Why are some MIAA schools fighting so hard to keep silo scheduling?

[Horror Child]

Full disclosure - I based those numbers on what the NCAA lists on the bracket so some of those teams may have played an FCS money game or taken on an NAIA team. Sometimes they just can't find the right game to fill out the schedule.
This is where silo scheduling can become a problem, but I doubt Kutztown (Penn.), West Chester (Penn.), LIUPost (NY), New Haven (Conn.), or Bowie State (Md.) would be breaking down the door trying to schedule teams in the Midwest on a yearly basis.

Irrelevant at this point though, due to the silos in the midwest.

[Horror Child]

West Chester came to Maryville within my memory - which admittedly is getting to be a long time anymore, but still.

That was 2004 after PSAC East member Mansfield dropped football. Kutztown and West Chester only had 10 games in 2018 due to Cheyney dropping all athletic programs.

But in general, the PSAC maintains a 10 game conference schedule to meet the NCAA minimum which allows the first week for each school to do something non-conference. With the abundance of schools in the mid-Atlantic and northeast, the non-conference game usually stays within the region to minimize travel costs.

[northwest missouri state]

2004, iirc paid to repl sdst who backed out of their return trip when they went d1

[Hornetfan]

The three pre-04 teams all would've gotten in using today's format.

However, the two teams that have the best gripes here are 2006 Pitt State and 2012 ESU. Both of them only lost to PO teams.

2006 Pitt State had the unfortunate occurrence of both ECU being worse than anticipated. The home and home with ECU was scheduled following the 2004 season when ECU had just gone 6-4 under a new head coach and seemed like they were turning a corner into respectability. We weren't thinking we were scheduling a team that was going to go 10-1 with their only loss to us, but that game was scheduled under a belief that it wasn't going to be an anchor on our SOS. Panhandle State was scheduled because we had to have a home game. Nothing else to it. While never married to 6 in a given year, Pitt State has always made a point of trying to always have at least 11 home regular season games over every two year span (since the stadium expansion) and the Arrowhead era meant that we couldn't only schedule home and homes.

2012 ESU is probably the only PO victim of silo scheduling that the conference has had.

Agree with the pre-2004 teams all getting in with seven teams in a region.

The 2006 Pitt State situation is one of the negatives to the non-conference schedule. You can plan on someone being a 6-5/5-6 type warm up team and they end up going 2-9 or they get really good and end up beating you on the way to a 9-2 season of their own. How another team does is something that ADs and coaches can't control. Coaches and ADs hate things they can't control.

Honestly I don't think we were a victim of the silo schedule in 2012. We would have been the third MIAA team behind MWSU and NWMSU. Henderson State and Minnesota State were undefeated. Harding's only loss was to Henderson State while Duluth's only loss was to a 7-4 St.Cloud State. I think that year's Hornets were one of the top 28 teams in the nation, but I don't know if I could really justify them taking anyone's spot in the region that year.

[Brandon]

One could argue that teams are already doing this. There have been at least nine teams that played ten or fewer D2 games make the playoffs in each of the last five years.
2019 -10
2018 - 9
2017 - 10
2016 - 10
2015 - 15

Please list them.

[Brandon]

Couldn't that be considered gaming the system? Play someone not as good as your conference opponent in order to get a win?

No. Was the gaming question sarcastic? I want the best teams in. I could put West Florida, Valdosta State, Lenoir-Rhyne, Ferris State, Northwest Missouri, Slippery Rock, Central Missouri, Tarleton State, Texas A&M-Commerce, and Minnesota State in the same conference and at least six or seven won't make the playoffs. Plenty of conferences don't play everyone in the conference.

Also just because you win another game doesn't mean that will help you get in the playoffs. Since 1989 - when PSU, WU, MSSU and MWSU joined the MIAA - there have been six two loss MIAA teams not make the playoffs
[FONT="Calibri"]PSU (9-2) in 2013
ESU (9-2) in 2012
PSU (9-2) in 2006
UCM (9-2) in 2003
UCM (9-2) in 2001
ESU (9-2) in 1998
Five of those teams played non-conference games in the regular season.

The seasons in red are irrelevant. Only four teams were selected for each region at the time.

I will look at the others when I get home.

[Hornetfan]

Just for you Brandon.
2015 - Shepherd (10-0); IUP (8-2); Va. Union (8-1); Bowie St. (9-1); Indy (10-0); Ferris St. (10-0); TAMU-Commerce (8-2); Ashland (10-0); Valdosta St. (7-2); Carson Newman (8-2); North Ala. (8-2); Newberry (7-3); Catawba (8-2); Tuskegee (8-2); Humboldt St. (9-1).
2016 - Cal (PA) (10-0); IUP (9-1); Shepherd (10-0); North Ala. (8-1); Valdosta St. (8-2); UNC-Pembroke (9-1); Tuskegee (8-2); Fla. Tech (8-2); TAMU-Commerce (9-1); Midwestern St. (8-2).
2017 - Shepherd (10-0); Assumption (9-1); Bowie St. (9-1); Virginia St. (9-0); Wingate (9-1); West Fla. (7-3); Ferris St. (9-1); TAMU-Commerce (9-1); Midwestern St. (9-0).
2018 - Kutztown (9-1); LIUPost (10-0); West Chester (10-0); New Haven (8-1); Valdosta St (10-0); Bowie St. (9-1); Indy (9-1); Tarleton St (10-0); Azusa Pacific (8-2).
2019 - Tiffin (9-1); Valdosta St. (10-0); West Fla. (7-2); Miles (8-2); Carson Newman (8-2); Ferris St (10-0); Indy (9-1); Lindenwood (8-2); Tarleton St (9-0); TAMU-Commerce (8-2).

Like I said in a later post - these are based on the brackets posted by the NCAA in the record book on line. They are only D2 scores and won't include NAIA, FCS or D3 teams.

[Hornetfan]

No. Was the gaming question sarcastic? I want the best teams in. I could put West Florida, Valdosta State, Lenoir-Rhyne, Ferris State, Northwest Missouri, Slippery Rock, Central Missouri, Tarleton State, Texas A&M-Commerce, and Minnesota State in the same conference and at least six or seven won't make the playoffs. Plenty of conferences don't play everyone in the conference.



The seasons in red are irrelevant. Only four teams were selected for each region at the time.

I will look at the others when I get home.

It was no more sarcastic than your comment about Lindenwood gaming the system by playing an FCS team that didn't count.
Are you saying that we should be like the D1 basketball tourney where eight out of ten teams can make the tourney?

I know that only four teams were selected prior to 2004. But from 1989-2003 there were seven two loss teams that did make the playoffs.
1989 NWMSU 9-2
1992 Truman 9-2
1993 Pitt State 8-2
1994 Truman 8-2
2000 Pitt State 9-2
2003 Pitt State 9-2; ESU 9-2
So 70% of the time in the 15 years from when the MIAA expanded out of the state of Missouri until the NCAA playoff field expanded you could probably lose two games and make the playoffs but not three. There have been 12 two loss MIAA teams that have made the playoffs since 2004 so 86% of the time a two loss MIAA team made the playoffs.
My point was that for the most part if you are an MIAA team with an .800 winning percentage you were more than likely getting in the playoffs. With the relatively small sample size of a football season, winning games is the most important thing.