 Let’s enjoy this one, since it’s our last game for a while! d3photography.com photos |
It seems like the Division III football offseason is interminable. And nothing else is a good substitute.
That’s why you need to follow the game today, no ifs, ands or buts.
We get that you may not all be in love with the matchup, but you won’t get to see another Division III football game until next September. So let’s get our fix with matchup No. 6 of UW-Whitewater and Mount Union. The live chat is below!
Congrats to UWW! A Walworth County fan.
No surprises here…only that Mount hung around for three quarters…….a good veteran team beating up on a good young team…..experence always wins….I had guessed on triple take 31-13……on to DIII hoops
I’ve very much enjoyed watching these two programs go at it the last 6 years. Very impressive teams, and the games especially the last 2 have been really really good.
With 3 out of the last 4 trophies finding its way to Wisconsin – has a new dynasty been started?? (not saying MUCs dynasty has ended, that’ll take a team from the north or east to bring an end to that)
great great game.
Not Too Bad for a #2 seed!!!! take that North Central honks! Maybe now this will bring a change in the selection comittee? Oh never mind UWW showed they were the best and if it was for 2 TO MUC would have not even come within 10 points!!
UWW DOMINATED both lines of scrimmage, proof that Mount plays a weak schedule in a weak conference, UWW plays in the best conference
Congrats to the Warhawks, they were the better team on the field playing today.
I know my curioisty is getting the better of me, but I have to wonder how things may have turned out if the Raiders starting QB had played.
I wonder if they’d have even gotten there if the had to play a playoff game or two ON THE ROAD! Whitewater EARNED the title by proving they can win ON THE ROAD against tough opponents, something Mt. Union has NEVER done. Mt. Union is a perennial bridesmaid, an also-ran whose past success has been cheapened by the favoritism shown to them by the NCAA for the last fifteen years.
“. . . they were the better team on the field playing today.” . .
Unfortunately back handed compliments are all that most in the OAC can muster up.
Hey MUC Purple Raider – UWW has been the best program on the field 3 out of the last 4 years and counting – not just on Stagg Bowl day.
It has happend to all programs on top, it will happen to UWW eventualy, it has now happened to MUC – the program has been surpassed.
Middlerrelief/Geiger,
Last I looked WW & UMU are now 3-3 against each other. How does that designate UMU as having been passed?
Again congrats to UWW, they won, but UMU has 10 National Champsionsips.
If UWU reaches that pinnacle, then maybe UWU can make their claim. Right now they are the champs, but UMU still has the longer dynasty as being the best.
Mucpurple raider,
Actually, MUC owns the series against UWW 5-3 if you include the games in 2003-2004.
The most offensive comment that was made on ESPN Sportcenter last night was the comment, “Whitewater beat the CLASS of Division III”, like winning two of the past three championships does not put you in “the class of the Division.”
The day that UWW was seeded #6 and was a second seed, I received a call from a friend who also follows Division III. He predicted that UWW would win just to prove that they deserved.
I was watching the championship game on ESPNU and the Northern Illinois-Fresno State game on ESPN3. NIU and UWW were so similar it was scary.
You have to wonder with the mediocrity of the MAC, you have to wonder why no school took a chance on Coppage (or Grinnell’s John Grotberg in basketball).
Hint: senior year injuries.
i am from alliance and used to watch MU alot. but even I as a football fan realized just how weak a schedule mount plays. and yes would love see them have to travel sometimes to play playoff games. need to go back to when at least they made the regions switch every year when came to semi finals as to who has home games,which would be fair since you really cannot say someone is better in different regions. and to answer you mount fans before you ask, they when in playoffs all the time since 8-9 games a year is nothing but practices and except for this year always healthy since they play such weak teams all year long.
UWW doesn’t have to win 10 titles to be the top dog in Division III. The current senior class just won three. Which MTU senior class won more than three?
Playing in the WIAC makes UWW stronger because every week they play talent and hard nosed O and D lines, Mount can’t say that and either can anyone else in D3 except the WIAC schools
MUCpurpleraider – UWW has been the best D3 program in the country 2 years and counting not just the best “on that day” .
