The place Delaware stands in FCS playoff image at season’s midpoint: Compiling outlet projections

BY DANIEL STEENKAMER
Managing Sports activities Editor

As winners of 4 in a row, the seventh-ranked Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens enter Saturday’s sport at Hampton College in first place in Coastal Athletic Affiliation (CAA) Soccer. Delaware’s 3-0 CAA document offers it sole possession of first within the convention over Villanova College, Elon College and the College of Richmond, all of that are 3-1 in league video games. As regular, parity guidelines the Coastal roost.

Although the Blue Hens have an extended highway forward to increase their keep atop the CAA, together with head-to-heads with Elon and Villanova in November, their present circumstances are conducive to some lofty Soccer Championship Subdivision (FCS) playoff projections. 

Every week, The Evaluation will compile them as Delaware goals to make good on forecasts that, this week, unanimously have the Hens within the postseason area. 

The Prognostications

HERO Sports activities: Sam Herder’s FCS Bracketology 1.0

FanBuzz: Brian McLaughlin: Dakota Colleges Rule Seeding Image

Faculty Sports activities Insanity: Week 7 FCS Soccer Bracket Breakdown

FloFootball: Kyle Kensing’s FCS Playoff Predictions For If The Season Ended At the moment

Dan’s Take

Delaware’s 5-1 total document, with its one loss coming at Penn State, earns it loads of love within the polls and in midseason bracket outlooks. Although you’ll be able to solely fault the Blue Hens however a lot for his or her schedule, Delaware has but to show itself in opposition to the depth of the CAA’s finest. The Hens’ comeback win over New Hampshire is their finest FCS victory this season. Delaware’s different CAA wins at Stony Brook College and versus North Carolina A&T and its FCS nonconference sweep of Saint Francis College and Duquesne College don’t transfer the needle for a playoff resume. The mixed document of SBU, NC A&T, SFU and Duquesne coming into the video games of Oct. 21 is 6-18. 

Delaware’s power of schedule picks up with its subsequent two video games approaching the highway in opposition to improved groups, Hampton and Towson College. As talked about, November is most intense with its string of checks wherein the Blue Hens face Elon, Campbell College and Villanova. With this in thoughts, any slip-up at unranked Hampton or Towson can be a setback nice sufficient to knock Delaware from the seed line come Choice Sunday.

If Ryan Carty’s workforce positions itself for a first-round bye as, say, the CAA’s automated qualifier, the actual seed Delaware can garner issues. If the Hens had been to land the No. 8 or No. 7 seed, which might probably imply a date with titans South Dakota State College or Montana State College earlier than the FCS semifinals, that state of affairs is arguably much less fascinating than lacking out on a seed completely in favor of a path that might keep away from SDSU and MSU for an extended stretch.

After all, that argument in opposition to a late seed each assumes a Delaware win in its playoff opener and subjugates the consideration that any seed earned, eighth or in any other case, ensures a second-round look at Delaware Stadium. December soccer in Newark is to not be taken as a right.

In the long run, any variation of the seed debate is untimely in the course of Halloween costume shops’ open hours. Delaware’s prove-it video games, its finest possibilities at a ranked win on a weak schedule, nonetheless lurk subsequent month – a month that has not been form to Blue Hen soccer groups over latest years, specifically in annual Battle of the Blue video games in opposition to Villanova. To internet a seed, a workforce can’t be backing into the bracket.