B-CU shut out of FCS playoffs
Bethune-Cookman and its fellow MEAC co-champions were all shut out of the 2015 Football Championship Subdivision playoffs when the 24-team field was announced Sunday.
Following B-CU’s 35-14 victory over rival Florida A&M in the Florida Classic on Saturday, the Wildcats figured they had a pretty good shot of making the field for the FCS playoffs.
“We’re one of the top 24 teams. It’s that simple,” firstyear B-CU head coach Terry Sims said after the win. “We score points on offense and we stop teams on defense. We have mistakes that happen in a game, but we have a determined team that won’t quit.”
The victory earned them a share of the MEAC championship with cochamps North Carolina A&T (9-2) and North Carolina Central (8-3), and the Wildcats ended the regular season with a 9-2 record.
In stark contrast to the MEAC’s shutout from the postseason were the multiple entries from the Missouri Valley (five teams: North Dakota State, South Dakota State, Northern Iowa, Eastern Illinois and Western Illinois), Colonial (four teams: James Madison, Richmond, William & Mary and New Hampshire) and Big Sky (three teams: Southern Utah, Portland State, Montana) conferences.
Western Illinois, with five losses, was the final team selected to the field and it was a big head-scratcher given the records of some other teams left out.
“Western Illinois had a great season even though they only won six games, but it’s a tough, tough conference. ... And we felt like they had earned their right to be a part of the playoffs,” FCS playoff committee chairman Mark Wilson, the athletics director at Tennessee Tech, said on ESPNU following the selection show.
North Dakota (7-4) and Towson (7-4) were the final two teams left out of the bracket, meaning the MEAC never really received much consideration from the selection committee.
USF in contention for division title
At the American Athletic Conference’s media day Aug. 4, the Bulls were picked to place fifth in the East division by a panel of media members, reflecting a similarly bleak outlook by assorted college preseason magazines already on newsstands.
The media’s pick to win the East?
Cincinnati, which received 29 first-place votes that morning. UCF got the other.
“It motivated us a lot; it motivated me a lot,” Bulls sophomore quarterback Quinton Flowers said after USF’s 65-27 win over Cincinnati. “You’re always going to have people that hate on you, people that doubt you, don’t care about you.”
Move ahead three months and change, and Cincinnati and UCF have combined for one fewer victory (six) than the Bulls, who remain in contention for the division. A Bulls triumph Thursday against the winless Knights and a Temple loss next Saturday against Connecticut gives the Bulls the East.
“I said at the beginning … some of the guys at the top won’t be there and some of the guys at the bottom won’t be at the bottom,” USF coach Willie Taggart said.