Friday night game could be interesting --- could be very, very high scoring.
I think Poly can take Portland State - the Vikings look downright horrible.

Take the chalk in all these games. Only potential upset is in Cheney where it will be 55 and potentially wet. I think Sac runs it well enough to handle that but you never know, it takes a while for 71 guys to gel.

Friday game is at 7:30 pm PT tonight? Live from the Walkup Skydome on ESPN2

potential upset is in Cheney where it will be 55 and potentially wet

EWU defense pretty much stinks and is giving up 4.7 or 5 yards a carry depending on overall or league stats. Anything could happen on that gawd-awful red turf but I suspect Sac State will likely run all over them.

Of course Sac defense is also iffy. If they had played disciplined ball last week, they would have beat Montana. Pint muff was a big turning point not to mention hold on to-the-house kick return for TD. But Sac State and discipline are oxymorons.

I agree with this. It was cold and wet at Weber and Sac pounded them on the ground. 400 rushing yards EWU rush defense (BSC #9) is worse than Weber's (BSC #7).

I think Sac's power ground game dominates despite their 27 penalties for 300 yards.

I feel like the Big Sky really shoots itself in the foot with each school's (aside from UM and MSU) inability to produce a reliable, stable, visually appealing, unified streaming experience for fans watching around the country.. If the BigSky wants to grow, you can't turn away new viewers at the door because the streams are so rough and unreliable. SUU and Utah Tech entering the fold next yr is what made me think of this. I would donate to UCD ASAP if I knew it went directly to providing a better stream quality/experience.

My issue with the Big Sky, or really FCS teams, is active football message boards. I checked all three Utah teams we played this season, Mercer, Northern Arizona, and Idaho State, and practically all have dead message boards.

Sorry for the rant there, but it reflects poorly on both programs and the conference when camera crews are shaking the camera, missing the ball entirely and cutting to replays at the worst possible times. Feels cheap/lazy. Maybe that's a ESPN issue? BigSky should create it's own network and camera crews? No clue how that works

Don't we still have a volume issue w Coach Plough at his presser?

I mean, to quote a common coach-ism "how you do the little things is how you do everything" so how is this stuff overlooked ?

the ESPN+ era, while imperfect, is better than what we had before. There were some rough games on PlutoTV, or before that, webpage streams. I remember we went a whole year once where Scott Marsh didn’t realize his mic was hot during commercial breaks and we got him chewing out the production staff.

I think ESPN+ is fine as a platform. My gripe is that the stream doesn’t start until kickoff. I’d like a 10-minute pregame show. My understanding is that on ESPN+ the school owns the camera crew and production, with ESPN enforcing some minimum equipment standards. When a game is on a linear network like ESPN2, the network arranges the crew and talent.

This is good color. Thank you

If NAU loses, they are out of playoffs more than likely. Idaho, with 5 losses , is probably out already

Idaho is moving the ball with ease just before half. After being down 7-0, just scored their 3rd TD.

Idaho 19 NAU 7 at the half.

I can't watch this game because I have YouTube TV and they are in a contract dispute with Disney, who is the majority owner of ESPN. So YouTube TV has lost 21 Disney owned channels including the regular ESPN channels. ESPN+ is a separate subscription and isn't a part fiasco.

QB strip sac, scoop and score. Vandals up 26-7.

26-14. Lumberjacks are moving the ball, but plenty of mistakes.

26-21, we gotta game.

Lumberjacks go up 29-26, with the stadium lights going dark during the 2 pt conversion. Retrying the 2 pt convsersion with the lights on.

Vandals tie it up with a FG as time expires. OT, heading to bed to rest up for tomorrow. Go Ags!

Idaho wins on OT. From my perspective, NAU lost the game when the coach decided to go conservative with just over 4 minute to go in regulation. They had been moving the ball well in the fourth quarter but changed from a successful horizontal and vertical spread passing game. Three and out with a very predictable and conservative run game at that last possession and I knew at that point they were playing not to lose rather than win.

There is a major logjam in the big sky outside of Montana, Montana State and UCD when viewing it from playoff chances. Sac State, NAU, and EWU all have 4 losses. Idaho with 5 losses is almost certainly out unless their WSU loss is mitigated as an FBS loss. I think it is possible that the big sky gets only 3 teams in - seems at this point no one else deserves it.

NAU has the easiest schedule remaining so I suspect they may sneak in like last year. If Sac State wins out they could be in the mix and would bring up the perceived animus against the Wood Inc. university in a FCS playoff selection process.

FBS losses are.discounted.. Idaho's win over NAU would have more weight, if it was between those two. And for Idaho to end the season with no more losses they would have beaten Davis giving them, a better win. Long shot for Idaho but they can make the playoffs of they win out, beating both Davis and Sac along with Idaho State. They would be 7-3 against FCS opponents

I was hoping Idaho would be out of playoff contention before we play them, I've been rooting against them ever since the Spuds in their Tubs podcast said they were in a higher tier than Davis last year.

I have a problem with volume being way too low on the post game presser.

Weird that both Montana schools get the tv broadcast wherever they are on the road.

I don’t sense that the volume is low on the weekly presser, they just caption the questions which is fine by me. Re: post game I don’t know. Seems like he says the same stuff at both.

I believe because all games are carried on local/regional tv in Montana, that channel produces the broadcast and ESPN+ just gets a free feed. While ESPN2 tends to choose neutral talent, hard homers on the call are probably good for regional ratings in Montana. Cost savings aside, I’m not sure if the stadium and press box have infrastructure for 2 TV crews plus radio.

Makes sense - just makes it seem more like “It’s all about us” i. e., the Montana schools.