post

ATN Podcast 334: No less thrilling a week

This week didn’t feature five games between Top 25 teams, but as we’ve known for years in Division III football, that doesn’t make it any less thrilling.

Out of 116 games, you’re going to see a little bit of everything, such as a game where three touchdowns were scored in the final 60 seconds. A walk-off field goal for a Top 25 upset. A 0-3 team ranked in the Top 25 (first time for everything). Game balls handed out to players who did a little of everything, or who were the team’s go-to guy in the closing moments.

This edition of the podcast is sponsored by d3photography.com, the licensed photography bureau contracted by D3sports.com.

Last week we talked about the latest 6-foot-4, 245-pound running back — well, how about a 300-pounder taking a fake punt to the house? Plus, who’s getting it done in the 1, feeling blue in the 2, running free in the 3 and much more. We answer reader questions, put Pat and Greg on the spot and more in this podcast covering Division III football’s Week 3 games.

Plus, we mention every team listed in the tags at the bottom of the page.

The D3football.com podcast is a weekly in-season podcast by Pat Coleman and Greg Thomas, which was started in 2007.

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

Full episode:

You can subscribe to the Around the Nation Podcast in Apple Podcasts, and many other places. 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

Here’s how to find us on some of the major podcasting apps:

Theme music: Power 2 by DJmentos.
Photos: Thiel athletics photo by Mei Williams; Bridgewater athletics photo; UW-Oshkosh athletics photo

post

ATN Podcast 329: A new conference, state of NIL in D3, and a crazy idea for the ASC

Nobody at the American Southwest Conference is talking on the record — heck, there basically is nobody at the American Southwest Conference since they showed their commissioner the door, and two more schools left their all-sports membership not all that long ago.

This is desperate times calling for desperate measures for the ASC, and if you thought our last idea was a crazy one (Super Region 10 conference, anyone?), just wait until you hear what’s next. Pat Coleman and Greg Thomas discuss what options are left for the ASC, or instead, when the conference might lose its automatic bid, assuming the four remaining football programs can remain together.

While we wait for the ASC to lose an automatic bid, we have a new conference starting this fall with the Landmark Conference. When D3football.com broke the news of this, back in February 2022, it was understood that the Landmark would have a football bid right away, and we talk with Susquehanna coach Tom Perkovich about the new conference, and having been on the wrong side of the at-large bubble a couple of seasons ago. Now that Perkovich has some control over his team’s schedule, he has some great matchups lined up and he talks about why he scheduled the teams he has.

Plus, we are joined by Karl Barkley, who runs @D3Direct, which you can find on most social media platforms. His goal is to shed light on the D-III recruiting process for incoming student-athletes, but also to talk about what D-III student-athletes can do with their Name, Image and Likeness rights. Nobody is signing deals for hundreds of thousands of dollars, but with a little hustle, D-III guys are finding ways to benefit from this NCAA legislation. He has examples and suggestions.

And we’re joined by Riley Zayas of True to the CruWe talk about some of the great non-conference games that Texas schools are taking part in this season. Plus, Greg talks about where the Landmark Conference might land in his Division III football conference rankings, plus more.

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

Full episode:

Links mentioned in this podcast:

You can subscribe to the Around the Nation Podcast in Apple Podcasts, and many other places. 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

Here’s how to find us on some of the major podcasting apps:

Theme music: Power 2 by DJmentos.
Photos by Steve Frommell, d3photography.com, d3photography.com file, Trinity (Texas) athletics

post

ATN Podcast 324: The Road to Annapolis is complete

It’s No. 1 vs. No. 2, just as everyone expected, as North Central and Mount Union advance to play in Stagg Bowl XLIX in Annapolis. While this is a rematch of teams that played in the second round in 2019, then in the semifinals the next season (2021), this particular rematch turns the tables.

It’s unusual not just in that it’s the first one being played outside of Alliance, Ohio. It’s also now a flipping of the old paradigm. Suddenly it’s North Central, playing in the Stagg Bowl for the third consecutive time, that is the program with all the players with Stagg Bowl experience, while Mount Union hasn’t played in the game since 2018, and hasn’t won it since 2017.

This edition of the podcast is sponsored by the hosts of Stagg Bowl XLIX, and we look forward to seeing all of you in Annapolis, Maryland, for the Division III football championship game on Dec. 16.

We sit down for a long postgame conversation with North Central’s Brad Spencer after his team’s win against Mary Hardin-Baylor. And we don’t, or can’t, with Mount Union’s Geoff Dartt. We certainly try, and we try multiple times a year, and we’ll talk more about that — it’s something we haven’t talked much about publicly. Meanwhile, we’ll hear from the Mount Union coach and players solely via the team’s postgame news conference.

Plus, we take reader questions, one from a reader who isn’t satisfied merely to have his team win, but questions why people didn’t pick North Central to win by more. (The answer is simple, and we’ll give it to you on the podcast.) And another prompts a good discussion of which games on North Central’s and Mount Union’s schedule provide the best opportunity to gain insight on how this week’s game will be played.

This is the first of three podcasts to come this week. The next will drop Friday morning and preview the Stagg Bowl, and the following one will drop on Saturday morning and give our breakdown of the game, plus our rationale as to why we chose whomever we end up choosing as our Offensive Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year and Coach of the Year.

Pat Coleman and Greg Thomas talk about it all in the latest D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast. The D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast is a regular conversation covering the wide range of Division III football.

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

Full episode:

Links mentioned in this podcast:

You can subscribe to the Around the Nation Podcast in Apple Podcasts, and many other places. 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

Here’s how to find us on some of the major podcasting apps:

Theme music: Power 2 by DJmentos.
Photos by Thomas Nettleton, d3photography.com; Dean Reid, d3photography.com