By Keith McMillan
D3sports.com
What a term paper title this would make.
How to rebound from a blowout: advice for St. Olaf, by Wesley.
Perhaps it’s better fitted for the name of a two-act play. Wesley shook off a 47-point loss at Brockport State and kept their season from becoming a tragedy with a 44-point victory over Salisbury last Saturday. With the win, Wesley likely secured a Pool B playoff spot while pushing the Sea Gulls to the brink of elimination.
Undefeated before Saturday’s 63-9 loss to also-unbeaten St. John's, the Oles find themselves in the Wolverines’ position. They head north to Concordia-Moorhead in a battle of MIAC teams whose only loss came against the Johnnies.
“Hopefully we can do what Wesley did,” Oles coach Chris Meidt said. “I might have to give them a call.”
Wesley has ridden the down-and-up roller coaster and unbuckled itself intact. St. Olaf’s ride isn’t yet complete, but a look at how the Wolverines made it off safely could provide some inspiration.
“We went from the worst day to the best,” Wolverines coach Mike Drass told reporters as Salisbury headed for the locker rooms after Saturday’s 63-19 game. “(We) came back from that shellacking and tried to prove something. That might be the best game we've ever played.”
Before it could get to best, Wesley had to come to grips with worst.
“(Brockport was) a better team than us that day,” Drass said. “This week was a life lesson for us. We had a come-to-Jesus meeting on Monday before practice.”
Division III football players are smart. It doesn’t necessarily take divine intervention for a team to realize what’s at stake.
“We know how big this game is,” Meidt said. “But still, I don’t want this opportunity to come and go, and look back years later, disappointed. I want them to experience it. I want them to know what’s at stake, what it’s like to play under pressure where every play matters. And I want them to enjoy it.”
In that situation, Wesley could have flipped … or flopped.
“We've had a little bit of history at not beating the ranked teams,” Drass said. “I've always felt we're a playoff team but we haven't always proven it. When it comes down to that, you've got to win. If you don't win, you don't deserve to go.”
Ah yes, the postseason. When games loom this large, a coach can show kids the video of them getting pulverized, or it can immediately focus on what’s ahead.
“Coach stressed to us we had to get back on winning track if we wanted to make the postseason,” Wesley sophomore defensive end Bryan Robinson said.
Say no more. At St. Olaf, where 7-1 starts aren’t a birthright like they are at St. John’s, a chance to virtually lock up playoff spot does not come along often.
“It’s been a long time since St. Olaf has had to prepare for a playoff-type game,” said Meidt, who praised his team’s effort in the week of practice preceding the Johnnies game. “We want to cherish it and treat it as special, but we hope to build a program that can be in this position consistently.”
Until then, Meidt and the Oles will focus on taking advantage of Saturday’s opportunity, against a program that it lost to 50-7 in 2004 and has only a last-minute, four-point defeat against the Johnnies to blemish its 2005 record. That’s not much to compare to the Oles’ 52-point loss, but Meidt knows scores alone can be deceiving.
“When you play a team like St. John’s, you not only have to play a perfect game, but they need to give you a little help,” he said. “Defensively, after they made a couple of plays, we got a little young. It’s not unlike games we’ve been on the other side of. Our kids understand that against a good team, the score can get out of hand.”
Against Concordia, Meidt thinks his team matches up well. And though players won’t be hosting a haunted house for the community the day before like during St. John’s week, there will be a five-hour Friday bus ride that ends just across the Red River from Fargo, N.D.
“St. John’s is a tough place to win,” Meidt said. “Concordia is right behind it, especially late in the year. It should be 30 degrees by kickoff. It’s 60 degrees down here right now.”
A long trip to Brockport and less-than-ideal weather were factors in Wesley’s loss to the Golden Eagles.
“We're a very fast team,” Robinson said. “We need to be able to use our speed. In conditions like last week, we couldn't get anything done.”
