Hero Sports top 25 FCS

Virginia Redbird

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Hero Sports has the Redbirds at #12 for the 2020 season, if it goes. NDUS is # of course, SDSU is #2, and NIU is #3. SIU came in at #23. They cite the dominating defenses for both SDSU and NIU as reasons for their high ranking. It says ISU will have one of the most feared defenses in FCS this coming season but obviously they don't put the Redbirds D on par with SDSU or UNI. Pre-season rankings mean absolutely nothing but something to talk about. Almost all the "experts" picked Alabama two years ago and most of the same "experts" picked Clemson to repeat last season. You still have to play the games. It all comes down to how Brady and the receiving corps play this year I think. Are they all healthy? I think the running game will be fine even with losing JR. The O-line should be solid and it will probably be running game more by committee but we will have to wait and see. I am a bit more optimistic I guess. I thought Brady was really hitting his stride when he was injured and was really playing well. The receiving corps was banged up all year in 2019 and should be better in 2020. There is a stable of young but running backs and a pretty good O-line. The Birds don't play SDSU this season and have to travel to UNI and NDSU. That is two tough away games on the schedule but if the Birds can take at least one of those games they should be in good shape. They have Eastern Illinois, South Dakota, Southern Illinois, Western Illinois, North Dakota and Dixie State at home. Missouri State and Indiana State are the other away games besides U of Illinois. They probably have to win either the UNI or NDSU game but I like the way the schedule lays out. Let's hope we play them!

 

RedbirdSoxFan

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Jul 19, 2017
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Hero Sports has the Redbirds at #12 for the 2020 season, if it goes. NDUS is # of course, SDSU is #2, and NIU is #3. SIU came in at #23. They cite the dominating defenses for both SDSU and NIU as reasons for their high ranking. It says ISU will have one of the most feared defenses in FCS this coming season but obviously they don't put the Redbirds D on par with SDSU or UNI. Pre-season rankings mean absolutely nothing but something to talk about. Almost all the "experts" picked Alabama two years ago and most of the same "experts" picked Clemson to repeat last season. You still have to play the games. It all comes down to how Brady and the receiving corps play this year I think. Are they all healthy? I think the running game will be fine even with losing JR. The O-line should be solid and it will probably be running game more by committee but we will have to wait and see. I am a bit more optimistic I guess. I thought Brady was really hitting his stride when he was injured and was really playing well. The receiving corps was banged up all year in 2019 and should be better in 2020. There is a stable of young but running backs and a pretty good O-line. The Birds don't play SDSU this season and have to travel to UNI and NDSU. That is two tough away games on the schedule but if the Birds can take at least one of those games they should be in good shape. They have Eastern Illinois, South Dakota, Southern Illinois, Western Illinois, North Dakota and Dixie State at home. Missouri State and Indiana State are the other away games besides U of Illinois. They probably have to win either the UNI or NDSU game but I like the way the schedule lays out. Let's hope we play them!

Northern Illinois joined the MVFC?
 

ISUBU

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8-3 is a lock for the playoffs. 7-4 is probably OK, but iffy, and this is pretty much true for us year in and year out. If we win all 6 home games, and two of the five on the road, we'll be in.

Any team that has a winning season in the MVFC has a solid chance to win playoff games. Basically we play a playoff caliber team in around 8 of our games.
 

redbirdfan04

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Aug 1, 2017
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8-3 is a lock for the playoffs. 7-4 is probably OK, but iffy, and this is pretty much true for us year in and year out. If we win all 6 home games, and two of the five on the road, we'll be in.

Any team that has a winning season in the MVFC has a solid chance to win playoff games. Basically we play a playoff caliber team in around 8 of our games.

Don't show this post to SIU after last year.! I still can't believe they were left out but that is how the bubble works. Also I really liked how the coached owned saying they didn't do enough.
 

fourthandshort

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8-3 is a lock for the playoffs. 7-4 is probably OK, but iffy, and this is pretty much true for us year in and year out. If we win all 6 home games, and two of the five on the road, we'll be in.

Any team that has a winning season in the MVFC has a solid chance to win playoff games. Basically we play a playoff caliber team in around 8 of our games.
I think 7-4 in the MVFC, should usually be close to a lock for playoffs. Typically that means 5-3 in MVFC and 2-1 in OOC with an FBS loss. And given the MVFC playoff results the last 10 years, where our at large bids have clearly out-performed all the other top conferences. I crunched all the records by conference on AGS. But MVFC playoff record since 2011, excluding NDSU, was something like 25-12. No other conference was close, with or without their top teams. I'll see if I can find my file and post here. But last year's MVFC playoff results bore that out once again.

Anyway, if we go 7-4 this year, we should be a playoff lock. MVFC is the top conference of the last decade. No other conference has our depth, nor our ability to play both sides of ball. All the computer polls and playoff results point to these facts.
 
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