Random games

Posted on by

We’ve seen over 900 games go up so far for the 2006 Division III football season. Some are more predictable than others. Here are some others, matchups that are new this season:

Week 1: Huntingdon at Ithaca. Huntingdon doesn’t duck teams and can’t afford to as a geographically isolated independent. Long trip, though.

Week 2: Kenyon at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. The surprise 6-4 Lords and the 3-6 Stags. A random cross-country game between teams in the lower half of Division III.

By the way, Kenyon also plays Grinnell, which normally would be interesting enough to make this list. But Kenyon coach Ted Stanley is a Grinnell grad, which makes that game a lot less random.

Week 3: Kalamazoo at Austin. This is Kalamazoo’s first game of the season, by the way.

Week 4: Washington and Jefferson at Oberlin. These teams aren’t that far away from each other … geographically.

After this point, we end up with too many conference games in the way. What games that are new this year strike you as the most random?

15 thoughts on “Random games”

  1. I wouldn’t call the Kenyon vs. CMS match up “random.” Take a couple things into account…both school have strong academic reputations which makes them comparable in the classroom. Also, both are very challenging to be accepted to, so in an admission standpoint they are similar.

    Lastly, I would not call this a game of “teams in the lower half of Division III.” First of all, they both represent what D3 football is all about…receiving an education above football, and putting in long hours of studying to accomplish this. Secondly look at last season: Kenyon had a magnificent season pulling off wins against Wooster, Denison, and Allegheny. Whereas CMS only pulled together a 3-6 season, they did play Cal Lutheran (a considerable at large bid tournament team) 25-10, with the Cal Lutheran kicker hitting 4 field goals to make it a victory. (This was also the lowest that Cal Lu had been held all season in touchdowns).

    So I would not call this a “game between teams in the lower half of Division III” instead it should be the essence of D3 football. Two great schools playing the game we love, and getting the opportunity to bring athletes from the west to play those from the east. You still might think it is random…but look at it at an attempt for two D3 schools to feel what it is like to be like a D1 team and travel across the nation to play the game we all love.

  2. Nonetheless, it is random. I am sure there are plenty of fine academic schools a little bit closer to Ohio. Kenyon’s season was great by Kenyon standards, yes, but that doesn’t make the assessment inaccurate.

  3. Not sure if it’s random but Wesley at Huntingdon in week 5 should be a good one. That one along with Ithaca are two really good games added to our schedule. Should be a fun year in Montgomery.

  4. well people are allowed to have their own opinion, I just don’t think it is fair to assess two school as “low” if you truely don’t state all the facts that would make your assessment true…

  5. This factoid isn’t random as much as it seems like a trend. RPI has three non-conference games and has scheduled teams with a combined total of 10 years of football. The three teams were ranked an average of 173rd in Division III in our Kickoff ranking of all 229 last fall.

  6. Ryguy, how about this?

    Out of 219 Division III schools (not including NESCAC), final rankings from Massey:

    Kenyon 141
    Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 153

    That’s a truly stated fact. Well within the parameters I set.

  8. How about a Ship battle
    Between a school that trains to work on ships (NY Maritime) vs. a school that trains people to build ships (Newport News Apprentice School)

  9. nnasid, I can see that the “Maritime Bowl” has the prospects of a great rivalry!

    Looks like there are plenty of opportunities for alum gatherings, lots of natural rivals from the industry and plenty of chances for corporate involvement.

    I hope it works out!

  11. Now if only we had a school that ships people to work on trains. … Perhaps one of the engineering schools. (Just kidding!)

  14. I should have mentioned originally but forgot: Allegheny and Hiram, both NCAC members, are playing in a non-conference game this year. They weren’t scheduled to play each other in the regular season.

  15. we have plenty of alumni from Maritime (including several higher-ups in the shipyard) so it was a natural to get for us.

    Thanks Ralph!!

Leave a Reply