Youngstown State’s regular season came to a somewhat unceremonious close on Saturday evening. Illinois State quarterback Beckham Pellant lowered his shoulder and dove over the goal line with just nine seconds left to lift the Redbirds to a gutsy 34-33 win over the Penguins. YSU has no game next weekend so that was it, at least for the regular season. With eight wins, Beau Brungard and company will still surely be in the playoffs when the bracket gets released next Sunday. But with no further chances
to build their resume, the Penguins can only wait it out and see how the chips will fall.
Where… and perhaps more importantly… when will they play next? That’s the question that looms over Doug Phillips’ team right now. There is an argument to be made that they’ve done enough to avoid playing Thanksgiving weekend but also plenty to suggest that the bye week may also no longer be a possibility either.
Youngstown State is 8-3 with all of their victories coming over DI teams. They have ranked wins over South Dakota, Southern Illinois, Northern Iowa and North Dakota. Two of those were Top 10 victories at the time. With all that it’s probably safe to say that they haven’t played their last home game. Whether or not it’s in the first or second round, though, will largely depend on what some of their counterparts do this next Saturday.
They will want the race for the top eight seeds to remain as open as possible and thus will need some squads who are in a similar spot to lose. YSU will be rooting for the following teams this weekend:
Montana State (vs. Montana)
South Dakota (@ Illinois State)
Northern Colorado (@ Northern Arizona)
ETSU (@ Mercer)
Central Arkansas (vs. Austin Peay)
McNeese (vs. Lamar)
If those listed teams win that keeps the 5-8 seed range quite a bit clearer for the Penguins to grab one of those spots. If that comes to pass they’d be the only group to have two weeks off before their first playoff game. Whether or not that’s a good thing is a whole different conversation.
In the scenario that they do end up playing in the opening round, one would imagine that they’d receiver a higher seed in the 9-12 range. That would guarantee a home game likely against a lower conference champion from somewhere like the Ohio Valley or Pioneer League. Last year Youngstown State drew Ivy League winner Yale in the first round and it’s a game their fans would probably rather just forget. A positioning like that would set up a potential matchup against a lower-seeded bye week team if they were to advance. A second-round road trip against the likes of a Lamar, Montana, Austin Peay or Mercer is entirely possible in that case.
Closing it out against Illinois State would have gone a long way in avoiding all this speculation. As of now, though, Youngstown State has left much of its postseason fate into the hands of others and the committee. There will be more football to be played nonetheless, though, and they will not have to sweat it out as a bubble team next week.
The Penguins, and everyone else, will learn their playoff future next Sunday at 12:00 PM (ET) on ESPNU when the committee releases the 24-team bracket.
