Photo by Wade Gardner, d3photography.com

By Greg Thomas
D3football.com

Each week on the Around The Nation podcast, Patrick Coleman and I field a question or two from listeners that we harvest primarily from the X social media platform. Every week we get a lot of great questions from you, the fans, that we simply don’t have room on the podcast to answer. This week, I’m going to bring some of those unanswered questions that we’ve received this year into the Around The Nation column to give them some space here in a special mailbag edition of Around The Nation. Let’s get to the questions!   

Should anyone be scared of UMHB in the playoffs? - @WardRodney

Let’s get right into it. UMHB has been, by far, the hottest topic across our various fan commenting platforms. To quickly recap, UMHB started the season 0-3, losing at UW-River Falls, at Trinity (Texas) and at home to UW-W. During that stretch, the Crusaders pushed their third string quarterback into service while breaking in a host of new offensive skill players- the early results were not great. Not only were UMHB’s opening three opponents among the very best teams in the division, UW-RF and Trinity are among the most experienced teams in the division. Put simply, it was a really bad series of matchups for any team, even teams with national championship pedigree, to be breaking in new personnel. 

UMHB has since rattled off three wins in a row to level their record at 3-3. Quarterback Isaac Phe continues to improve and look increasingly comfortable running the Crusader offense, and we’re also seeing some signs of the supremely athletic UMHB defenses that we typically associate with their better teams. The Crusaders will need to defeat their rival Hardin-Simmons on Oct. 28 to seize control of the ASC’s automatic bid, but if they do that and end the regular season on a 7-game win streak, who would want to see the Crusaders 一 with momentum, confidence, and championship history 一 come to their stadium in the first round?  

Hey, speaking of Hardin-Simmons ...

What message does @EndicottFB dominating win over @HardinSimmons send to the rankings this week? -@dayjayvw73

Probably the most shocking result of the 2023 regular season so far has been Endicott’s 37-10 win over Hardin-Simmons. The Cowboys were ranked No. 5 in the D3football.com Top 25 at the time. We know that the Cowboys were down some of their key personnel, but ATN shall not dismiss the result as a function of the HSU depth chart. Endicott was the better side on that Friday night. Full stop. 

How this result has impacted the rankings has been dealt with 一 we’ve had a few more polls since then and all can see how the Top 25 has moved in the aftermath. I won’t dive into the specifics of this year’s poll, but I do want to address a poll-related issue that this game illuminates. Hardin-Simmons has long been a polarizing topic in the Top 25 rankings. In large part because of HSU’s location on the D-III island that is Texas, their opportunities for regular season games against top D-III teams has been limited and when they have made the playoffs, they’re most often paired either in a rematch with UMHB or as the odd team out in Texas and sent to play Linfield, particularly some of Linfield’s better teams. 

Over the years, Hardin-Simmons has made a habit of playing some very competitive games with UMHB, and Top 25 voters have recognized that effort with fairly lofty rankings for Hardin-Simmons despite the lack of wins against UMHB or other top D-III competition. Hardin-Simmons’ polling suggests that voters feel that Hardin-Simmons, should they be unchained from the Texas island or UMHB in particular in a postseason tournament, would do very, very well. Perhaps even favored to win in certain parts of the bracket where the majority of teams come from regions of the division most see as competitively disadvantaged as compared to Texas. If Endicott’s win over Hardin-Simmons 一 a physically dominating and very much not-flukey win, mind you 一 showed us anything, it should have shown us that good football exists in all parts of the country. Perhaps we should not assume single game results based only on where two teams come from. The era of assuming that the ASC’s runner up would roll through other playoff brackets is over. 

Which conferences are pool c contenders now? - @The3rd_Division

On September 24, when this was tweeted?  Pretty much all of them. 

I know it is early, but if UWW, Mount Union, NCC and Wartburg win out, are they the 1 seeds? If so, it would seem like a lot of travel is possible. - @SJU56321

It was early when we got this question and so we know now that this isn’t happening, but the underlying question is a good one- what happens if all of the No. 1 seeds in the tournament are in the same part of the country?  First, we’re to understand that the tournament’s No. 1 seeds are picked based on the selection and seeding criteria and not because of their convenience to the NCAA’s 500-mile travel rule. Let’s also remember that there are six regions 一 which means we have six teams that are regionally ranked No. 1. In this hypothetical, North Central and Wartburg are both Region 5 teams- could the Region 5’s No. 2 ranked team be a No. 1 seed in the tournament?  Possible, yes, but it seems improbable. 

