Welcome back, sports fans, as we dive into tonight’s FCS title game. First, we want to apologize for missing the WBB Top 363 as promised. We were delayed due to the chaos at the San Juan, PR airport and did not make it to GCR headquarters (our house) until about 4:30 this morning. Getting everything together after the long trip and the brain fog means, we will shift the WBB to tomorrow (as of today’s games) and aim to keep the men on Wednesday. Thank you for your understanding and patience.
…..
Way back on January 2nd, we had our last four non-playoff bowl games. To quickly sum up, Texas St routed Rice (GCR 1-0 straight up and 0-1 against the spread). Then Navy put on a show defeating Cincinnati 35-13 (2-0,1-1). Our final two played at the same time with SMU topping Arizona 24-19 (2-1,1-2) and Wake Forest (Vegas) upsetting Mississippi St 43-29 (3-1,2-2).
…..
But tonight is about the FCS. The Illinois St Redbirds (12-4/150 or 18th in the FCS) will take on the Montana St Bobcats (13-2/128 – 5th) in Nashville at 7:30 Eastern. The Redbirds finished the regular season 8-4 and were one of the last teams invited to the 24-team playoff. They lost their opener to Oklahoma 35-3 and picked up the other losses in the brutal Missouri Valley Conference. They were 6-2 against teams that made the playoff including an incredible 4-game road winning streak in the playoffs. The won at Southeastern 21-3, then at North Dakota St 29-28, then at UC Davis 42-31, then at Villanova 30-14. They went from the south to the upper midwest to the west coast to the midatlantic. The win over NDST (12-1/107 – 1st) knocked the favorite and defending champions out of the hunt as their best. The did lose to Youngstown St (8-5/172-38th), a playoff team, which was their worst defeat. Montana St started 0-2 with losses to Oregon and South Dakota St before running up 13 straight wins. They were 5-1 against playoff teams including home wins against Yale 21-13 in Round 2, following a first round bye, then Steph F Austin 44-28 in round 3, and a 48-23 trouncing of rival Montana in round 4. They actually defeated Montana (13-2/130 – 6th) twice including the rivalry week victory. The loss to South Dakota St (9-5/158 – 26th) was their worst. Vegas has MTST-9.5 and they are good. They will be tough to beat, but the GCR has picked against ILST twice (the NDST and VILL games). Our algorithm does have Montana St winning but only at 54.0% meaning we have ILST covering in a close loss.
…..
That’s it for today. Tune in to ESPN to watch this great matchup. Congratulations to both teams for making it this far. Thank you for reading and sharing with others, JoJo and G