With the benefit of hindsight, not getting anything done the week before probably got the Wolverines focused at just the right time.
“We put in a lot of work in the offseason for stuff like that,” said Wesley junior quarterback Chris Warrick. “We’ve been waiting all season for a performance like that and it finally clicked.”
With a young roster hoping to earn an extra week or two together, Meidt hopes it all comes together for his Oles on Saturday.
“It’s a great opportunity for our kids to grow up,” he said.
Indeed.
Conference check-in
Week 9 brought us four conference champions and Pool A playoff bids. (and if you don’t understand how the playoffs work, please read the FAQ and save yourself the trouble of asking what a Pool is)
Bridgewater (Va.), Lakeland, Monmouth and St. John’s are in the field, representing the ODAC, IBFC, MWC and MIAC, respectively. For everyone chasing the remaining 17 automatic qualifiers, here’s where you stand:
WIAC: UW-Whitewater can clinch this week against UW-Stout, and would need to lose again next week to give UW-Eau Claire or the Blue Devils a shot.
USAC: Ferrum appears to be the front-runner, but Christopher Newport and Methodist are very much in it. See the below item on three-way tiebreakers.
SCIAC: Occidental can clinch this weekend against La Verne.
SCAC: If both win out, Trinity (Texas) holds the tiebreaker over DePauw based on overall record.
OAC: Mount Union was out of the drivers seat for all of a week. It holds a tiebreaker over John Carroll, which also has one loss. A Capital win over the Blue Streaks could create a three-way mess for second, and the NCAA may still eliminate Ohio Northern.
NJAC: This could get interesting, as Rowan hopes to stay healthy enough to hang on to its lead. If Montclair State beats the Profs, a three-way tie with Cortland State comes into play, but it’s likely the Profs will still win the conference in that scenario.
NEFC: The Curry/Fitchburg State title game winner will get the conference’s lone playoff bid.
NCAC: Wabash finishes conference play against 5-3 Denison. A win, and the Little Giants are in like Flynn. The only reason this isn’t over yet is because a Big Red win would keep Kenyon alive, and the Lords don’t play Wabash this season.
MIAA: Albion booted Hope from the picture with a 34-0 win; The Britons now host Alma for the conference’s AQ and only playoff spot.
MAC: Delaware Valley can clinch Saturday against Juniata.
Liberty: This race is just getting started as Hobart, RPI and Union are alive and three-way eligible.
IIAC: Central, Coe and Wartburg are currently tied with 5-1 conference marks, but the Knights host the Dutch Saturday. The Kohawks, 17-14 winners over Central and losers by the same score against Wartburg, have a clear rooting interest.
HCAC: Mt. St. Joseph can clinch Saturday at Anderson. Defiance, a 40-19 loser to the Lions, needs to beat Manchester and get help.
Empire 8: Ithaca, St. John Fisher and Alfred are participating in one of our fun three-way tie scenarios.
CCIW: The Augustana-North Central winner wraps up a playoff bid, while the loser dives head-first into Pool C. With a loss already, securing the AQ is more necessary for the Vikings.
Centennial: Ursinus needs two wins and a Johns Hopkins loss to McDaniel in Week 11, otherwise the Blue Jays are in, despite Saturday’s loss to the Bears.
ASC: Hardin-Simmons should get the AQ based on winning percentage. Despite its 38-7 victory over the Cowboys, Mary Hardin-Baylor’s cancelled game against Louisiana College due to Hurricane Rita means it does not have enough games scheduled to catch HSU if both win out.
Tiebreakers for remaining 3-way possibilities
How can you seriously project your playoff bracket when some of these conferences haven’t bothered to provide a clear leader yet?
Around the Nation can’t sort out the mess until they do, but it can at least provide you with the means to figure who wins in case of a three-way tie. The remaining six conferences with three or more teams in the title chase:
ACFC: Currently in a three-way based on Salisbury’s 35-30 win over Brockport State, the Golden Eagles’ 47-0 defeat of Wesley and the Wolverines’ 63-19 rout against the Sea Gulls. With no tiebreaker needed for an automatic playoff berth since this is a Pool B conference, it can field co-champions and send one or two teams to the 32-team field.
