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NDSU finished its schedule, adding Ferris State (Mich.) for the Sept. 7 home opener. In prior years, a Division II opponent was considered a non-counter by the FCS playoff committee.

No longer.

In a surprise move that blindsided almost everybody including NDSU athletic director Gene Taylor, the FCS Championships Committee last week approved a new ratings system to gauge the quality of a team’s schedule. It will take into account games with Football Bowl Subdivision, FCS and Division II opponents.

http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id ... up/Sports/

Pretty stupid that they did this after everyone set their schedules, but it is the right move, IMO.

1). It's about damn time.

2). Where's JBB when you need him?

Finally - good move, especially for Western teams

So our game against Oklahoma Whateverthefucktheyare State will mean something?

I wonder how the non-scholly D-I games will compare to the D2 games

More pandering to the WC'ers.

CAA Flagship wrote:More pandering to the WC'ers.

And the excuse making begins early this year.

Level playing field bitches!

CAA Flagship wrote:More pandering to the WC'ers.

Yup... a case of that West Coast media bias we continue to hear about.

Finally, playing Grand Valley State > Valparaiso in the eyes of the committee

ECB Delaware v West Chester ruling

Gil Dobie wrote:ECB Delaware v West Chester ruling

You mean the "stick it to Delaware after they finally drop West Chester ruling", right?

SunCoastBlueHen wrote:

Gil Dobie wrote:ECB Delaware v West Chester ruling

You mean the "stick it to Delaware after they finally drop West Chester ruling", right?

Bring Back Chester!

“Then they introduce this new system,” he said. “There were 75 (athletic directors) in the room, and they were asked how many were playing a D-II and most raised their hand.”

Its not most. Number of schools playing a Div II from the 13 I-AA conferences:
Big Sky: 8 of 13
Big South: 5 of 6
CAA: 0 of 11
IVY: 0 of 8
MEAC: 5 of 11
MVFC: 4 of 10
NEC: 5 of 7
OVC: 4 of 9
Patriot: 0 of 7
Pioneer: 12 of 12 (What a joke. Most are playing multiple Div II AND Div III).
So Con: 2 of 9
Southland: 8 of 8 (counting Incarnate Word, Abilene Christian & Houston Baptist as Div II since in yr 1 of 4 yr transition from Div II to Div I.
SWAC: 7 of 10
Independent (non transitioning): 0 of 1 (Monmouth)

I count 60 of 122 playing a Div II. That's about 49% (and it would be lower if wasn't counting the 3 transitioning TX schools as Div II, whom all the Southland schools are playing). Far from "most".

".....“There will be levels of strength of schedule,” Taylor said. “For instance, a Division II win will not count as much as an FBS win. Home wins and road wins are also counted differently.”

Taylor said the exact formula still needs to be finalized, so it has yet to be publically released......"

Well, something like this might work:
Win over a Big 5: 5 points
Win over a non Big 5 I-A & I-AA transitioning up: 4 points
Win over a fully scholly I-AA: 3 points
Win over a non scholly I-AA & transitioning from Div II to I-AA: 2 points
Win over a Div II: 1 point

Maybe add on a 1/2 point if the game was on the road.

BDKJMU wrote:“Then they introduce this new system,” he said. “There were 75 (athletic directors) in the room, and they were asked how many were playing a D-II and most raised their hand.”

Its not most. Number of schools playing a Div II from the 13 I-AA conferences:
Big Sky: 8 of 13
Big South: 5 of 6
CAA: 0 of 11
IVY: 0 of 8
MEAC: 5 of 11
MVFC: 4 of 10
NEC: 5 of 7
OVC: 4 of 9
Patriot: 0 of 7
Pioneer: 12 of 12 (What a joke. Most are playing multiple Div II AND Div III).
So Con: 2 of 9
Southland: 8 of 8 (counting Incarnate Word, Abilene Christian & Houston Baptist as Div II since in yr 1 of 4 yr transition from Div II to Div I.
SWAC: 7 of 10
Independent (non transitioning): 0 of 1 (Monmouth)

I count 60 of 122 playing a Div II. That's about 49% (and it would be lower if wasn't counting the 3 transitioning TX schools as Div II, whom all the Southland schools are playing). Far from "most".

Compare scholarship funding and we'll talk.

BDKJMU wrote:“Then they introduce this new system,” he said. “There were 75 (athletic directors) in the room, and they were asked how many were playing a D-II and most raised their hand.”

I count 60 of 122 playing a Div II. That's about 49% (and it would be lower if wasn't counting the 3 transitioning TX schools as Div II, whom all the Southland schools are playing). Far from "most".

