Ric Fukushima and the Tigers forced Division III to sit up and take notice of the SCIAC.

By Keith McMillan
D3sports.com

LOS ANGELES — Some of us do it under fall foliage, others in the shadow of snow-capped mountains and still others with palm trees nearby. We may be thousands of miles apart in the various regions of the USA, but we’re linked together by the love of a game we play for free with only the adulation of the people who would probably like us anyway: parents, friends and alumni.

Sure, the differences from program to program are as great as the regional climates, but as 1,300-student private schools stand on the same stage as 7,600-student goliaths we find we’re more the same than we are different.

In California last week, I discovered that the folks marooned on SCIAC island were acutely aware that the rest of the nation thumbed its nose at their brand of football, mostly because a conference team hadn’t won a playoff game since 1985. Before Redlands cashed in the SCIAC’s first Pool B bid in 2002, then returned with the automatic bid the next year, only La Verne in 1994 and Redlands in 1990 and ‘92 had even made the playoffs.

Those facts propped up the kind of drama that sportswriters thrive on. This game wasn’t just about Occidental’s most special team in 20 years taking on one of the last teams to squeak into the 28-team field in Willamette. This was a battle to earn respect for small-school football in all of Southern California.

And if you think I’m making it up, I sat next to Kevin Walsh, part of Oxy’s Saturday broadcast team, who said on-air that the Tigers “have to win for the benefit of the SCIAC, or we won’t see too many more home playoff games.”

It was a sentiment echoed when I visited Redlands and their coaching staff the day before, though the Bulldogs would probably have preferred to do it themselves instead of losing at St. John's 31-24 in 2002 or 31-23 at Linfield in 2003.

For Division III in California, Occidental’s home playoff game was an event. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps’ coach watched from outside the press box, a Redlands assistant did the PA announcing and a Chapman media guide lay crumpled among sunflower seed shells in the postgame trash.

Dennis, a teacher in Watts and Linfield graduate, made friends in the stands. I spotted a Mount Union hat on one fan, and was offered an Oxy hat to shield my eyes from Saturday’s blazing sun. Oxy orange dominated the crowd seated in the Tigers’ concrete bleachers, but Bearcats supporters banged those annoying noisemakers we’ve learned to call ThunderStix.

Willamette traveled well, but perhaps that’s because 34 of the players on its roster are from California, including sophomore Rah-Ben Coates. The game was in his hometown of Los Angeles.

The Bearcats hardly played like a playoff team, as the Tigers took advantage of Willamette mistakes and won 28-14.

As Bearcats coach Mark Speckman said, “We hurt ourselves, but Occidental hurt us too.”

In postgame interviews, the significance of the win for SCIAC football was not at all lost on the players.

“I think it’s great not just for us, but for the SCIAC in general,” said Occidental receiver Zac Sakowski, who caught two TD passes. “People think we’re just liberal arts schools with a bunch of smart kids who happen to play football.”

Said coach Dale Widolff: “The thing that I feel really good about is for the conference.”

The coach, at the helm for Oxy’s playoff appearances from 1983-85, said it’s difficult to win on the road in the playoffs. Playing at home, on a field ground into dirt between the hashes from one 30-yard line to the other end zone, might have helped Oxy some on Saturday. But Widolff was thrilled that it might help the SCIAC champion get more home games in the future.

For just about everyone else associated with the school, located in the Eagle Rock section of L.A., not far from Pasadena or the Rose Bowl, the playoffs are new territory. Last time Oxy was here, it lost 43-42 to UW-La Crosse (in 1983) and Central, 23-22, the following year.

In 1985, Occidental broke through by beating St. John’s 28-10 in the first round. Central beat the Tigers 71-0 in the second round. (I heard stories about Oxy bringing the wrong shoes and playing on ice; Central lost to then-powerhouse Augustana the following week anyway).

Seventy-one points? Even when conference teams earned respect they couldn’t earn national respect.

Redlands made the NAIA Division II final in 1976, and lost 20-13 to Westminster (Pa.). Whittier and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps have each had their share of strong teams.

But football will always be a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately sport, and though Redlands had been just a touchdown away twice — they led St. John’s 21-14 before the Johnnies put together a 17-3 fourth quarter — a win speaks volumes compared to a close loss.

Detractors may say Oxy simply got a home game because the fourth Pool B team was from the West, had three losses and was beaten 48-14 in the final week of the regular season. But Willamette came into the game with solid credentials — the big loss was to No. 2 Linfield, another came to former Division-III-turned-NAIA Eastern Oregon and the third was in overtime at Mary Hardin-Baylor, which won a playoff game Saturday at Trinity (Texas).

When there are just 28 teams left playing, a win is a win. There aren’t any bad teams in the field. Sometimes a team on a mission will overpower another, but quite often it’s whoever plays the best game that day.

