Game Day: Last chance

Mount Union
Can Bethel make the leap past Mount Union and into the Stagg Bowl?
Photo by Scott Pierson, d3photography.com

Well, the day many have been dreading will be dawning here in a few hours. Unless you’re a UW-Whitewater or Mount Union fan, in which case it’s more like wild anticipation. It’s the last chance for anyone to derail a purple-on-purple matchup for the sixth year in a row in the Stagg Bowl.

Bethel and Wesley stand in the way. It’s a great day because it’s the one day a year there’s live video of a Mount Union home football game, and there is live video at Wesley for the second consecutive week.

The folks on the call will be familiar to longtime D3football.com followers. Frank Rossi of D3football.com and Brandon Stewart will call the action from Alliance, Ohio, while D3football’s Gordon Mann and Keith McMillan will have the call from Dover, Del., on NCAA.com.

I’ll be at home buried under a foot of snow again in Minneapolis. However, this week it was planned. And it allows me to set up on both screens and watch both games. Plus I’ll be DVR-ing the Mount Union/Bethel game on DirecTV’s SportsTime Ohio feed.

Opening the floor, and it will be kept up with this week. Sorry about last week, between the traveling and calling the game.

64 thoughts on “Game Day: Last chance

  1. Here’s to 2 interesting games as I’ll be watching both from the comfort of my basement! I am very interested to see how Bethel and Wesley stack up to the 2 big dogs. Having watched UWW/NCC last week and seeing UMU more times than I care to recount, I will be surprised if its not a repeat Stagg.

    Can Wesley step up to the plate? A home game in the semis is their best chance ever. Can Bethel find a way to score against UMU? They won’t be intimidated by the scene in Alliance and I wonder if the the fans will have the standard amount of pre-stagg apathy?

  2. What is the NCAA up too? Here we have a #1 ranked team and they don’t have home field advantage? Hope Warhawks go all the way and win it. Mount Union has home field advantage during the play offs and they are ranked #2.

    What’s UP NCAA, Something shady going on in D3 football.

  3. The seeding may have been beaten to death already, but the fact remains that Whitewater got hosed when compared to MU.

    For WW to reach the Stagg, they will have beaten the #25 team (Franklin) at home, the #12 team at home (Trine), the #5 team AWAY (NCC), and the #3 team AWAY (Wesley).

    All four teams WW faced were in final top 25 and they will have played two of those games away. Contrast that with MU which played unranked St Lawrence at home, #18 Delaware Valley at home, unranked Alfred at home, and today #14 Bethel at home.

    Of course, you can say MU got the benefit of upsets, but those upsets on their side of the bracket vs the WW side should tell you the NCAA and their SOS was a crock. Go Warhawks

  4. if UWW gets to the Stagg, they may point to the playoff road as the best prep they could have had. Maybe the NCAA did them a favor?

  5. Wesley D is going have to play one heck of a game today…..they will be missing their best WR in Krout and their starting CB Marcus Wilson is going to be playing WR because they are now missing 4 WR who have been starters

  6. Congratulations to the U of Mount Union! It’s not the outcome I wanted to see. The Purple Raiders earned that win.
    Thanks again to the D3Football writers, Pat, Keith, Ryan, and all the rest. It was quite a ride for us.
    A question: how many times did UMU go into the NCAA playoffs before the string of successes began?

  7. GREAT VIDEO’S HERE IN UTAH….ALMOST HD QUALITY…YOU COULD TELL BOTH GAMES WERE WON IN THE FILM ROOM AND ON THE SIDELINES…..FOR ALL THE CRYBABYS…WHITEWATER AND MOUNT UNION WOULD HAVE WON AT THE NORTH POLE….LOOOKING FORWARD TO MONDAY’S PODCAST…………I LOVE PURPLE

  8. edstone…yes, played two years with Stu, who now lives about a mile from me here in the Puget Sound area.

    Congratulations to the Bethel football team..coaches, players and support people. It was a great season and it was fun following your progress. In the DIII rankings, you went from 5 votes..down to 2 votes early in the season and ended today in the national semi-final game, one of four teams left standing. As a former player (’57,’58) we have seen the program go through ups and downs..mostly downs over the years. You have contributed in a significant way to a program that will continue on the way up and will continue to represent Bethel University well. Thanks for a great season and I am looking forward to next year with a strong group of returning players (fourteen starters coming back) to win the MIAC.

    Hope to see more of a passing game next year with Hallstrom,Duininck and Hilbrands back.

    Have to cancel my motel reservations in Roanoke now!

