unbelievable opening week for fcs schools

[texhooper]

Towson 33 Connecticut 18
North Dakota State 24 Kansas State 21
Northern Iowa 28 Iowa State 20
Eastern Illinois 40 San Diego State 18
McNeese State 53 South Florida 21
Eastern Washington 49 Oregon State 46

and Southern Illinois gave Illinois all they could handle and William and Mary did the same to West Virginia.

i cannot in my life recall this many fcs schools winning or contending in opening weekend.

[Mac4Lyfe]

Lots of parity. Reduced scholarships and kids wanting to play right away has evened the playing field.

[Mac4Lyfe]

Ohio States OOC schedule just got worst...

Eastern Illinois 40 San Diego State 18

[texhooper]

Haha yeah that's right. That was one of the few feathers in their cap.

40-18, come the fukk on sdsu

[gojetsgomoxies]

Lots of parity. Reduced scholarships and kids wanting to play right away has evened the playing field.

agreed, internet and regional TV has made the world alot smaller.... one of the secular themes i play (although a little at odds with another key theme - underachieving teams in football rich states are usually really good bets)

[gojetsgomoxies]

one thing i'd add is that FCS completely obliterated a ton of ATS spreads but alot of FCS ATS losses were pretty small (i mean how many points can u lose ATS by when you get 61.5 nichols state?)

[Mac4Lyfe]

Agreed... Especially teams that are in states that have good organized football.

agreed, internet and regional TV has made the world alot smaller.... one of the secular themes i play (although a little at odds with another key theme - underachieving teams in football rich states are usually really good bets)

[gojetsgomoxies]

Agreed... Especially teams that are in states that have good organized football.

yup, teams like north texas can bounce back really strongly............................. apparently UTEP's new coach is held in incredibly high regard. and i presume mike price's time had past (if it was ever even his time)....... first year coaches are terrible)

[J_smiff]

Seems like every single FCS team in the +14 to +21 range covered with ease and most of em won the damn thing.

[Wojo]

Lots of parity. Reduced scholarships and kids wanting to play right away has evened the playing field.

I assume you realize that the last time FBS/D1 football scholarships were reduced was in 1992 to the current level of 85.

Just FYI, FCS football scholarships are limited to 63 for a school.

So obviously the reduced scholarship move that is over 20 years old is not a factor in the FCS improvement.

I do agree with you that players wanting to play early is a factor.

I also believe that there is a huge widening amongst the populace of an improvement in the conditioning, strength, and physical abilities of young athletes. In other words, a boatload more of high quality athletes to go around.