That team was Occidental on Saturday, much to the delight of SCIAC country.

And when they go to the Fargodome to play Concordia-Moorhead, a team with a rich postseason tradition that hasn’t been rewritten since 1997, the Tigers could further their quest for respect.

On air, Walsh made reference to SCIAC football not being as popular as it is elsewhere in the country. I’m not so sure about that, and even so, I’ve seen worse football teams with bigger crowds than the one in L.A. on Saturday, and I’ve seen better teams play in front of smaller ones.

SCIAC teams are much in the same boat as the rest of the country, except when it comes to restrictions placed on early-season practice time (these have since been lifted) and recruiting battles with junior colleges, NAIAs and several levels of successful NCAA teams.

“Football's football wherever you go,“ Occidental quarterback Andy Collins told the L.A. Times. “As soon as you step on the sidelines it’s the same game. There are different levels, but if you love the game, you do what you’ve got to do to play.”

And that’s pretty much the theme of the playoffs, as Pacific Lutheran’s Frosty Westering pointed out so often in 1999. It’s all about getting one more week with the guys you’ve grown to love, and getting one more chance to play a game that you can’t play the same way after college. Each playoff team that loses features a group of seniors who realize they will never strap on pads and a helmet again.

With that on the line each time, playing for the respect of an entire nation doesn’t seem so difficult, does it?

Thoughts from SCIAC country
A few brief notes:

-> The SCIAC might lead the nation in beautiful campuses. Or maybe it’s just because I’m from the East, and towering maples and brick buildings with Doric columns don’t impress me anymore.

Staring at a perfectly planted row of palm trees down the center of Redlands’ campus, with the sun setting over a clock tower that reminds me of Back to the Future? Now that’s beautiful.

I made it to the Claremont consortium, the five colleges and two football teams all occupying the same grounds, and to Occidental. Very nice campuses as well. Both places looked pretty much like college brochures.

-> At the Oxy game, one fan watched in jeans and a bikini top, with a player number painted on her chest. You wouldn’t see that back East on November 20, at least not from a sane fan. 

Excuse this rant, but …
Every now and again, I remember that Around the Nation is a column as much as a notes package, and I m allowed to speak my mind.

This week, I want to respond to some feedback. Not to make myself feel like a bigger man, mind you, but because I think there is a legitimate issue here that can be addressed.

I don’t feel the need to identify the fellow who sent this. I’m sure he’s a fine citizen (He s from South Jersey, after all), and my intent is not really to degrade or embarrass.

Here’s what he wrote, quoted directly:

Subject: 7 Away Games / Shund by Pennsylvania 
I hope all the bashing of Rowan pays off in the playoffs, you guy's have given them nothing but motivation to win. I can't thank you enough. No One's saying anything about the fact that at Virgina State Rowan was without the starting QB and Center (shot gun as you know) and started a freshmen QB for his first start. The fact that we turned the ball over 4/5 times in the first half didn't help. 
That said, bring on those Pennsylvania teams that duck Rowan year after year ( all of them within an hour's drive). They make the beast travel for games to d2 schools that either pay Rowan (VSU) to participate or visa versa (SCSC). Rowan took on all comers this year and should be rewarded as they have been with the first round bye. Hey, we may not be the team of the mid nighties but we still have enough fight to win the close one.
I think we will show up thanks to all the bad press, I know I would. 

Excuse me for saying so, but I hate e-mails like these. I don t mind if you disagree with me or question our coverage, and you don t even have to be polite about it. But I take issue with feedback dripping with the us-against-the-evil-media theme.

I don’t think I’ve ever bashed anyone, and I certainly didn’t do it to Rowan last week. There were other teams that could have taken the one seed, and perhaps the committee considered it and thought better of it. Hindsight might be 20/20, but if you compare Salisbury s results against common Division III opponents to Rowan s, the Profs clearly struggled to beat two teams that the Sea Gulls manhandled. The scores against Brockport State (Rowan won 39-33 in overtime, Salisbury 46-21) and Kean (Rowan won 24-16, Salisbury 44-0) show a clear difference. In addition, despite going 8-0 against Division III competition, Rowan also beat two opponents (Christopher Newport and Cortland State) by a single point.

That’s not bashing. Those are opinions supported by facts, and that’s how we do things. We don’t sit in front of our computers and make this stuff up because we favor certain teams over others. We use our best judgment to present what we think are the most accurate representations of what’s happening. If you want someone to tell you how great Rowan is, I’m pretty sure there are cheerleaders on the sidelines for that.

That’s not to say we don t make mistakes (there’s no need to bring up that John Carroll/Mount Union column from a few years back). And we re human, of course we have biases (Truth be told, more people I am close to and respect have been associated with Rowan football than any other Division III school except my alma mater, Randolph-Macon, but I try not to share that for obvious reasons).

