ATN Podcast: Guest Brad Bankston, committee chair

Mike McCarthy
How exactly did Bridgewater State get into the field? We get as much info for you as we can.
Bridgewater State file photo

Subscribe to the Around the Nation Podcast in iTunes.

We know you have plenty of questions about how teams were chosen for the Division III playoffs and why. While we’re always glad to answer them to the best of our knowledge, it’s good to hear something a little more authoritative, so we’re glad to be joined by Brad Bankston, the chair of the NCAA Division III football championships committee.

Bankston and Pat Coleman talk about everything from those invisible final regional rankings, the at-large decision-making process, and as much detail as possible about how Bridgewater State got in and how Concordia-Moorhead (and others) didn’t. Will the trend of two-loss teams getting at-large bids continue? Why don’t all four regions rank their teams the same way? How has the committee’s conference call changed technologically, and how might that affect the actual decision-making process?

It’s a good conversation, and Bankston is about as frank as any national committee chair has been in the past decade. This is not just the party line. Listen in.

Hit play, or subscribe to get this podcast on your phone or portable device.

You can subscribe to the Around the Nation Podcast in iTunes. You can also get this and any of our future Around the Nation podcasts automatically by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://www.d3blogs.com/d3football/?feed=podcast

Although Keith McMillan participated in putting the questions together, he was unable to take part in the interview because of scheduling. However, there will also be a full Around the Nation Podcast with Pat and Keith for Monday morning.