  9. Congrats to Whitewater, holder of the current longest winning streak in all of college football!

    Regarding the brackets: NCAA determines this at the end of the regular season, based on record and strength of schedule, which I believe is based on the record of each team’s apponents. Rankings have no effect.

    My wife & I (both ’71 Whitewater alumns) will be looking forward to watch the game next week.

  10. edstone – to answer your question, Mount Union had four playoff years prior to winning their first national championship in 1993 against heavily favored Rowan.

    1992 – lost in the semi-final to eventual Nat. champ Wisconsin LaCross

    1990 – lost in first round (?) to eventual Nat. champ Allegany

    1986 – lost in the second round to eventual Nat. champ Augustana

    1985 – lost in the second round to eventual Nat. champ Augustana

    This incredible run has been so long, people sometimes forget it took a tremendous amount of work and some heartache to get there.

  11. I see that the NCAAs plan make Whitewater a 2 seed failed. I just could believe the #1 ranked team being forced to go on the road the last two weeks.

    I think the NCAA is growing tired of the Mount Union/ Whitewater match up in the Stagg Bowl again this year!

  12. The really “incredible run” is that today’s game with Bethel was the 42ND CONSECUTIVE HOME PLAYOFF GAME for Mt. Union. Talk about stacking the deck…….

  13. Congrats to the winners today but I have to say that I am most impressed with what Bethel did this season. Way to exceed expectations and put a memorable season together. It was a fun ride and I am looking forward to next season already.

  14. GEIGER………..DID YOU REALLY WATCH THE GAME TODAY…..DID YOU REALLY THINK A DIFFERENT LOCATION WOULD HAVE MADE A DIFFERENCE……BETTER CRAWL BACK INTO YOUR SONWDRIFT

  15. steelerboob, we’ll never know will we? That’s my point, Mt. Union’s record is cheapened by the fact they have never had to win a tough road game in the playoffs. Let them try to win at Bethel today in blizzard conditions and -35 degree wind chill. Let them play at Whitewater in the semi finals some year. Anything would be more interesting than six consecutive Whitewater-Mt. Union title games.

  16. Geiger: Remind me, what game has Bethel won “in blizzard conditions and -35 degree wind chill” to date?

    The NCAA wouldn’t have played this game outdoors here in Minnesota today, I feel fairly certain. If it couldn’t have been moved to the Metrodome, it would have been played tomorrow. I was at the Lycoming/Bridgewater game in 2003 which was pushed back for a day and it was worse here today.

    Home field is earned, not rotated. Bethel could have had a shot at home field by taking care of business in the regular season. You can’t get home field in a national semifinals without going 10-0 or having upsets in another bracket.

  17. Coleman, you have no problem with a system that results in one team to playing 42 consecutive home playoff games?

  18. JUST ONE MORE THING GEIGER….DID YOU EVER COACH OR PLAY FOOTBALL….WELL I DID BOTH….IF YOU ARE DEPENDING ON WEATHER CONDITIONS TO AMKE YOUR GAME PLAN WORK YOU ARE ALREADY LOSING….GOOD LUCK NEXT YEAR……….

  19. If someone else EARNS it, fine. Let’s not give away home field advantage, though, just for the sake of “rotating sites” like we used to. Teams have had their chance to get Mount Union on the road (Delaware Valley, Wabash, St. Thomas) and have failed to do so.

    Rotating sites is a cop-out way of doing it. This is America, right? Earn home field. The NCAA reminded teams again this year that it’s possible, so go out and DO it.

  20. Are you happy with the results of the current system? The same teams in the title game year after year after year, semi final games played in front of a couple thousand bored fans, the title game broadcast on some obscure TV station that nobody gets, no national coverage of Division 3 to speak of. Yeah that’s been a winning formula hasn’t it?

  21. Geiger: The scenario you laid out doesn’t exist. National coverage of Division III didn’t magically exist before and go away the past six years — it was never here. The Stagg Bowl hasn’t been on a broadcast network in decades — we have to be thankful that the NCAA requires ESPN to put the game on the air as a condition of getting the College World Series and D-I women’s basketball. And fan interest? Never been higher on our site. Attendance was down last year but that’s because nobody could get there because of the 18 inches of snow.

    You play to win the game, right? Gotta win it to qualify. That’s the beauty of it. Was it somehow better when it was ONLY Mount Union dominating Division III? UW-Whitewater stepped up. Who’s next?

  22. steelerboob, do it on SOMEONE ELSES FIELD in the playoffs once every decade or so, that’s all I’m asking.