But one of the gifts of this job, as I was reminded of by my time in California last week, is the opportunity to meet fascinating people that, if not for this level of football we all hold dear, we d probably never even speak to.

Since that has been the case for the past five years, I’ve met people I like almost everywhere I’ve been, from the edge of the West Coast to the Midwest, Deep South and Northeast. Die-hard fans of one team might find it hard to believe, but that makes it hard to root. I m usually happy for the guys that win, and just as disappointed for the guys that lost, because I’ve met and liked them all.

I guess that’s why I find absurd the assertion that we take delight in the misfortune of certain programs, or that somehow the programs use our coverage to inspire their play. I mean, come on. We aren’t that important.

Personally, I’ve struggled a little bit with my level of devotion to the program I played for as it has fallen on hard times. Sometimes I think I’m paying too much attention to the Mount Unions and St. John’s and Linfields and not enough to the place that helped get me here. But whenever I’m at Salem Stadium, I think about how geeked I’d be if Randolph-Macon were ever in the Stagg Bowl. I remember what it was like not just to play, but to be part of a team that made me proud, and I m okay with it.

It occurred to me after I saw SCIAC teams the past two weeks that I have now seen in person teams from 15 of the 26 conferences with virtually no travel budget. Someone from our site had seen a team from every conference in person, though every single team in Division III is still a bit out of our reach.

Our opinions aren’t any better than anyone else who knows football, but the above is precisely what makes them relevant. Seeing all of these teams and forming relationships with the people at those institutions keeps us from leaning too far in anyone’s favor.

So to this reader and anyone like him who writes that sort of e-mail, you don’t have to apologize for saying we bash your team and give them bad press. You don’t have to like us or our opinions. You’ve done plenty for me by making it all the way through this rant.

Just remember, we wouldn’t trash anyone unjustly in hopes that they’d lose. We’d hate to read the e-mail from the other guy accusing us of using “our bashing powers” to fire your team up. 

What we learned from each of last week’s results
Brief thoughts on what Saturday’s outcomes said to the national audience:
• UW-La Crosse 37, St. Norbert 23: The result didn’t tell us as much as some of the in-game scores did. St. Norbert led 17-3 at the half and 23-10 with 8:50 to play, and La Crosse scored two TDs in the final 45 seconds to stretch out a one-point lead. So basically, our top-ranked conference still can’t churn out a single team that’s dominant. The scores also tell us that St. Norbert whitewashed the memory of a 41-9 season-opening loss to UW-Whitewater. For the Green Knights, this is one of those losses that hurts in the worst way, knowing you had chances to win and didn’t come through.

• Occidental 28, Willamette 14: We’ve pretty much already told you what we think this result means to the SCIAC, and it doesn’t really hurt the Northwest Conference’s reputation much either. What is interesting is that Willamette was the last of four Pool B teams to get in, and Christopher Newport was probably the last Pool C team in, and neither embarrassed itself. Next year, when the field goes to 32 teams, teams like the Bearcats and Captains would be shoo-ins. What we learned from Willamette is that being second to a strong conference champion will get you a playoff opportunity, as long as your other losses are out-of-region or against non-Division III teams.

• Concordia-Moorhead 28, Wartburg 14: We learned that 10-0 doesn’t guarantee a top seed in the West, as usual. We also learned that even in a down year, the IIAC has muscle. This was a 21-14 game late in the third. The Cobbers, who haven’t been to the playoffs in seven years, got their feet wet last week, and brings to town an Occidental team also riding high from its first playoff victory in recent memory.

• Hobart 35, Curry 16: We learned that Curry, and by association the NEFC, still have a way to go to catch up to their Division III counterparts. Hobart is about as beatable an opponent as the NEFC champion is going to get in the first round. That’s not meant to be a knock on the Statesmen, either. We’re just saying that in the playoffs, a road game against an 8-1 team from New York state is about the best the league can hope for until one of its teams proves it can win, or at least almost win, in the NCAAs.

• St. John Fisher 31, Muhlenberg 3: This was one of few stone-cold blowouts in the first round. We learned that the Mules didn’t sport the nation’s best defense, despite its No. 1 statistical ranking coming in. The Cardinals’ Mark Robinson ran for 185 yards and broke off three runs of more than 40 yards … in the first half. We bow to the Fisher offensive line, which led the squad to 480 yards of offense. We suspect that Johns Hopkins and Franklin and Marshall, after their ECAC postseason victories, would argue that the Centennial’s 5-way tiebreaker didn’t put the best representative into the show.

• Delaware Valley 21, Shenandoah 17: We learned that the Aggies like’em close, even in the postseason. In 11 Delaware Valley victories this season, Saturday marked the seventh time a game was decided by a touchdown or less. They’ve won by scoring gobs of points (46-39 over Susquehanna) and in defensive struggles (12-0 over Wilkes and 12-7 against Juniata). The Aggies will play their fourth straight home game against St. John Fisher.

