Spring 2021 FCS: Scouting for the next Donald Parham

[Tank55]

Nevertheless as an alum of an FCS school why the hell not?

Which school?

The distribution will be very interesting. A lot of these games would have been on ESPN+ in the fall, so I assume it won't take a lot to get them on a real ESPN network if there's a time slot available. I wonder if FS1 or CBSSN tries to get into the action at all.

[MGB01]

EWU, overlapped with Michael Roos, Erik Meyer, Raul Vijil (actually had a VCD class with him my junior year), and Isaiah Trufant.

Be lit as hell too with Eags favored to win the Big Sky in basketball and a preseason top 20 in football.............at the same time (and former all Big Sky safety Dehonta Hayes, big-time XFL prospect, will be playing for the Shock). Hopefully things calm way the F down by Feb-March.

[Tank55]

Nice! Hope you didn't sustain too much retina damage looking at that field.

I went to William & Mary. Was there for part of the glory years, when we went to the semis a few times and dropped UVA.

[Tank55]

WAC getting back into football, raiding Southland

Sam Houston State, Stephen F. Austin, Lamar and Abilene Christian are expected to join the Western Athletic Conference to create a new FCS football conference, multiple sources have confirmed to Texas Football.

In addition to the four new Texas schools, Big Sky member Southern Utah is expected to join the WAC as well. That would bring the WAC up to 14 total member institutions with seven FCS football-playing members. The WAC has not fielded football since 2012, but it has been an open secret that the league hopes to add it once again.

There is also a belief that the WAC will attempt to find an eighth football-playing member to round out the conference. An FCS league must field at least six eligible teams to earn an auto-bid to the FCS Playoffs. Two of the seven members – Tarleton State and Dixie State – will be ineligible as they transition from Division II to FCS.

https://www.texasfootball.com/article/2 ... conference

Matt Brown reports that the target for the eighth school is Weber State, but that's it's unlikely that the WAC will succeed. I believe this would also put the Southland at 7 schools, so I'd think they would pursue an eighth as well if the conference is going to continue.

[MGB01]

I'd rather drop Northern Colorado or one of the Cali schools before Weber State, being that WSU is one the original "running" four (Idaho State and the Montanas). In fact UNC joined when I was at EWU, I never thought it did anything for the league except mess up the basketball schedule. Although I've never been a fan of odd numbered leagues, and just SUU leaving brings it back down to 12/10.

[Tank55]

Updated plans for each conference

The NCAA has approved an FCS spring playoff that is reduced from 24 schools to 16. Pairings will be announced on April 18 and four rounds of games will begin the following weekend and continue through a championship over the May 14-16 weekend.

http://www.fcs.football/cfb/story.asp?i ... m=&src=FCS

Full summary at link. Here's my distillation:

- Independents: Tarleton begins Feb 13; Dixie State begins Feb. 27.
- MVC: Conference play begins Feb. 19
- MEAC: Conference play begins Feb. 20; non-conference play allowed
- SoCon: Conference play begins Feb. 20
- Southland: Conference play begins Feb. 20; non-conference play allowed
- OVC: Conference play begins Feb. 21; non-conference play allowed
- SWAC: Conference play begins Feb. 26; non-conference play allowed
- Big Sky: Conference play begins Feb. 27
- Northeast: Conference play begins March 5
- CAA: Conference play begins March 6; non-conference play allowed
- Big South: Conference play begins March 13
- Pioneer: Conference play begins March 13
- Patriot: Plan still TBA
- Ivy: Not playing

[Tank55]

MEAC revises schedule after opt-outs

Saturday, February 20
Delaware State at Morgan State
NC Central at SC State
Norfolk State at Howard

Saturday, February 27
SC State at North Carolina A&T

Saturday, March 6
Howard at Delaware State
NC Central at North Carolina A&T
Norfolk State at Morgan State

Saturday, March 20
Delaware State at Norfolk State
Morgan State at Howard
SC State at NC Central

Saturday, March 27
North Carolina A&T at SC State

Saturday, April 3
Howard at Norfolk State
Morgan State at Delaware State
North Carolina A&T at NC Central

Saturday, April 10
Delaware at Delaware State (non-conference)

Saturday, April 17
MEAC Championship

https://fbschedules.com/meac-releases-r ... -schedule/

[Tank55]

Patriot League announces format; Georgetown opts out

The Patriot League's half dozen football teams will be split into two three-team divisions for the 2021 spring season. Colgate, Fordham and Holy Cross will play in the North Division. Bucknell, Lafayette and Lehigh will play in the South Division. Teams will play each divisional opponent once with two non-divisional games. The League schedule is set to begin on Saturday, March 13, and conclude on Saturday, April 17, with a championship game between the two division winners. There is a make-up weekend scheduled for the weekend of April 10. The Georgetown football program will forgo participation in the spring 2021 season. If conditions allow and within permissible local and federal guidelines, the Hoyas will work to bring football student-athletes back for training in the spring in preparation for the traditional fall 2021 football season.

https://patriotleague.org/news/2021/1/7 ... -2021.aspx

[Tank55]

Indiana State opts out of the Spring 2021 Missouri Valley Football Conference season. League will now have to revise their schedule.

https://twitter.com/FBSchedules/status/ ... 0694848512

Boooo!

[Tank55]

(1/2) I’m told #FCS conference officials did reach out to ESPN for potential consideration of an FCS Game of the Week to be aired on one of ESPN’s network channels. However, the spring TV schedule is as full as ever and this doesn’t seem likely to happen.

(2/2) Conferences are still exploring lots of different options for airing games to a national audience on top of streaming services that conferences already have on different platforms like ESPN+, ESPN3, FloSports, Pluto TV

https://twitter.com/SamHerderFCS/status ... 6863233024

Huge bummer, and I'm surprised that there wasn't any interest. Here's hoping they can make it happen with FOX or someone.