Three top-ten teams tumble (although one of them was to North Carolina, so it doesn’t quite count), three SEC teams pay out appearance bonuses to FCS teams next week, two teams remain ranked despite falling to 4-4, two teams which actually deserve it don’t get ranked, one FCS game draws over 60,000 in paid attendance, and one conference champion is crowned. All that, and partially-surprising conference realignment news, after the jump.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Colonial<\/strong>: Seriously, what’s it going to take to get James Madison and Richmond out of the poll? I’m not saying the Colonial isn’t the class of this division, but 4-4 and ranked? No, I’m sorry. Robert Morris and Lehigh deserve better.<\/p>\n Saturday:<\/span> Here’s now messed up things really are: Towson can’t even clinch last place with a loss.<\/p>\n #3 Villanova (6-2, 4-1) at Rhode Island (3-5, 2-3) Southern<\/strong>: Furman put up a fight against the Mountaineer juggernaut, but fell short. Amid the battle, a season first: Appalachian State QB DeAndre Presley threw an interception. All of Furman’s losses this year have been to ranked teams.<\/p>\n Saturday:<\/span> #1 Appalachian State (8-0, 6-0) at Georgia Southern (4-4, 2-3) Big Sky<\/strong>: The big news this week: the Big Sky will expand again. The conference had already announced that it would be welcoming Cal-Davis and Cal Poly aboard; Southern Utah and North Dakota have now accepted invitations to become full members as well, and South Dakota is currently negotiating the same. Southern Utah’s move was widely expected; North Dakota, on the other hand, was expected to be looking east.<\/p>\n In on-field news, Montana shot themselves in the foot this week, letting Weber’s Vaingamalie Tafuna rumble for 129 yards and four touchdowns. EWU’s Taiwan Jones rolled up 199 yards and three TDs in the first half, then took a seat to watch the Eagles pummel Portland State. And Montana State frosh QB Denarius McGhee threw for 402 yards, but the highlight of his day was the 25-yard TD run in the second overtime which overcame an Idaho State field goal to avoid a calamitous upset.<\/p>\n Saturday:<\/span> Weber State (5-3, 4-2) at #12 Montana State (7-2, 5-1) Ohio Valley<\/strong>: Saturday:<\/span> #2 Jacksonville State (8-0, 5-0) at Eastern Kentucky (3-5, 2-2) Southland<\/strong>: Talk about your epic failures. With 9:21 to go, Stephen F. Austin led Texas State 24-0. Exactly what the #4 team in the nation should be doing to a team playing under .500 football. Eight minutes and eleven seconds later, the Lumberjacks were down by three. Oops.<\/p>\n Saturday:<\/span> #10 Stephen F. Austin (6-2, 3-1) at Nicholls (2-6, 1-3) Missouri Valley<\/strong>: The Big Sky news obviously affects the MVFC (and, more directly, the Summit League, who had a scheduled site visit with North Dakota next week which UND cancelled). In fact, UND’s move to the Big Sky actually endangers South Dakota’s already-announced plans to join the Summit next year, as they’re now in negotiations with the Sky themselves to become a full member.<\/p>\n Western Illinois QB Matt Barr tossed six TD passes and racked up 452 yards on 22-25 passing as the Leathernecks trashed Illinois State.<\/p>\n Saturday:<\/span> #17 Northern Iowa (5-3, 4-1) at Indiana State (5-3, 3-2) Mid-Eastern<\/strong>: Interim head coach Darryl Bullock got his first career win in NCCU’s victory over Edward Waters.