It’s hard to keep from pondering that if the NCAA had put UW-Whitewater in the North and Lakeland in the West (remember, Whitewater is closer geographically to the rest of the North bracket than Lakeland is!) then we could have seen UW-Whitewater/Mount Union today and UW-Whitewater/Linfield next week.

Thank goodness there was a competitive game today. Rowan did alright by the East in this one. Should be a good crowd in Salem. Looking forward to that one.

Congrats to Mount Union and UW-Whitewater. Fans, you should know that the Stagg Bowl organizing committee is sponsoring giveaway of a free hotel night and admission to the game. On Friday there’s a luncheon for the teams at the Salem Civic Center that you can purchase tickets to. You should find out which team is in which hotel if you are traveling so you can figure out whether you want to stay in the Clarion or the Wyndham (one team will stay in each, though there are many other hotels to choose from as well, check the Stagg Bowl Web site).

Pat Cummings, Keith McMillan and I will have a live audio broadcast of the game, with Gordon Mann and I handling pregame, halftime and postgame festivities. We start two hours before the game kicks off, and our pregame show will include the first announcement of the D3football.com All-America team. We’ll also carry it through the postgame news conferences and give you our final thoughts on the 2005 season, probably running at least an hour after the games end. So if you want to hear what your team and coaches have to say, tune to us.

We’ll also do photo galleries from the week, including the luncheon and team activities, as well as the game.

Enjoy the week. Post responsibly.