Monthly Archives: August 2006

Bulletin board material

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Huntingdon feels it can win the national championship. That’s an impressive goal. I’m sure many players have this goal, but also sure that most keep it quiet.

Huntingdon has not yet made the playoffs. They’re ranked … well, you’ll have to be a Kickoff subscriber to find out, but it’s not in our Top 30 in the 1-234 ranking of all Division III football teams. The Hawks went 7-2 last year but lost at home to 3-7 Maryville in Week 11 last year, when a win might have put them in the postseason.

So perhaps the Stagg Bowl is a little out of reach. But they’re talking otherwise:

Quarterback Zack Golson to the Prattville (Ala.) Progress: “This is an awesome school, with great academics, and I think we have a solid football program. I really believe we have a change to win a national championship.”

And to the Montgomery Advertiser: “One of the first things that coach Turk said to us during our first practice is that we would compete for a championship if we believed in him. We believed in him and that’s what we’re on our way to now.”

Coach Mike Turk knows a little more about how to couch enthusiasm properly: “Everybody says they want to win a national championship. But with these guys, I wouldn’t put it past them, because they work so hard and have the right mentality to do it.”

Only thing is, they aren’t the only program that works hard and has a good mind-set.

Anyone seen any other bulletin board material out there?

It’s official, the regions expand

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We’ve gotten official word that the addition to the definition of regional games first talked about in February went through all the hurdles of the NCAA process and is in place for this fall.

As a reminder, this is in addition to every other existing definition of a regional game (200 miles shortest possible driving distance, teams within the same Division III football region, teams in the same conference but different regions).

These are the NCAA’s administrative regions. They now also count for regional games as well:

The NCAA’s four regions, from the bylaws:

Region 1 – Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont

Region 2 – New York, Pennsylvania

Region 3 – Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia

Region 4 – Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming.

We will apply this definition to schedules as quickly as possible. But it’s worth noting that the Linfield/Hardin-Simmons game is now in-region, as is the Mary Hardin-Baylor/UW-Whitewater game.

This can only make the selection process better reflect the strength of actual teams. It’s not perfect, but it’s a step forward.

We’re on the move

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After nearly 16 years in the Washington, D.C., metro area, I’m moving to Connecticut.

This move has been a long time coming. I’ve worked at USA Today for a dozen years now, mostly with Baseball Weekly/Sports Weekly, but starting later this month I’ll be taking a job at NBCSports.com.

Although I don’t fully yet know what days and nights of the week I’ll be working, you can assume that I’ll be showing up at games in and around the area.

What else does this mean for D3football.com? The site is not going away — shoot, D3football.com/D3hoops.com experience helped me get this job. But we’ll be relying on other people within the organization to do a little more on game nights, when I’m at work, in terms of doing the first updates on the front page, stuff like that. Our recently announced partnership with D3Scoreboard.com will help out as well, since it will improve our collection of scores as well as server performance.

The transition period might be a little rough, and there will be entire days where I am away from the computer, most likely. The job search also has contributed to the somewhat quiet nature of the blog this summer. We ask your patience. But yes, I do have a full-time job, and D3sports.com is not it. We have to pay the bills and feed the three kids, after all.