Clearly MUC is still the power in the North and East, UWW is the country.
Is there anything that MHB, Wesley, or other teams that have made runs in the playoffs can learn from UWW?
The WIAC is a one team conference these days, no other team even made the playoffs. Has any WIAC other than Whitewater done anything in the post season the last several years?
Geiger – comparing conferences is always tough . . . if the WIAC is a one conference team then the OACE is a one team conf. times a factor of 10. MUC has run over that conference 15 years and counting, and the last few years another OAC team made the playoffs they got slapped pretty hard in the first round (Otterbein and Capital I think).
The only region that has shown parity or competitivness is the East – they send seem to rotate their represenative where as the North, West and South are pretty much staples.
shows how little you know geiger about D3 football, It’s tough to have 2 teams make the playoffs when they beat each other up all year…. no other team in the country would run the table in the WIAC. why do you think Kehres’s kid is applying for the UW River Falls job….toughest competetion and best place to get the best players…..by the way the ESPN announcers missed the best D3 player to ever play in the NFL, that would be Tom Newberry, from UW Lacrosse who played guard in the NFL for at least 10 years, was a 2nd round draft choice and also a 2x pro bowler. Dating myself, but this was back in the mid-early 80’s when UW Lacrosse dominated WIAC ball
I have a question for the class. When was the last time any team beat 3 # 1 seeds in the playoffs? UWW accomplished this feat this year. Just curious
bvboom, Bethel and St. Thomas of the MIAC both made the playoffs and both had a nice run, the Tommies winning two games and Bethel three. The MIAC usually has two teams in the playoffs although no one at Whitewater’s level for a few years now.
As for the River Falls job, they are pretty close to the Twin Cities metro area so maybe they can use the built in WIAC advantages (low academic admission standards, low tuition subsidized by taxpayers, taxpayer funded facilities, no D2 schools in Wisconsin etc.) to attract athletes from that area.
middlereief, I agree the OAC outside of Mt. Union isn’t very good.
UW-La Crosse was in Division III then? Or the NAIA?
good point geiger….although rest of Miac is aweful, so it’s possible for 2 teams to beat the rest, Wiac is a dogfight each week and anyone can beat anyone on a given day-UW EC played North Central better than anyone all year until NC got beat by UWW, yet got beat by a few more Wiac teams, if NC was in the Wiac they would have had a few more losses-just a better conference top to bottom. The argument that all players go to Wiac schools from Wisconsin that don’t play at UW Madison is not true-the best of the rest play at Northern Illinois, Western, Eastern and Central Michigan etc…Wiac gets players just like the rest of the country…guys that can’t play D1 or 2 for the most part
I just love d3 football, no matter who is playing…..it is a passion of mine….hope you a ll have a great holiday
UW-Whitewater is a real solid team. BOTH teams played admirably with their #2 QBs. It is a long season, though, and the champions have to be able to play with the bench at one time or another.
I live in Wisconsin and get to see WIAC football four or five times a year, and as a graduate of St. John’s I also get up to see SJU play a couple of times each year. The WIAC has 4 or 5 really solid teams that tend to knock each other off.
The MIAC has long been a 2 team conference, but that has changed in the last few years with Bethel and St. Thomas, joining St. John’s and Concordia and becoming the class of the conference. I don’t think it is any coincidence that those two MIAC teams made it to the final 8. I also don’t think that it was an accident that UWW hammered Bethel pretty solidly in the semis. The Warhawks are a VERY good team with few holes in their game. They are going to make a serious run every year.
What can you say about Mt. Union? They are there year in and year out, new kids or veteran teams, and have played in some memorable games. I would not be surprised to see them matched up against UWW in the Stagg bowl again next year!
Pat – UW La Crosse won two NCAA Div. III championships in 1992 and 1995 when the WIAC had already moved over to NCAA (from NAIA sponsorship).
Geiger – get off it regading the admission standards. That is not the reason for this success and is an insult to faculty and staff and students who work or go to these schools.
There is a great tradition in the UW with the Wisconsin Idea and making “the boundaries of the university spread to the boundaries of the state.”
