LSC's Angelo State, Central Washington, & UTPB Continue Into Postseason
LSC's Angelo State, Central Washington, & UTPB Continue Into Postseason
Here’s a look back at some of the top takeaways following Week 12 in Lone Star Conference football.
We’ve made it.
The football regular season in the Lone Star Conference has wrapped up, and multiple teams from the league will be continuing their seasons in the form of postseason play over the coming weeks.
- Subscribe To FloCollege To Watch The 2024 College Football Season
- Best D2 Football Players In 2024. Here's The Top 100
- NCAA Division II Football Rankings In Week 13: Who's In And Who's Out?
High-scoring games, upsets, and some of the nation’s best teams littered the LSC landscape this season, making the league’s debut season streamed live and exclusively on FloCollege this season that much more special. If you’ve watched the action unfold and/or followed along on the LSC takeaways pieces weekly, thank you.
Now, it’s time to wrap things up and begin the countdown toward 2025.
Here’s a look back at some of the top takeaways following Week 12 in Lone Star Conference football:
Rams, Wildcats Make The Playoffs
With the NCAA having selected the field over the weekend, it’s now official — the Lone Star Conference is a two-bid league for the NCAA Division II football playoffs.
LSC champion Angelo State returned to the playoff field after a year’s absence for the ninth time and third time in four years, earning a home first-round game against Bemidji State this weekend as Super Region 4’s No. 3 seed. Having started the season 0-2, the Rams have rallied to win nine straight games — all in conference play — as they rolled to the league championship for the second time in three years.
Meanwhile, Central Washington was the LSC’s other representative to make the field in Super Region 4, qualifying for its second straight playoff bracket and third in four years as it essentially sealed its spot in the playoffs following a 13-3 victory over a bubble team in Western Oregon in this past weekend’s regular-season finale. The Wildcats will go on the road to face Western Colorado on Saturday in the first round, trying to repeat the heroics of last season when they made a run to the national quarterfinals.
Both squads should be tough outs no matter who they face in a wide-open Super Region 4, which no longer has to worry about two-time reigning national runner-up Colorado School of Mines (which was not selected) but does have a fearsome No. 1 seed in Colorado State-Pueblo, which earned a first-round bye and home-field advantage for the remainder of the regional as its only loss came by three points to powerhouse Grand Valley State.
It’s the second straight year that the LSC has been a two-bid conference for the playoffs after CWU and UT Permian Basin did it last season, and if the Rams and the Wildcats were to each win their first-round games this weekend, it would set up an ASU-CWU rematch in the second round of the bracket on Nov. 30 with the Rams hosting in that case.
Fuller Plays Mistake-Free
There were a lot of reasons why Angelo State steamrolled to the LSC title — having a defense that allowed the joint-fewest touchdowns and tallied both the most sacks and interceptions in the conference were all major parts of that — but the reliability of junior quarterback Braeden Fuller week-in and week-out was also a key part of the Rams’ run to the title and return to the playoffs.
ASU had already wrapped up the LSC title beforehand and likely still would’ve been in the playoff bracket anyway if it had lost to West Texas A&M last Saturday, but that all didn’t matter to Fuller, who strengthened his case to be the LSC Offensive Player of the Year with a monster performance in the Rams’ 56-19 win over the Buffaloes.
Fuller was responsible for seven touchdowns (four passing, three rushing) and a total of 425 yards of offense (238 passing, 187 rushing) on a night in San Angelo in which he easily could’ve taken his foot off of the gas and saved some energy for the playoffs. It won him his league-high fifth LSC Offensive Player of the Week award this season, as announced by the conference Monday, as his outing also featured a first half in which he was involved in scoring all five of ASU’s touchdowns before the break.
Remarkably consistent all year long, Fuller finished the regular season with 18 passing touchdowns and zero interceptions on 255 attempts to go with a league-high 2,180 passing yards, being the only quarterback in the LSC to break the 2,000-yard mark at the end of conference play.