Empire 8: Ithaca’s overtime win against St. John Fisher seems ages ago, but it’s still relevant. The Bombers can clinch by beating Alfred; The Saxons can make next week’s game with the Cardinals matter. A three-way tie for the AQ would be skip over the ‘results against conference teams, beginning at the bottom to see if there are any bad losses’ criteria. There aren’t any results against common non-league opponents either. That means the teams’ overall Quality of Wins index would be the deciding factor. If that is a three-way tie as well, then the overall record is used. The unlikelihood of a three-way tie in the QOW index is paramount. If there is a two-way tie for the best QOW, then the winner of the head-to-head game between those teams gets the automatic bid. Ithaca leads the QOW for the moment, but in this hypothetical situation, would add a loss to Alfred, affecting both teams.
IIAC: The Central-Wartbug-Coe tie will be broken Saturday when the Dutch and Knights meet. Everyone else has three conference losses. It looks like only two will be seated (or seeded) when the music stops.
Liberty: If Hobart, Union and RPI each go 1-1 against each other (Hobart has already beaten RPI 56-48 in three overtimes) and unbeaten against everyone else, the conference’s third tiebreaker comes into play: “Comparison of final winning percentage against all opponents with a record of .500 or above.” That eliminates the out-of-conference competition for both Hobart and Union, since none of their early-season opponents can get above .500. RPI has 6-3 Endicott and possibly 4-4 Utica, in the bag. The teams will have the same record against LL opponents, and RPI would take the bid, if I’m interpreting this correctly, because its win against Endicott would give it a better winning percentage against teams with winning records.
NJAC: Montclair State could force a tie with a win over an injury-depleted Rowan, with Cortland State in the mix after its 39-14 win over the Red Hawks and 24-16 loss to the Profs. The first two criteria of the NJAC tiebreaker wouldn’t help, and the third level is opponents opponent's winning percentage against all of Division III, and fourth is opponents opponent's winning percentage in-region. That would seem to favor the Profs, as they hold a distinct advantage in the quality of wins index, which is similar in nature, and are currently 7-0 to Cortland’s 6-2 and Montclair’s 5-3.
NESCAC: If Amherst defeats Trinity (Conn.) on Saturday, an unbreakable three-way tie could sprout. Colby and Bowdoin are each 5-1 right now, but end the season against each other. So if all four teams enter the final weekend at 6-1, we could see Trinity beating winless Wesleyan and Amherst defeating rival Williams. Since Colby and Trinity don’t play, there would be no head-to-head result to make the three-way tie, and Amherst could call itself conference champion by virtue of wins over both. But if Bowdoin were to beat Colby, it could be deadlocked with a 7-1 Trinity and a 7-1 Amherst. Then again, there would be no rush to break this tie and declare a winner with no playoff berth attached. The three schools would just have to share bragging rights. And there are no playoff berths attached to force a tie to be broken.
Pool B watch
Teams from the UAA, PAC, NWC, ACFC and Independents play in leagues without automatic playoff berths for their champions, but at least four of the 32 spots will go to these teams. Wesley’s win over Salisbury gives ATN a better idea of who it likes for those four spots:
Linfield (Defending national champion, unbeaten, top-seed bound)
Thiel
Wesley
Washington and Jefferson
Also in playoff hunt: Whitworth, Salisbury, Huntingdon, Willamette
Pool C watch
We’ve identified a handful of teams, most which will finish with one or two losses and no conference title-bearing AQ. With Pool B spillover included, these teams will be evaluated for seven playoff spots.
Let’s take a glance at the best bets for those spots, and what must happen for them to make the playoffs this way:
Mary Hardin-Baylor: National runner-up blocked from AQ by team it beat by 31; that’s a recipe for a Pool C lock.