<\/p>\n Saturday:<\/span> #11 Bethune-Cookman (8-0, 5-0) at Hampton (5-3, 4-1) Great West<\/strong>: The conference was already doomed, but the announcement that North Dakota and Southern Utah would be joining the Big Sky officially confirms it. South Dakota would be the lone remaining team, but they’re also in talks to join the Big Sky.<\/p>\n Cal Poly won at homecoming, in a game memorializing the 16 Mustang players who lost their lives in a plane crash at Toledo 50 years ago. 13 surviving members of that ill-fated team were on hand for the ceremonies.<\/p>\n Saturday:<\/span> #19 Cal Poly (6-3, 1-1) at South Dakota (4-5, 1-2) Big South<\/strong>: Saturday:<\/span> Gardner-Webb (3-5, 1-2) at #14 Liberty (6-2, 3-0) Ivy<\/strong>: Saturday:<\/span> #18 Penn (6-1, 4-0) at Princeton (1-6, 0-4) Pioneer<\/strong>: Jacksonville had not trailed since losing in week two to Appalachian State. That ended this week, as Morehead State took an early lead. Seven Josh McGregor touchdown passes later, that was all forgotten.<\/p>\n Saturday:<\/span> #23 Jacksonville (8-1, 6-0) at Butler (4-5, 2-4) Southwestern<\/strong>: A whopping 62,000 people were on hand at Legion Field for the Alabama State-Alabama A&M contest.<\/p>\n Saturday:<\/span> Concordia (AL) (3-3, n\/a) at #21 Grambling (7-1, 7-0) (non-conference) Northeast<\/strong>: Myles Russ became RMC’s all-time leading rusher Saturday in a win over local rival Duquesne. He’s now sitting at 3,868 yards with at least two more games to pad that total.<\/p>\n Saturday:<\/span> Central Connecticut (6-2, 5-0) at Robert Morris (7-1, 6-0) Patriot<\/strong>: Fordham’s Darryl Whiting muscled 30 carries for 252 yards in the Rams’ win over Georgetown.<\/p>\n Saturday:<\/span> Lehigh (6-2, 2-0) at Holy Cross (4-4, 1-1) Independent<\/strong>: Saturday:<\/span> Three top-ten teams tumble (although one of them was to North Carolina, so it doesn’t quite count), three SEC teams pay out appearance bonuses to FCS teams next week, two teams remain ranked despite falling to 4-4, two teams which actually deserve it don’t get ranked, one FCS game draws over 60,000 in paid attendance, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7,6],"tags":[41],"class_list":["post-127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-division-news-and-notes","category-fcs","tag-fcs"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p185sV-23","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":129,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127\/revisions\/129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nat North Carolina 21, #3 William & Mary 17 (non-conference\/FBS)
\nat #5 Villanova 28, #14 Richmond 7
\n#18 Massachusetts 21, at #15 James Madison 14
\nRhode Island 30, at Towson 20
\n#6 Delaware, Maine, and #10 New Hampshire idle
\nat South Alabama 39, Georgia State 34
\nOld Dominion 28, at Hampton 14<\/em><\/p>\n
\nStill tons of football to go here, although this might be moving day. William & Mary, despite being firmly in control of the race and wholly in control of their own destiny thanks to wins over both Delaware and Villanova, is in the most danger this week. The other two should have no trouble moving to 5-1. None of the three teams have an easy path to decision day; the Tribe’s three remaining games are all against ranked teams, and the Hens and Wildcats face the same problem their final two weeks (including the Villanova at Delaware showdown on Nov 20).<\/p>\n
