With the season right around the corner, I decided it was time to start the conference by conference breakdowns.

X Southern Illinois 9-2 7-1 – Only slipping up once in conference and owning a win over UNI, SIU earns the MVFC auto-bid.

Y  Northern Iowa  9-2  7-1 – Northern Iowa returns to the playoffs with an at-large bid.

Y  Illinois State 9-2 6-2 – Illinois State makes their return to the playoffs with at at-large bid.

Z  North Dakota State 7-4 5-3 – NDSU is a bubble candidate for their first playoff appearance.

South Dakota State 6-5 5-3 – The Jacks fall a little short this year.

Youngstown State 6-5  4-4 – The Penguins are rebuilding, just a year away from contention.

Indiana State 3-8 1-7 – The Sycamores take a step in the right direction.

Western Illinois 2-9 1-7 – Bad situations in Macomb carry over to 2010. Maybe the healing can begin.

Missouri State 1-10 1-7 – Terry Allen says his goodbyes and cleans out his office.

I arrived in Fargo around noon on Saturday, welcomed by tempatures in the low 30s and occasional flurries.

After a few minutes of adjusting to the cold, I was offered food, drink, and some warmth by one of the best tailgating atmospheres in FCS football. I have never seen so many custom painted buses, RVs and vans. Special thanks to the crews at the Rainforest and Rollin Thunder tailgates. I met a lot of Bison posters throughout the West lots and appreciate their hospitality.

Inside the Fargodome the media relations crew was very friendly and I had a great time with the local Fargo media.

We’ll be getting a photo gallery posted here at cs.com in the upcoming week, so stay tuned for that.

The focus of this last week was North Dakota State RB Pat Paschall and his challenge of facing the Northern Iowa defense. All in all the battle was pretty even. Let me break it down for you.

Here’s the lowdown:

Paschall rushed for 115 yards-

Paschall tied his season low this week with 115 yards on 19 carries. This was about 35 yards below his season average. The result is that Paschall no longer leads to country in yards per game. That title has moved to Deji Karim who faces the Northern Iowa defense on Saturday. Advantage: Northern Iowa

North Dakota State rushes for 206 yards-

The Bison rolled up a team total of 206 yards on Saturday. The Bison had 5 different players with carries, including QB Nick Mertens. The 206 yards of rushing offense was 141 yards more than UNI was averaging, and the most the UNI defense has allowed this season. Advantage: North Dakota State

Overall, both parties played the game under their averages. Obviously in the end the outcome favored the Panthers, but I would say that it was a successful game for Paschall and the Bison offensive line.

Through 5 games of the season, the Northern Iowa defense is only giving up 7.6 points per game. That includes holding FBS #12 Iowa to 17. The Panther defense is 5th in the country in rushing defense, allowing 65.6 yards per game.  This is the challenge that awaits North Dakota State running back Pat Paschall, the number one running back in yards per game in FCS football.

This year’s Panther defense has left off exactly where last year ended,  replacing last year’s man in the middle, Everette Pedescleaux, who graduated last spring and is currently with the NFL’s Denver Broncos. Pedescleaux, listed at 6-6 305 lbs, has been replaced by Chuck Kinney and Wes Lane. Both senior leaders are listed at 290 pounds.

But the biggest push on the defensive line comes from  James Ruffin, a senior defensive end from Burnsville, MN. Ruffin was highly decorated after his junior season. He was named as a first team all-american by the American Football Coaches Association, Defensive Player of the Year in the Valley, first-team all-MVFC pick , second-team All-America pick by the Associated Press , third-team All-America honoree by The Sports Network. Ruffin finished last season with 18 tackles for loss and 10 sacks.

As a unit, the most ground yardage the team has given up this season was against South Dakota. The Coyotes ran for 151 total yards(90 net) on 35 attempts, an average of 4.3 yards per carry.  The Coyotes only scored one TD in the game, and that came on a flea-flicker pass.

Their season low was last weekend against Indiana State. The Sycamores ran for 56 yards (42 net) on 25 attempts.

Looking forward to this battle on Saturday. We’ll finish this series with a recap over the weekend. Look forward to a photo gallery of gameday pictures from inside the Fargodome.

This weekend, those of us in the Fargodome are in for what should amount to be an epic battle. North Dakota State’s running back, Pat Paschall, is currently the number one running back in all of FCS football. Paschall, coming into the game averaging 150.8 yards per game, is going to be up against the defense from the University of Northern Iowa. The Panther defense comes into Saturday’s game ranked in the top 10 in 3 major statistical categories.

 Paschall, The Bison’s fifth year senior from St. Louis, Mo., was originally recruited to Georgia Southern University, where in his redshirt season he was named scout team player of the year. Unhappy with the situation in Statesboro, Paschall headed to Dodge City Community College, where he would eventually be recruited by North Dakota State.

In his sophmore season, his first with the Bison, Paschall would run the ball 84 times for a total of 530 yards and five TDs. He also had one reception for 16 yards and a touchdown.

His junior year was very similar to his sophmore campaign. He would run the ball 108 times for 601 yards and two TDs, so more carries, a little more yardage, but less TDs. He would also catch nine passes for 51 yards.

The 2009 season has already been great to Pat. Through 5 games he has rushed the ball 100 times for 765 yards (7.65 yards per carry) and 5 TDs. Career highs less than halfway through the season in both yards and TDs. He also has 6 receptions for 120 yards.

This week the Bison’s running game faces a highly ranked Panther defense.

We’ll turn to the Panther defense on Thursday and will finish next week with a post game commentary on what should be a great battle.

FCS Update will make it’s first in-person reporting appearance a week from Saturday in Fargo, ND. Our feature story will be the #1 RB in the country, Pat Paschall of NDSU facing the highly ranked Northern Iowa defense.  

We will feature Paschall and the Panther defense leading up to the game and will follow up with a feature on the game after the weekend.

Also debating a road trip on Halloween weekend. I appear to be freed up and would like to get some suggestions on the best games in the country. If money and time works out, we’ll be there to cover another great game(or two games in the same area if possible).

Give me your suggestions in the comment section, the cs.com board, or email me at (my name with no spaces at cs.com)

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.