For three and a half quarters on Saturday night, the FCS Kickoff showdown between #11 Mercer and #8 UC Davis in Montgomery, AL lived up to its billing. The Aggies, under the lead of freshman signal caller Caden Pinnick, had jumped out to a commanding 23-3 lead before the Bears battled back to make it a six-point contest in the closing stages. Having just blocked a field goal and with the ball in their hands near midfield, Mercer looked as though it was going to really make things interesting… and then
it all went up in flames.
No, not literally of course. But lightning did strike and forced the game to go into a weather delay. That weather delay ended up getting pushed back longer and longer until, finally in the wee hours of Sunday morning, the game was called off entirely. It goes down as a “no contest” meaning that all statistics are voided and there will be no winner or loser. For all intents and purposes, the game never happened… even though it did.
Beyond it being an incredibly unsatisfactory result, this decision is actually one that might end up having major implications down the line for not only UC Davis and Mercer, but for the FCS as a whole. These were not two ho hum teams playing on Saturday evening… they were two squads with legitimate conference title aspirations that both should be in the playoffs when the dust settles. And that’s why this could get really, really muddled if it comes down to it.
Every FCS team is set to play 12 regular season games this year. Now, though, the Aggies and Bears will not have that chance and their respective postseason resumes may suffer for it. Whoever would have won last night would have picked up a huge non-conference win for their pedigree. It was a swing game that the playoff selection committee would have undoubtedly weighed heavily if they needed to.
The at-large conversion could get very interesting if one of these squads is on the playoff bubble. Assuming neither Mercer or UC Davis win their respective leagues this year, the only way into the postseason will be via at-large selection and that entirely dependent on the number of Division I wins a team has and the quality of said wins. Each will have one less now.
If there is any good news, though, in all this it’s that both teams’ ultimate goals of taking home a Big Sky/SoCon title is still just as likely as it was before the Week 0 fiasco. Losing this game does nothing for conference standings nor would it have for whoever actually lost it had it been able to be finished. They will enter Week 1, as most teams will, with a clean slate.
All in all it was a less-than-ideal situation that played out in Montgomery and it’s one that could… and probably will… have far-reaching effects. Will it be the difference between someone making the playoffs? Could it decide who plays a postseason game at home vs. on the road or maybe even who gets a bye week and who doesn’t? Unfortunately, yes.
