If the playoffs had been expanded in 2009...

[dbackjon]

What additional at-larges would have made it.

With 2010 expansion, Stony Brook and CCSU would have gotten auto-bids. What two additional at-larges were next in line?

I vote Lafayette and UNI.

Had the Pioneer gotten an auto-bid, adding another at-large, that would have gone to Liberty.

thoughts?

[dbackjon]

Other contenders, IMHO:
FAMU
Colgate
Albany

If you ignore the 7 D-1 suggestion, add
Montana State
Texas State



Really not many options

[bandl]

.....then JMU would have won the whole damn thing!!!

[dbackjon]

.....then JMU would have won the whole damn thing!!!

OF course. Silly of me.

[danefan]

I think Liberty would have gotten an at-large over Lafayette (head-to-head).

UNI would have been the 10th and Lafayette the 11th.

FAMU and Colgate on the outside looking in.

Albany didn't deserve an at-large last year in any scenario.

[bandl]

.....then JMU would have won the whole damn thing!!!

OF course. Silly of me.

Just kidding.

But at the very least it would have been an All-CAA semi-final.

[MrTitleist]

20 seems like too many teams.. there's usually a couple of questionable fringe teams anyways, this is just going to further propagate that.

[BlueHen86]

I think Liberty would have gotten an at-large over Lafayette (head-to-head).

UNI would have been the 10th and Lafayette the 11th.

FAMU and Colgate on the outside looking in.

Albany didn't deserve an at-large last year in any scenario.

I think 9-2 Colgate gets in over 8-3 Lafayette.

[JALMOND]

If the playoffs had been expanded this year, Portland State still would not have made it, Glanville would have still been fired the day after the season ended, and I still would have had to cheer on Montana through the playoffs. Nothing would have changed.

[Mvemjsunpx]

I think 9-2 Colgate gets in over 8-3 Lafayette.

Except Lafayette beat Colgate…

[BlueHen86]

I think 9-2 Colgate gets in over 8-3 Lafayette.

Except Lafayette beat Colgate…

If Colgate and Lafayette had identical records, then I would use head-to-head as a tie breaker. But they weren't tied, Colgate had a better record. Colgate also beat Lehigh, who beat Lafayette.

[CAA Flagship]

Except Lafayette beat Colgate…

If Colgate and Lafayette had identical records, then I would use head-to-head as a tie breaker. But they weren't tied, Colgate had a better record. Colgate also beat Lehigh, who beat Lafayette.

28 teams qualified with 7 D-1 wins. Old Dominion was one of them. Certainly not one of the top 20 teams but where would you put them in the 28?

Only relevant comparison:
UR 38 VMI 28 at UR
ODU 45 VMI 35 at VMI

[dbackjon]

They would be ahead of the Pioneer teams

[Mvemjsunpx]

Except Lafayette beat Colgate…

If Colgate and Lafayette had identical records, then I would use head-to-head as a tie breaker. But they weren't tied, Colgate had a better record. Colgate also beat Lehigh, who beat Lafayette.

You're not serious, are you? Colgate had a crap schedule & beat nobody good. The Raiders were a legitimate top-25 team (barely), but Lafayette beat them & there's no meaningful separation otherwise.

[BlueHen86]

If Colgate and Lafayette had identical records, then I would use head-to-head as a tie breaker. But they weren't tied, Colgate had a better record. Colgate also beat Lehigh, who beat Lafayette.

You're not serious, are you? Colgate had a crap schedule & beat nobody good. The Raiders were a legitimate top-25 team (barely), but Lafayette beat them & there's no meaningful separation otherwise.

Yeah I'm serious - are you serious? They play in the same conference and finished in a three way tie second with Lehigh. The idea that one played a tougher schedule than the other is just plain stupid.
OCC games for Colgate: Monmouth, Stony Brook and Dartmouth
OCC games for Lafayette: Yale, Liberty and Penn

Neither is a great OOC schedule, except that Lafayette lost to one of the "crap" teams they played. Note that Colgate went 3-0 OOC, Lafayette went 2-1 losing to Liberty.
Colgate beat Stony Brook and Stony Brook beat Liberty.

9-2 versus 8-3 is all the meaningful separation I need. You can't just look at one game, you have to look at the whole resume, and Colgate's resume is better.

