It should probably happen every year, that a person who spends this much time studying and covering Division III football should win the contest.

Well, it hasn't happened that way before.

Editor and Publisher Pat Coleman always puts his virtual money where his mouth is, but has never even cracked the final leaderboard, let alone won his site's own contest. It's good it's just for bragging rights, otherwise we'd have to declare Pat ineligible.

"I'm kind of speechless," said Coleman. "I feel like we should be talking about someone else, like Tim Shelton, who we'd be talking about if W&J had beaten Widener.

"But I also have to thank Pat Cummings, who did all the work compiling the entries. I don't think he had any idea what he was getting into in terms of time commitment."

Coleman went on to say that Cummings would be glad to send you a copy of the winning bracket if you doubt its veracity. A perfect bracket was worth 64 points.

Cummings explained, "so that no improprieties would be suggested, I offered to act as moderator of the contest, and as it turns out, it's a good thing I did. Pat incorrectly selected just five games in the entire tournament (picking Hardin-Simmons and Montclair State twice and Westfield State once) and finished one point ahead of Tim Shelton from Illinois Wesleyan. Joe Crockett of Bridgewater actually picked Mount Union to beat his Eagles and his 42-35 prediction was a solid one. Unfortunately, he too had Hardin-Simmons and Montclair St. winning as well as Washington & Jefferson moving on to the quarterfinals, that was what hurt Joe.

"But the story of the contest had to come from Jeff Raines. Jeff was in the Top 10 moving into the Stagg Bowl and had Bridgewater winning over Mt. Union in a 57-point game. If the result was different, Jeff would have walked away with the bragging rights."

Crockett picked Hardin-Simmons winning twice, Montclair State twice, Washington & Jefferson twice and Bethel over UW-Stevens Point in the first round.