The Onion chose to make light of the “Victors” and their early struggles by plopping the Wolverines into the Division III football poll.
Of course, we couldn’t help but notice that The Onion chose our poll, sliding Michigan in between our No. 6 and No. 7 teams. I’ll try to bypass the obvious “we’d like to play Mount Union against these guys” joke … but it appears we couldn’t.
For the uninitiated, The Onion is a satire publication. And it’s a D3sports.com favorite.
And the full story has Notre Dame in the “also receiving votes” category.
In all honesty Pat, this gets me thinking. I don’t want to get to far into the unrealistic but…How do you think a Mount Union would do against an Ivy League school?
Probably not well against the best in the league and I would hope they would handle the worst in the league.
Widener’s not Mount Union, but the Pride actually play Penn in their preseason scrimmage. From what Widener people have told me, it’s legitimately first team on first team for the first half. Penn, which is usually among the top Ivy programs, handled Widener this year by a comfortable margin.
My guess is Mount Union would be very competitive, but Penn would still win narrowly. Then again, I went to Penn. 🙂
As for the Onion, I’m as pumped by that veiled reference to D3football.com as I have been by ESPN’s and Sports Illustrated’s more direct references.
I think it’s hilarious. I’ll have to grab the real thing and see if it is in there.
Now for the Michigan/Hope game? 🙂
Wabash 5, Notre Dame 0. OK, it was 1905, but still….
C6H0 (Centre 6, Harvard 0). One of the greatest upsets (if not THE greatest upset) in college football history.
Of course you have to go back in time (1921) to when Harvard was the dominant team in college football, but hey.
Now if that was C6H2 it would be…. (pulls out his rusty chemistry knowledge) Tricarbonhydranate? or C6HO2 Tricarbonhydrogendioxide? Sorry, it’s 4AM and I am up working on photo orders. I cannot say I’ve had the pleasure to shoot Michigan football, but I did shoot a Michigan hockey game last Thanksgiving Weekend. Of course the bigwig photographer for USCHO showed up that weekend and reminded me why I like shooting Division III athletics more than Division I. I have no photos online to show anyone. 🙁
Yale 66, Alfred 0
…but that was before 1937, when (the legendary) Alex Yunevich arrived on the Alfred scene.
Ryan, dude, even I don’t care. No 4 a.m. blog comments for you anymore. 🙂
Of course the point of “C6H0” is that it represents an impossible formula … sort of like the win for Centre, which at the time had 264 students. Here’s a quick summary of the ’21 team from Wikipedia (no copyright so I can freely use it here):
Roaring ’20s, Harvard University, the nation’s dominant football power, was riding a five-year undefeated streak. Then the Crimson invited Centre College (enrollment: 264) up to Cambridge for what they thought would be a “warm-up” game, a light workout before facing Princeton the following week.
On October 29, 1921, before 45,000 stunned fans, the Colonels shocked mighty Harvard, becoming the first school ever from outside the East to beat one of the Ivy League’s “Big Three” of Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. Star player Bo McMillin rushed in the lone touchdown of the game early in the third quarter, and the Praying Colonels’ defense held off the Crimson’s powerful offense from there for a 6-0 victory. Back in Danville, overjoyed students painted the “impossible formula” C6-H0 (Centre 6, Harvard 0) on everything in sight (including a few cows). At least one marking still remains, on the side of the town post office.
The Centre victory was a shock, but perhaps not a fluke; the team went 10-1 in 1921 and defeated several other prominent schools including Virginia Tech, Auburn, Arizona, and Clemson. In fact up until their final game of the season, a 22-14 loss to powerful Texas A&M in Dallas on January 2, 1922, the Colonels outscored their opponents by a margin of 314 to 6.
On the 75th anniversary of C6-H0, Centre challenged Harvard to a rematch. Harvard declined.