These are good academic schools.
With the exception of around 40 top tier private colleges and universities, most schools in this day and age with high tuition and looking for families willing to pay/have the resources to pay are not as selective as they once were (or ever were). Plus there are ways some privates package the “leadership” awards to help with the aid process – as I saw from my experience working in admissions at three private colleges and universities.
It was a great game on Saturday. The atmosphere in Salem was excellent. The biggest surprise in the stands is it did not seem like there were as many MU fans as in the past. But maybe the home side stands they were sitting in made it deceiving.
MU and UWW have great teams and its impressive in and of itself that they set an NCAA record in meeting for six straight times. Let’s enjoy both teams successes while they are both elite programs instead of trying to vie who now holds the crown.
In a few years who knows what will transpire with all of the good teams coming from out West (PLU, Linfield), Midwest (the MIAC) or even other heavyweights like Wesley and Mary Hardin-Baylor.
Systemfan: This I know, but he mentioned mid-’80s and most of the WIAC was in the NAIA then, UWW being a notable exception.
System fan,
I agree, enjoy the successes of both teams.
I am rooting for a Mount Union-White Water rematch for next year!
Make it 7 straight!
Pat, there is a list of champions on this NAIA website:
http://naia.cstv.com/auto_pdf/p_hotos/s_chools/naia/sports/m-footbl/auto_pdf/FB_ChampionshipRecords
UW La Crosse played in 1985, 1988, and 1989. They won one time out of the three.
UW Stevens Point tied in 1987 but had to vacate the co-championship with PLU.
It was around the early 1990s that the WIAC left NAIA for NCAA III, but I don’t think even when the conference was NAIA affiliated, that it gave out athletic scholarhips. I think there were 2 divisions within NAIA.
Bvboom-Good call on Tom Newberry, he was a beast. If I remember right, he was the subject of a major sports magazine article between his junior and senior season. Watching him pull on sweeps made me wince as defenders were sent sailing.
Mount fan here who attended the game, with a couple of thoughts:
1) great time, great weekend, except for the outcome, of course.
2) congrats to UWW. it’s the best team in D3 right now and in 3 of the past 4 years. a heck of an achievement. great team, coppage was amazing, their coaching staff did a terrific job.
3) mount was outplayed in many ways last week, and last year, but the outcome of the last 2 games might have been different if morring had hung onto the ball in 2009, and shorts in 2010.
4) pat, mount seniors of 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2008 all won 3 national titles.
5) it’s pretty clear that D3 is the big 2 and everyone else.
6) it wouldn’t surprise me if these two teams meet in the stagg bowl the next two years.
Buddy:
Yes. That’s why my question specifically was who has won more.
augustana, class of 1986. wow.
@Middlerelief, The OAC has NOT gotten smacked in the last few years in the playoffs. i attend Ohio Northern University (and a member of the largest marching band in d.3 schools) and the Polar Bears had one regular season loss this year, to UMU. we made the playoffs, SMACKED wittenberg 37-14. we then advanced to the second round and lost to NCC 21-9. if that shows that the OAC is “weak” then idk what else to say. i also recall that ONU played Riverfalls earlier in the season, and we beat them 35-21, and from what i understand they are a WAIC team correct? year in and year out ONU is a competitor, and I know that Coach Paul is doing some great things in Ada. 🙂
@ascheer, yes you beat River Falls but don’t pound your chest too hard over that; River falls was the worst team in the league last year at 1-9; we beat them 63-14 without having to punt or without our QB throwing an incomplete pass. ONU had a good season last year but still they never came close to scoring against MTU and only made it 21-9 against NCC with a touchdown at the very, very end. I don’t mean to belittle what your team has accomplished, but let’s face it MTU has only lost one OAC game since 1995 (at your hands I might add!) and has advanced to at least the semis every single year in that span. Essentialy the OAC is two conferences: Conference Mount Union and conference OAC. The OAC matches up pretty well with other conferences but it’s been a long time since the Kehres-less nine has had a national-championship calibar team (Capital put some huge scares into MTU in the playoffs a few years back but it looks like theyv’e regressed now)