Do you know which AD's were in the room ?

Catattack wrote:

BDKJMU wrote:“Then they introduce this new system,” he said. “There were 75 (athletic directors) in the room, and they were asked how many were playing a D-II and most raised their hand.”

I count 60 of 122 playing a Div II. That's about 49% (and it would be lower if wasn't counting the 3 transitioning TX schools as Div II, whom all the Southland schools are playing). Far from "most".

Do you know which AD's were in the room ?

If we're going to a gradation system, surely they'd factor in a D-II/D-III/NAIA's relative power within their own division. There's got to be a difference between playing Shippensburg (10-0 last season before the playoffs) and playing Fort Lewis (0-9).

I see two big things:

1- Separation of the better conferences (MVFC, Big Sky, CAA, Southland) from the not-so-good conferences. It will be even harder now for some leagues to land an at-large bid to the playoffs with schedule strength.

2- FCS continues to water down & I'm afraid you're going to see more D-2 games played. Speaking from years of experience watching Delaware play West Chester I can tell you these games are bad for FCS.

bluehenbillk wrote:I see two big things:

1- Separation of the better conferences (MVFC, Big Sky, CAA, Southland) from the not-so-good conferences. It will be even harder now for some leagues to land an at-large bid to the playoffs with schedule strength.

2- FCS continues to water down & I'm afraid you're going to see more D-2 games played. Speaking from years of experience watching Delaware play West Chester I can tell you these games are bad for FCS.

I think it depends on how much weight the ranking system gives to DII. Just because they "count" doesn't necessarily mean teams will benefit from them compared to a team that plays an all DI schedule.

SuperHornet wrote:If we're going to a gradation system, surely they'd factor in a D-II/D-III/NAIA's relative power within their own division. There's got to be a difference between playing Shippensburg (10-0 last season before the playoffs) and playing Fort Lewis (0-9).

Then you'd have to factor in I-AAs and I-A's relative power within their own division. But it shouldn't be some complicated computer formula that no one understands. Something like this might work:

Win over a Big 5: 25 points + 1 point for every opponents win.
Win over a non Big 5 I-A & I-AA transitioning up: 20 points + 1 point for every opponents win.
Win over I-AA (except Pioneer): 15 points + 1 point for every opponents win
Win over an Pioneer & transitioning from Div II to I-AA: 10 points + 1 point for every opponents win.
Win over a Div II: 5 point + 1 point for every opponents win.

+ 2 points if win was on road, +1 point if win was at neutral site.

danefan wrote:

bluehenbillk wrote:I see two big things:

1- Separation of the better conferences (MVFC, Big Sky, CAA, Southland) from the not-so-good conferences. It will be even harder now for some leagues to land an at-large bid to the playoffs with schedule strength.

2- FCS continues to water down & I'm afraid you're going to see more D-2 games played. Speaking from years of experience watching Delaware play West Chester I can tell you these games are bad for FCS.

I think it depends on how much weight the ranking system gives to DII. Just because they "count" doesn't necessarily mean teams will benefit from them compared to a team that plays an all DI schedule.

Yep.

Wouldn't it make sense to count the DII games if some FBS conferences were no longer going to allow games against FCS? Either way, those games shouldn't count for much. If you're headed to LSU to collect a big check for a beat down, that shouldn't get you playoff consideration any more than a cupcake game against some community college.
But if teams lose the FBS games and can't get credit for DII games, then they're faced with playing a full FCS schedule ---God forbid---and many teams just won't stand for that, either because the FCS teams demand bigger paychecks than DII or because they want a warm up game.

BDKJMU wrote:

SuperHornet wrote:If we're going to a gradation system, surely they'd factor in a D-II/D-III/NAIA's relative power within their own division. There's got to be a difference between playing Shippensburg (10-0 last season before the playoffs) and playing Fort Lewis (0-9).

Then you'd have to factor in I-AAs and I-A's relative power within their own division. But it shouldn't be some complicated computer formula that no one understands. Something like this might work:

Win over a Big 5: 25 points + 1 point for every opponents win.
Win over a non Big 5 I-A & I-AA transitioning up: 20 points + 1 point for every opponents win.
Win over I-AA (except NEC): 15 points + 1 point for every opponents win
Win over an NEC & transitioning from Div II to I-AA: 10 points + 1 point for every opponents win.
Win over a Div II: 5 point + 1 point for every opponents win.

+ 2 points if win was on road, +1 point if win was at neutral site.

In general, I would agree with that, with one caveat. Why single out just the NEC? Under current conditions, the Pioneer would seem to be just as bad, if not worse. And one could name a couple of other conferences as well....