup their unusually high travel costs to and from the mainland.

5)FCS teams who are in the final year of the two-year FBS transition process, if they have at least a 6–6 record.

6)Finally, 5–7 teams that have a top-five Academic Progress Rate (APR) score. This was later adjusted to allow other 5–7 teams to be selected thereafter—in order of their APR.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowl_eligi...ng_records

Winner: Georgia Southern
I get the desire to pick JMU and Troy this week, but the Eagles maintained a major push all week to sell out the Coastal game, and accomplished their goal. They've had one minor slip up at Wisconsin this year, but there's a big difference between the Badgers and the scalps we've seen in the SBC this year. I don't know if they will win the East given they have to go to JMU and Marshall, but they could easily win 9-10 games this year.

Loser: South Alabama: Its not the losing to JMU in Harrisonburg that's the major issue, its the way the team has responded from boat racing Oklahoma State. They've played cocky, committed terrible penalties, and have been punished for it. This is still a good team, but they are putting themselves in a situation where they face a near must win game at an angry ULM team this week.

Other stuff: The consistency issues at JMU and Texas State are wild. They are great teams, but they have a tendency to fall off the face of the earth for a half. My concern is that against a good team, this is going to bite them.