October 31st, 2017 12:00am
By Pittsburg State standards, the 2017 season has not gone well. The Gorillas (5-4) were expected to be in the hunt for a playoff berth and the MIAA title, but a three-game mid-season losing streak quickly derailed those thoughts. For the last month PSU has basically been playing for pride.
It is not always easy for a team with big pre-season plans to remain focused when things do not go as planned. But that is exactly what the Gorillas have done over the last month. On October 7th, they jumped out to a 17-0 lead on unbeaten Fort Hays State, only to see the Tigers rally for a 21-17 win. While certainly a disappointing loss, it is obvious that progress was being made.
The next two weeks provided much needed victories as the Gorillas ground out a 26-10 win over Missouri Western and a 27-10 win over Emporia State. There was not anything flashy about either win. PSU simply pounded the football on the ground and kept the opposing offenses standing on the sidelines.
Last week long-time rival Northwest Missouri State came to town. While the Bearcats have not been as dominant as the last two seasons, they still owned an unbeaten record and a 38-game winning streak, just two short of tying the all-time D2 mark.
Using a similar formula to the previous two weeks, the Gorillas had a season-defining win, upsetting the Bearcats 20-10. The PSU defense forced six turnovers and limited the Bearcats to just 265 yards of offense, allowing just 62 yards in the second half.
With a pair of very winnable games coming up in the next two weeks, the Gorillas could very well finish the season with a 7-4 record and a 5-game winning streak. A win over Northwest could also serve as a turning point where the PSU program returns to elite status.
A Crazy Saturday Upcoming in the CIAA
Going into the final Saturday before the conference championship game on November 11th, the CIAA still has six teams alive battling for two spots in the title game. Credit to Tolly Carr from hbcugameday.com for doing the legwork on coming up with the following scenarios:
In the North Division, if unbeaten Virginia State can beat rival Virginia Union, then the Trojans would appear in the title game. However, if VUU wins the game and heavily favored Bowie State beats Elizabeth City State, then it would create a three-way tie between VSU, VUU and BSU.
The tie-breaker in that scenario is point differential. For VUU to make the title game, the Panthers would need to beat VSU by at least 19 points! A VUU win by 18 points or less would put BSU in the championship game. This will create some interesting scoreboard watching for sure.
In the South Division, Fayetteville State, Winston-Salem State and St. Augustine*s all have identical conference records. FSU and WSSU play each other and a FSU win puts them in the title game by virtue of already owning a win over SAU. A WSSU win and a SAU win over Shaw and St. Augustine*s represents the South Division. If WSSU wins and SAU loses to Shaw, then WSSU gets the berth.
News and Notes
-Minnesota-Duluth posted a third consecutive shutout, limiting Bemidji State to just 50 yards of offense in a game played in snowy conditions. However, the Bulldogs (7-2) are ranked just ninth in the Super Region Four and stand virtually no shot of reaching the playoffs.
-Eastern New Mexico (7-1) will be making a 1400-mile trip to West Virginia to take on West Liberty (3-6) on Thursday night in a rare late season non-conference game. The game was made possible by the fact that the LSC and MEC have an odd number of teams which creates bye weeks at strange times of the year.
-Lock Haven (2-7) pulled off a huge upset last week, knocking off Bloomsburg (6-3) by the score of 27-24. Prior to the loss the Huskies controlled their own destiny as far as winning the PSAC East Division, but now they are basically out of it. LHU freshman quarterback Kyle Knight rushed for 174 yards and three touchdowns in the win, including the game winner with 52 seconds left.
-Despite currently being fifth in the GSC standings, Delta State (6-3) is seventh in the latest Super Region Two rankings. Parity is the name of the game this year in the GSC with six of the nine teams having 3-3, 4-2 or 4-3 conference records.
Top Games this Week
Fort Hays State (9-0) at Northwest Missouri State (8-1)
After last week’s loss, many might conclude that this isn’t Northwest’s year. I however am not ready to give up on the Bearcats’ national title possibilities simply because they play such great defense: Northwest is first in the country in total defense, run defense, scoring defense and third down efficiency defense and fourth in pass efficiency defense. However, the Bearcats must find some consistency on offense and in the kicking game and do it in a hurry.
FHSU is in uncharted territory as this is the first time in school history that they have won nine games in a season! The Tigers are also in a position to win their first conference title as members of the MIAA and all but lock up a playoff berth for the first time in 22 years.