• Mary Hardin-Baylor 32, Trinity (Texas) 13: We learned that history is all in the past, as the Crusaders erased memories of playoff losses to Trinity in 2001 and 2002 and outrushed them 361-25 on Saturday. The UMHB defense forced three Dan DesPlaines interceptions, including a crucial pick when it was 25-13, and sacked him four times. And of course, we re-learned that the road out of Texas leads you through Texas: Hardin-Simmons is up next for the Crusaders.

• Christopher Newport 35, Salisbury 24: We learned that 10 wins mean little if you turn the ball over seven times in the 11th game. That’ll get you beat. Salisbury led 24-21 with 7:39 left, but who knows what they could have done without fumbling four times and throwing three interceptions. Meanwhile, we learned not to count out a team that has lost twice to other playoff teams. Despite defeats against Rowan and Shenandoah, the Captains made the field and proved they belong. The theme for next year and beyond should be that losses against tough competition early won’t totally kill playoff hopes in a 32-team field, and CNU can be the poster children for that, especially if they keep winning.

• Washington & Jefferson 55, Bridgewater (Va.) 48, 2 OT: We learned that the Presidents might employ different players and schemes than they did in 2000, but the 59-42 loss to the Eagles from that year clearly wasn’t finished business. W&J led 28-3 in that game. This time, it was tied at 27 with 5 minutes to play and went into overtime tied at 41. And that excitement ignores the fact that the game featured an opening kickoff returned for a touchdown, a blocked punt and safety. One reporter called it the best game he’s seen, possibly ever, and it should make our postseason superlatives list. By the way, the teams traded scores in overtime until Bridgewater fell short on fourth down from the 16-yard line in the second half of overtime No. 2.

• Wheaton 31, Mt. St. Joseph 7: We learned that finishing second in a strong league doesn’t make you a playoff loser, as the Thunder completed the Pool C three-game sweep. But it does earn you a date at Mount Union, and an OAC team has ended the season of every CCIW representative since the playoffs went to 28 teams in 1999. The Lions completed the turnaround from 0-10 in 2001 to 10-0 this season, but still have a mountain to climb to compete with the best Division III teams in Ohio and Illinois.

• Carthage 31, Alma 28: We learned that the difference between genius and goat is but a few yards. The Scots led 21-7 early and 28-24 with 6:08 to play, and in the final minutes failed on a bizarre fake punt that forced the Redmen to go only 10 yards for the winning points. We also learned you only have to play as much defense as your offense needs. Carthage gave up 348 yards of offense, but gained 448.

• Wooster 41, Aurora 34: We learned not to take any playoff team lightly, not even one that came in with four losses. Daniel Whalen broke off a 65-yard run on fourth-and-1 to tie the game at 27 in the final five minutes, but Tony Sutton rescued Wooster with two late touchdowns (even though the Spartans scored again and failed on an onside kick). There are no easy wins in the playoffs, or at least not many, and respect due to Aurora for their performance.

First thoughts on this week’s matchups
The first things that pop into my head regarding each of this week’s tussles:

• UW-La Crosse at Linfield: If the Wildcats don’t make the Stagg Bowl, this is the most likely stumbling block. Sure, most game from here out won’t be easy, but if the Eagles get going from the start instead of having to rally, this could be a great game.

• Occidental at Concordia-Moorhead: One of these surprise teams is going to be in the final eight. Neither has an advantage in postseason experience, but the Tigers do have a long road trip and a Fargodome to get familiar with.

• Hobart at Rowan: This is what we meant when we said the road was paved for Rowan. Despite those that think we’re disparaging the Profs, we think they’re the favorites here, especially if it’s close late.

• St. John Fisher at Delaware Valley: This could be the week’s most competitive game. Either of these upstart programs could use the victory to vault into the Division III elite, for this year at least. 

• Mary Hardin-Baylor at Hardin-Simmons: Folks in Texas must be thinking ‘Just once, can our teams not eliminate each other?" The answer from the NCAA is a loud and clear no, so deal with it. Hardin-Simmons won the first meeting 49-22.

• Christopher Newport at Washington & Jefferson: Prognosticators have to like W&J here, but Christopher Newport is that team that’s lurking. They may have already played stronger teams in Rowan, Salisbury and Bridgewater. Even if those teams aren’t better than the Presidents, they’ve certainly prepped the Captains for a test of this magnitude.

• Wheaton at Mount Union: You could be the second-best team in the nation and bow out against Mount Union. Wheaton isn’t, and probably will. The Thunder can’t be happy about Larry Kehres and staff having two weeks to recover and prepare.

• Carthage at Wooster: These teams were exposed a bit in the first round, but at least we’ll get to see Dante Washington go up against Tony Sutton.