Welcome to the HERO Sports FCS Mailbag. In partnership with FCS Football Fans Nation, we will ask for questions with a post on their Facebook page every Sunday and our FCS crew of Brian McLaughlin and Sam Herder will give in-depth answers with these Thursday articles.
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Victor E. Quintana Jr. – When the bracket came out a lot of people started talking about whether or not our playoff system is too expansive, and perhaps the FCS should consider cutting the number of teams back. Now that we're to the quarterfinals and 0 non-seeded teams have advanced, do you think the chatter will ramp up again about reevaluating the playoff format?
Brian: I don't think so Victor, I think what may ramp up is chatter about a deeper seeding process, but not eliminating teams from the playoff system. The fact the seeded teams "got through" is actually pretty rare.
Sam: I like 24 teams and one year of the playoffs like this one won't change my mind. Just look at last year and how packed the bubble was with teams like EWU, Delaware and McNeese getting left home. Look at 2016, when YSU was probably one of the last few teams in and made a run to the title game. The bubble was very weak this year and the overall pool of non-seeded teams in the tournament weren't that great. But I don't think it's time to shake things up based off of one year.
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Paul Gaona – When does altitude become a factor. Maine is at 125 ft. Weber State is located around 4300ft. Especially since you can’t truly get acclimated in 1-2 days.
Brian: That's a valid point, Paul. I even had Coach H. on the Coaches Corner this week and didn't think to ask that, even though I did ask him if he ever thought he'd be coaching Maine in Ogden, Utah. I actually could see that being a very big factor. Great question.
Sam: I know the saying is "once you kick off, it's just another 100-yard football field" and all that. But I do think the altitude factor and traveling across the country on a shorter prep week because of the Friday night game is a factor. Is it 100 percent going to determine the outcome? Of course not. But there is definitely a thing where sometimes a team just doesn't have the juice that day or feels like the energy wasn't good enough to get a win that day. That's an advantage toward Weber. Whether it's a big advantage or just a small one, we shall see.
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Paul Alexander Dobson – Which outcome surprised you more: Maine's domination of JSU or JMU throwing 5 INTs and losing by 3 to Colgate?
Brian: Well, I picked both outcomes last week so I can't say either result surprised me — but to see how Maine hung 42 points on JSU in the first half after not scoring more than 38 in a game this year? Um, yeah, that surprised me — a lot.
Sam: I didn't see that score coming at all for Maine. I actually picked JSU to win, but wasn't shocked by Maine winning. How they won was the surprising part. The JMU-Colgate game played out how I expected it so as far as it going either way in the fourth quarter. I will say, five interceptions and only losing by three doesn't happen often, and must add even more to the heartbreak for JMU.
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Adam Willey – Did any games really surprise you this weekend?
Brian: It's kind of like I said to Paul in the question above … I think the way Maine hung it on Jacksonville State was stunning. The Black Bears have always been defensive stalwarts, but they looked like one of those offensive juggernauts last weekend. If I had to pick a second game? Probably that UC Davis and UNI was so close after UNI nearly lost to Lamar at home. But mostly? I thought it went the way it looked like it would on paper (and yes, I picked Colgate).
Sam: No outcomes really surprised me too much as far as winners. But how Maine won was probably the most surprising thing for me. Very impressive and opened my eyes.
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Lawrence Smith – If you were Jeff Bourne, who would you target as the next JMU head coach?
Brian: I don't have any specific names, as I don't like to play games with that, but I'd "stay in the family" personally. This team is going to be loaded next year, and having a guy who has been around JMU in the past four years might be a perfect choice.
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Brandon Owens – Who are your semifinalist teams and why?
Sam: Our quarterfinal thoughts and score predictions can be found here. Brian and I only agreed on half of the games!
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Travis Holthaus – When can we say that the CAA was overvalued by the committee?
Brian: Well, hindsight is you know what. I think coming into the playoffs, having multiple CAA teams in made sense based on resumes. I mean, aside from Indiana State and maybe Furman, who else should have slipped in instead? Let's face it, Towson was a massive upset with Duquesne, Stony Brook going on the road to SEMO? That really was a 50/50 type of affair, Elon had earned a spot based on its body of work but was hobbled by injuries, Delaware had to play a full-strength JMU and then JMU had to deal with coaching rumors in the middle of its game prep with Colgate and that undoubtedly had something to do with its loss. To me it was a perfect storm of bad with the CAA, but its regular season resume, collectively, was worthy. But hey, that's why we play ball instead of debating it on the screen, eh?
Sam: Did the CAA crap the bed? You bet. But I'll defend the conference for two reasons, mainly because I still think it was the best conference top to bottom in the FCS this year. No. 1: It's not like there were four teams left out of the playoffs that deserved to be in. The bubble was very weak, and only Indiana State had a solid argument of getting into the field. So I don't think six bids was some huge mistake. No. 2: Technically, the playoff committee only expected one CAA team to make the quarterfinals since only one got a Top 8 seed. Sure, there were some bad first-round losses from the CAA. But I don't buy the "only one of the six CAA teams is still playing" argument.
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