\n#4 William & Mary (6-2, 4-1) at #8 New Hampshire (5-3, 3-2)
\nTowson (1-7, 0-5) at #5 Delaware (7-1, 4-1)
\nMaine (3-5, 2-3) at #15 Massachusetts (5-3, 3-2)
\n#22 James Madison (4-4, 1-4) at #20 Richmond (4-4, 2-3)
\nLamar (3-5) at Georgia State (5-4)
\nSavannah State (0-8) at Old Dominion (5-3)<\/em><\/p>\n
\nat #1 Appalachian State 37, Furman 26
\nat #9 Wofford 35, The Citadel 0
\nElon 49, at #20 Chattanooga 35
\nSamford 20, at Georgia Southern 13
\nWestern Carolina idle<\/p>\n
\nStraightforward: if Appy beats Wofford in Boone next week, Appy wins the conference, regardless of what happens this week. If Wofford wins this week and next, they win. If they both lose this week and Wofford wins next week, Chattanooga at Wofford becomes the deciding game, but a Chattanooga win there would set up a convoluted three-way tie with a transitive chain.<\/p>\n
\n#7 Wofford (7-1, 5-0) at Samford (4-4, 2-3)
\nChattanooga (5-3, 4-2) at Auburn (9-0, FBS) (non-conference)
\nWestern Carolina (2-6, 1-4) at Furman (4-4, 2-3)
\nElon (3-5, 2-3) at The Citadel (2-7, 0-6)<\/p>\n
\nat Weber State 30, #7 Montana 21
\n#8 Eastern Washington 50, at Portland State 17
\n#13 Montana State 23, at Idaho State 20 (OT)
\nSacramento State 40, at #25 Northern Arizona 10
\nat South Dakota 34, Northern Colorado 6 (non-conference)<\/p>\n
\nMontana’s loss messes everything up in theory, as it’s still possible for a three-way tie at 6-2. There is, of course, a major problem with this proposition, as it depends on EWU losing to Idaho State in two weeks. A final resolution to the matter will become clear after MSU and Weber conclude their business. If one assumes Idaho State’s not going to beat EWU, then a Weber win would give EWU the title, while an MSU win sets up the Brawl of the Wild as their chance to steal the crown with a win, regardless of Idaho State’s potential pluck.<\/p>\n
\nPortland State (2-6, 1-4) at Sacramento State (4-4, 3-3)
\nNorthern Arizona (4-4, 2-3) at Northern Colorado (2-7, 1-5)
\nIdaho State (1-7, 0-6) at Georgia (4-5, FBS) (non-conference)
\n#6 Eastern Washington (7-2, 6-1) and #13 Montana (6-3, 5-2) idle<\/p>\n
\nat #11 Southeast Missouri State 24, Tennessee-Martin 17
\nat Eastern Kentucky 28, Murray State 21
\nat Eastern Illinois 28, Austin Peay 10
\n#2 Jacksonville State, Tennessee Tech, and Tennessee State idle<\/p>\n
\nThe only thing standing in SEMO’s way is their final conference game, which is against Jax State next week. Unless Jax somehow loses to both EKU and Tennessee Tech, in which case SEMO wins the crown regardless, the winner of that game wins the conference title.<\/p>\n
\nSouthwest Baptist (7-2, D-II) at #9 Southeast Missouri State (8-1, 7-0) (non-conference)
\nTennessee Tech (4-4, 3-2) at Murray (3-5, 2-3)
\nTennessee-Martin (4-5, 3-3) at Austin Peay (2-6, 0-4)
\nEastern Illinois (1-8, 1-6) at Tennessee State (3-5, 0-3)<\/p>\n
\nTexas State 27, at #4 Stephen F. Austin 24
\nat Northwestern State 23, Sam Houston 20 (2OT)
\nat McNeese State 24, Nicholls State 14
\nat Central Arkansas 30, Southeast Louisiana 23
\nat North Dakota 31, Lamar 6<\/em><\/p>\n
\nDidn’t see that one coming, did we? The conference race is now in full froth, and there’s really nothing we can forecast until this week shakes out. SFA remains in control of their own destiny here, but if everyone wins out and SFA loses to Northwestern State, it’s a three-way tie with a chain.<\/p>\n