North Central: If it loses to Augustana but beats North Park, it’s a Pool C lock at 9-1 out of the CCIW.
Concordia-Moorhead: Also a very solid Pool C team if it beats St. Olaf and Minnesota-Morris, though latter is a provisional D-III member and not a regional game.
St. John Fisher: If their only loss is in overtime to Pool A qualifier Ithaca, they’re in. If they lose to Alfred Nov. 12, the situation gets very hairy.
Augustana: Should the Vikings lose to North Central, they may want to glance at the Central-Wartburg score. The Dutch beat Augie in the opener, and any help for their quality of wins index would be appreciated. I also think results against other teams in the field help committee members feel they’re taking the right teams, regardless of the criteria.
John Carroll: A win over Capital should do the trick, though the Blue Streaks must also finish at Baldwin-Wallace. A 9-1 OAC team should be in the field, but the 70-point loss to Mount Union could earn them a tough first-round matchup.
Union: Amazingly, at 8-0, they haven’t solidified anything yet. Losses in their final two games would drop them into the murky ‘leftover’ area in Pool C. They can split and get in, but the scenarios are different. A loss to Hobart would give the Statesmen the Pool A bid, setting up a winner-takes-Pool C bid Dutchman Shoes game with RPI. A win over Hobart and loss to RPI would put the bid in the Engineers’ hands, based on the tiebreaker, but should still be enough to get Union in, since it would have a head-to-head advantage over the one-loss Statesmen. A 10-0 finish would give Union the LL’s automatic bid.
Hobart: With a win over RPI already, the Statesmen are only in Pool C consideration if they lose to Union and RPI gets the Pool A bid, which is bad news. As noted above, Hobart would be the third LL team hoping to get in.
RPI: Not much of a Pool C candidate either. A loss to Union probably knocks them out of the picture and a wins puts them in via Pool A.
DePauw: Now that Wesley, who beat the Tigers 31-26 on opening weekend, looks like a good shot to make the playoffs, all DePauw needs to do is beat rival Wabash to get in. Their Monon Bell rivals are 8-0, but the game is in Greencastle.
Wilkes: The Pioneers would need some serious dominoes to fall, because of their season-opening loss to William Paterson and MAC loss to Delaware Valley.
Cortland State: We’re starting to reach, because there would have to be some upset losses to start considering the Red Dragons. First, they’d need to beat Ithaca in the Cortaca Jug game. Then, because of a 27-20 loss to Buffalo State, currently 3-4, they can’t point at their 24-16 loss to unbeaten Rowan and say their only defeat is by one score to the undefeated top seed in the East.
Ohio Northern: If they were in the NCAA’s regional rankings, maybe that’s a sign. A win over Mount Union and losses to John Carroll and Capital. Hmm.
Also alive: Salisbury, UW-Eau Claire, UW-Oshkosh, UW-Stout, Widener, Hampden-Sydney.
Five games to watch
We should go way beyond five this week, but that’s par for the end-of-season course. Since the implications of many of these games are mentioned above, we’ll stick to our number by highlighting five games you might not know you should be watching.
Trinity (Conn.) at Amherst: The Bantams could set the stage for a third consecutive unbeaten NESCAC-championship season. The 5-1 Lord Jeffs are their last major hurdle.
Monmouth at Knox: There should be lots of pomp and circumstance surrounding the 117th meeting of the Bronze Turkey rivals. Which is good, because it might not be much of a game.
Willamette at Whitworth: Neither of these teams has been eliminated from playoff consideration despite multiple losses, but one will be in Spokane on Saturday. At 4-1 against Division III, 4-3 overall, the Bearcats still have No. 1 Linfield next week if they make it back to Oregon unscathed. They’ve also lost at the No. 13-ranked NAIA team, Asuza Pacific, and against No. 5 Mary Hardin-Baylor.
