It’s no such thing as a Power 6. I remember the AAC tried to pull that crap. The Big East church league is not a Power conference. You saw how many bids they got? They’re a tier below the Mountain West now.
It's gonna be a run on those OL too. I think ( I hope ) the Bengals realize they're not good at drafting OL and for now on they're much better off spending money on that area.
Now, James Madison seems like a program who wants to challenge themselves. They're legit in football too. When the next conference realignment wave comes, I believe they will step up in competition.
It's valid though. All of their wins are over QUAD 3 and QUAD 4 competition. Their strength of schedule is 320. It's unfair towards other teams who play steeper competition.
But I agree about this particular game. Wisconsin a 5 seed? On what planet? This is a 8 vs 9 in disguise.
Reader has torn quadriceps in both legs. It was no haste to try and bring him back. And even if he did recover in time, still needed to bring in another NT. Good run stopper, but wasn't worth the risk.
* Bengals fixed their defense. Now it looks even better than the 2021-2022. They probably have the best defensive back group in the league.
* They addressed positions where they usually draft poorly at, which is OL and TE. So it is room for error if they whiff on another early round pick.
*...
It would be cool if the committee admit they watched zero Virginia games this season and put them in because of name. If the committee actually used the fucking metrics, Virginia probably wouldn't even had made the NIT. Even Virginia fans flat out said they're not good before the bracket came...