All eyes in the MEAC will focus on Orangeburg, SC this weekend as the Florida A&M Rattlers face the South Carolina State Bulldogs

Both teams take the field Saturday with an overall record of 4-1, and a MEAC record of 2-0. Florida A&M’s lone loss came to in-state FBS rival Miami, and SC State also fell to an in-state rival when the faced South Carolina.

Florida A&M comes in with national sensation, LeRoy Vann, who has been featured on ESPN because of his explosiveness in the Rattlers return game. When asked about Vann and the problems he presented, S.C. State head coach, Buddy Pough said that they would not kick the ball out of bounds to avoid Vann touching the ball. The special teams battle could easily win this game.

The Bulldogs of South Carolina State are coming off of a 2008 playoff appearance in which they came close to upsetting FCS powerhouse, Appalachian State. They are lead by Senior RB Will Ford, who leads the team with 383 yards rushing. Ford is on the Payton Award watch list after rushing for 1,499 yards last year. Their marquee win at this point in the season came against Grambling State in week one. The game ended with a final score of 34-31, but the game was never really that close. The Bulldogs struggled at times, had conditioning issues, and just were not playing to their potential. If this game were played again I would expect the Bulldogs to win by 10+.

This game could very well decide the MEAC championship which would guarantee a spot in the 2009 FCS playoffs. While the loser could still learn an at-large bid, no one wants to leave it to chance.

Coach Pough feels like both teams have a strong resume for the playoffs. While the winner clearly has the better path, Pough feels both teams belong in at this point in the season. When asked about their non-conference schedule, Couch Pough said that he felt like they played on of the toughest non-conference slates in FCS football. This schedule included a neutral site game against Grambling State, FBS South Carolina, and Winston Salem State.

I contacted Florida A&M or this article, but was unable to get a response. Current issues in their athletic department may have caused communication issues. If we can get a comment from Coach Taylor, then the story will be updated.

Prediction:

South Carolina State 24   Florida A&M 14

The big story for this week will be a preview of the marquee match-up in the MEAC: South Carolina State vs. Florida A&M. I will be posting a breakdown of the game, as well as comments from both head coaches.

Also look for the beginning of our former FCS player profile series that will feature former FCS players on the ChampionshipSubdivision.com forums.

The 2009 season is off to a great start. The debate over who is the best team in the country is heating up more and more each week. Between the 3 major polls (AGS, Coaches, and TSN) there are 6 different teams with first place votes.

While Richmond is the consensus pick between the 3 polls, one has to wonder if this is based on this year’s performance, or if voters picked Richmond in the preseason and left them there.

I would like to see all polls wait until after week 5 of the season to start their voting. I think you would find the number one votes more equally spread out across teams like Villanova, Montana, Richmond, William and Mary, Northern Iowa and New Hampshire.

While I don’t think any one of those teams is a clear cut number one, I’d like to see what the polls would look like based solely on a teams resume.

I think we’d see South Dakota State and Massachusetts higher, and Appalachian State and Elon lower. We also might find Cal Poly, Furman, and Delaware out of the polls, with Florida A&M, Stephen F Austin, and Youngstown State in.

It’s clear that the majority of the voters in these polls do not compare resumes on a week to week basis. Most of them are sliding teams up and down with wins and losses. Teams who start off low or out of the polls can beat a top team and still end up in the middle, even though they may in fact be a top ten team.

Look at these examples:

Coaches Poll:

Cal Poly at 17. They started at 14 and have only dropped 3 spots. The Mustangs are clearly not the same team they were last year and have a 1-2 record. While the two losses were to FBS teams, they were to perennial cellar dwellers in non-BCS conferences. Coming into the season I expected Cal Poly to win both of them.

Montana State at 25. The Bobcats have hardly earned a ranking. After taking a beating from Michigan State, MSU beat lowly D-II school, Dixie State and then beat a weak Northern Colorado team, who on top of trying to build their program was fighting the injury bug.

Others recieving votes?

 Butler. The Bulldogs are 4-0. Deserving of votes, right? Not so fast. 3 of the 4 wins were against sub D-I opponents. 3! Their other win was an overtime victory over Morehead State, a team that gave St. Francis (PA) their first win in over a year when the Red Flash dominated them 31-0. Clearly the person who voted for them: A) Doesn’t pay attention or B) is a homer.

The coaches poll is flawed because most coaches are focused on their team and their opponents. They don’t watch the rest of the top 30 teams in the country. Most of the time the voting isn’t handled by the coaches anyway.

TSN Poll:

Weber State at #11. While the Wildcats shouldn’t be ruled out of the 2009 Big Sky race, they are entirely too high in the poll.  Last weekends last second victory over Portland state moved them to 2-2. Their other win came against 0-4 Idaho State. Yes the 2 losses came to FBS teams, but they could have won both of those games. In my opinion good teams find ways to win close games. 5 spots too high.

Cal Poly at #19. See coaches poll.

Others receiving votes?

The TSN has quite a few:

Winston-Salem State16 votes. Record? 0-4….seriously….

Jacksonville 8 votes. The Dolphins are 1-2 with no D-I wins. One of their losses was at home to Old Dominion, a first year team.

Butler 4 votes. See Coaches Poll.

Dayton 3 votes. 2-1 with a loss to a sub D-I school. The wins weren’t even impressive. Close games against weak schools.

Georgia Southern 1 vote. 1 vote too many. The Eagles are DOWN this year. They have a young team and have nothing to garner even one vote.

North Dakota State 1 vote. Only win is against Wagner. 1-3 heading into week 5.

San Diego 1 vote. Non scholarship team with a 2-1 record. Loss?  Northern Colorado. UNC is not a powerhouse, yet the USD lost by 19. Wins over a sub D-I school and weak non-scholarship Marist do not garner votes.

It’s clear to me that the TSN poll has too many Pioneer reps, or one very irresponsible Pioneer voter. The votes for an 0-4 WSSU just baffles me. The TSN poll could be a good poll if they cut the fat in their membership.

AGS poll:

Outside of Weber State and Cal Poly being too high, I dont have too many complaints. Every poll can be debated, but the AGS poll seems the most balanced at this point in time.

Others receiving votes?

Nothing too weird. Maybe there were some, but the AGS poll doesn’t list the teams with less than 5 votes.

The best thing about the polls is that they aren’t that important. We’re lucky enough to have a playoff system in place, and starting next year an extra 4 teams will get to join in. If you take care of business in your conference, you’re in, whether you’re ranked or not.