CAA is back!

[aresef]

Road warriors too. Put EWU on the road and see how they do.

Yeah, Towson's won 11 straight on the road, 8-0 this season including Friday and the UConn beatdown. I feel pretty great heading to the Inferno.

[YoUDeeMan]

Road warriors too. Put EWU on the road and see how they do.

Those were indeed nice road wins. But I think we would have faired well, given our success at OSU and UM.

And SHSU.

And that UM road victory puts you on par with Coastal...congrats.

[mainejeff]

The big question is will Eastern Washington break the 5K attendance barrier?.........

Said the Maine fan who's team averages 2,000 in attendance less than EWU.

We had 6100 (75% of capacity) last week when it was zero. The stands were at least as full if not more so yesterday. Mis-reported number.

We had 8K for our playoff game........your playoff attendance has sucked. Moral of the story.......Maine fans show up when something is at stake......Eastern Washington fans don't.

[mainejeff]

The big question is will Eastern Washington break the 5K attendance barrier?.........

Dude, please. Our regular season average was around 10k...what was Maine's? Our playoff games are never as well attended as the regular season due to school not being in session.

School is not in session for the entire month of December???

[kalm]

Said the Maine fan who's team averages 2,000 in attendance less than EWU.

We had 6100 (75% of capacity) last week when it was zero. The stands were at least as full if not more so yesterday. Mis-reported number.

We had 8K for our playoff game........your playoff attendance has sucked. Moral of the story.......Maine fans show up when something is at stake......Eastern Washington fans don't.

Congratulations! Too bad we can't compare quarterfinal attemdance...when things matter even more.

[AZGrizFan]

Those were indeed nice road wins. But I think we would have faired well, given our success at OSU and UM.

And SHSU.

And that UM road victory puts you on par with Coastal...congrats.

And UD not making the playoffs puts you on par with Idaho State.

[vutomcat]

Well said bdkjmu. Your thread is "CAA is back". What part don't they get?

Not sure it ever left but this is a good thread and it needs to be highlighted. The selection process is awful in the fcs. SOS isn't even considered. Somehow every other tourney can figure it out but fcs football.

Pretty sure SOS is considered. They just probably notice all the NEC, PFL, and MEAC teams the CAA plays OOC.

Didnt you pay attention to the plethora of lousy teams that made it as at large teams this year solely based on their record? Check any of the computer rankings. There were ten better teams available to the committee.

[93henfan]

I didn't read the thread, but if it rightly claims that the CAA is once again the preeminent conference in FCS, as it has been for most of the past decade and a half, then I agree.

[YoUDeeMan]

And SHSU.

And that UM road victory puts you on par with Coastal...congrats.

And UD not making the playoffs puts you on par with Idaho State.

No, if we were out West, like Idaho State, we'd have made the playoffs.

[AZGrizFan]

And UD not making the playoffs puts you on par with Idaho State.

No, if we were out West, like Idaho State, we'd have made the playoffs.

And if we were out East we'd get to play a patsie like Sacred Heart, Butler, Fordham, Tennessee State, Lafayette, etc.

[kalm]

Pretty sure SOS is considered. They just probably notice all the NEC, PFL, and MEAC teams the CAA plays OOC.

Didnt you pay attention to the plethora of lousy teams that made it as at large teams this year solely based on their record? Check any of the computer rankings. There were ten better teams available to the committee.

Yes. The 4th best team in your conference had 6 DI wins, half of which were against SB, URI, and Penn. Perhaps we should have had them playing Fordham in the 1st round so they could have lost a second time.

Now...who were the other 9?

[EWURanger]

Dude, please. Our regular season average was around 10k...what was Maine's? Our playoff games are never as well attended as the regular season due to school not being in session.

School is not in session for the entire month of December???

Eastern is on the quarter system, meaning winter break comes a lot sooner than schools that are on the semester sytem. So yes, school is out for much of December to answer your question. Our first playoff game was during finals week and the game was the coldest in program history with -10 wind chills, and we still had over 6k in attendance. There were quite a few more people in the stands yesterday than there were for that first playoff game; the attendance figure is obviously a mis-print. But hey, whatever floats your boat.

[EWURanger]

Pretty sure SOS is considered. They just probably notice all the NEC, PFL, and MEAC teams the CAA plays OOC.

Didnt you pay attention to the plethora of lousy teams that made it as at large teams this year solely based on their record? Check any of the computer rankings. There were ten better teams available to the committee.

Dude, again with this computer rankings shit? NEWS FLASH: Win more f'in games and you'll make it into the playoffs. I don't care how difficult or easy your schedule is, if you can't win 7 games out of a 12 game schedule you don't deserve to be in, PERIOD!

[Brock Landers]

I missed these threads

[93henfan]

I missed these threads

Me too!

[kalm]

I missed these threads

Me too!

Yes. They are kinda fun.

[JohnStOnge]

Who doesn't beat SIU and McNeese at their place?

Montana. Seriously. Montana is 0-3 at McNeese. 0-2 in the playoffs and 0-1 in the regular season.

BUT...that was all prior to 2003 when McNeese started it's current playoff drought.

I personally think it's at least partially because McNeese was a different style of team. Kind of North Dakota State like. Not as successful of course. But they lined the QB under center most of the time, had a fullback and a tailback, and played defense. They played defense and kept hammering with the running game. The stout defense meant the game didn't get away from them then in the fourth quarter their running game would start working better and better. Now it's a finesse offense while the defense is mediocre in the best years and downright awful in the worst.

