Tyler Jenkins and the rest of the Rowan defense helped keep Morrisville State's prolific offense in check. Rowan athletics file photo

In Friday’s Triple Take column, the panel was asked an important question about which conferences will be getting clarity after Saturday’s games.

Several conferences paid off.

With Division III squarely in the second half of the season, much of the discussion will be turning toward the playoffs -- which teams will get in and how deep they can make it. Before too long, we’ll be seeing the NCAA’s first batch of regional rankings come out, showing exactly who could be on the table for at-large (Pool C) bids and helping us to gauge how favorably the committee views teams for unofficial seeding. (Those who have been around D-III long enough know that any first round pairings based on expected or suspected seeds will get trumped by travel-cost considerations in many instances.)

While absolutely nothing is set in stone at this point, this weekend provided some great advances into how conferences are shaking out. This included some games that were certainly expected to be telling, as well as a couple that were surprise upsets and will change the landscape of a conference.

We knew these were going to be big

• MIAC. St. John’s dealt Gustavus Adolphus its first loss of the season, giving particular credence to the reason why the Gusties were not being ranked in the Top 25. There was a lot of doubt about Gustavus, at least in the big picture of the conference’s growing strength, but starting the season with six straight wins legitimately keeps any team in the discussion. The Gusties have Bethel, Concordia-Moorhead and St. Thomas to finish out the season, so the path back into the playoff graces is a big one. Meanwhile, the four ranked teams in the MIAC still have lots of battling out to do, and the door is open for a Pool C bid from the conference runner-up.

• ODAC. The only two teams who were still undefeated in conference play, Hampden-Sydney and Emory and Henry, met Saturday, and with a 22-point halftime lead en route to a 49-27 finish, it was clear H-SC was in control from start to finish. The Nash Nance-Holton Walker pairing delivered in a big way with 481 total passing yards, of which 285 went to Walker. The Tigers still have Shenandoah, Guilford and Bridgewater to get past, but beating E&H gave H-SC a huge lift toward its goals.

• NJAC. Rowan knocked one of its prime competitors back a notch, having shutout Morrisville State and handing the surprisingly strong Mustangs only their second loss of the season (the first one being a nonconference tilt). Predicting how the NJAC will play out hasn’t been easy since the Beast of the East moniker lost its cachet over the past decade, really opening things up for other teams to make a run. Cortland State’s down year has taken it out of the running and actually helped clear the picture up a bit. As it stands, the biggest showdown is coming up next weekend between Montclair State and Rowan.

• HCAC. Franklin survived a second-half surge from Mount St. Joseph but came away victorious. Franklin’s record in recent years in the HCAC points to this having been the biggest hurdle going toward the conference title. It would be surprise if the Grizzlies weren’t playing football on Nov. 22

Sleepers that made an impact

• NWC. While much of the attention in the Northwest was focused on the Linfield/Whitworth game (Wildcats had a 719-yard day), Pacific made a noise heard coast to coast by taking down Pacific Lutheran in a literal back-and-forth contest – the teams alternated scoring, with Pacific striking first and last. With PLU having lost to Linfield already this year, the playoffs, especially an at-large opportunity, is pretty much out of the question. And Pacific, despite some perplexing losses in nonconference play and a disappointing cancellation against Chicago, is undefeated in NWC along with Linfield. One of those two should be a lock to get the conference’s automatic qualifier. And, if history is any indicator, we can expect the NWC and SCIAC conference winners to be play each other in Round 1 of the playoffs.

• CC. Like Pacific, Juniata is a team that has been finding success since the start of last year. The Eagles punctuated their resurgence with a win over previously undefeated Ursinus, leaving Johns Hopkins all alone at the top of the Centennial heap. I had believed the CC title would on the line between undefeated teams when JHU and UC meet the first weekend of November. Ursinus can still win the automatic qualifier as a 9-1 team with a head-to-head win over Hopkins (which could then draw a Pool C bid away from the rest of the nation to award to JHU). But Ursinus wasn’t supposed to be a team vulnerable to Juniata, raising a red flag to how the Bears can hold up going down the stretch.

• E8. Frostburg State nabbed its first conference win of the season, which came against Ithaca, essentially knocking the Bombers out of the playoff discussion. The conference pressure is heavily on St. John Fisher now, which is the only one-loss team (Buffalo State and Salisbury being the other two) that doesn’t yet have a win over another one-loss team. While those on the pinnacle have narrowed, the conference is far from settled.

Big games that left some questions on the table

• WIAC. If you were going to base the result between UW-Platteville and UW-Stevens Point on their ranked common opponent, North Central, you would have missed the mark. Platteville’s 31-13 win knocked a key challenger out of the conference’s top spot. While UW-Whitewater is the only WIAC team with an unblemished overall record, Platteville and UW-Oshkosh are both undefeated in conference play. Platteville, despite the earlier loss to North Central, now has a quality win under its belt and better positioned itself for playoff consideration if they don’t get the conference’s AQ.

• ECFC. The ECFC had two teams that helped rattle the conference race: Husson toppling last year’s champ Gallaudet and Mount Ida dealing Castleton State its first loss of the year. While Husson is alone at the top, the conference has four teams with one loss and a mess of things can still happen.

• PAC. Washington and Jefferson cleared the way at the top of the PAC with a win over Bethany. Most likely, with the Bethany win and a win over Thomas More earlier this month, W&J has only Waynesburg standing in the way of an outright conference title. But a loss to Waynesburg would force more of a mess (and possibly some tie-breaker possibilities) in the conference.

Tweets, et al.: There will be a handful of opportunities each week for me to showcase what’s going on nationally in Division III. On:

• Sundays, look for my reaction and recap of Saturday’s games in Snap Judgments;

• Thursdays, see my centerpiece feature story of the week;

• Fridays, read our Triple Take prediction column, where Pat, Keith and I give you some things to look out for in the following day’s games, including the top matchups and upset possibilities.

Between all that will be D3football.com’s regional columns, the ATN podcast, and the team of the week, among other things. Don’t go too far!

(Also, if you are tweeting about Division III football, don't forget to use the #d3fb hashtag.)