October ball has officially come to an end for most everyone now and that means there’s less than a month left before the FCS Playoff Committee comes together to decide who plays on and who doesn’t. Week 9 around the subdivision had some surprises and some very expected results. With just four weeks of regular season action left, here’s what we gleaned from the FCS over the weekend that was.
North Dakota State is in a Tier of Its Own (Again)
As if the country needed another reminder, NDSU proved again
on Saturday night in Brookings that it is unmatched among its FCS peers and it really isn’t all that close. Yes, South Dakota State was without its starting quarterback and no, it probably wouldn’t have mattered regardless. The Bison were all over the Jackrabbits from the jump and ended up with a 38-7 beatdown over a team that was supposed to be their toughest competition this year. Tim Polasek’s machine is rolling again and they made sure the Dakota Marker stays firmly planted in Fargo. It certainly seems like another national championship trophy is soon to follow.
Delaware State Can Win the MEAC
Don’t look now but there just might be a new contender in the MEAC this year that isn’t named South Carolina State or North Carolina Central. Delaware State picked up a nice win over NCCU over the weekend to kick off conference play and the impressive turnaround for DeSean Jackson’s bunch just continues. The Hornets offense is clicking right now with Kaiden Bennett under center and Marquis Gillis toting the rock. The MEAC schedule lines up nicely over the next month for DSU with winnable games against Norfolk State, Morgan State and Howard all in a row. The season finale against SC State on November 22 looks as though it could be for all the marbles.
The Southland, SoCon Champions Will Have Byes
The tops of both the Southland and SoCon right now look to be a cut well above their counterparts. Lamar and Stephen F. Austin are currently duking it out for the Southland’s auto bid and both got big victories over the weekend. The Cardinals made light work of Northwestern State to move to 7-1 overall and 4-0 in conference play while SFA took down East Texas A&M to hit 6-2 overall and 4-0 in league action. If both of those two keep winning at this clip then whoever ends up on top should be good enough to get a top eight seed when the playoffs come around. The same can be said for Mercer and Western Carolina in SoCon. The Bears just drubbed VMI 62-0 while WCU had a week off. Someone there seems as though they’ll have a good enough mark to get the bye as well when it all shakes out.
Harvard, Dartmouth Winner Will go to Playoffs
It’s looking more and more like next week’s showdown in Boston between Harvard and Dartmouth will end up being the de-facto Ivy League championship. The Crimson are one of just six unbeaten FCS squads still out there at 6-0 while the Big Green have just one loss. Harvard is 3-0 in the Ivy while Dartmouth is 2-1. Whoever wins that game will have a fairly commanding lead in a conference that doesn’t seem to have a whole lot of other contenders right now. The Ivy League champion, of course, will participate in the playoffs this year meaning that Saturday’s contest might as well be a play-in game.
