Miller's Power Rankings: Week 12

#1 North Dakota State (10-1), 542 (points)

South Dakota State's LB, Chris Tracy, scores on a fumble
recovery in the first quarter against South Dakota.
(Photo: GoJacks.com)

North Dakota State won the Missouri Valley outright Saturday night as they pulled way from the Redbirds late in the game to seal the victory. in doing so, North Dakota State also secured the #1 seed in the playoffs. It is very likely that the Bison should make a push for a second-straight national champion. However, the team the Bison might need to worry about the most is #4 Old Dominion who are on their way to the FBS next season.

#2 Illinois State (8-3), 326
Illinois State had a chance to beat North Dakota State but blew several chances to pull away in the second half, instead, the Bison put on the pressure and the Redbirds collapsed. However, Illinois State did enough this season to earn a second-round playoff game at Appalachian State. Illinois State will have a monumental task putting together a big playoff run. If they beat App State, they will have to go through (presumably) #2 Eastern Washington and #3 Montana State. 

#3 South Dakota State (8-3), 297
South Dakota State snuck into the playoffs with a respectable, but not over-powering, 8-3 season. The Jackrabbits earned the their way into the playoff over the weekend with a 31-8 stomping of long-time rival South Dakota. Although a larger crowd was expected, the healthy crowd of 15,200 was good enough for 7th largest crowd in Coughlin-Alumni Stadium history.  Austin Sumner showed once again that he has regained some of his confidence from last season and proved to be lethal as he was finding wide-open receivers all day. Zach Zenner also had a day; he slowly put together 164 yards and a touchdown. Defensively, the Jackrabbits were extremely stout; the Coyotes sniffed the endzone once but ended up turning the ball over on fourth down. Next weekend South Dakota State will be the only Valley team playing in the first-round of the playoffs. The Jackrabbits will host Eastern Illinois and their electrifying passing-attack; should the Jackrabbits win, they will have a second chance at knocking off conference rival North Dakota State. 

#4 Youngstown State (7-4), 276
Youngstown State needed one more win to get into the playoffs. The losses against Illinois State and Southern Illinois hurt the worse; in both those games the Penguins were winning at halftime and failed to come back out to play in the second half. Kurt Hess & Company will be back next year. However, they'll lose standout running back Jamaine Cook. Besides that loss, this Youngstown State team is still very young and will only improve over the offseason. 

#5 Southern Illinois (6-5), 256
The slow start to 2012 hurt the Salukis who turned out probably the third best defense in the Valley behind North Dakota State and South Dakota State. Next season the Salukis will look much the same, similarly to Youngstown State the Salukis are still young and show promise. Steve Strother who was a big producer on offense for the Salukis will graduate and also Kenneth Boatright's presence on the defensive line will be missed next year. At 6-5 the Salukis looked to have a mediocre season, but there was plenty to be happy about after two straight losing seasons. After comparing the 2011 SDSU-SIU & 2012 SDSU-SIU (games that I've watched in their entirety), I think the Salukis have alot to look forward to. In that 2011 matchup against South Dakota State, the Salukis looked completely defeated and lackadaisical; in 2012, they showed spirit and pride--the confidence factor cannot be overlooked and 2012 was definitely a successful confidence building season for the Salukis. An argument can be made saying that Southern Illinois should be above Youngstown State with a head-to-head win, however, I'll stand by the argument that it is a little more complicated than that. Remember, Indiana State beat Southern Illinois who beat Youngstown State who lost to Indiana State. So in all actuality, we can probably arrange these teams any which way and still make a legitimate argument. I think that the computer does an okay job of arranging them (Youngstown State with the best FBS win in FCS & Indiana State with wins over Quincy and Drake brought them up and pulled them down respectively)

#6 Indiana State (7-4), 231
Indiana State had a disappointing end to 2012. After their upset victory in Fargo it looked like Indiana State might end 9-2 and grab a seed in the playoffs. Illinois State was playing inconstantly and Youngstown State was in free-fall and most predicted Indiana State to win against those two teams. However, the opposite happened and the worst-case scenario came into fruition in Terre Haute. After setting #1 North Dakota State, the Sycamores did not even get the necessary 7 D-I wins to be eligible for the playoffs. We've seen it before, scheduling an FBS team and a D-II team makes it extremely difficult for teams to make the playoffs. However, Indiana State, Shakir Bell, and Mike Perish will be back next season. Hopefully with a playoff-friendly schedule. 

#7 Northern Iowa (5-6), 202
Everyone predicted this was how the Panther season would end. After losses to Iowa and Wisconsin, then losses to Youngstown State and North Dakota State, Northern Iowa would get to a point in their schedule where they shouldn't lose another game. The Panthers won 4 of their last five and reminded us that they are still Northern Iowa, and they'll be back next year.

#8 Missouri State (3-8), 103
Missouri State showed promise, but still made alot of glaring mistakes that will inhibit this team from being a threat in the Missouri Valley. It seemed that the Bears were competitive in each of their games and even pulled off an upset win against Illinois State. However, offensively the Bears are going to need to find some sort of identity if they want to push their squad to the next level--defensively, they're on the right track. 

#9 South Dakota (1-10), 40

The conference newcomer South Dakota had a very rough season, winless in the conference was definitely not the way many Coyote fans had hoped to see. The good news is that the Yotes are young, and Joe Glenn will continue to mold this team into a better, more competitive version of themselves. Inconsistency was the word of the season for Coyote fans. Offensively the Coyotes had times where they looked pretty good, but most times the offense was ineffective and fizzled out before anything ever got started. The same can be said about the defense, there were games where the defense kept them in the game, then there were others (North Dakota State, Indiana State, South Dakota State) where the defense played on their heels and did not create any chaos to get the opposing offense out of rhythm. I will say, it will be interesting to watch this Coyote team over the next couple season. 

#10 Western Illinois (3-8), 13
Although Western Illinois finished the season with two more wins than the Coyotes, both of those wins game against non-scholarship Butler, & sub-D-I Indianapolis (of course, their other win came against, the Coyotes). However, in the last five games, Western scored only 17 points and was shut-out twice. Their max output on offense during those five games was 224 total yards of offense. The difference between South Dakota and Western Illinois was that the Coyotes showed some promise at the end of the season against Northern Iowa and Youngstown State; Western, on the other hand, got completely outplayed in the second half of the season. The Leathernecks will need to do some major soul-searching to prepare for 2013.