Beat the Yotes

[Blue42]

Well that was fun. An old school UNI win with some clutch defensive plays late to seal it.

3 of 4 over top 10 ranked teams. Wow.

[7YrsOfCollegeDownTheDrain]

Great win today...3/4 vs top ten teams is a great run. If we could get more consistent O Line play it would be amazing.

Now we need to avoid the trap and win out.

[UNIDadx3]

Tied for second with the Jacks and one game out of first. Jacks and Bison both have to play Coyotes yet.
Correction: Coyotes and Illinois State are also tied with us for 2nd. However they both have the Bison on schedule yet.

[Blue42]

Watched a few plays on replay.

Still trying to figure out the phantom holding call that cost us 70 yards on Rima's punt return. Looked clean as can be.

Mysteriously the ref dropped a black bean bag where Rima caught the punt but didn't ever drop a yellow flag. But after Rima busts it to the USD 10 yard line, now there's a hold 60 yards back. Huh?

Watched it 7 times and couldn't find a hint of a hold.

[7YrsOfCollegeDownTheDrain]

that play had me a little confused...the block in the back which was probably there was dropped late and like you...i never saw the hold flag on the field. I haven't watched the replay yet but i will just to see what's there.

[Panther'73]

Tied for second with the Jacks and one game out of first. Jacks and Bison both have to play Coyotes yet.

Also in 2nd is SDSU and I’ll. St. - 4 way tie...

[UNIDadx3]

I stand corrected. However, USD and Ill St. have Bison on schedule yet along with the Jacks.

[run&blade]

Hater the play calling today. Way too much running when it was t working. You can’t count on three turnovers every week to bail out horrible play calling.

Uni needs to throw the bomb once a quarter just to take a shot.

The Dakota turnovers were killers for them.

[Blue42]

Also in 2nd is SDSU and I’ll. St. - 4 way tie...

Tied with USD and SDSU but beat both head to head.

Illinois State's got two tough games left.

We take care of business vs #9 and #10 in conference and we got 2nd.

NDSUs last two games are no picnic either.

[Panthers to the Bone]

Random thought...what if NDSU/SDSU/UNI all finish with 6-2 records...who gets the auto?

[sevelev711]

Random thought...what if NDSU/SDSU/UNI all finish with 6-2 records...who gets the auto?

This was an interesting question to me, especially since tiebreak rules always vary conference to conference, and they can all get stupid pretty quickly. Luckily, the MVFC is pretty straight forward, and leave us in a pretty interesting position. Rule 1 of a three-way tie says that if a two-way tie is applicable, use those rules instead. Rule 2 is simple round robin if applicable. It is, and all teams went 1-1 round robin, so we move onto the first of the more complicated rules, rule 3.

Per MVFC, rule 3 of a three way tie:

If the tied teams all played one another and have identical records against the other tied teams, then each team’s record against all common opponent s in the league will be used to determine the automatic bid. If teams are still tied, then each team’s record against the next highest common opponent in the league standings will be used to determine the automatic bid.

So it's a comparison of the records against the following teams: Youngstown, South Dak, Western Ill, and Missouri St, as UNI doesn't play Ill State, SDSU doesn't play Indiana St, and NDSU doesn't play Southern Ill.

In which case, it's UNI 2-1, with one game left (MSU), SDSU 2-1, with one game left (SoDak), NDSU 3-0 with one left (also SoDak). If NDSU wins against South Dakota next weekend, then they get the bid, no matter what, going 4-0 against common opponent. However, say they lose to SoDak and SDSU wins, making everyone 6-2 and 3-1 against common opponents, what happens? Well, then we look at the second part of rule 3:

If teams are still tied, then each team’s record against the next highest common opponent in the league standings will be used to determine the automatic bid.

In this scenario, in which UNI and SDSU win out (relatively likely, considering the opponents), NDSU drops to SD, the second part states that we go against the highest common opponent, who is non other than South Dakota. For this rule, UNI is 1-0, SDSU is 1-0, and NDSU is 0-1. Therefore, NDSU drops to third, and it's just down to UNI and SDSU. So now what happens? Well, rule 1 of three-way tie-breaker states that if it's narrowed down to two teams, you look at the two-way tiebreakers. And Rule 1 of the two-way tiebreaker is simply:

In there is a two-team tie following the round-robin results and the two tied teams played each other, the winner of the game will be declared champion.

And since UNI beat SDSU in their only meeting of the season:

UNI can win the MVFC autobid via tiebreakers, and all that needs to happen is Northern Iowa and South Dakota State win out and North Dakota State falls to South Dakota next weekend.

[vbfan19]

that play had me a little confused...the block in the back which was probably there was dropped late and like you...i never saw the hold flag on the field. I haven't watched the replay yet but i will just to see what's there.

I saw the block in the back on the immediate replay on the video board. but that was at the very end of the play, and wouldn't that have been assessed from the spot of the foul? If so, it would have been UNI ball well into USD territory.

Never saw any flags thrown at all. Was very weird officiating.

[havok58]

That's where I saw the block in the back as well, which is probably why why USD declined that one and took the holding penalty that occurred somewhere near the beginning of the return.

[achrist70]

There wasn’t another flag on the field

[havok58]

UNI can win the MVFC autobid via tiebreakers, and all that needs to happen is Northern Iowa and South Dakota State win out and North Dakota State falls to South Dakota next weekend.

Thanks for that research, but what happens if Illinois State and South Dakota finish with a 6-2 record with UNI? (just to add another layer of difficulty when you were figuring all of those scenarios out )

I would figure USD would be the first eliminated in the tiebreaker process because they got beat by UNI and ISU. Then it would be between UNI and ISU. Both have played the same common opponents and finished 6-2, but UNI beat Southern Illinois (which ISU lost to) and lost to NDSU (which in this scenario ISU would beat). Then the part of the third tiebreaker would be the record of the next highest common opponent in league standings. If NDSU loses out they finish 5-3. If SDSU loses out they would be 4-4. And USD wins out to finish 6-2. Which we start at the beginning again, or do they go to the next highest common opponent, which would be NDSU since they both beat USD?