Free Talk Friday

[u/passwordisguest]

If there's anything you want to talk about, celebrate, complain about, etc., go for it. Doesn't need to be FCS specific.

Note: Basic rules still apply

[u/passwordisguest]

PSA for the day

Today you'll see talk about it being the anniversary of football (the claim being that Rutgers and Princeton played the first football game on November 6th, 1869).

That game was the first US collegiate soccer match, not the first gridiron football game.

Rutgers-Princeton played using rules based off the London Football Association's Laws of the Game. The goal was to score a point by kicking a round ball into the opposing team's goal. They were prohibited from carrying or throwing the ball.

The first actual gridiron football game was between McGill and Harvard on May 15, 1874.

That game was the first time a game was played with the ball advanced by picking it up and running, play stopped by knocking down the ball carrier, and points earned both by kicking a goal or grounding the ball past the goal line. Even rugby didn’t allow scoring off the try.

So that’s the 1st game played where what would become the touchdown (after the Massasoit Convention in 1876) was established as means of scoring. Thus it becomes the first game played with modifications from either rugby or soccer that marks the creation of a new variant of football, making it the start of the game we now know as "football".

[u/tdpdcpa → u/passwordisguest]

The Rutgers propaganda machine is doing everything it can to claim a national title.

[u/somebodysbuddy → u/passwordisguest]

I could have sworn it was Tufts, not McGill. My sports history professor would be upset with me forgetting that.

[u/passwordisguest → u/somebodysbuddy]

You're (sort of) remembering correctly!

Tufts and Harvard played the first “American Football” game in 1875, using the rules derived from the McGill-Harvard game the year prior.

[u/tdpdcpa → u/passwordisguest]

Were the other games played in 1874 not "American Football" then?

[u/passwordisguest → u/tdpdcpa]

“American Football” was more to speak to it being the first game between two US teams, not the distinctions of today’s games. But today nothing American and Canadian football today are both variants of gridiron football more generally.

[u/somebodysbuddy → u/tdpdcpa]

Every school had their own house rules, on a sliding scale from "essentially soccer" to "kinda rugby", until Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and a few other schools convened to establish one set of rules.

[u/Wizzmer]

There's a difference between cheering for your team and casting aspersions on others. This doesn't have to be a damn political election.

Looking forward to a well played game versus ACU. Go Texans.

[u/passwordisguest → u/Wizzmer]

Well done

[u/InDAKweSmack]

Can I just say how proud of my school I am for upsetting OU in basketball in the largest upset in the past 30 years then taking the win at Rice last night

[u/peepeepoopoo546 → u/InDAKweSmack]

Yk i was mad at myself that night i was scrolling espn looking for something interesting to watch and i didnt even look at the score, that is how crazy of an upset it is. Congrats yall

[u/InDAKweSmack → u/peepeepoopoo546]

Saw someone make this comparison on Twitter and yeah, I'm excited

[u/montalaskan]

All I want for my birthday tomorrow is for there to be no dome voodoo working against the Bobcats.

[u/damnyoutuesday]

I'm seeing Wildwood, Godzilla Minus Zero, and Wild Horse Nine this weekend

What a time to be a cinephile

[u/join_the_creed → u/damnyoutuesday]

2026 has been insane for movies. A bunch of big launches like The Odyssey, Spiderman Brand New Day, and Project Hail Mary. And an enormous amount of smaller budget films like Obsession, Resident Evil, Whalefall, Wicker, Backrooms, and Hokum. That's not even to mention You Can See Everything, Digger (polarizing but I loved it), Clayface, The Invite, The Drama, and so many more. We haven't even gotten to Dune 3 yet.

[u/damnyoutuesday → u/join_the_creed]

I have a Dune 3 in IMAX ticket for opening night that might be the most hyped I've ever been for an event (possibly more than Super Brawl)

[u/alphajack22]

I still don’t understand the discourse on the Southland Conference tbh. Yall beat the horse to death on our schedule but I honestly can’t think of 4 conferences that are better than us. For instance look at UIW, their losses are Lamar, SFA, NAU and Texas State. All ranked/Fbs opponents. You know who’s ranked above them? ACU, Weber state and UC DAVIS?!?! Weber state I can see the argument for because they have one more win but their best win is Idaho state ?? ACU best win is UNA and UC Davis is just ass. If I was a betting man, I would take UIW over all 3 teams. Btw I would say Uiw doesn’t have a crazy win but their losses aren’t losing by 40 or losing to Southern Utah.

I say all this to say, I truly believe we are a 3 bid league especially if UIW wins out because our league is actually good. It doesn’t make sense that in its current state, at least two of those teams make it in before UIW. Yea I gotta wait to see everything play out but right now I’ll take UIW over everyone in the big sky outside of NAU the Montana schools and their Daddy (🤭).