Keith mentioned this briefly in an ATN column last year (http://www.d3football.com/atn.php?id=100) but it’s still fun to talk about.
ok ive got a prediction 2007 ncaa stagg bowl..Mount Union 37-Michigan 20
Rowan played Princeton in a scrimmage yearly in the mid to late 90s. Rowan dominated regularly, although no “official score” was kept. The 1998 Profs beat them by over five touchdowns. Princeton dropped the scrimmage as a result of the lopsided nature of the game. If the two were to play today, Princeton would dominate. But back then, it was D3 on top.
jps93
Thats because Keeler recruited better D1 players than Princeton and it was cheaper for them to go to Rowan than Princeton(yes I know they were transfers not RECRUITS)
I personally think Mount Union would win against most D1 teams. I would love to see them in the ACC this year. Talent Wise Mount Union is not a D3 team. Who would not want to see App. State v. Mt. Union this year. The Ivy League is not really D1, academically they may be tops but athletically they are nothing. As my brother tells me , “We look forward to Yale v. Harvard b/c we have nothing else to look to.
Run Far Away From Ferrum – There’s always a person or two who makes ludicrous statements for the purpose of stirring the pot. Most of those nuts from the last couple of years have disappeared and I promised to refrain from responding but I can’t help myself given your comments. I’ll give you a break though in that a 3:58am post time is probably alcohol induced!!
You personally think that Mount Union would win against most D1 teams. That shows how little you truly know about college football. The difference in the athleticism in the skill positions is night and day. I’m not here to knock Mount Union….they are a phenomenal program and they represent D3 in a classy way as well. They would not compete with the top level D2 programs, let alone the mid-tier to top D1-AA programs (watch those championship games on ESPN in December). D1…….your dreaming!! Temple would beat them by four touchdowns!! You are right about one thing though, from a talent (and depth) standpoint, Mount Union is not a typical D3 team. This year’s App. State team though would outrun the Mount by a landslide. If you want Mount Union to schedule up, start with a legit D2 team or an in-state game against D1-AA Youngstown State team. One game like that and you’d see the difference in skill and speed quite clearly.
As far as the Ivy League is concerned, once again you show how little you know…………”but athletically they are nothing”. Prior to the last two seasons, have you ever been to a Penn football game? D3’s best would not have come close (and my undergrad is not from Penn). Have you ever seen a Penn or Cornell wrestling match? Both are perennial Top 25 D1 programs. How about Penn’s basketball team? The D3 First Team All-American’s would be lucky to play within 25 points. I’ll challenge you to a contest. I’ll take the number of players from the Ivy League (only 8 schools) who have played in the NFL over the past 25 years. You take the number of players from D3 (over 30X as many schools as the Ivy League) who have played in the NFL over the past 25 years (my undergrad is from a D3 school…….albeit a “little Ivy” though). Who’s number is bigger? I bet you that it would be pretty darn close…….and it shouldn’t be given the number of D3 schools and your logic about the Ivy athletes being nothing.
How about a friendly wager? My Ivy League boss and the Ivy League owners of the company would like in on the action!!
Talent-wise, they are a D3 program. In Ohio though, remember there are lots of D-I and I-AA (BCS/FCS) options, and then lots of threes. Not much in the way of IIs in Ohio (as opposed to somewhere like Pennsylvania or Michigan, both of which have strong II presences to snap up the talent after blue-chippers are swiped).
I think that we could probably have a long argument about what constitutes D2 or D3 or NAIA -level talent, which might be kind of pointless.
The deal is this, though: Mount Union wins playing by the same rules as everyone else. Their advantages are self-created, in that success breeds success, and when you have success, you can bring in numbers and let the seven safeties sort themselves out over a couple of years until you find your starter(s).
They also get five more weeks of practice per year than everyone else, which helps in the development of the backups who have made the playoff roster.
Lots of D3s, IMHO, have a handful of guys who could’ve played I-AA, or some who did. The transfer thing as a basis for success is overblown. A couple guys can surely make a difference, as they did for Rowan in the 90s, but it’s not cheating to take in local Jersey guys who hated playing at Indiana or Nebraska or what have you. It may or may not go against the spirit of D3, but certainly even a team with 5 or 10 transfers still built the bulk of their roster the old-fashioned way.
Anyway, I came here to repost the other shot at the Wolverines, found via the OAC board:
Quoting Mr. Mom:
“My former boss (Michigan fan) sent me the link to this sports “article”. It’s a triple-play …
* Slams Michigan
* Slams Notre Dame
* Kudos to Mount
http://www.thearch.info/Sports/Buckeyes/BUCKS_scUM_PeeWee.html “