FHSU plays very good defense and is second to Northwest in most defensive categories in the MIAA. They also have an offense that is talented and diverse in what they do. Quarterback Jacob Mezera has been outstanding all year and with the way head coach Chris Brown has led and built this program over the last several years, I don’t think the moment will be too big for this team. I think it will all come down to execution between two teams that appear to be evenly matched. I will give Northwest the edge at home. Northwest Missouri 16 Fort Hays State 13
Grand Valley (7-2) at Ashland (8-1)
These two old GLIAC rivals meet with obvious conference and playoff implications on the line. An Ashland win would guarantee the Eagles at least a share of the league title and pretty much wrap up a playoff spot. A Laker win creates a likely three-way tie (along with Ferris State) atop the conference and creates some interesting scenarios when it comes to the playoffs.
These two teams have outstanding quarterback play, with Bart Williams from GV and Travis Tarnowski from AU both having outstanding seasons. A big question coming into this game is the health of GV star running back Marty Carter, who missed last week’s game with an ankle injury. Whether or not he plays could have a major impact on this game.
Both teams are also very good defensively. AU does a bit better job against the run and GV a bit better against the pass, but overall, they produce at similar levels. However, the Eagles have a much stronger kicking game, having connected on 13 of 16 field goals while the Lakers have made just one field goal all year. A block PAT cost the GV the game in their loss to Ferris State two weeks ago.
Carter’s health and the lack of a kicking game would seemingly tip things in Ashland’s favor. However, I am going with GVSU in this game. The Lakers are in a desperate situation from a playoff standpoint and they have had a bit of bad luck in their two close losses. That luck changes Saturday. Grand Valley 25 Ashland 24
Mailbag
[Q] Always love reading your columns, fair and just. I am a big advocate of D2 football being a GV Tennis Alumni 09 and witnessing great GV football over the past 17 years. However, how on EARTH is now NWMS, the GLIAC and GLVC all in the same Regional?!?!? This is an atrocity lol. I loved seeing NWMS and GV being on opposite sides in the playoffs with the chance of seeing them in the Finals or Semifinals. I could EASILY make a case the best five teams in the Nation (NWMS, Indy, GV, Ashland, and Ferris) are now all in the same region.
Just wanting to know how Regional rankings are setup and now how NWMS and GV got in the same region? Also, after that depleting last second loss to Ferris, do you think all GV has to do to get back in the top 6 of the region is beat Ashland? (No easy task being as that is on the road).
[A] Several years ago when the NCAA decided to go with the Super Regional structure, everything was set up for volleyball and basketball. Since most D2 schools play those two sports, it was easy to divide up the conferences into regions.
However, the previous structure did not work for football because of large disparities between the number of schools playing the sport in different regions of the country. This is how we ended up with SR2 having less than 30 football teams while SR1 had nearly 50. But since D2 had a rule that the regions must stay the same for all sports, that was the structure we were stuck with.
The powers-that-be in D2 decided last year to change the rule coupling all sports to the same regional structure. This allowed for the changes in football that we see this year. While it’s not perfect- I believe no system with a strict regional structure will be- I do think it’s an improvement from past years. We now have regions with 45, 41, 42, and 41 teams in them which makes the opportunities for postseason play fairly equal.
As far as the GLIAC and MIAA being in the same region, if you look at a map and really break this down, having those two leagues in the same region was really the only alignment that makes sense. In an ideal world the GLIAC, GSC, MIAA and NSIC would each be in a different region for competitive balance purposes. However, that doesn’t work out due to geography.
If you really break this down, the top NSIC teams have been better than the top GLIAC teams for basically the last decade. Evidence: of Northwest Missouri’s five playoff losses dating back to 2008, four have come at the hands of NSIC teams. The GLIAC has been in a very favorable regional alignment since 2011, with only one national championship game appearance. It makes the most sense to have the MIAA and NSIC in different regions.
And to answer your last question, I think Grand Valley will be in the playoffs with wins each of the next two weeks.
[Q] Do you think it would be beneficial for the committee to publish how they determine the rankings? Or do you believe holding "the formula" in secret to allow for corrections against the numbers overall help field a more competitive playoff field?
[A] The criteria is published each week by the NCAA along with the regional rankings. I do think the criteria are being used as a baseline but then human input and the good old "eyeball test" are coming into play in some of these regions. If that isn’t the case, I would like someone to explain to me how Indianapolis has only been ranked second in SR3 each of the last two weeks.
Contact
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