Last night as I was updating the NCAA playoff results by conference on the front page — something that sits on the site 52 weeks a year and only changes five times — I was struck by the old adage: The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Apologies for the un-fanciness of the standings, but here they are:
Conference W L Pct. OAC 35 8 .814 NWC 18 9 .667 MIAC 19 11 .633 E8 5 3 .625 NJAC 16 10 .615 MAC 12 8 .600 CCIW 11 9 .550 WIAC 9 8 .529 SCAC 9 8 .529 ODAC 10 9 .526 NCAC 10 9 .526 ASC 11 10 .524 ACFC 4 4 .500 UAA 1 1 .500 PAC 6 8 .429 Independents 5 7 .417 UCAA/LL 7 11 .389 FFC (defunct) 3 5 .375 IIAC 6 11 .353 Centennial 4 9 .308 SCIAC 2 5 .286 Dixie/USAC 2 6 .250 MWC 1 8 .111 HCAC 1 8 .111 MIAA 0 7 .000 IBC 0 7 .000 NEFC 0 8 .000
Who gained and who lost? Well, I think the concept that a rematch automatically follows the original game took a big beating (thankfully). I’ve been reminding people all season that a team playing its first game loses to another team playing its second game does not mean that team is automatically better.
Conferences which gained this week
Northwest Conference: League champion Whitworth became the third conference team to win a playoff game this weekend with the first-round victory against Occidental. It probably is the only one the NWC will get this year but serves as a reminder that the league is not a one-trick pony. (And that’s only for people who don’t remember Pacific Lutheran.)
Ohio Athletic Conference: No. 1 and No. 2 seeds and two big blowouts. ‘Nuff said.
Empire 8: Two W’s for a league that hasn’t sponsored football for very long. The 5-3 record looks a lot better than 3-3 did.
Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference: Two wins gets the league, much maligned for its 1999-2004 performance, above the .500 mark in the automatic bid era.
University Athletic Association: Off the schneid thanks to Carnegie Mellon.
Conferences which fell this week
Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference: Ouch. The SCAC has already been looked at as a one-trick pony league with Trinity the only team to qualify for the postseason. The league hasn’t won a playoff game since Roy Hampton’s ill-fated night on the Riverwalk. The Millsaps loss doesn’t help.
Old Dominion Athletic Conference: Washington and Lee’s loss is almost as bad, though no No. 8 seed has ever won a playoff game … in the two years that No. 8 seeds have existed. Only Bridgewater has won a playoff game from this league, though at least Catholic, Emory and Henry and Washington and Lee have had the opportunity.
Illini-Badger Conference: Only disbanding can pull the league out of this hole.
Liberty League: Two one-and-outs from teams that each won playoff games last year. The conference loses a little bit of the ground it gained in the 2005 playoffs.