Final Final Poll

Yale was the lone Ivy League team to appear in the final FCS Coaches Poll, released this week after the national championship game. The Bulldogs placed 24th.

	FCS Coaches Poll	W-L	Pts	Prev
1	North Dakota State (24)	14-1	646	4
2	James Madison (1)	14-1	623	1
3	Sam Houston State	12-2	559	5
4	South Dakota State	11-3	557	6
5	Weber State	11-3	503	8
6	North Carolina A&T (1)	12-0	476	7
7	Wofford	10-3	445	9
8	Central Arkansas	10-2	431	3
9	Kennesaw State	12-2	427	16
10	Jacksonville State	10-2	423	2
11	Stony Brook	10-3	375	11
12	Western Illinois	8-4	356	10
13	Southern Utah	9-3	329	13
14	Grambling State	11-2	294	12
15	New Hampshire	9-5	279	20
16	South Dakota	8-5	239	18
17	Samford	8-4	222	14
18	McNeese	9-2	213	15
19	Northern Iowa	8-5	182	21
20	Furman	8-5	173	25
21	Elon	8-4	162	17
22	Eastern Washington	7-4	122	19
23	Nicholls	8-4	110	22
24	Yale	9-1	102	24
25	San Diego	10-3	72	RV

Others receiving votes: Monmouth (61), Austin Peay (30), Northern Arizona (23), Delaware (6), Central Connecticut State (4), Southeastern Louisiana (2), Lehigh (2), Sacramento State (1), Western Carolina (1).

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Headline in Le Temps, a Swiss Daily, for a story about a Certain Robotic Tackling Dummy developed at Dartmouth:

Sur les terrains de football américain, un robot sécurise les placages; Déjà utilisé par 15 équipes de NFL, le MVP, un robot servant de mannequin pour les placages, permet de réduire de 80% le nombre de blessures à l’entraînement. En Europe, le rugby pourrait y trouver un intérêt

Google's translation isn't perfect, but you'll get the idea:

On football fields, a robot secures veneers: Already used by 15 NFL teams, the MVP, a robot used as a manikin for veneers, reduces the number of training injuries by 80%. In Europe, rugby could find an interest

The local daily has a story about an initiative to downsize the MVP to make it more affordable for youth football teams. (LINK)

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Some posters on the unofficial Ivy League message board rue the conference's move from Division I-A to I-AA (now FBS and FCS) in 1978 and long for a return to the top level of college football. Idaho's story is a cautionary tale.

After winning at least nine games in half of their seasons between 1978 and 1996 the Vandals made the move to the FBS in 1997. Since then? Just three winning seasons.

Dropped by the Sun Belt Conference, Idaho next fall will become the first team ever to move back from the FBS to the FCS level.

Per the Spokesman-Review earlier this week, University of Idaho President Chuck Staben offered this thought after the Vandals' final FBS game:

 “There is this hyper-polarization between the haves and the have-nots. We’re not deciding between the Rose Bowl and FCS. We’re deciding between being a marginal FBS program and FCS.”

In case you are wondering, here are Idaho's 2017 schedule as a member of the Sun Belt Conference and its 2018 schedule when it returns to the Big Sky Conference, the league it left after 1995:

Idaho 2017 Results
Sacramento State, W 28-6
UNLV, L 44-16
at Western Michigan, L 37-28
at South Alabama, W 29-23 (2 OT)
Louisiana-Lafayette, L 21-16
Appalachian State, L 23-20
at Missouri, L 68-21
Louisiana-Monroe, W 31-23
at Troy, L 24-21
Coastal Carolina, L 13-7
at New Mexico State, L 17-10
at Georgia State, W 24-10

Idaho 2018 Schedule (Conference games only)
Sept. 22 at UC Davis
Sept. 29 vs Portland State
Oct. 6 at Idaho State
Oct. 13 at Montana State
Oct. 20 vs Southern Utah
Oct. 27 at Eastern Washington
Nov. 3 vs North Dakota
Nov. 10 vs Montana