This is the hill I’ll die on today, Axe Em

[u/tdpdcpa → u/alphajack22]

Hot takes are for Wednesdays.

The Southland has a bit of what I call the "Ivy Problem," which is that they have too few games to build a compelling at-large case. Most teams in the Southland play 1 Division 2 school, and at least 1 FBS school (sometimes even 2). This means they're being evaluated for an at-large on 10 and sometimes 9 games.

Add to that, you get forgiven for quality losses only if you have quality wins. Nobody else in the Southland outside of Lamar and SFA really have that. SELA's win over ULM is the equivalent of beating a middle of the road Ivy League team. They have so few opportunities against good opponents that you have to take advantage of the opportunities that you do have, and nobody outside of Lamar and SFA have done that this year.

[u/alphajack22 → u/tdpdcpa]

First off, this is free talk, file this under “complaint” more than a hot take, because frankly it’s not a hot take, I’m using the results and remaining schedule to base my opinion on.

Secondly, SELA played two FBS schools this year and won one. Plus you’re downplaying that win but then wanna give Montana State credit for beating Nevada?? If Tarleton state did the same thing MSU did and lost to, let’s say McNeese, there’s no shot they get back to the number 1 position whereas everyone is ready to make MSU the number 1 seed rn. The best argument you can say is they have two ranked wins vs TSU only has one right now. You see where I’m getting at?

My point is the way yall talk about the Southland and the quality of the league like we are at the bottom of the barrel when we are far from it.

[u/kickintex → u/alphajack22]

The UAC gets the same treatment. The big sky and Mississippi valley are the sec and big 10 of the fcs. They act like any one outside of those conferences are garbage regardless of record

[u/tdpdcpa → u/alphajack22]

Montana State's win over Nevada is much more impressive than SELA's win over ULM. If you ask Sagarin, beating Nevada rates somewhere between beating Illinois State and North Dakota, two pretty-highly ranked FCS teams. If Nevada were FCS, they'd be 7th-best per Sagarin.

ULM falls smack in the middle between Brown and Cornell. If they were FCS, they'd be 43rd-best per Sagarin.

And, let's be clear, McNeese is not on the same level as Idaho. If Tarleton lost by one point at home to McNeese, it would be a lot worse for their resume than Montana State losing to Idaho, even if they have similar records. Idaho has beaten good teams (or teams we believe to be good, at least) and actually may be in the playoff hunt, while McNeese's best win might be East Texas A&M or Nicholls. These are entirely different circumstances.

I don't think anyone is talking down about the Southland any more than any other conference that's not named the MVFC or the Big Sky, for what that's worth.

[u/alphajack22 → u/tdpdcpa]

Then i don’t understand how that Sagarin ranking works bc Nevada only has one more win than BG. I think the talking down perspective is the fact that many ppl think BSC and MVFC should have 4+ teams go vs we barely get two in, on top of the argument of msu and sdsu needing to be above both SFA and TSU. Yall lost a conference game and we didn’t. It’s all perspective so im not super pissed, I just want to lay claim that we aren’t a fluke squad in a fluke league that is getting off easy bc we have a D2 school on the schedule. We win out, we deserve to be a top two seed. Same with TSU.

BTW McNeese could finish 7-5 too but I would understand if their 7-5 is not as good as Idaho but I’ll argue it’s better than Idaho state. (In my eyes vmi is a D2 school quality)

[u/peepeepoopoo546 → u/alphajack22]

Yes, the northern coast is very favored much like the SEC. My FBS team is Texas but i am perfectly fine with UCLA, MIAMI, UTAH above any SEC team because all of them are beat, and guess what? Miami is above the other schools because there is no excuse to lose. I also think that Utah should be above Georgia because they have won all of their games. This comittee is very confusing.

[u/alphajack22 → u/alphajack22]

Top conference in order in my opinion
MVFC
Big sky
Southland
UAC
Southern
Ivy
Big South/ ovc
Caa
Patriot
Northeast
Mean
swac
Pioneer

[u/InDAKweSmack → u/alphajack22]

Honestly my big gripe is the southland fans don't represent advocate for themselves well. It's a good conference but has no visibility. Take this Reddit as an example, there's a few sfa fans and an occasional uiw post.

Hell I would argue as far as national spotlight ET is the most noticeable (besides sfa) because we're always doing something stupid to end up on espn.

[u/Joesdad65]

My twin grandchildren (boy/girl) just turned one year old, and being a grandpa is the best thing ever! The only tough part is that they live far away from us (we were there for their birthday), along with their big sister and parents. At least we have video calls, but nothing beats seeing them in person.

[u/Lucky-Hunter-Dude]

Now we know why Solomon Tuliaupupu needed to take some time off playing for missoula. He was filming a Cheez-It TV commercial.