    Mt. Union’s formula is pretty simple. Play a bunch of nobody’s during the regular season then get the NCAA to give you every playoff game at home for 14 years. The path to the Stagg Bowl doesn’t get any easier than that.

  23. GEIGER……..SORRY THAT YOU JUST DON’T GET IT …BITTER BITTER BITTER…..JUST WIN THE GAME BABY AS IN WAH WAH WAH

  24. Pat, I agree. People should earn home field advantage through winning out in the regular season. Where I have a problem is this: the NCAA gave home field advantage to a team that was undefeated in Wesley, based on SOS.
    But lets be serious for a minute, the best team Wesley plays all year is Salisbury. Most of the others are unheard of. Huntington, Newport News, Christopher Newport…. who are these teams???
    I am not saying that because these teams are relatively obscure, that they are definitely awful. But in D3 football, teams get national or regional notoriety from their performance, post-season appearances, and their overall QUALITY.
    Also, I know ratings and playoff seeings shouldn’t be created with the scores from match ups that occurred years ago. But every time that Whitewater has played Wesley, they have proved my point: Wesley is indeed the best team in their conference, but that doesn’t make them an upper echelon team because their schedule is NOT difficult.

  25. Coleman, the scenario doesn’t exist? You mean this ISN’T the sixth consecutive year of a Whitewater – Mt. Union title game? There wasn’t a half empty stadium in Alliance? You mean the game WILL be on ESPN, which everyone gets, and not on ESPNU, which nobody gets? And when was the last time the Stagg Bowl got mentioned in Sports Illustrated? 2003?

    There is nothing compelling about the same teams playing for the title every year.

  26. Wesley played at home today steelerboob, and I’m not a Bethel fan. I should point out Bethel won three playoff road games this year, while it has taken Mt. Union 24 years to win that many.

  27. Geiger….is DIII supposed to say sorry WW and MTU, you can’t play this year because someone else needs a chance? Someone has to beat them. I like the home field advantage because it rewards the best teams. I may agree that the semi-finals should also be neutral, but I’m guessing that could be a money factor. As far as ESPN, the ratings are never going to be great, and they certainly wouldn’t be ANY bett (or worse) if it was Bethal/Welsey in the Championship. I’m sorry your team lost today, but you are going to have to quit being a baby and trying to vent on a message board. Its not going to make you feel any better.

    And to be honest, I think because of the consecutive appearences, more national publications have picked up the story of WW/MTU. I know US Today has had more interest. For National outlets to care much, there needs to be another story beyond the game.

    Congrats to the Warhawks. They earned it, although I still don’t know if they played their best ball today. While WW didnt have a LOT of turnovers and penalties, I felt like the ones they DID have were at the worst possible times.

  28. warhawkpride, I don’t care if you guys play Mt. Union every year. Just let Mt. Union prove something on the road once in a while, like your team did this year. And my team didn’t lose today because I didn’t have one, I just wish Mt. Union would play a semi final on the road some day.

  29. Geiger: Again, only because of the 18 inches of snow was the stadium so empty last year. I said that once already.

    And I can tell you’re probably a Minnesota guy so I’ll just point out that the only reason the Stagg got in SI in 2003 was because Austin Murphy wrote the Johnnie book and the Johnnies won. It’s not measurably less popular because of UWW-MTU.

    You want Mount to play a semi on the road? Ask St. Thomas to take care of business. Ask Del Val to do it in 2005. There have been chances but people have to take care of their own business too.

  30. I’M 72 YEARS OLD AND DON’T READ AS WELL AS YOU DO, SO THE CAPS ARE HELPFUL……..SORRY TO OFFEND YOU……ARE YOU FROM MINNESOTA?

  31. Coleman, if you would pay attention to what I said you would know the half empty stadium I referred to was in Alliance today, not the Stagg Bowl last year.

    If St. Thomas hadn’t spit the bit in the second half last week I would have enjoyed seeing (and cheering for) Mt. Union on the road today. That’s the trouble with the NCAA seeding teams, they bet on the wrong horse and Mt. Union is at home all through the playoffs again this season.

    I say take the chance out of it and rotate sites like they used to. 42 home playoff games in a row is outrageous.

  32. Ahh. Well, that just displays a lack of knowledge of playoff football. When the temperatures drop and you force students to pay to get in, the attendance is bad everywhere: Mount Union, UWW, Linfield, even the D3 attendance holy grail of St. John’s. Fact of life.

    Mount Union’s dominance is not a reason to give someone else a road game it didn’t earn.

