Since they started seeding the top-8 in 2013, we've never had 4 of the top 8 lose in the first game. We've already had 3 lose today. Let's hope that's the end of the upsets. The seeded teams have dominated recently (30 of 32 advanced the past four seasons). From 2013-2019, 5 of the 7 years saw 3 of the top-8 seeds lose.

I feel your pain. Last year my wife was having a 50th anniversary party on the day of the Illinois St game. We were hosting people at our house before going out to dinner. She did allow me to camp out upstairs and watch the game before dinner at least.

Pretty cool that there’s going to be a new team in the final. Nova’s been there once, winning it in 2009. Illinois St made the final in 2014. Then us, Rhode Island and Tarleton have never made it.

I’m not assuming we’re winning tonight or next week, but if Nova beats Tarleton next week, we’d host the semifinal too.

Holy crap North Dakota St lost.

38-0 South Dakota now.

This is why the MVFC gets the benefit of the doubt come playoff time and why a 7-5 North Dakota gets selected. I'm sure they've got some disappointing results over the years (like Youngstown blowing their game to Yale last week).

But this year we have
Illinois St winning 21-3 at #16 SE Louisiana
North Dakota winning 31-6 at #13 Tennessee Tech
No. 14 South Dakota St winning 41-3 over New Hampshire
No. 11 South Dakota winning 38-17 over Drake
South Dakota currently up 24-0 on Mercer

I mean if you want to move the goalposts, sure.

Bryce Young and Kyler Murray are hardly doing "just fine" in the NFL, unless you mean they got drafted highly and got paid. Young is 23rd in QB rating out of 33 qualified QBs. Murray, if he qualified, would be 20th. Dillon Gabriel is 31st. Tua is 26th. I mean, credit to them for making it but their lives would be a lot easier if they were 6'-3".

We've got decades of examples that it is an issue being under 6'-0" if you want to play QB at the NFL level. This is not my narrative. This is how the NFL has operated. Look at the top 10 guys this year in QB rating. Only 1 of them is listed at 6'-1" or shorter and that's Jalen Hurts, who is listed at 6'-1" and is one of the most mobile QBs in the league. All NFL teams care about is what helps them win and they all prefer taller QB's. What does that tell you?

For the last time. that does not mean it's impossible for a 5'-11" QB to make it in the NFL. Drew Brees is a HOFer. Russell Wilson has had a great career. I'm sure there are others. It just makes it a lot harder to be successful if you're 5'-11" as opposed to being 6'-3".

Joe Flacco is 6'-6" and Aaron Rodgers is 6'-2" so I'm not exactly sure what your point is with that list.

Yes, there are QB's at 6'-0" or shorter that play in the NFL. That does not mean it's at all common and you better be really good at other stuff if you're going to succeed at that height.

FBS it's definitely not uncommon. In the NFL it is still pretty uncommon. I mean, a vast majority of NFL QB's are at least 6 ft tall. By definition, that makes those under 6 ft tall uncommon. And while Wilson and Drew Brees have had very good careers, Tua, Young and Gabriel haven't done much yet to convince teams that short QBs are the way to go.

If your point is that Bryce Young made the NFL and got drafted highly (in his case, 1st overall), I've got no counter. But Bryce Young was also the top QB recruit in his class. Pinnick is not that.

There are always exceptions to the rule and that doesn't mean it's realistic for others to do the same.

That being said, I do agree with you on Pinnick taking the money if offered. Unless his family has money, if he's offered significantly more to go to a D1 school, he should probably take it.

We bought tickets last weekend when they went on sale. Didn't expect the game to be moved to 7 p.m. Last year, I believe, was an early afternoon game. Told my daughter, who is 8, that the game got moved to 7 p.m. She asked if she could still go. I said yes and she got excited solely because she immediately knew it meant she could stay up past her normal bed time.

Also, I believe Tennessee Tech was one of the teams people thought should have gotten the 8 seed over us. Not going to overreact to one game against a solid North Dakota team (lost 5 games by a combined 17 points to either FBS or FCS playoff teams), but it's not a good look to lose by 25 at home in the first round.

Nice tank job by Youngstown St.

Mine were available for download roughly 24 hours after (like somebody here mentioned would happen).

For sure that makes it even worse. Was just clarifying that they didn't have the excuse of "oh it was Thanksgiving weekend, the students were gone". That would be more understandable. But you have two weeks to get the word out.

Plus you're coming off the momentum of that massive Montana St game, which yes they lost but people showed up, then you beat your rival, get a bye and then seemingly don't take advantage of it.

It wasn’t even Thanksgiving weekend though. Just like this year, we had a bye the weekend of Thanksgiving. That game was Dec 7 last year.

Man I didn't realize we only drew 6400 for that game last year. That's pathetic.

I think somebody might have mentioned it but rest is huge here. Yes, it kind of sucks that if we win our game, we get NDSt in the QF, as opposed to, say, a 12 or 13 seed where you avoid NDSt and the Montanas until the semis. But even eliminating the fact that we can't lose this upcoming weekend because you can't lose a game you don't even have to play, the fact that our guys get a week to recover while our opponent has to play is massive.