There's kind of a plus and minus thing with the current head coach. He has the longest string of consecutive winning seasons in school history and he does well during the regular season. Stuff like dominating Middle Tennessee State last year when Middle Tennessee certainly was as good as a top 5 FCS team. Beating Appalachian State at Boone in 2009 when Appalachian State had a team that lost narrowly at Montana in the semifinals. And the extent to which they dominated South Florida this year. South Florida was a bad BCS league team because it had no offense but I guarantee you it had much better athletes on defense than anybody in FCS does. There's even an indirect angle on that with the Eastern Washington thing. I have no doubt that if you'd have asked Jerry Glanville of Portland State after having played both McNeese and Eastern Washington in 2007 during the regular season which was the better team he'd have said "McNeese."

But when the playoffs came Eastern Washington blew McNeese out. Part of it was that McNeese was riddled with injuries at the time but that wasn't all of it.

I don't know what it is. But they just flat have not played well in the playoffs for quite some time now. And this year you even saw some of that during the regular season. During some games they looked like they could beat anybody. Then in others they looked like they couldn't beat Savannah State. Unfortunately, again, one of the bad games was the playoff game.

[BDKJMU]

Who doesn't beat SIU and McNeese at their place?

Montana. Seriously. Montana is 0-3 at McNeese. 0-2 in the playoffs and 0-1 in the regular season.

BUT...that was all prior to 2003 when McNeese started it's current playoff drought.

I personally think it's at least partially because McNeese was a different style of team. Kind of North Dakota State like. Not as successful of course. But they lined the QB under center most of the time, had a fullback and a tailback, and played defense. They played defense and kept hammering with the running game. The stout defense meant the game didn't get away from them then in the fourth quarter their running game would start working better and better. Now it's a finesse offense while the defense is mediocre in the best years and downright awful in the worst.

There's kind of a plus and minus thing with the current head coach. He has the longest string of consecutive winning seasons in school history and he does well during the regular season. Stuff like dominating Middle Tennessee State last year when Middle Tennessee certainly was as good as a top 5 FCS team. Beating Appalachian State at Boone in 2009 when Appalachian State had a team that lost narrowly at Montana in the semifinals. And the extent to which they dominated South Florida this year. South Florida was a bad BCS league team because it had no offense but I guarantee you it had much better athletes on defense than anybody in FCS does. There's even an indirect angle on that with the Eastern Washington thing. I have no doubt that if you'd have asked Jerry Glanville of Portland State after having played both McNeese and Eastern Washington in 2007 during the regular season which was the better team he'd have said "McNeese."

But when the playoffs came Eastern Washington blew McNeese out. Part of it was that McNeese was riddled with injuries at the time but that wasn't all of it.

I don't know what it is. But they just flat have not played well in the playoffs for quite some time now. And this year you even saw some of that during the regular season. During some games they looked like they could beat anybody. Then in others they looked like they couldn't beat Savannah State. Unfortunately, again, one of the bad games was the playoff game.

JFC St, even on a smack thread you are long winded. Now what is the cliff notes version of what you just said?

[93henfan]

Oh, the irony.

Actually, BDK, you're not long-winded so much as heavily statistics-driven.

[JohnStOnge]

JFC St, even on a smack thread you are long winded. Now what is the cliff notes version of what you just said?

Good Lord. Is 391 words really too much for you people to get through?

But the question was "who doesn't beat McNeese at their place" and some of the answers are:

Montana
Georgia Southern
Youngstown State
William & Mary
Delaware
Montana State
Villanova

[Seahawks08]

Yes. The 4th best team in your conference had 6 DI wins, half of which were against SB, URI, and Penn. Perhaps we should have had them playing Fordham in the 1st round so they could have lost a second time.

Actually I would have liked that. I don't think the outcome would have been the same, but a chance at them again would have been nice.

[AZGrizFan]

JFC St, even on a smack thread you are long winded. Now what is the cliff notes version of what you just said?

Good Lord. Is 391 words really too much for you people to get through?

But the question was "who doesn't beat McNeese at their place" and some of the answers are:

Montana
Georgia Southern
Youngstown State
William & Mary
Delaware
Montana State
Villanova

Sweet Jesus, man. You haven't beaten Montana since 2002. You havent' played GSU since 2005. YSU? 2004. W&M? 19-fucking-93. 1997 for UD, 2002 for MSU, and 2002 for Villanova. So, of the 7 teams you list, 3 were beaten in the same year, and with one exception ALL are over 10 years ago. How about some recent history?

2007 - Lost to EWU. 2009 lost to UNH. 2013 lost to Jacksonville State. Those are your last three playoff games. ALL at home. ALL losses.....

[BlackFalkin]

The big question is will Eastern Washington break the 5K attendance barrier?.........

not only did Maine get upset at home, and bitch slapped out of the playoffs.. But EWU is in the semis for the 3rd time in 4 years and this is the best you've got? Kill yourself!

[LDopaPDX]

All due respect to teams that get left out of the playoffs despite being pretty good, no team with 5 losses should be in the playoffs. If we're coming to a point where 5-loss teams are getting in, we've expanded the field way too much.

Really, I see some teams schedule themselves into obscurity, and that's the ADs fault. Don't blame the playoff committee for the fault of a crappy AD who schedules lazily. EWU's AD is notorious for lazy, haphazard scheduling, and we're still making the playoffs.

[kalm]

All due respect to teams that get left out of the playoffs despite being pretty good, no team with 5 losses should be in the playoffs. If we're coming to a point where 5-loss teams are getting in, we've expanded the field way too much.

Really, I see some teams schedule themselves into obscurity, and that's the ADs fault. Don't blame the playoff committee for the fault of a crappy AD who schedules lazily. EWU's AD is notorious for lazy, haphazard scheduling, and we're still making the playoffs.

This.

Also, manage above .500 in your conference.