  33. Here’s a great tweet from a player who’s not looking for a handout.

    “Got in a good work out on the field, that’s what it takes. We’re trying to make it happen. I’m tired of seeing mount union. #D3Fb #BergPride”

  34. Play a bunch of lousy teams during the season, go undefeated and you get every playoff game at home no matter what anyone else does. That’s the way it’s been for Mt. Union every year until this year.

    I think even the NCAA was getting embarrassed by Mt. Union’s home playoff streak and that’s part of the reason they seeded someone else ahead of them. Since
    that ploy didn’t work I say just rotate the sites. If Mt. Union is really that good they won’t mind playing on someone elses field once in a while in November and December.

  35. Hats off to the Purple Raiders who did what they had to do – stay poised and confident after being down 7 to 0 for the whole first quarter. I must confess I got my hopes up early. And then the wheels fell off. Once MU kicked that first field goal I knew BU was in trouble. But I hung in there and watched the whole game. In the fourth quarter Bethel finally stopped MU from scoring again and scored another TD. And they did control time of possession. Unfortunately Cecil Shorts had a great game in the middle two quarters as well as their backup QB. I hope this is not the last we hear of Bethel in the near future for them getting to the semi-finals and beyond. And they definitely know what they need to do now to take that next step up to the next level.

    I drove into my work place during this blizzard here in MN to take advantage of a T1 connection and a large screen TV in one of our conference rooms to see the game with my son and another Bethel Alum. We had an adventure getting there and home, that’s for sure – even with a 4×4.

    (Did anyone else have problems with the connection at times? It eventually came back but I missed Bethel’s interception, run back and first score. It eventually came back and then glitched a couple more times throughout the game. I know I had a good connection so I suspect it was a problem with the NCAA server keeping up.)

    Thanx to the whole staff at D3 Football for all you guys do here on the website and behind the scenes as well. You make it fun to follow what’s happening all around the country. I look forward to what “behind the scenes” info you can unearth as we head to the championship game next weekend.

    See ya then!

  36. Art76: There were some problems early in the game but they did fix them. Not sure if they were bandwidth problems getting out of Mount Union or at the NCAA’s streaming provider or what but a bunch of us saw them.

  37. Geiger, the FACT is that the WIAC and OAC are consistently ranked as the #1 and #2 toughest conferences in all of Division III football. Ohio Northern, Capital, Otterbein, John Carroll, and Baldwin-Wallace in particular have had a lot of success in the OAC over the past two decades so your posts about lousy teams is 100% bogus. You have no case. The prosecution rests.

  38. my understanding is that for some years before teams were awarded home playoff games by seeding/strength, they were bid on, with the high bidder getting the game.

    you get home playoff games because you’ve earned that right. it’s that simple, and that’s as fair as it gets.

    i think the UMU-UWW rivalry is getting D3 more notice than it has ever gotten. I’m excited to see how the 6th version comes out, though, as a mount fan, I think UWW is the slightly better team.

    and if you don’t like 6 years in a row with the same finale, you probably won’t like the next two either. both UWW and UMU are young teams, and can be expected to be favorites for 2011 and 2012.

    finally, a tip of the hat to the D3.com folks. their rankings were right on – well better than the NCAA committee’s tortured reasoning for the seedings.

  39. Congrats to Bethel and Wesley on their outstanding seasons, and thanks to D3football.com for its great coverage all year – and superior rankings all year! I think it’s quite clear that Mt Union and Wisc-WW are head and shoulders above the rest again this year. And that’s not a knock on the rest of the field; rather, UMU and WWW are amazing D3 football programs.

    I won’t waste too much of my breath on geiger’s comments because he is obviously rather foolish, but Mt Union has won 100 straight true road games!! They win games because of their ability, not because of the game’s location. (And please Mr. Geiger, don’t even try to tell us that Mt U does not play good teams on the road during the regular season. The #2 team from the OAC Conf, Capital, was probably the 3rd best team in the country on more than one occasion in recent years.)

    Mt Union vs Wisc-WW should be another great Stagg Bowl, and while I am a Mt Union fan, I would call the Warhawks the clear favorite this year.

    And finally, kudos to D3 football for having a real playoff instead of letting the computers and pollsters VOTE Mt Union and Wisc-WW into the Stagg Bowl for 6 yrs in a row!

  40. Question

    1) Are conferences ranked by number of wins and losses against teams from other conferences?

    2) Anyone have this year’s rankings?

    Thanks, and thanks to the people who make d3football.com a good place to hang out.

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