Widener at Salisbury: Midseason, some thought this would have major playoff implications. Now, it’s just a pretty good game between a pair of two-loss mid-Atlantic area teams hanging on to slim postseason hopes.
Johns Hopkins at Hampden-Sydney: Another one that looked to affect the playoffs early on, and still could. Really though, the intrigue is in the nation’s No. 3 total offense (The Tigers average 540.8 yards and 43.9 points per game) going against the No. 3 scoring defense (The Blue Jays allow 223.6 and 8.1). Hopkins also needs to rebuild confidence after a crushing defeat put its playoff hopes in doubt.
UW-Eau Claire at UW-Oshkosh / No. 2 UW-Whitewater at UW-Stout: Okay, a bonus sixth listing because we’re still waiting for the yearly WIAC craziness to begin. These are the WIAC’s four teams with winning records. Could the Warhawks really just sail into the playoffs smoothly?
Playoff-watchers are keeping an eye on: No. 11 North Central at No. 17 Augustana, St. Olaf at No. 12 Concordia-Moorhead, Alfred at No. 15 Ithaca, No. 25 John Carroll at No. 21 Capital, No. 22 Central at Wartburg, No. 24 Hobart at Union, Alma at Albion.
Bonus: Brockport State at New Jersey, the best game between a pair of 3-5 teams.
Double bonus: Chicago at Case Western Reserve, game with title implications that no one’s talking about.
Who are those guys?
Kean fell two points short of La Salle, and Division III fell one game behind Division I-AA in matchups this season.
Our year-to-date records ignore the mixed-classification UMAC. We have also not counted but listed Newport News’ out-of-division games against Division II Chowan, Southern Virginia and this week Seton Hill. The Shipbuilders, who beat the Braves 28-14 and lost 17-14 to the Knights, are a member of the ACFC, and we track them on the site, but not a member of Division III.
Here are this week‘s out-of-division games:
Against Division I-AA: 0-1 in Week 9, 7-8 in 2005.
This week’s opponent: Chapman at San Diego
Against Division II: No games in Week 9, 5-10 in 2005.
This week’s opponent: None.
Against NAIA: 1-0 in Week 9, 17-14 in 2005.
This week’s opponent: Waldorf at Simpson.
Also, Crown at Southwest Assemblies of God, Seton Hill at Newport News Apprentice .
Streak watch
Let the rumors about the Streak watch curse start flying. No sooner did we add Johns Hopkins to our list of longest winning streaks (the Blue Jays were fourth-longest at 11) than the Blue Jays stumbled against Ursinus, 21-17. Emory and Henry must have heard it was on its way to joining our list of double-digit losing streaks. The Wasps went out and beat Catholic 24-21. Austin was being mentioned, and it held off Sul Ross State 40-37 to get the monkey off its back.
We hope we can say the same about all the teams on losing streaks, long before a whole class goes without experiencing the thrill of victory. Until then, we simply track streaks.
Winless teams in 2005: We’re down to 11 this week from 13 the week before. Emory and Henry and Austin were the two that tasted victory for the first time. Left in the group but not mentioned below in double-digit streaks are Becker (0-7), Wesleyan (0-6), Juniata (0-8), Nichols (0-8), Tri-State (0-8) and Lewis and Clark, which finished its shortened season at 0-4.
The longest active streaks:
->Heidelberg: 24 consecutive losses, last win against Marietta on Oct. 4, 2003, 0-8 in 2005
->Concordia (Ill.): 19 consecutive losses, last win against Eureka Nov. 8, 2003, 0-9 in 2005
->Macalester: 13 consecutive losses, last win against Knox Oct. 2, 2004, 0-8 in 2005
->Menlo: 13 consecutive losses, last win against Whittier Oct. 2, 2004, 0-8 in 2005
->Massachusetts Maritime: 13 consecutive losses, last win against Framingham State Oct. 2, 2004, 0-8 in 2005
Unbeaten teams in 2005: I must have mis-counted last week when I listed 14, as I’m sure I count 15 undefeated teams this week. Plus, St. Olaf and Johns Hopkins lost for the first time last Saturday.
