Looking Forward-Part 2

Forum Forum Lehigh Sports Lehigh Football Looking Forward-Part 2

This topic contains 19 replies, has 6 voices, and was last updated by van van 7 years, 4 months ago.

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  • #29205

    TMH
    Participant

    From the Coach’s Poll, the following teams lost today

    #6 Richmond to #5 James Madison
    #9 Charleston Southern
    #13 Youngstown St. to #4 North Dakota St.
    #14 Western Illinois
    #18 Samford
    #24 Western Illinois
    #25 Stony Brook

    #3 Eastern Washington is still playing #16 Cal Poly
    #1 and #20 Montana have yet to finish their games

    #21 Lehigh should move up a minimum of 2 or 3 slots IMHO

    #29210

    Miller
    Participant

    The only poll that matters is the last one. Polls didn’t matter in 2012. Lets just hope for a playoff match-up that is close to home and competitive.

    #29211

    hawktalker
    Participant

    The value of polls right now is to inform the speculation about who Lehigh will play in the first round of the playoffs.
    I hope we don’t get a Villanova rematch. Not that we can’t beat them but let’s see someone else

    #29212

    TMH
    Participant

    The only poll that matters is the last one

    If that is the case then we need not show up to a football game until the 4th qtr. The beauty of athletics should include the journey.
    The purpose of my post was to lend some anticipation to who and where our 1st matchup will be. The higher we move up the polls, the better chance we have of playing a more “competitive” opponent. The 1st round is typically regional so we will likely play someone within a 6 hour drive. I’m not sure how the bid process works exactly but this President appears to be far more likely to entertain putting in a bid for a home game. It is 2 weeks until our next game….but there is so much to look forward to.

    #29217

    TMH
    Participant

    The only 2 teams in the FCS playoffs so far are the only 2 teams that Kevin Higgins was the head coach.

    #29218
    van
    van
    Participant

    playoff games are set by regional proximity to minimize travel, other than the 8 teams that are seeded, unless Nova gets a seed they are a distinct possibility for a match up, UNH or St Francis also a potential match

    polls have little to do with our first round opponent

    #29220

    TMH
    Participant

    van,
    I’m trying to wrap my head around this. Let’s assume that Richmond drops out of the top 8 after it’s loss to James Madison. Let’s also assume that Lehigh, Villanova, New Hampshire and Richmond are all in. I would assume that those 4 teams may play each other and St. Francis goes to Youngstown St. Would they likely match Lehigh and New Hampshire against each other although they are both currently ranked around #20 and Villanova vs Richmond even though they would both be around #10 simply because Lehigh is the closest team to New Hampshire and Villanova is closest to Richmond?

    #29221
    van
    van
    Participant

    committee has gone on record in past as saying no conference re-matches in first game played, so in the case you described we could get UNH or Nova, Richmond would likely get big south or southern opponent, a lot of speculation of course

    #29222

    hawktalker
    Participant

    One bracketologist (College Sports Madness) has Lehigh playing St. Francis with the winner then playing JMU.
    Looking at St. Francis’s facility we should host. They must still play CCSU and Wagner. They started the season 1-3 (losses to Montana, Towson and Albany) but have since won 5 in a row.

    #29224

    hawktalker
    Participant

    Another site (nobowls.com) has Lehigh hosting UNH with the winner playing Central Arkansas

    #29225

    TMH
    Participant

    The game to watch this week may be Villanova vs James Madison. The winner may be the front runner for the automatic bye.

    #29228
    van
    van
    Participant

    there is no such thing as an automatic bye, the selection committee will seed 8 teams (only 8) which get byes, the remaining 16 teams get matched up based on regional proximity with goal of minimizing plane trips and avoiding conference re-matches, last week the committee identified their top ten teams and will update this list Nov 10, if season ended today seeds would theoretically come from this lis

    Rank School
    1 Jacksonville State
    2 Sam Houston State
    3 Eastern Washington
    4 North Dakota State
    5 James Madison
    6 The Citadel
    7 Richmond
    8 Chattanooga
    9 Charleston Southern
    10 Central Arkansas

    here is a useful link:

    http://www.ncaa.com/news/football/article/2016-11-03/college-football-rankings-jacksonville-state-seizes-top-spot-fcs

    #29230

    TMH
    Participant

    Two of the teams on that list (Richmond and Charleston Southern) lost on Saturday. That list will be revised accordingly. If Villanova beats James Madison on Saturday, the list will likely be revised again.

    #29231

    TMH
    Participant

    But thanks for the link van. I appreciate the information.

    #29235

    richb-1
    Participant

    I think the best path deep into the playoffs is to avoid teams we have played in the past. Teams we have never played before usually seem to underestimate. I doubt St Francis would underestimate, us but we would likely be the favorite. Richmond, New Hampshire, Villanova, JMU know what we can do in postseason. But think Back to UNI, Western Illinois, Murray St.

    So among the teams possibly getting a bye, it might be nice to have Sam Huston, Central Ark, Jacksonville, Chattanoga. Teams where 90% of their fans think we are Lee High School.

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