COMMENTARY: Vandals built the resume; now they need to continue to win

Not all wins are created equal, but getting the win is the most important thing for the Idaho Vandals for the rest of the regular season.

When you have a postseason tournament that has a human factor like college athletics has, beauty points matter a lot when it comes to playoff berths and seeding.

For Idaho, the beauty points were tabulated in the tough first half of its schedule. Over the final five games, including UI’s 34-29 victory over Cal Poly on Saturday, a win is all that matters.

The Football Championship Subdivision changed the way it formatted the 24-team postseason tournament before the 2024 season. Instead of seeding the top-8 teams and giving them a bye in the first round, the committee now seeds the top 16.

Now, a top-8 seed gives a team a bye in the first round and a home game in the second round. A seed between Nos. 9-16 will allow a team to host a first-round playoff matchup against the bottom-eight teams of the bracket based on location.

Again, this is why beauty points matter.

The stronger the resume, the better seed the team can receive and theoretically the easier the path is through the opening rounds of the FCS bracket.

The Vandals built their resume with a win against a Football Bowl Subdivision team in Wyoming and by holding No. 1 Oregon to its lowest point total (24) of the season. Only No. 17 Boise State and No. 4 Ohio State have played the Ducks in closer games.

On top of the two performances against FBS teams, Idaho played five consecutive games against top-25 FCS teams, winning three of them. Those wins included a blowout win over UAlbany a year after the Great Danes eliminated the Vandals from the playoffs.

No matter how Idaho looks the rest of the way against the weaker part of its schedule, the Vandals should be one of the top-16 teams to receive a seeding from the committee … as long as they win.

The five-point victory against the two-win Mustangs three days ago proves that fact.

Idaho trailed by eight points at half time, had a season-high 12 penalties and made uncharacteristic mistakes.

Through all of that, the Vandals won the game and moved up in the top-25 list by two spots to No. 11 after both Villanova and Mercer lost.

The Vandals will be favored to win each of their final four games of the season. If they are able to run the table and finish the regular season with a 9-3 record with what they accomplished at the beginning of the season, the Vandals could very well get a first-round bye.

By no means am I saying that if Idaho plays the way that it did against UC Davis that it will win the final four games on the schedule. Coach Jason Eck has said it himself, there are a lot of things that the team is trying to clean up as the season progresses.

There are other positives for Idaho as the team continues to win with an injury list a mile long. The Vandals finally reach their bye week after they host Eastern Washington on Oct. 26. That will allow the team from Moscow to rest up and hopefully get some key contributors back in the fold.

The Saturday game with the Eagles will be the most interesting game left on the Idaho schedule. Not only is it a rivalry game, but it is the one game before the Vandals are able to rest and hopefully get some of those key pieces back.

One key piece that might return earlier than expected is sophomore starting quarterback Jack Layne. He was cleared for practice last week and was in uniform (on the sideline) for the win against Cal Poly.

Eck said that Layne has another x-ray to pass to make sure everything is still on track. The rest will come with how the sophomore looks in practice as he has not seen the field since the Oregon game on Aug. 31.

Four of the five wins for Idaho have come in one-possession games, so the Vandal defense has been tested in game-deciding situations and I have no doubt that Idaho will not blow out the final four teams on its schedule.

Luckily for the Vandals, the resume has been built. Now is the time to solidify everything and make sure to add to the win column. The rest is gravy.

Isbelle can be reached at 208-848-2268, risbelle@lmtribune.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @RandyIsbelle.