On the Prowl: Greener Grass in the FCS
UNI opened its season on Saturday with excitement and fervor. At one point they had a possible BCS participant gravely concerned about their chances of winning. Then BYU tacked on two more scores, one of which was merely for cosmetic purposes. 41-17 BYU. Game, set, match.
Various sports outlets can then gleefully point out how much of a blowout Bronco Mendenhall's Cougars put on the hapless FCS opponent out of Cedar Falls. It makes for keeping things in order. It got this writer thinking, however, as he watched genuinely disappointed UNI fans react at Beck's on Saturday: what if things had been seven points different? Let's say that UNI doesn't cough up the ball inside their own 20 in the 4th. BYU doesn't score that last six, and the final score reads 34-17. What would the pundits have said then? What if Pat Grace's run in the first had turned into a TD instead of a field goal? Then the final score could have easily been 34-21, BYU. What then?
Basically, BYU would have won. They rightfully should have been. It just makes you wonder what the response would have been from the Mark Mays and Kirk Herbstreits of the world if they saw that score instead. A loss is a loss. For BYU, it might be a little different.
BYU can feel good about their performance. When the score was at 27-17 in the 3rd and UNI fans began acting like the Jamaican bar patrons in "Cool Runnings," it became apparent that UNI would be no one's meal ticket. It would be incredibly patronizing to Brigham Young to think that they weren't aware of that, too. One gets a sense that BYU scheduled this game because they knew what kind of opponent Northern Iowa really was: a team that would battle you to the very end. If UNI was a warm-up game for the Cougars, then the Cougars have UNI to thank for reminding them that it won't be easy. In an area of the country where Portland States and Montana States would gladly make room for BYU or Utah, it must mean something that they chose an FCS power. Montana must have already been busy.
I'm sure no one understands the absurdity of the BCS system better than schools from conferences like the WAC and MWC. These are schools just on the outside, many times featuring teams that could hold their own in the Sugar Bowl. But it's not that you beat teams, apparently. It's WHO you beat and HOW you beat them. It's unfortunate that the BCS cared by how much the Cougars beat UNI. It's even more unfortunate that it still might not be enough.
Looking ahead, UNI has one loss on the year. It can afford to take maybe two more and still have a chance at the title. Of course two or three more losses aren't their intent, but I promise you that no one in FCS is going to care if UNI beats South Dakota by 20 or by 6. It's just that they beat them.
Good luck, BYU. You're gonna need it with such an absurdly stacked deck.
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UNI opened its season on Saturday with excitement and fervor. At one point they had a possible BCS participant gravely concerned about their chances of winning. Then BYU tacked on two more scores, one of which was merely for cosmetic purposes. 41-17 BYU. Game, set, match.
Various sports outlets can then gleefully point out how much of a blowout Bronco Mendenhall's Cougars put on the hapless FCS opponent out of Cedar Falls. It makes for keeping things in order. It got this writer thinking, however, as he watched genuinely disappointed UNI fans react at Beck's on Saturday: what if things had been seven points different? Let's say that UNI doesn't cough up the ball inside their own 20 in the 4th. BYU doesn't score that last six, and the final score reads 34-17. What would the pundits have said then? What if Pat Grace's run in the first had turned into a TD instead of a field goal? Then the final score could have easily been 34-21, BYU. What then?
Basically, BYU would have won. They rightfully should have been. It just makes you wonder what the response would have been from the Mark Mays and Kirk Herbstreits of the world if they saw that score instead. A loss is a loss. For BYU, it might be a little different.
BYU can feel good about their performance. When the score was at 27-17 in the 3rd and UNI fans began acting like the Jamaican bar patrons in "Cool Runnings," it became apparent that UNI would be no one's meal ticket. It would be incredibly patronizing to Brigham Young to think that they weren't aware of that, too. One gets a sense that BYU scheduled this game because they knew what kind of opponent Northern Iowa really was: a team that would battle you to the very end. If UNI was a warm-up game for the Cougars, then the Cougars have UNI to thank for reminding them that it won't be easy. In an area of the country where Portland States and Montana States would gladly make room for BYU or Utah, it must mean something that they chose an FCS power. Montana must have already been busy.
I'm sure no one understands the absurdity of the BCS system better than schools from conferences like the WAC and MWC. These are schools just on the outside, many times featuring teams that could hold their own in the Sugar Bowl. But it's not that you beat teams, apparently. It's WHO you beat and HOW you beat them. It's unfortunate that the BCS cared by how much the Cougars beat UNI. It's even more unfortunate that it still might not be enough.
Looking ahead, UNI has one loss on the year. It can afford to take maybe two more and still have a chance at the title. Of course two or three more losses aren't their intent, but I promise you that no one in FCS is going to care if UNI beats South Dakota by 20 or by 6. It's just that they beat them.
Good luck, BYU. You're gonna need it with such an absurdly stacked deck.
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