You peeps saying we need to win this game to change the SoCon ‘narrative’ / respect level aren’t wrong, but Furman winning this game, and the next, and even the next 2 will be insufficient to change the narrative.
Already seeing MVFC, Big Sky, and CAA peeps/fans & some (allegedly) non-aligned pundits diminishing Furman’s domination of a now-elite WITHIN-the-CAA Elon Team… “Oh yeah, Elon’s just bad on the road.” “Elon’s OL/DL are the weakest in the CAA. They just caught Delaware/Richmond/W&M when they were down/hurt/napping/etc.” and on it goes ad infinitum.
Excuses, accommodations, and minimizations will be applied to any future Playoff wins by the Paladins. It’s guaranteed.
No…it will take multiple SoCon Teams getting multiple Playoff bids and winning multiple Playoff games, defeating consensus Top MVFC & Big Sky Teams (NDSU, SDSU, Montana, Montana State) in the Playoffs, over multiple Playoff years.
Not sure that CAN be accomplished within the current Playoff / Committee / Ranking structure. Sadly.
Sensing a broad-based push to make some structural changes soon - just an undercurrent at this point - hopefully to become a wave.
So…until then, all we can do is WIN … and, in our ‘travels,’ support FU & the SoCon as a whole. This ‘narrative’ that there is a “Power 3” (MVFC, Big Sky, and CAA) in FCS arose from Fans & (biased) pundits proliferating it. They’ve done a nice job. SoCon peeps have not. We can change that.
NCAA MANUAL
20.10.1 ...intercollegiate athletics...competition in amateur athletics…
20.10.1.2 …maintaining a line of demarcation between student-athletes who participate in the Collegiate Model and athletes competing in the professional model