2017 Missouri Valley Football (MVFC) Season

[mvfcfan]

So after week 1 the MVFC went 5-1 against other FCS schools. Eastern Illinois scored with 3 seconds left to defeat Indiana State for the lone FCS loss for the conference. The MVFC went 0-3 against FBS teams. YSU took Pittsburgh to OT however before falling 28-21.

I think NDSU and SDSU will be the top two teams in the MVFC this year with YSU as a close third. My prediction is that SDSU will win the conference this year. It looks like there won't be any easy games in the MVFC once again this year.

I went 7-2 on my week 1 picks (I picked UNI and INST to win and they both lost). Not too bad. I'll post my picks for next weeks games on Saturday. The first week always tells a lot about how good a team will or will not be, so it's always the most difficult to pick, especially with all the new players, coaches, and such.

Here's the scores from week 1 and my thoughts on each game/team.

#25 WIU 41 TNTC 14 - Kind of expected this result. TN Tech isn't typically very good at football.
EIU 22 INST 20 - Probably going to be a long year for INST with their tough schedule and new coaching staff.
#4 SDSU 51 Duquesne 13 - It will be interesting to see if SDSU's defense is truly better this season. That was the thing that held them back from being a national title contender last season.
Missouri 72 Mo State 43 - MSU can apparently score, but have serious question marks on defense.
Pittsburgh 28 #9 YSU 21 (OT)- YSU trailed 21-0 at half, but rallied back and sent the game to OT on the road against an ACC team. They're going to be tough once again this year. Their defense seems to be their brightest spot.
#2 NDSU 72 MVSU 7 - No surprises here. We'll find out more about NDSU next week when they play Eastern Washington.
SDAK 77 Drake 7 - I expected this game to be a tiny bit closer considering the game was at Drake (which in itself was surprising). But it's hard to compete in football against teams that offer athletic scholarships.
#20 ILST 45 Butler 0 - Thought ILST started off kind of slow against non-scholarship Butler, but their defense played pretty good. We'll find out more about ILST when they play EIU.
Iowa State 42 #18 UNI 24 - Halfway respectable score. UNI needs to cut back on their mistakes. If they can do that then they should be playoff contenders at the end of the season.
SIU- bye week

[glm38]

After many years of being a doormat in football we think MSU has a pretty good team this year. They really played well against Mizzou for most of the game on offense. Kind of hard to tell on defense if we were bad or Mizzou is just that good.

We'll know if it's for real in a few weeks.

[mvfcfan]

New top 25 poll (STATS) came out. MVFC rankings.

#2 NDSU
#4 SDSU
#8 YSU
#18 ILST
#21 UNI
#22 WIU
(#32) USD
(#52) SIU

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In response to glm38. I think Missouri State is definitely improved from last year. Unfortunately playing at North Dakota this coming up Saturday won't show much probably. UND is probably just as good as Missouri, if not better. The game against Murray State will really show what Missouri State will be like. If MSU can win and play decent defense against Murray then there is a decent chance that MSU will be able to get out of the cellar and finish mid pack. If Murray State scores 35 points then MSU is probably in trouble. The conference is just so good at football. No matter who you play in the MVFC it's a tough game and unfortunately our teams knock each other around so much that we only end up with 3 teams in the tournament at the most whenever realistically over half of the conference is playoff quality.

[glm38]

New top 25 poll (STATS) came out. MVFC rankings.

#2 NDSU
#4 SDSU
#8 YSU
#18 ILST
#21 UNI
#22 WIU
(#32) USD
(#52) SIU

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In response to glm38. I think Missouri State is definitely improved from last year. Unfortunately playing at North Dakota this coming up Saturday won't show much probably. UND is probably just as good as Missouri, if not better. The game against Murray State will really show what Missouri State will be like. If MSU can win and play decent defense against Murray then there is a decent chance that MSU will be able to get out of the cellar and finish mid pack. If Murray State scores 35 points then MSU is probably in trouble. The conference is just so good at football. No matter who you play in the MVFC it's a tough game and unfortunately our teams knock each other around so much that we only end up with 3 teams in the tournament at the most whenever realistically over half of the conference is playoff quality.

There is some hope we can stay with North Dakota this weekend. I 'm not sure what to think but I'm looking forward to seeing what we can do.

[mvfcfan]

My picks for Week 2 (9/9/17) with my predicted scores in parenthesis.

#8 YSU over RMU (56-10)
FBS #25 Tennessee over INST (56-7)
#3 NDSU over #7 EWU (31-17)
#21 UNI over Cal Poly (38-14)
#11 NDAK over MO ST (59-28)
SDAK upsets FBS Bowling Green (24-21)
#22 WIU over N Arizona (28-24)
SIU over MS Valley St (49-14)
#4 SDSU over MT ST (52-17)

[glm38]

UND obliterates MSU 34-0

It appears as still have a long way to go to reach respectability in football.

