Answering March’s most common question

Q: When will you have schedules?
A:
This is about the time we start trolling for them, after the Division III final four is complete. A lot of readers seem to be under the impression that all schedules come out at the same time, but this is not the case. Schools release them when they are darn good and ready, and that means we could see them anywhere from December to July.

In fact, two dozen schedules are already up. Check out Adrian, Alma, Benedictine, Bridgewater, Brockport State, Case Western Reserve, Chicago, Concordia (Ill.), Concordia (Wis.), DePauw, Eureka, Grove City, Hampden-Sydney, Huntingdon, Ithaca, Lakeland, McDaniel, Simpson, St. John’s, Thiel, Trinity (Texas), Washington U., Wesley, Westminster (Pa.), Whitworth and Widener.

Are you a NESCAC fan? Be prepared for a long wait. Even though the NESCAC never has any open dates and seven of the eight games are the same each and every year, the NESCAC schools are traditionally the slowest to release their schedules. If we wanted, we could post the entire schedule now, except we need the game times. It’s too much of a pain in the rear to post game dates first and game times later.

Are you an OAC fan? These schedules are also usually among the last to come in. Some schools seem to wait until the last minute to determine kickoff times for their home games, holding up the entire process. In terms of non-conference games, Mount Union plays at Averett, Marietta plays at Emory and Henry, Capital hosts Wittenberg, Ohio Northern plays at Millikin, Wilmington plays at Mt. St. Joseph, Heidelberg plays at Oberlin and John Carroll plays at Wooster. The others weren’t posted as of this writing.

24 thoughts on “Answering March’s most common question

  1. One other thing I’ve noticed is that there are schools that may not issue an official press release or forward the info to D3football.com, but they have posted their 2006 schedules on their school websites. For example, Linfield has theirs posted.

    I know that there is no way that the D3football.com crew has the resources and time to go searching for each of these, so that delays the process too.

    (BTW I have always been impreseed with all that d3football.com does!)

  2. We will e-mail schools in a little while asking for their schedules — I find this is too early in the spring sometimes because occasionally SIDs travel with their teams on spring break and are difficult to find in the office.

  3. The next dozen or so: Carleton, Central, Gustavus Adolphus, Knox, Linfield, Monmouth, Mt. St. Joseph, Newport News, Ripon, Shenandoah, St. Norbert, St. Olaf, St. Thomas, UW-Oshkosh, Waynesburg and Wooster.

  4. Thanks for the contact info.

    Reminder to people that we are looking for complete schedules only, including all game times.

  5. Sorry. I didn’t read that closely enough the first time RE: the AC schedule. My bad. 🙁

  6. They got one in-region D3 nonconf opponent, and that’s one more than I thought they’d have. I’m also pleasantly surprised that Trinity upgraded its non-conf schedule by replacing a perennial week-one “take it easy” opponent with ETBU. Austin joining the SCAC meant they had to find someone else, but this should be a good start for both teams.

    So instead of the basketball team’s “F”, maybe a “C+” for ETBU lining up one quality opponent. 🙂

  7. pcole – Rowan’s schedule is up. The play CNU on 9/2 and don’t play until 9/23. Probably still looking for a 10th game on either 9/9 or 9/16. Hot rumor in this neck of the woods has Rowan eventually looking at 1-AA as the billion dollar infusion creates a sprawling campus with incredible facilities (think a nicer, newer and slighly larger football/soccer stadium than Villanova’s!!)………anything here in your opinion?

    Also, Del-Val’s schedule is up and I’ve heard great things about a transfer QB that was a D-1 caliber player until an injury in his senior year. If the kid (Jaworski……no relation!!) can pick up where Knoblauch left off and with a large number of starters returning and a lights out recruiting class (they do have to show up in August though!!)……could we see another Rowan vs. DVC repeat in Dec. ’06?

  8. As for whether I think Rowan will go I-AA, you have to remember, that’s a decision they would have to make for all sports. Adding one nice facility is far from enough to make that happen.

  9. Dunno. Chances probably aren’t as good as they were this time last year. Del Val isn’t one of the two best teams in the East Region for 2006 in my mind. Union and Rowan would both be ahead of them. Probably Cortland State as well. Not sure what Hobart has back.

  10. Instead of wasting time watching any more of a set of boring national semifinals, I turned my attention to tracking down football schedules. Put in a good number of WIAC and ASC schedules, including the return of the on-again, off-again, on-again Backyard Brawl (Millsaps/Mississippi College). This year it’s actually in a backyard (on Millsaps’ campus), which should put a little spark back into it. Better than putting 4,500 people in a 60,000-seat stadium, like the last time I was there for the game.

  11. I’m excited by some matchups in my area, namely:

    Linfield v. Hardin-Simmons in Abilene (9/16)
    DePauw v. Trinity in San Antonio (9/23)
    Hardin-Simmons v. Mary-Hardin Baylor in Belton (10/7)
    UW-Whitewater v. Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton (10/28)

    I think all six of these teams are legitimate title contenders.

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