Add in the fact that Fuller has also tallied 10 rushing touchdowns (fifth in the LSC, second among quarterbacks) to boot, and one the best dual-threat quarterbacks in D-II looks primed and ready to take on the rest of the playoff field as ASU pushes to make a postseason surge.
A Strong Finish For The Falcons
UT Permian Basin didn’t make the D-II playoffs for the second straight year, but it did make itself bowl-eligible with a 75-7 regular season-ending romp over Sul Ross State last Saturday, improving UTPB to 7-4 on the year with a 6-3 mark in the LSC.
With that emphatic close to LSC play also being the Falcons’ third straight win at just the right time, they have earned themselves the right to play one more game.
Last year’s conference champion sputtered a bit to start the year, starting 3-3 with defeats to eventual playoff teams ASU and CSU Pueblo plus Texas A&M-Kingsville. The impact of an upset win over Central Washington was nullified a bit by the fact that the Falcons lost the very next week to Western Oregon in overtime. Still, they began to regain their groove as the season went along — especially on the offensive end.
UTPB defeated West Texas A&M 21-7, then in its penultimate game ripped Eastern New Mexico’s option offense apart, limiting its impact while getting it done on offense in a massive 64-14 win. And then came the result over Sul Ross, with true freshman quarterback Isaac Mooring (who has had eight passing touchdowns combined over the past two games) especially blossoming as a name to watch for the future in the LSC.
Plus, as mentioned in last week’s LSC takeaways piece, the league is one of three that has a tie-in bid to one of D-II’s only bowl games, the Heritage Bowl. With teams revealed Tuesday for the game (to be played in Corsicana, Texas on Dec. 7), UTPB earned a bid and will keep its season going in the bowl game against Central Missouri from the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association.
AFCA NCAA Division II Football Rankings In Week 13
- Valdosta St. (Ga.) (27) 10-0
- Ferris St. (Mich.) (3) 10-1
- Kutztown (Pa.) 11-0
- Harding (Ark.) 10-1
- Grand Valley St. (Mich.) 10-1
- Charleston (W.Va.) 11-0
- Colorado St.-Pueblo 10-1
- Central Oklahoma 10-1
- Ouachita Baptist (Ark.) 10-1
- Western Colorado 10-1
- Slippery Rock (Pa.) 9-1
- West Alabama 9-1
- Pittsburg St. (Kan.) 8-2
- Indianapolis (Ind.) 10-1
- Lenoir-Rhyne (N.C.) 9-2
- Angelo St. (Tex.) 9-2
- Wingate (N.C.) 9-1
- Colorado School of Mines 8-3
- Central Washington 8-3
- California (Pa.) 8-2
- West Florida 7-3
- Augustana (S.D.) 8-3
- Southern Arkansas 9-2
- Carson-Newman (Tenn.) 9-2
- Central Missouri 8-3
Dropped Out: Minnesota St. (18), Findlay (Ohio) (22)
Others Receiving Votes: Fort Hays St. (Kan.), 65; East Stroudsburg (Pa.), 45; Virginia Union, 38; Miles (Ala.), 36; Minnesota St., 34; New Haven (Conn.), 21; Findlay (Ohio), 18; Bemidji St. (Minn.), 9; Sioux Falls (S.D.), 4; Davenport (Mich.), 3; Ashland (Ohio), 2; Glenville St. (W.Va.), 1.
Archived Footage On FloFootball
Watch The 2024 College Football Season On FloFootball
FloFootball is the home of the best FCS, Division II and Division III football action all season long.
Don't miss the latest college football action by bookmarking the FloFootball schedule page for the latest games.
Join The College Football Conversation
- Follow us on Twitter @FloFootball
- Follow us on Instagram @FloFootball
- Follow us on TikTok @FloFootball
- Watch us on YouTube
- Like us on Facebook