Oh yeah, Lafayette also lost their last two games, they weren't exactly playing well come selection time.

[Mvemjsunpx]

Yeah I'm serious - are you serious? They play in the same conference and finished in a three way tie second with Lehigh.
OCC games for Colgate: Monmouth, Stony Brook and Dartmouth
OCC games for Lafayette: Georgetown, Liberty and Penn

Neither is a great OOC schedule, except that Lafayette lost to one of the "crap" teams they played. Note that Colgate went 3-0 OOC, Lafayette went 2-1 losing to Liberty.
Colgate beat Stony Brook and Stony Brook beat Liberty.

9-2 versus 8-3 is all the meaningful separation I need. You can't just look at one game, you have to look at the whole resume, and Colgate's resume is better.

Since when is Liberty a "crap" team? And Lafayette also beat Ivy champ Penn, certainly not a crap team either. All Colgate did was beat Stony Brook when they sucked early in the year. Also, if you'd actually looked at the entire resumes for both teams, you would've noticed that they played 5 non-conference games instead of 3 (the PL only has 7 teams).

• Non-conf. opponent record
  
  Colgate: 19-33
  Lafayette: 31-20

Not even close…

[BlueHen86]

Yeah I'm serious - are you serious? They play in the same conference and finished in a three way tie second with Lehigh.
OCC games for Colgate: Monmouth, Stony Brook and Dartmouth
OCC games for Lafayette: Georgetown, Liberty and Penn

Neither is a great OOC schedule, except that Lafayette lost to one of the "crap" teams they played. Note that Colgate went 3-0 OOC, Lafayette went 2-1 losing to Liberty.
Colgate beat Stony Brook and Stony Brook beat Liberty.

9-2 versus 8-3 is all the meaningful separation I need. You can't just look at one game, you have to look at the whole resume, and Colgate's resume is better.

Since when is Liberty a "crap" team? And Lafayette also beat Ivy champ Penn, certainly not a crap team either. All Colgate did was beat Stony Brook when they sucked early in the year. Also, if you'd actually looked at the entire resumes for both teams, you would've noticed that they played 5 non-conference games instead of 3 (the PL only has 7 teams).

• Non-conf. opponent record
  
  Colgate: 19-33
  Lafayette: 31-20

Not even close…

So wait, Colgates win over Stony Brook doesn't count because it was early? Once again, you have to look at the whole resume, you can't excuse games away because they don't fit your argument.

Using your logic, I'm gonna eliminate Lafayettes wins because they came early. When it counted down the stretch, Lafayette was 0-2.

[Mvemjsunpx]

So wait, Colgates win over Stony Brook doesn't count because it was early?

Apparently you didn't read what I said. The SBU win wasn't great because SBU was a crappy team early in the year (started 2-4, finished 4-1;). And regardless or how much you want to count the Stony Brook win, that still doesn't erase the fact that Lafayette's NC schedule was clearly tougher (as I pointed out above). Lafayette played 3 NC opponents w/ winning records (Harvard, Liberty, Penn), while Colgate only played 1 (SBU) and that team was barely above .500.

I'm not a big fan of computer rankings for college football, but I think it's worth noting that every single one of the computer rankings used for the GPI had Lafayette above Colgate (link).


As I argued before, the independent resumes of Colgate & Lafayette were pretty close to equal, thus the head-to-head result should decide things.

[BlueHen86]

So wait, Colgates win over Stony Brook doesn't count because it was early?

Apparently you didn't read what I said. The SBU win wasn't great because SBU was a crappy team early in the year (started 2-4, finished 4-1;). And regardless or how much you want to count the Stony Brook win, that still doesn't erase the fact that Lafayette's NC schedule was clearly tougher (as I pointed out above). Lafayette played 3 NC opponents w/ winning records (Harvard, Liberty, Penn), while Colgate only played 1 (SBU) and that team was barely above .500.

I'm not a big fan of computer rankings for college football, but I think it's worth noting that every single one of the computer rankings used for the GPI had Lafayette above Colgate (link).


As I argued before, the independent resumes of Colgate & Lafayette were pretty close to equal, thus the head-to-head result should decide things.

We'll have to agree to disagree here. I don't see how an 8-3 team, that finished with 2 straight losses, gets in over a 9-2 team; especially when they are in the same conference and had identical conference records.