Also remember that in the 2022 championship, Mount Union did have to play a quarterfinal game at Delaware Valley. Mount Union was heavily favored to win and they did do exactly that against Delaware Valley, but please do not dismiss the selection and seeding criteria of the teams in Region 1 and 2. The top seeds there will stack up very well with other potential #1 seeds, even if our poll might suggest that they wouldn’t be favored in a game. 

Any bucket list D3 venues you have yet to visit? How many of the D3 schools have you visited? - @uddoolittledog

We heard from Pat in ATN Episode 331 many of the places in D3 he’s been. I’ve been to far fewer places, but I’ve had the opportunity to see more than two dozen D-III football stadiums, not including the four different Stagg Bowl venues I’ve been to. There are definitely some iconic venues that I haven’t been to that I hope I’m able to get to in the near future. Clemens Stadium at St. John’s probably tops the list. It’s hard to get more idyllic than the scenes you get from a late fall game in that bowl with 10,000 fans in attendance. 

Crusader Stadium at Mary Hardin-Baylor is a second bucket list venue. By all accounts, the Cruthedral is the gold standard for Division-III football stadiums and is home to one of the premiere teams in the division. I’ve seen UMHB play a few times now, but never in their home stadium and that is something I do want to experience. 

For my last choice on this question (this could go on for a long time if I don’t limit myself to three), I’ll take the Amherst-Williams game in either venue. This is the longest running rivalry in Division III made even more unique by its being contested by teams in the NESCAC, which we know does not participate in the postseason. For these two teams, that game is the pinnacle of each and every season. The tradition steeped in nearly 140 years of competition is something D-III enthusiasts should all want to experience at least once. 

WHAT CONFERENCES HAVE POOL C CONTENDERS - @The3rd_Division

On October 1? Patience.

Where do we see Dickinson in the playoff picture? @BillLoney410

The Dickinson Red Devils have been a fun story to follow this year. Currently riding a 5-game win streak after their opening week loss to RPI, Dickinson has scored a walk off regulation win over Franklin & Marshall to reclaim the Conestoga Wagon Trophy, then followed that up with a walk off overtime win over NJAC leader Christopher Newport. In 2023, the Red Devils have reached the five-win mark for just the second time since an 8-2 season in 2009. With all of that said, Dickinson’s path to the playoffs can only be through the Centennial Conference’s automatic bid. The Red Devils host undefeated Muhlenberg this week and also host undefeated Johns Hopkins later in the season, so they do control their own destiny. 

This is a good question because it points out just how narrow the margin for error is when qualifying for the NCAA tournament. There are 229 teams eligible to play in the NCAA tournament. Just 32 get that opportunity and, this year, 28 of those will be conference champions. To qualify as an at-large team, not only does the win-loss record have to be very good  (more than one loss may be too many), but it seems almost fait accompli that those four at-large teams will have scored significant wins against other regionally ranked teams and have an NCAA SOS number well above 0.500. While Dickinson is enjoying a very strong season and will be in the Centennial Conference championship conversation for at least two more weeks, the Red Devils will need that automatic bid to play in the postseason. 

If Augustana wins their next 3 games  (they should) is their last regular season game against NCC their most relevant in 20 years? - @ruggishb0ne

Rock Island, it’s time to party like it’s 1986! Alright, that might be premature, but Augstana is having a moment of resurgence here. The Vikings gave Wheaton all the Thunder could handle and just last weekend dominated Washington U. in St. Louis. What does it all mean? It means, if Augustana can continue to win over the next three weeks, they’ll host No. 1 North Central in Week 11 with a share of the CCIW title on the line. 20 years ago, Augustana and Wheaton entered the final week of the season with 6-0 records in CCIW play. Wheaton won that game at Augustana 28-27. While we know Augustana won’t be undefeated in a potential CCIW championship game in 2023, it’s safe to say it’s been 20 years exactly since Augustana will have played Week 11 with these kinds of stakes. 

If Whitewater, LaCrosse, and River Falls finish in a 3 way tie for the WIAC, will the committee be forced to use 2 Pool C bids for the same conference? -@Daniel782500

Is it possible for one conference to secure two of the four at-large bids to the playoffs?  I think it is. In the three way tie scenario proposed, UW-Whitewater and UW-River Falls will each finish with 9-1 overall records. UW-La Crosse would finish with a 6-2 record in Division III play, and 8-2 overall as they have two wins against teams from outside of Division III. This is relevant and I’ll get to that in a moment. 