\nMcNeese (4-4, 3-1) at Sam Houston (4-4, 2-2)
\nNorthwestern (4-4, 3-1) at SE Louisiana (2-6, 1-3)
\nCentral Arkansas (5-3, 2-2) at Texas State (4-4, 1-3)
\nLamar (3-5) at Georgia State (5-4)<\/em><\/p>\n
\n#19 Northern Iowa 34, at Youngstown State 30
\nat Western Illinois 65, Illinois State 38
\nat Indiana State 41, South Dakota State 30
\nat Missouri State 51, Southern Illinois 41
\nNorth Dakota State idle<\/p>\n
\nWestern Illinois actually has the clear path here despite trailing by half a game, and Northern Iowa has to run a gauntlet through the league’s two-loss teams to get to the finish line. This week should at least shake things out a bit.<\/p>\n
\nSouthern Illinois (3-5, 2-3) at #25 North Dakota State (5-3, 2-3)
\nMissouri State (4-4, 3-2) at South Dakota State (3-5, 3-3)
\nYoungstown (3-6, 1-5) at Illinois State (4-5, 3-4)
\n#24 Western Illinois (6-3, 4-2) idle<\/p>\n
\nat #12 Bethune-Cookman 67, North Carolina A&T 17
\nSaturday:<\/span>
\n#17 South Carolina State 38, at Delaware State 21
\nOld Dominion 28, at Hampton 14 (non-conference)
\nat Florida A&M 31, Morgan State 17
\nNorfolk State 10, at Howard 9
\nat North Carolina Central 20, Edward Waters 7
\nSavannah State idle<\/em><\/p>\n
\nIt’s not quite over yet. With a win, Bethune can eliminate Hampton from anything save the hope of a very convoluted three- or four-way tie at 5-2. BCC would also then only need a win at FAMU on the 20th to clinch the title, regardless of their result next week. Otherwise, this is still very much a live fuse of a race.<\/p>\n
\nHoward (1-7, 0-5) at #16 South Carolina State (6-2, 4-1)
\nFlorida A&M (5-3, 4-1) at North Carolina A&T (1-8, 1-5)
\nMorgan State (4-4, 3-2) at Norfolk State (3-5, 2-4)
\nNorth Carolina Central (3-5) at Delaware State (1-7, 1-5) (not a conference game yet)
\nSavannah State (0-8) at Old Dominion (5-3)<\/em><\/p>\n
\nat #22 Cal Poly 41, St. Francis (PA) 33 (non-conference)
\nSouthern Utah 55, at Cal-Davis 24
\nat South Dakota 34, Northern Colorado 6 (non-conference)
\nat North Dakota 31, Lamar 6 (non-conference)<\/p>\n
\nLadies and gentlemen, your 2010 Great West Football Champions, the Southern Utah Thunderbirds. They finished running the table with last week’s victory, led by Brad Sorensen’s 397 yards and five TDs.<\/p>\n
\nDixie State (2-7, D-II) at Southern Utah (5-4, 4-0) (non-conference)
\nCal-Davis (3-5, 1-1) at North Dakota (3-5, 0-3)<\/p>\n
\n#16 Liberty 34, at Presbyterian 24
\nat Stony Brook 41, Charleston Southern 21
\nCoastal Carolina 30, at Gardner-Webb 27 (OT)
\nat Army 29, VMI 7 (non-conference\/FBS)<\/p>\n
\nConsidering the conference leaders could both still finish 4-2, we’re too far out to get any read. They meet in the season finale, and for now that’s where this looks to be decided. Nobody else controls their own fate, and it would take some serious chaos for anyone else to have a reasonable shot (although G-W does play both in the next two weeks, and could send this spinning into lunacy all on their own).<\/p>\n
\nStony Brook (4-4, 3-0) at Presbyterian (1-7, 1-3)
\nCoastal Carolina (3-5, 2-1) at VMI (3-5, 2-2)
\nCharleston Southern (2-6, 0-4) at Kentucky (4-5) (non-conference)<\/p>\n
\nat #21 Penn 24, Brown 7
\nat Yale 31, Columbia 28
\nHarvard 30, at Dartmouth 14
\nat Cornell 21, Princeton 19<\/p>\n
