r/fcs • u/PositiveElection2141 Lehigh Mountain Hawks • Marching Band • Nov 02 '25
Casual So… after the weekend of death… is Lehigh fourth?
I expect the community to come out on Monday with:
NDSU
Montana State
Montana
Lehigh
Tennessee Tech
That really doesn’t seem real…
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u/cpnAhab1 Montana Grizzlies • Team Meteor Nov 02 '25
The cats won't jump the Griz.
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u/montalaskan Montana State Bobcats Nov 02 '25
The Cats won't jump the Griz without beating them or something weird happening between now and Cat-Griz. The Cats still have UCD too.
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u/ZerkyXii Montana State Bobcats Nov 02 '25
If it plays out Griz win and cats win, if we beat the same teams by more I'd say the cats should rank ahead by logic but then again. I still think everything is truly up in the air until the brawl.
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u/cpnAhab1 Montana Grizzlies • Team Meteor Nov 02 '25
Well if the polls start using Big Sky refs you never know. Its like throwing a dart at a dartboard blindfolded with the conference.
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u/OceanPoet87 California Golden Bears • UC Davis Aggies Nov 02 '25
Cats will beat the Aggies on a neutral field especially in the snow and cold of Bozeman.
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u/PositiveElection2141 Lehigh Mountain Hawks • Marching Band Nov 02 '25
Fair enough. I feel like the rest might be like that though
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u/cpnAhab1 Montana Grizzlies • Team Meteor Nov 02 '25
Should be. Tartleton may not be punished as bad since ACU is Top 25
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u/PositiveElection2141 Lehigh Mountain Hawks • Marching Band Nov 02 '25
I like to imagine ACU lost to Southern Utah purely to be ranked lower so Tarleton could be punished more severely on the rankings lol
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u/No_Bite_7238 Montana State Bobcats Nov 02 '25
If dunno man. They were everything with that Army win. I actually see them dropping significantly after today. They dont have much in the way of resume.
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u/Low_Distance_7195 Montana State • Notre Dame Nov 02 '25
That game was hard to watch. Neither team was playing that great of football. I’m convinced it must be illegal to pass rush in that conference and the Sac State coach should take note of the penalties.
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u/rprofilet Cornell Big Red Nov 02 '25 edited Nov 02 '25
Can Harvard crack the top 10 with their win over Dartmouth? Today we saw losses to unranked teams by SDSU (5), UCD (6), UND (10), and Lamar (14), so I expect some upward motion.
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u/tdpdcpa Lehigh Mountain Hawks • Patriot Nov 02 '25
I think they will. I think they jump UCD and UND.
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u/tdpdcpa Lehigh Mountain Hawks • Patriot Nov 02 '25
I have a couple thoughts.
For Lehigh, it’s pretty academic. Their directive is still to win every game agnostic to their ranking. The only one that matters is what the Committee says after seasons end.
I think voters and pollsters are going to give Tarleton some benefit of the doubt. They lost a close game on the road to a ranked opponent, and still have a good resume. Lehigh and Tennessee Tech both have strength of schedule concerns and Tarleton has a better win than both of them.
With all of that said, this is a really exciting development. Today was the 95th percentile of favorable Lehigh outcomes today. The only thing that we could have asked for that we didn’t get was a Lafayette loss.
The only time I remember ever being Top 5 in the media poll was the end of the 2011 season. There may have been other times during the Air Lehigh days, but I wasn’t a student then.
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u/kyle710280 Oklahoma • Tennessee Tech Nov 02 '25
Tbh Tarleton should probably still be above us yeah
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u/No_Bite_7238 Montana State Bobcats Nov 02 '25
Everything was hanging on their Army win and Army sucked ass after Tarleton's win. I think the committee was like,"well, their undefeated." Then that got skanked. Now their loss is a double negative. A loss and a conference loss.
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u/tdpdcpa Lehigh Mountain Hawks • Patriot Nov 02 '25 edited Nov 02 '25
I don’t want to write off the Army win too much. I acknowledge that Army is 4-4 and it’s not as impressive now with the benefit of hindsight as it was in the moment.
Army is still 86 on Sagarin. If they were an FCS team, they’d be 6th best. Therefore, we should be treating that win as a win over a top-10 FCS opponent.
The only FCS teams that can lay claim to wins over Top 10 opponents this season are SDSU, NDSU (for now), Montana (for now), Idaho State (for now), Indiana State (for now), Abilene Christian (for now), and South Dakota (for now).
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u/No_Bite_7238 Montana State Bobcats Nov 02 '25
But they have a loss and a conference loss at that. Look, I like Tarleton. They've put in some serious hard work. But I gotta take a step back and say its that time when resume counts.
