Well folks, let's go ahead and state the obvious: The Missouri Valley Football Conference is the best conference in the FCS.
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Again ... or ugggh-gain in the eyes of many fans around the FCS.
We now have three powerful MVFC teams remaining in the quarterfinals. And when you add in Southern Illinois' OT loss in a tough game at No. 4 seed Idaho, you realize this is clearly the best league. The Big Sky Conference can't claim the honor and nobody else is even close. After an incredible regular season of Big Sky play, the MVFC has dominated postseason play. The Valley had six teams get into the big dance, and that was questioned the weekend before Turkey Day. Two MVFC teams (Youngstown State and aforementioned SIU) won first-round games, and only one Valley team was eliminated before this weekend (North Dakota).
These are all facts. Now here's the emotion: When you hear that the Missouri Valley is clearly the best conference in the FCS, can we please stop questioning it? It reminds me so much of when SEC dominance would tick off fans from the Big Ten, ACC or Pac 12, but the results over many years proved the obvious - the SEC was a bitch to compete against, and Nick Saban wasn't the only reason.
This year's monster, South Dakota State, who I'd still contend could beat three-quarters of the FBS and at least the bottom half of the Power Five level, easily won against Mercer, which was no big surprise. South Dakota and unseeded North Dakota State also won, with the Bison knocking off a Big Sky seed in Montana State in the day's best game.
Southern Illinois gave No. 4 seed Idaho all it wanted Saturday night, going to overtime. Most followers of the FCS level didn't see that coming, but if you paid attention to the Salukis all year with their tight games with SDSU and South Dakota, their win over an FBS (Northern Illinois) and their blowout win over a good playoff-bound team in Austin Peay? Well, it's not that surprising.
This isn't bias, FCS diehards. This is a neutral party with zero skin in the game stating the obvious. When home team-painted tinted bias creeps into the thought process, you may hate the MVFC, but hey - they're the best, and it's not just because of what NDSU did the past decade any more than it's all Alabama's success giving the SEC that rep.
Prediction time? This is easy.
The FCS national champion will once again be an MVFC team. Likely it'll be SDSU, and that's easy to say with a defending title winner who returned that much talent.
But the natty won't escape the Valley. Again.