\nAssuming a Penn win, either Yale or Brown goes bye-bye Saturday. That’ll set up a huge game at Franklin Field next week as Harvard visits the Quakers, and the title will most likely be on the line for Penn.<\/p>\n
\nYale (5-2, 3-1) at Brown (4-3, 3-1)
\nColumbia (3-4, 1-3) at Harvard (5-2, 3-1)
\nDartmouth (4-3, 1-3) at Cornell (2-5, 1-3)<\/p>\n
\n#24 Jacksonville 61, at Morehead State 17
\nDayton 37, at Davidson 13
\nat Drake 38, San Diego 17
\nMarist 42, at Campbell 14
\nButler 48, at Valparaiso 0<\/p>\n
\nA reminder that Jacksonville and Dayton miss one another this season. Dayton faces a stern test at home against Drake, and a not-improbable upset here is exactly what Jacksonville is hoping for. On the other hand, a Dayton win will eliminate Drake from any chance at the title.<\/p>\n
\nDrake (6-3, 5-1) at Dayton (8-1, 6-0)
\nMorehead State (3-5, 2-3) at San Diego (3-6, 3-3)
\nDavidson (2-6, 2-4) at Marist (3-5, 2-4)
\nValparaiso (0-9, 0-6) at Campbell (2-6, 1-4)<\/p>\n
\n#23 Grambling State 35, at Arkansas-Pine Bluff 25
\nat Texas Southern 38, Mississippi Valley State 7 (crossover)
\nat Jackson State 30, Prairie View A&M 13 (crossover)
\nat Alcorn State 27, Southern 20 (crossover)
\nAlabama State 31, Alabama A&M 10 (at Legion Field, Birmingham AL)<\/p>\n
\nGrambling still cannot win the West, even with a Texas Southern loss this week. They’ll have to take care of that business on their own next week when they meet (or later events might accomplish the same result). In the East… Jackson can get rid of Alabama State once and for all this week, but they’ll have to handle Alcorn in two weeks to seal the deal.<\/p>\n
\nJackson State (6-2, 4-2) at Alabama State (5-3, 4-3)
\nTexas Southern (5-3, 5-1) at Southern (2-6, 1-5)
\nAlcorn State (4-4, 3-3) at Alabama A&M (2-6, 1-5)
\nMississippi Valley (0-8, 0-7) at Ark-Pine Bluff (4-4, 3-2) (crossover)
\nPrairie View (5-4, 4-3) idle<\/p>\n
\nat Robert Morris 34, Duquesne 11
\nat Central Connecticut State 38, Wagner 20
\nSacred Heart 26, at Monmouth 25
\nat Bryant 24, Albany 7
\nat Cal-Poly 41, St. Francis (PA) 33 (non-conference)<\/p>\n
\nIt may seem strange to see the division’s game of the week way down here, especially between two unranked teams, but this really is the highlight of the schedule. Robert Morris, who quite frankly should be ranked (see the top of the page), would clinch the conference title (and a playoff spot) with a win this week. CCSU can clinch a tie<\/em> for the title, but they’d have to shake Monmouth next week to secure it.<\/p>\n
\nMonmouth (3-5, 3-2) at Wagner (4-4, 2-3)
\nBryant (5-3, 2-3) at St. Francis (PA) (1-7, 1-4)
\nAlbany (3-5, 1-4) at Sacred Heart (3-6, 1-5)
\nDuquesne (5-4, 3-3) idle<\/p>\n
\nat Fordham 24, Georgetown 19
\nat Lehigh 44, Colgate 14
\nLafayette 33, at Bucknell 22
\nHoly Cross idle<\/p>\n
\nNobody can even possibly clinch until next week; indeed, only Colgate is at risk of elimination this week. That said, if Lehigh and Colgate were to win Saturday, the Mountain Hawks would only need to win one of their final two games to walk away with the championship.<\/p>\n
\nLafayette (2-6, 1-1) at Colgate (4-4, 1-2)
\nFordham (4-5) at Bucknell (1-7, 1-2) (not a conference game)
\nGeorgetown (3-6, 2-2) idle<\/p>\n
\nat South Alabama 39, Georgia State 34<\/p>\n
\nHenderson State (6-3, D-II) at South Alabama (8-0)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"