Stony Brook #10 in both major polls released today. First time this has happened since 2012 I believe!! Great for the program and our playoff odds.
STATS:
http://www.fcs.football/cfb/polls.asp?div=fcsCoaches:
https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/football/fcs/fcs-coaches-pollTo preface what I'm about to say:
BEAT ALBANY. None of this matters if we don't beat the puppy dogs.
JMU is head of us in both, but plays Towson this weekend. The committee doesn't go off of polls, but I think if we're the highest ranked CAA team, that will look good come seeing time and bode well for who we get in the playoffs. If the CAA gets six teams in, I'm 99% sure we'd be matched up against one of the teams we didn't play in the first round. Maine and Elon would both fit the bill. Out of those, I'd rather face Elon due to their injury issues late, but we'll see. With the geographic angle the committee takes, I see virtually no way the committee puts six CAA teams in the playoff while avoiding a first round conference matchup. If we're real lucky we get the NEC champion (Duquesne, CCSU, or Sacred Heart) at home, but despite being a top 10 team I don't think we'll get that lucky. If there are six CAA teams in, they're going to have at least two of them play each other round one to thin the herd.
I'm hoping for a miracle there's enough chaos around the country for us to get a seed and first round bye. Best way for that I
think is Kennesaw State beating Jacksonville State, Elon beating Maine, JMU beating Towson, and ETSU beating Samford to win the SoCon (and hoping they give us the seed at 8-3 over a 9-2 SoCon champ ETSU). Colgate losing to Army would also help, but that might not matter. Weber, Eastern Washington, UC Davis, and Wofford are all significant favorites in their games. I can't count on any of them losing, but we can hope. If all of the above happens, we could be looking at something like this:
Playoff Seeds:
1 NDSU
2 Eastern Washington
3 Colgate
4 Kennesaw State
5 Weber State
6 JMU
7 South Dakota State
8 Stony Brook
Also under consideration: UC Davis, ETSU, Wofford.
All in all, I'd bet on a Thanksgiving weekend game against a CAA opponent. If not them, then one of Duquesne, or Wofford/ETSU. Wildcard is they send one of the 6-5 Valley teams out our way like an Indiana State, Northern Iowa, or Western Illinois, but I doubt it. Would make for a super interesting playoff game though.