In any case, there double-digit streaks are still going. Those not mentioned below are Hobart, Occidental, Rowan and Trinity (Texas), each 7-0; Delaware Valley, Ferrum, Thiel, Union, UW-Whitewater and Wabash, each 8-0.
The nation’s active double-digit winning streaks:
->Trinity, Conn. (28 consecutive wins, last loss at Williams, 30-13, Sept. 28, 2002; 6-0 in 2005)
->Linfield (20 consecutive wins, last loss at St. John’s, 31-25, Dec. 6, 2003; 7-0 in 2005)
->Monmouth (17 consecutive wins, last loss against St. Norbert, 55-19, Sept. 18, 2004; 9-0 in 2005)
->North Central (10 consecutive wins, last loss at Millikin, 23-21, Oct. 30, 2004, 8-0 in 2005)
->St. John’s (10 consecutive wins, last loss at St. Olaf, 21-19, Oct. 30, 2004; 9-0 in 2005)
Simple mathematics
Before we get into Mark My Words, which I felt was a little lacking last week because I rushed to finish it, I’d like to address something that comes up around the blog and the message boards quite often this time of year.
First off, your opinions are a huge part of what makes covering Division III on a website great. That’s why we offer so many ways for you to sound off. And I most certainly believe that most of “the public” has opinions just as valid as any “expert,” the difference being that experts often put in a lot more time researching, watching games, talking to coaches and players and thinking about how the national picture shakes out.
That said, the people using e-mail to schill for votes or bogging down the blog complaining about where their team is (or isn’t) ranked are missing a few important points.
Division III is extremely abnormal in that we try to jam the best of 231 teams into a traditional top 25. Which is fine, but our playoffs are seven teams larger. And although both rankings and playoffs do their best to measure how good teams are, neither are perfect, nor are they related.
I understand that it’s not reasonable to ask every fan to take a big-picture view of 231 teams and 26 conferences. But is it too much to ask that some be reasonable?
When I played, and cared about only one school and how we did each week, I too was probably guilty of overestimating how much our success meant on a national level (shoot, I still think my '97 squad could stay within a couple TDs of Rowan or Mount Union).
When I became fortunate enough to write for this site, and step back and look at the big picture, I began to understand where certain strengths lie. And that changes every year ... two years ago, there was no way we'd believe there would be a top 5 SCIAC team. But respect is earned, not given.
On the blog and in e-mail, we’re often accused of being biased, and the word “entreprenuer” came up recently. I guess that’s accurate. Anyone with information and an opinion is biased. And technically, this is a business venture, although nobody here works full-time or pays the bills with pay from this site. Until you made this year’s Kickoff such a success, many of us were spending our own money to cover Division III football. We’d go to such lengths because we all went to D3 schools and hated how we couldn't find out anything about the teams we were about to play. We love this level and believe it deserves thorough coverage like anything else.
That said, don't confuse the polls with the playoffs. I think that's one thing Division III has over Division I-A. It’s been said the poll is meaningless. I wouldn't go that far, but it just isn't in any way related to the playoff picture. And that's good.
Because we can get the best estimate of the 25 best teams in the country. And we also don't have to depend on the pollsters to get the playof field right or live with it if they don't.
So many people are insulted by the poll, and question it ... only when their team isn't high enough. You don't hear anyone from Whitewater saying "ehh, we should probably be behind Mount Union until someone from our conference wins a couple of playoff games."
I know I come off as condescending, but you all should be thanking these people for ignoring their wives and girlfriends all fall so they can watch football and make sense of 231 schools, and give it to you free so you can have something to talk about. I played not that long ago, and we didn't have anything but the local paper and the NCAA regional rankings. These guys have done such a good job with this poll since it started. It's the best thing out there, whether you like where your team is or not. We're better for having it. No poll is right all time, some teams will outplay their ranking, and a lot will fall in line.