Without knowing who would receive the conference’s automatic bid in a three way tie scenario, let’s consider each scenario as the automatic bid gets passed around. If UW-Whitewater earns the automatic bid, it seems logical then that the regional rankings will rank River Falls ahead of La Crosse. River Falls will have a good chance at selection, La Crosse will likely be in trouble. Their out-of-division wins are secondary criteria and may not help. Depending on how far La Crosse slides in the regional rankings given a Week 10 loss to River Falls, the Eagles could be on the outside looking in 一 particularly if they don’t get help from Hardin-Simmons. 

If UW-River Falls earns the automatic bid, there’s an interesting choice to make between how to rank Whitewater and La Crosse. La Crosse will have a head to head win, but Whitewater will have advantages in pretty much every other piece of primary criteria. If the head to head result ranks La Crosse ahead of Whitewater, it’s possible that neither team gets in. If Whitewater is ranked ahead of La Crosse, Whitewater seems about as safe a bet for a Pool C bid as anybody in the division 一 and La Crosse would be back on the bubble that I placed them on in the previous paragraph. 

If La Crosse earns that automatic bid, Whitewater would likely be ranked ahead of River Falls and almost certainly in the tournament. River Falls would have a very good chance as well. This is the scenario that would be most likely to produce three playoff teams from the WIAC. 

Would the committee be “forced” to award two Pool C bids to the WIAC’s remaining tri-champions? No. I trust, and we should all trust, that the committee will select teams based on evaluation of the published selection criteria. If that leads them to selecting two additional WIAC teams in addition to the automatically qualified champion, that’s fine. If the committee only selects one additional team from the WIAC, that’s also fine because that’s how the criteria and the selection process ended. 

WhAt CoNfErEnCeS wIlL lIkElY hAvE pOoL c BiDs?¿ -@The3rd_Division

It’s probably still early to really tackle this well, but I get it. Pool C is fascinating. ATN will do a deeper dive on this when regional rankings come out on Nov. 1. Those rankings will really illuminate where those Pool C bids are likely to go. For now, I think  you can start to narrow it down based on a few things we know. There are teams out there that may have been beaten in conference play and that loss to a likely conference champion is also likely to be their lone loss. Teams such as Wheaton  (CCIW), Coe  (ARC), Berry  (SAA), and maybe to a lesser extent Union  (LL) fit that bill. You’ve got other leagues with undefeated teams that haven’t played each other yet where the loser of those upcoming games may very well finish with just one loss. Linfield-Whitworth  (NWC) and Johns Hopkins-Muhlenberg  (CC) fit this description. We’ve addressed the WIAC above and that conference is in very good shape to produce a runner up that will present well for at-large selection. If anybody emerges from the Washington & Jefferson-Case Western Reserve-Carnegie Mellon trio with just their one loss to Grove City, that team could be a contender  (PAC). And lastly, I’m looking at conferences where a very good team that might be an upset victim inside of their conference slides into the Pool C mix. Mount Union  (OAC), Alma  (MIAA), Randolph-Macon  (ODAC), and Susquehanna  (Landmark) are all teams that could potentially steal a Pool C bid that we’re not expecting. 

That’s a total of 12 conferences that I’ve identified where a Pool C team might be lurking. Obviously, 12 conferences aren’t going to have multiple teams in the postseason. Some of these scenarios will work themselves out over the next couple of weeks. In reality, the first regional rankings on November 1 will be informative about which conferences are really on the radar for the selection committee. 

On tap 

The tension is starting to ramp up as we officially get late in the Division III football season. The playoffs are not so far away now that every game among teams still in the chase for a conference championship are important. Week 8 has many of those games. Some teams will stay alive, some teams will have their postseason hopes dashed and D3football.com will be there to capture it all. Here’s what you can watch for every week at D3football.com:

Tomorrow: Quick Hits featuring our panel’s predictions and insights into this weekend’s games

Saturday: Game day. The D3football.com Scoreboard has all of your links for stats and broadcasts. 

Sunday: New Top 25 poll 

Monday: Around The Nation podcast. Pat Coleman and Greg Thomas recap the weekend that was and preview the weekend to come in Division III football.

Tuesday/Wednesday: Team of the Week honors, features columns

Thursday: Around the Nation column

I’d Like to Thank…

Special thanks to all of our Around The Nation podcast listeners for their questions!  If you have burning questions for Pat and Greg, watch for the call from @D3football on X and let it fly. Thank you to all of our listeners and thank you to Around The Nation readers for the support!

Read options?

There’s nothing small about small college football. Division III is home to 241 teams, and many thousands of student-athletes and coaches. There are so many more stories out there than I can find on my own. Please share your stories that make Division III football so special for all of us! Reach out to me at greg.thomas@d3sports.com or on Twitter @wallywabash to share your stories.