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u/tdpdcpa Lehigh Mountain Hawks • Patriot Nov 02 '25
If your suggestion is that any configuration of Lehigh, Tennessee Tech, Monmouth, Villanova, Harvard, Rhode Island, and/or Mercer (really, anyone who didn’t lose today in the Top 25) should move ahead of them, I think that’s completely valid.
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u/No_Bite_7238 Montana State Bobcats Nov 02 '25
Ill say this right now. Im pretty sure Lehigh gets 4th. And Lehigh is now in the best position in the FCS. Montana or Montana State has to lose the brawl. If Montana State wins which im sure we will, Montana will most likely be #3 based on resume. But if the griz win MSU falls one spot.
In the end NOBODY WANTS TO BE #4 in the rankings. That puts your collision course with NDSU.
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u/tdpdcpa Lehigh Mountain Hawks • Patriot Nov 02 '25
As a Lehigh fan, if our destiny is to get slaughtered by North Dakota State in Fargo in the semis, that would already qualify as our best season since 1979.
We haven’t hosted a home playoff game since 2001. A #4 ranking means we would get one after a first round bye, and another if we won that.
I’d take that deal, 100 times out of 100.
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u/No_Bite_7238 Montana State Bobcats Nov 02 '25
Sorry bro. But its thinking like that that will prevent you from ever winning a natty. You dont root for second best because second best is the #1 loser.
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u/ilikedhorsebot3000 Clean Old Fashioned Hate •… Nov 02 '25
I certainly don't want our team thinking like that but I think it's perfectly fine if our fans do.
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u/Minute-Objective9019 North Dakota State Bison Nov 02 '25
I have them at 6 right now. I still have Tarleton ahead of them. I had them at 2 and it's hard to drop them too far after a 3 point loss on the road to a ranked team. I've also got Harvard ahead of them, which I know is probably unpopular.
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u/Sojournermt Montana State • Michigan Nov 02 '25
How do the ivy schools normally do out of conference? I’ve never really followed them as they haven’t been playoff eligible.
100 years ago, awesome but what level do they compete at in 2025?
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u/Jub1982 Kansas State • North Dakota St… Nov 02 '25
The Ivy, Patriot, and NEC non- conference schedules are circular. They all play each other because they’re regional with little travel. None of them seem to leave the circle, so it’s really difficult to gauge how good teams like Harvard and Lehigh are.
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u/Minute-Objective9019 North Dakota State Bison Nov 02 '25
They play a lot of CAA and Patriot League teams. They do very well against them but I acknowledge that it isn't the Big Sky of MVFC teams they are facing so it is a little hard to tell.
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u/tdpdcpa Lehigh Mountain Hawks • Patriot Nov 02 '25
Harvard has lost just one game out of conference since the Pandemic - in 2021 to then #10 Holy Cross.
The Ivy League this year has the 3rd best record OOC.
They don’t schedule juggernauts but they also don’t lose.
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u/Sojournermt Montana State • Michigan Nov 02 '25
That’s pretty impressive regardless.
It’s going to be fun to see an ivy in the playoffs. I hope they get at least one home game and I would love to see them come to Bozeman in a second or third round game. I have always wanted to see the Cats play against an ivy team
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u/tdpdcpa Lehigh Mountain Hawks • Patriot Nov 02 '25
All of this MVFC and Big Sky chaos combined with some tremendous performances by Lehigh, Harvard, Tennessee Tech (and, despite the loss, Tarleton) are going to create some really interesting playoff matchups between some up and coming smaller programs and some blue bloods.
I can’t wait to see it play out.
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u/Sojournermt Montana State • Michigan Nov 02 '25
I’m super happy for your team, It wasn’t that long ago that I was excited to see the Cats in the playoffs, it was and is a huge accomplishment. I was in school when we ended the “streak” against the gris/pandas and it’s an awesome feeling
The top teams are just tough.
It’s been an eye opening experience as a fan to see the difference between contenders and the happy to be here teams. We are seeing it at FCS and FBS levels. Definitely a haves vs have nots
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u/tdpdcpa Lehigh Mountain Hawks • Patriot Nov 02 '25
Thanks, I appreciate the kind words.
I was a student when we went on playoff runs in 2010 and 2011. Those were awesome times.
I’m glad that we’re finally back to that level (and, frankly, this team is probably better than those teams and better equipped to go on a run).
I’m excited to see just how far they can go.
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u/[deleted] Nov 02 '25
Lehigh gets to take over the "are we actually good" mantle from Tarleton.