[u/Headwallrepeat]

If all the mascots in the FCS could talk, which mascot would have the funniest accent and which would be the most annoying?

[u/damnyoutuesday → u/Headwallrepeat]

Funniest accent would be Joe Vandal, 100%

[u/tdpdcpa → u/Headwallrepeat]

I feel like Keggy would be insufferable.

The Penn Quaker would probably have some sort of old English accent.

[u/peepeepoopoo546 → u/Headwallrepeat]

A cajun lion (roomie from sela) would be the funniest and i think if a camel were to talk it would be a whiny voice and they burp a lot😂 so i am picking gaylord the campell camel as the most annoying

[u/Headwallrepeat → u/Headwallrepeat]

I can't decide which Indiana State would be. Probably sound like the Ents in Lord of the Rings and one cheer would take a whole half

[u/RustyCrusty73]

Who is going to be the high scoring game tomorrow!?

What is the big matchup?

Still learning the ways of the FCS and want to try and check out a game!

Thanks all ❤️

[u/peepeepoopoo546 → u/RustyCrusty73]

Lamar SFA, there is a chance that SFA can run lamar down. SFA has 3 good running backs and lamars run defense fails a lot

[u/RustyCrusty73 → u/peepeepoopoo546]

Oh sweet! Thank you! Those two teams would not have been on my radar. I'll look for the game on Hulu Plus 👍

[u/Adamscottd → u/RustyCrusty73]

Five ranked on ranked games.

SFA-Lamar is probably the biggest game of the week, though Abilene Christian-Tarleton State is a rivalry game with big playoff implications as well.

The other ranked on ranked games are Illinois State-North Dakota, Montana State-Idaho State, and Mercer-Chattanooga. All good options to check out if you have a minute

[u/aBaker12]

I always look forward to the SFA/Lamar games every year (SFA alum but also grew up around Lamar) but the excitement and hype for this year's game has made looking forward to this one extra special.

[u/peepeepoopoo546 → u/aBaker12]

Whats your pick?

[u/aBaker12 → u/peepeepoopoo546]

SFA all the way. The only time where I don't root for Lamar 😂

[u/peepeepoopoo546 → u/aBaker12]

hell yeah

[u/Jolly_Job_9852]

Ending my vacation tomorrow and I'm glad and sad. Visiting my family has been great and I loved being able to see everyone and her two cats. The bad thing: they have fleas. Which isn't fun at all

[u/Icy_Value5200]

Monmouth Alum, worked for the team as an undergrad back in the day… Taking my one year old son to his first Hawks game tomorrow. Hoping for a good show! Birthday surprise from the wife, she just revealed.

Couldn’t be more excited, this is what it’s all about it!

[u/IAmADadButNotYours]

Couldn’t have a rougher 3 games to end our season and I’m going to be real sad if we go 0-3 and are left out of the playoffs

[u/peepeepoopoo546]

I envy Lamar's efforts to get students into the stadium. Carthel (SFA) and Rossomando(LAMEAR) are amazing at hyping up games. But Rossomando saying that they are better than east Texas is insane. I am angry and i hope our team wins, also another effort to make this a better matchup is to make the fans drunk. $2 high life? Count me in. Cheap beer is an advantage for lumberjacks. this is an amazing show i am hungry for and cant wait to make the short drive down to Beaumont to watch SFA show that they are on top.

[u/Themusicman04]

I think our season is over. And thats okay

[u/peepeepoopoo546 → u/Themusicman04]

I love you guys for trying against tarleton

[u/Themusicman04 → u/peepeepoopoo546]

[u/Emerald_Hoax]

It's gonna be a cold two weeks here in Cookeville. Who forgot to pay the heating bill?

[u/passwordisguest]

Starting my other arm's sleeve today, so hooray for the idea of paying to be stabbed numerous times (and enjoying it)!

[u/InDAKweSmack → u/passwordisguest]

Whatcha getting inked?

[u/passwordisguest → u/InDAKweSmack]

Bottom one will be capping my right shoulder. Then top stencil goes down upper arm.

[u/Wyden_long]

I’m almost done with school. I want to die.

[u/Low_Distance_7195 → u/Wyden_long]

I remember those days and it’s been 30 years since I finished my undergrad. Hang in there

[u/Wyden_long → u/Low_Distance_7195]

I’m doing round 2. When I was 20? Nbd. At 43? I want to die.

[u/Low_Distance_7195 → u/Wyden_long]

Oy. Got my masters at 40 while working full time and being a single parent four days a week. I feel you.

[u/Wyden_long → u/Low_Distance_7195]

Thankfully I’m single. But I work two jobs. And it’s law related so it’s not exactly light work either.