By Keith McMillan
D3sports.com
It's pretty impressive that a win in a bowl game that wasn't played three years ago could earn a team that didn't exist a year ago a conference championship that didn't exist a year ago and a playoff berth that wasn't available eight months ago.
But it’s true. If Christopher Newport, a first-year program, defeats Ferrum in Saturday's Oyster Bowl, the Captains will represent the Dixie Conference in the 28-team NCAA playoff field.
For a team that lost its first three games and had a fourth canceled, playing in late November may have been beyond their imagination.
It apparently was something nearly 750 voters in an unscientific preseason D3football.com poll could not fancy either. More than 42% thought the Dixie should not get an automatic bid in its first full year of football competition. Another 38% did not even know who the seven football-playing schools in the conference were.
Coach Matt Kelchner left his job at Division I-AA William & Mary, where after 16 years he’d risen to assistant head coach, to start the program at Christopher Newport. The Newport News, Va., school. has an enrollment of more than 5,000 students and is perennially powerful in track and field and basketball, among other sports.
The gridiron Captains, who feature a solid mix of freshmen and transfers from Division I, I-AA and junior college programs, started slowly, losing against Salisbury and at Randolph-Macon. Their Sept. 15 game with Bridgewater (Va.) was canceled, but after a 27-24 overtime loss to Shenandoah, a second-year program itself, the Captains got a taste of winning. And they haven’t lost since, stringing together four consecutive wins. But a 4-3 record is hardly a recipe for a playoff team.
The Panthers would like to think so. A member of the Dixie in other sports, Ferrum left the Atlantic Central Football Conference along with the other established Dixie programs once the Dixie sponsored football, and is 5-0 in conference and 6-3 overall.
The Oyster Bowl, a Hampton Roads-area tradition that began in 1946 and was revived from a four-year hiatus in 1999, featured greats like Roger Staubach and Fran Tarkenton over the years. Sponsored by the Khedive Temple and benefitting the Shriners Hospitals, the game that once pitted teams like Syracuse, Clemson and Southern Mississippi against regional rivals was revived as a Division III showcase.
With the first official Dixie Conference championship and an NCAA playoff bid on the line, the Ferrum-CNU game was already a showcase.
A Shriners Parade will precede Saturday’s game, at Hampton University’s Darling Stadium. The circumstances should generate a good bit of attention for the Captains, who are trying to put down roots in football-happy Tidewater.
If you’re going, don’t expect to see much passing.
Ferrum, behind sophomore running back Freddie Little and junior quarterback Phil Hairston, rushes for 282 yards per game, fifth in the country. The Captains, sparked by Kaveh Conaway, rush for 255 per outing.
The two teams should enjoy the big-game atmosphere while they can. The winner — expected to be seeded seventh in one of the four NCAA playoff brackets — may end up a loser by drawing a strong No. 2 seed in its playoff game.
Rivalry games to watch
Speaking of big games, there are some much longer rivalries on the flipside, not to mention a few more winner-take-all contests on Saturday.
The second week of November is when certain coaches’ phones start ringing off the hook with encouraging alumni. Practices move swiftly, while away from the field, the pranks begin.
It’s been the same story during this week for more than a hundred years for 15 sets of rivals, many of whom play each other on Saturday.
Division III’s longest rivalry is also this year’s most interesting. Amherst and Williams enter their 116th meeting each undefeated. As members of the New England Small College Athletic Conference, each team plays eight conference rivals and cannot participate in the national playoffs. So this year’s "Biggest Little Game in America" is the biggest game of the season for the bitter rivals.
The game will be televised live for the 17th year in a row (on NESN, for New Englanders and folks with DirecTV). It’s also available at 51 combined Williams/Amherst alumni gatherings, including viewings in Tokyo, Hong Kong and England.
Colby plays at Bowdoin: The Polar Bears lead the White Mules 62-41-9 after 112 meetings in the third-longest series in Division III.
Monmouth (Ill.) plays at Knox: The Battle for the Bronze Turkey is as even as they come. Monmouth leads 51-50-10. This season, the Scots are 6-2, the Prarie Fire 2-6.
"What I tell my guys," says Monmouth’s Steve Bell, "is ‘this is what you play college football for.’."
Wabash plays at DePauw: The Tigers lead the Monon Bell series 50-48-9. Pranks between these nearby rivals are so frequent, that head coach DePauw head coach Nick Mourouzis was wary of taking calls from members of the media he was unfamilar with this week, for fear the callers were Wabash pranksters.
Hampden-Sydney plays at Randolph-Macon: Tearing down the goalposts has become so frequent in "The South’s Oldest Small College Rivalry" that uniformed police guard the end zones after the game. The Yellow Jackets, trailing 51-44-11 in the series, have won six in a row. Somebody will finish with a losing record, as both teams enter at 4-5.
Hamline at Macalester: The 102nd meeting became particularly intriguing when Macalester announced earlier this year that it would be reviewing the status of its program. In other words, this could be the last game, for all we know.
Wesleyan at Trinity (Conn.): Another NESCAC rivalry with 100 meetings under its belt. This year is 101.
Winner-take-all games
Aside from CNU-Ferrum and Rowan-Montclair State (featured prominently elsewhere on the site), the winner also gets an automatic bid in these games:
No. 11 UW-Eau Claire at UW-Stevens Point
Eau Claire (8-1, 5-1 WIAC) and Stevens Point (6-2, 4-2) clash with the conference title on the line.
Nichols vs. Westfield State at Worcester State
The NEFC makes it simple with a title game. Winner gets a playoff bid.
Games to watch
Hope at Albion
According to our Pool B Power Rankings, Hope is in good shape with a win. If Albion wins… oh boy.
No. 20 Bethel at St. Thomas
Royals (7-1 MIAC, 8-1) need a win over the Tommies (7-1, 7-2) to stay in Pool C contention. Unless 0-9 Carleton beats St. John’s.
Appreciation
This is a familiar refrain for me at this time of year. In fact, a version of what’s below appeared in my final regular-season Mid-Atlantic column last year. But on the national stage, I feel it bears repeating:
We focus quite a bit on playoff teams, individual achievements and gaudy statistics here at D3football.com, and deservedly so. But quite a few players — guys who quite frankly are the backbone of Division III football — will suit up for the last time on Saturday. They won’t retire with records set, they won’t visit a combine or a large-scale awards banquet. Few, if any, had their education paid for.
For every star, every press clipping and every all-conference nomination, there are twice as many players whose accomplishments have been overlooked because their contribution can’t be measured by football statistics alone. On the field Saturday will be several players whose sacrifice will go unnoticed by the casual fan, but whose importance was not overlooked by his coaches and teammates. Players who play simply for the thrill of competition and the feeling of belonging to a team will walk between the white lines for the last time.
In the end, hundreds of players will walk off the field Saturday without tasting the nectar of the playoffs, instead savoring a greater victory: completing a career as a Division III football player.
If you’re at a game Saturday, let go one extra cheer for the offensive linemen, the fullbacks and career special teams players. If you walk onto the field after the game, find the quietly effective senior strong safety or dependable kicker and tell him how much you enjoyed watching him play. It’ll probably mean the world to him.
