Not everyone can be in the Top 25

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As we get ready to deliver the D3football.com preseason Top 25 next week, I’m reminded of something that comes up every poll season: Not all records are created equal.

A 6-0 for one team isn’t necessarily as good as a 4-2 for someone else. With 234 teams in Division III, you could go years without playing a schedule worthy of getting into the Top 25. While in Division I-A there are less than five teams for every spot in the Top 25, there are more than nine teams for every Top 25 spot in Division III.

In fact, it’s almost twice as hard in Division III. There are 117 Division I-A teams, 234 Division III teams (though provisionals are not eligible for our Top 25). So when your favorite Centennial Conference or Midwest Conference or USA South or MIAA team doesn’t make the Top 25, it isn’t because we’re biased against your team, it’s because you haven’t earned the spot yet.

See last year’s playoff results for confirmation.

9 thoughts on “Not everyone can be in the Top 25”

  1. Looking forward to both the poll and the inevitable moanin’ and cryin’ about your choices. Of course I’m totally objective in predicting Wabash will make your list despite Russ Harbaugh’s graduation….

  2. Well I know Ferrum did not do well in the playoffs last year, but they return almost everyone, are picked to win the conference and padded the schedule with stronger teams (although Bridgewater fared the same as Ferrum did last year against Wesley). Ferrum will win the their conference handily and make an impact in the playoffs. Pat I know you missed my moaning and groaning 🙂

  3. Amazing!!!

    Pat Coleman tries to head off the usual semi-irrational kibitzing that follows the posting of the Preseason top 25, and he only succeeds in generating some semi-irrational kibitzing in advance of posting the Preseason Top 25.

  4. We should all keep this in mind when the Trinity’s (of CT) start showing up, eh? 😉

  5. We should all count our lucky starts that at least we have a 32 team playoff to settle this stuff on the field. Where as D1 has to rely on polls to determine which 2 teams get to play for the “title”. Which would have meant Mount Union wouldn’t have had a chance to beat Whitewater for the title last year. Or that Mary Hardin Baylor would have been in the Stagg in 2004.

  6. 32 teams and the championship settled on the field is the only way to go!

    There are 119 Division I-A teams, have been for at least a year.

  7. The NCAA only claims 117. I feel pretty safe with that number. 🙂 I assume they aren’t counting the provisionals.

  8. Not to belabor the point, as we have more important and relevant things to be discussing, but the NCAA claims all 119 Division I-A teams in its own record book, on p. 392, for instance.

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