[mvfcfan]

A little late on my reaction, but I went 9-0 on my picks for week 2.

#8 YSU 30 RMU 0 - Once again YSU proves that their defense is their strong spot. Starting QB Hunter Wells is expected to return after the Central Connecticut game.
Tennessee 42 INST 7- I guess the only surprise was that the score wasn't worse than this. Either way Indiana State was simply outmatched this game. On another note if NDSU had walked in that stadium instead of INST then Tennessee probably would have lost.
#2 NDSU 40 #7 E Washington 13 - Once again NDSU shows that they continue to just reload year after year. I kind of feel bad for Robert Morris who will experience a(nother) beat down in two weeks.
#21 UNI 45 Cal Poly 38 (OT)- Northern Iowa escaped with a W. The big question going forward with UNI is are they as good as their ranking? A lot of times they get ranked early in the season just based off of past success.
#11 North Dakota 34 Missouri State 0- Yeah this was ugly, but the beautiful part is that they will be in the league in 3 more years. North Dakota might contend for a national title this year. Missouri State on the other hand gets to play a Murray State team next week that isn't very good.
SDAK 35 BGSU 27- The MVFC's first FBS win this year and look out it was by the Dakota school that has had the least amount of success as of late. SDAK is for real this year and they are led by a very good quarterback (Streveler).
#22 WIU 38 N Arizona 20- Western Illinois went to the Lumberjacks house and beat them pretty easily. WIU has a pretty good chance to record a second straight FBS win when they visit Coastal Carolina in a couple of weeks.
SIU 55 Miss Valley State 3- If you need an easy warm up game to get the season started off right, then go schedule MVSU. It worked very well for SIU And NDSU.
#4 SDSU 31 Montana St 27- SDSU just couldn't make it easy. If they want to win the MVFC then they need to win games against a preseason number 8 in the Big Sky poll a lot more comfortably than this. There really aren't too many excuses. Yes it was on the road, but SDSU has to be better than this.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now the MVFC has 7 ranked teams. It should also be noted that UND, who will be joining in 2020, is also ranked 10th.

#2 NDSU
#4 SDSU
#6 YSU
#18 ILST
#20 WIU
#21 UNI
#23 SDAK

On a side note the MVC needs to invite NDSU and SDSU for all sports ASAP.

[mvfcfan]

My Week 3 Picks (Sep 16)

#6 YSU over Central CT
#10 NDAK over #23 SDAK
#18 ILST over E Illinois
Missouri St over Murray State
#19 Liberty over INST
#4 SDSU over Drake
SIU over SEMO
S Utah over #21 UNI

[mvfcfan]

So I went 7-1 on my picks for the 3rd week of the MVFC season. Scores and my thoughts below.

#6 YSU 59 Central CT 9- Not surprising. YSU adds another easy win before the MVFC season gets underway.
#23 SDAK 45 #10 NDAK 7- The one game I missed and it wasn't even close. The Coyotes look really really good this year and are now a threat to win the league this season. If they continue this success and get to the playoffs they will be a very scary team to face.
#18 ILST 44 E Illinois 13- I actually attended this game. The ILST defense looks really good this season. Their offense is a little bit iffy as is their kicking game (missed FGs, kicks out of bounce on KOs). But this team will live and die based on how their defense performs this season.
Missouri St 28 Murray St 21- So this sums it up. The Bears are not very good. This could be a long year. Might be lucky to win another game this season. On a side note this could very well be an introduction for Murray State as they could very possibly be in the league next season.
#19 Liberty 42 INST 41- This one actually really surprised me. I didn't expect INST to do this well against Liberty and I definitely didn't expect them to have a chance to win it. Unfortunately the kick was blocked, but INST seems to be getting better. This season will have its ups and downs (mostly downs), but INST should be pretty good within the next couple of years.
#4 SDSU 51 Drake 10- One of the MVFC's best against a Pioneer League school usually doesn't turn out pretty. It will be interesting to see what SDSU does in conference play. If their defense has improved then they will be a serious conference (and national) title contender.
SIU 35 SEMO 17- SIU is better this year, but it remains to be seen how good they will be once conference play begins.
S Utah 24 #21 UNI 21- Southern Utah is a good team. This loss might have cost UNI their playoff chances though. The basic rule is you have to win 7 which means that to be safe they now need to finish 5-3 in MVFC play which won't be easy.

[mvfcfan]

Week 4 picks.

WIU over Coastal Carolina
#14 ILST over Mo. St.
#2 NDSU over Rob Morris
Memphis over SIU

A non MVFC game, but they are both MVC. Valpo plays at Drake today. I guess I'll go with Valpo since they played a pretty good game against Montana.