We Are The Champions
Well we don't have a champion yet, but we will tomorrow. It has come to the final game of season 140 and what a dandy it should be. First off, let me say congratulations to everyone who made playoffs and won their respective conferences this season! Next, let me personally congratulate nitros and jddriscoll on reaching the national championship game! Let's take a look at each of our teams, how they got here and finally... make a prediction.
N - Arkansas Pine Bluff vs E - Northern Iowa
Let's start with the current #1 team in the land. The Arkansas Pine-Bluff Golden Lions. APB comes in a perfect 18-0 on the season and they didn't exactly chicken out when it came to scheduling either, they have the #5 ranked SOS according to WIS.
APB pretty much rolled everyone this season but they did have a couple of good games. They started the season off with a fun game against Delaware State. This game was tied at halftime only to see APB break away a little bit in the second. Both teams had over 600 yards of offense in the game. APB then cruised through the rest of non-conf. They had a minor hiccup in their game against Liberty. This game was pretty much controlled by the Golden Lions the whole way but a very lackadaisical 4th quarter saw APB nearly blow a lead. Then their biggest test of the regular season came from none other than nitros' former team Texas Southern. APB had a decent 11-point lead but a back and forth game in the second half but a goal line stand and a late touchdown in the 4th sealed the deal.
In the playoffs APB continued their form from the regular season and even though the margin of victory was less APB still looked impressive. They had to replay 3 teams they met in the regular season and the result was the same. Their biggest threat coming from Delaware State who held the lead until late in the 4th quarter but APB found a way to mount a late drive to get the game winning field goal.
The current #3 ranked team and defending national champions, the Northern Iowa Panthers will be the other team playing in the championship game. UNI also comes in with a perfect 18-0 record and have gone through a pretty tough schedule as well which comes in at #18 according to WIS.
For UNI the story is about the same as that of APB. UNI cruised through the first four games of the season but were tested in non-conf. by an ever upset minded Stephen F. Austin squad. The Panthers trailed in this game at half and were really needing to get something going and their coach drew up a masterful plan as UNI outscored SFA 38-17 in the second half to secure an 11-point victory. Conference play got even easier for UNI at first. Three shutouts and no opponent scoring more than 7 points in a game , that is until Florida International came to town. This was another game that saw UNI faced with a double digit halftime deficit. Again UNI came through with the adjustments and scored over 30 points in the 2nd half to take the game to overtime. In the end the wear and tear of the balanced attack wore FIU out and UNI won in 2 OT.
The playoff run for UNI has been interesting. They got another rematch from SFA and took care of business again. Then in the quarterfinals and semifinals they were in dog fights and back and forth games the whole way. In the end UNI has done what they needed to to get the wins. They haven't had a game closer than 10 points through the playoffs.
PREDICTION:
I really struggled with this pick. I was getting conflicting information. My heart wanted to go with one team but my head wanted to go with another. I tend to be a logical person but let's be honest, I'm emotionally attached to this game so I couldn't decide for a long time which way to go. Both of these teams have done fantastic jobs all season and these coaches are legit. I expect this to be a very tight game through the first half. Then I expect one team to open up a decent lead only to nearly lose it in the end but hang on to win. I'm picking APB 35-33.