As far as your team not being ranked, look at it like this ... our division is so big that at least seven unranked teams will have a playoff game and a chance at a national championship in two weeks. I'd rather be in the 32 than the top 25.
I know many of you agree, and if you’ve followed the column long enough, you know I get up on the soapbox and ramble a couple times a year. I usually get a flood of ‘it’s OK Keith, we love you’ e-mails after one of these.
I’m not really talking to you guys. I’m talking to the folks who want to tell me where to stick it. You can if you want, but you know I'm right.
Mark my words (or eat ’em)
Before I admit where we were wrong, share a few new opinions and answer your questions, let’s discuss a couple of questions I’ve been needing answers to.
Now that we can afford airfare when needed, Pat (our founder and publisher) booked me a pair of trips to bring those answers home for you all.
First, I’ve been wondering if we’ve been giving proper respect to Trinity (Conn.)’s winning streak. I’ll be there to watch it get put to the test, and lay the same eyes that have recently seen the WIAC and CCIW on NESCAC play.
Second, I’ve been wondering if the Monon Bell Game is really Division III’s top rivalry. Whenever I’m asked, I always say it is, in a top tier with Williams-Amherst and Ithaca-Cortland. But perhaps DePauw-Wabash is nothing more than Randolph-Macon/Hampden-Sydney Midwest, in which case I’ve been there every year since 1994.
I’ve finally agreed to skip the alma mater’s rivalry, just as I should have a few years ago when my cousin was an Ithaca senior and my grandparents were going to visit on Cortaca Jug weekend (never fear, D-III staffers have seen several Jug games).
I’ll be coming up short again on the new opinion, but be sure to visit the Around the Nation thread on the General Football board at Post Patterns. I’ll be shooting the breeze and responding to feedback there from now until I leave on Saturday morning, pretty much.
Okay, my weekly Top 25 overflow, in partially thought-out order: Hobart, Union, Ferrum, Bridgewater (Va.), Trinity (Conn.), Monmouth, RPI, Wartburg. I could certainly be missing a few teams that I did consider voting for, but mostly names have been dropping off that list like flies.
Feedback
Still asking some of the same questions, with one addition.
It’s the end of the year, and if your team is out of it, you might be feeling a little silly. We already have a best names thread, which incorporates player names and unique team nicknames, on Post Patterns. Let’s add to that matchups you’d like to see, based on names. Bethel-Bethany, Whitworth-Whittier. Or you’re free to be much more clever, like perhaps Crown vs. King's or Plymouth State vs. Rockford.
Here are a few things we began asking about last week.
->What are the strangest geographical non-matchups you’re aware of? Did you think Wittenberg should play Ohio Northern or Wooster play Mount Union? Do you ever wonder why Rochester and Brockport don’t play?
Let us know which games simply must be played, from sheer proximity.
->Your thoughts on the best Division III team ever. One of Bob Reade’s Augustana teams? Jim Butterfield’s Ithaca powerhouses, the 1997 Mount Union team or Billy “White Shoes “ Johnson and Widener. Sure, we’ll let you play if your school is D3 now, but wasn’t at the time it fielded the particular team.
->Each weekend, our blog hosts the buildup to the weekend’s games and immediate reaction to the results. Your feedback is welcome there, and while you’re at the Daily Dose, don’t forget you can vote again for Brett Elliott for Heisman.
If you can help us with any of those, or have some other beef to air, there are three ways to contact Around the Nation: Use our feedback form, send e-mail to keith@d3football.com, or follow the Around the Nation thread on Post Patterns.
Attention SIDs
As always, Around the Nation requests media guides and any other aids in helping us cover your school or conference this season. We are also interested in seeing game tapes from schools we aren’t able to see in person this season.
Please do not add us to your regular release lists, but instead use our news release links to have your information posted on our front page and your team’s page. Thank you.
