Brian McLaughlin’s Week 7 Five-Minute Recap

If you’re looking for some sort of compass to navigate the top of the order in the FCS, you’re out of luck. All I can do is give my take, but it’s a tough order to put in place. The same goes for what’s in the middle and the back of the pack when it comes to who might get a playoff seeding and a chance to host a game.

This past weekend was crazy, and we saw some programs that looked like world-beaters back in August fall by the wayside, while others we didn’t expect anything from made a serious case to be Top 25 material.

Here are some of the FCS highlights of the Week 7 schedule.

THE HEADLINE

There is such a serious and clear hierarchy here FCS folks. I hate to say that some schools outside of the “big two” of the Big Sky and Missouri Valley Football Conference are going to crack that Top 4 seeding situation, but it’s hard to visualize it.

In the top four stratosphere, we have the Dakota and Montana-type programs, which clearly are head and shoulders above the rest in the FCS. If any of these top four programs lose to a non “Big Two” program it will be considered an upset.

Are we ready to finally get more first-place votes for Montana State and stop clinging to 2023? I mean, come on folks, Montana State is undefeated, has beaten an FBS team, and has been a machine ever since. By hanging more than a four-touchdown win over a very good Idaho team this past weekend, the Bobcats have clearly proven that when healthy? They’re the class of the FCS.

Yes, NDSU and SDSU are good – and in a couple of days, they’ll have a chance to prove who is best. But many of the voters have chosen to put the Dakota schools ahead of MSU. To me? That’s wrong, that’s why I’ve voted this way since early in the season and haven’t deviated.

TALKING POINTS

**The UAC, the newest FCS conference, is making quite an argument for how strong it is. That much is for certain. Tarleton State wasn’t even an FCS team a few years ago and so far? It clearly has a Top 10 resume, falling only to P4 Baylor this year. Along with Tarleton, Abilene Christian and Central Arkansas have proven they are legit – and it is clear we will have some impressive battles within this league going forward. Abilene did trip up this past weekend against North Alabama, but it took P4 Texas Tech to OT and fell only by three to a strong Idaho team. Could this supplant the CAA as the No. 3 league in the FCS? We shall see.

**In the Ivy League, Dartmouth has clearly emerged being the only 4-0 team, but Harvard is legit and let’s not forget – Harvard’s lone loss was to Brown (by 3). The truth is, the Ivy League looks like it is as competitive as it has been in years, with some new blood. Don’t forget Columbia, either. One other worthy mention is that Princeton fell by a ton against the SoCon’s top team so far, Mercer. That was a signature win for the Georgia school, knocking off an Ivy League blueblood.

**The HBCU picture isn’t very clear so far, but North Carolina Central is 5-2 overall and looks like the clearcut favorite in the MEAC. The SWAC picture is still forming, so the whole idea of who might win the Celebration Bowl and the HBCU national title is a bit premature to project. At this point, it’s hard to rank any of the HBCUs, but we’ll be checking each week.

**The SoCon usually appears to be unable to break away from eating its own. Is this the year that changes and one or two monsters emerge on the national scene?  I’m beginning to think yes, though beyond Mercer, I’m not 100 percent sure who would be No. 2. ETSU, Chattanooga, Western Carolina and even rebounding Wofford seem to have some special qualities – and if one of them really punches out of that second level? They might be interesting to watch in the playoffs. Meanwhile, Mercer is having its best season since its first stint of football back in the leather-helmet days.

POLL EFFECT

As mentioned above, the Top 10-ish window isn’t going to budge much until we hit the real meat of the conference schedule. But once that begins to happen? You can be sure it’ll shake (and shape) things up. 

I hate to repeat something said a few weeks back, but when you venture outside of the top 10? It gets hairier to figure out. Way, way, way hairier, but that’s pretty common with that realm in the FCS. It tends to chop itself up all the way to Thanksgiving Week when the seedings are released. That No. 11 to No. 25 vote space? Well, that’ll be the focus of my poll vote piece coming out Tuesday and pinned to the top of my Twitter account (@BrianMacWriter).

FINAL THOUGHTS

We are definitely in the final stretch with how this level is going to size up, playoff-wise. We are mostly done with the FBS/payoff matchups, we’re done with the D2 games, and we’re done with the non-conference games that in many cases really weren’t indicative of how strong a program is – now it’s time to hunker down and figure this out. 

Translation? Mid-October to mid-November has always been my favorite time to write about the FCS level. We learn a ton from now until Thanksgiving.

Here we go, folks!