Around 6 p.m., Saturday looked like an interesting day, but nothing spectacular. Then the UW-La Crosse/UW-Whitewater game turned, St. John Fisher went down and Willamette kicked Linfield’s unbeaten D-III record to the curb.
In the end, a lot of news at the top of the poll. This week’s Around the Nation podcast focuses on those games, but also deals with Hampden-Sydney, Trinity (Conn.), Williams, TCNJ, Capital, Mount Union, Redlands, Occidental and the great games in the upcoming week.
Great job guys!
A little bit off topic, but after reading Keith’s last Around the Nation, I got to thinking is a playoff system best? Maybe unlike D3 every game is important. Lose once and your chances for a national title are practically over. By doing this every week is of great importance. Granted, I would rather see a 4 team or 8 team playoff at D1 rather than a winner take all system. I personally think D3 is a little over the top. Teams either play a strong non-conference schedule to hopefully get an at-large if they can’t run their conference or play a weak conference schedule in order to boost their record for an at-large. Look at the ODAC for example, there is not one team who plays a ranked non-conference opponent. Hampden-Sydney College schedules cupcakes and that is part of the reason they have not received an at-large. It would be discouraging to think a team like HSC would get an at-large over a 9-3 CNU team which played arguably the toughest non-conference schedule in the nation. (tired of hearing about how great HSC is when they yet to prove anything other than they can beat bottom feeders)
Personally I think D3 should go back to using only the automatic bid system. Win your conference and you get in. This would shorten the season and would be fair to all involved. Plus stop all the complaining about who gets an at-large and who doesn’t. If Ferrum can’t win their conference, they don’t deserve an at-large. It would allow teams to test themselves against the best without fear of losing and diminishing their chance at an at-large.
There is so much complaining at the D1 level about the need for a playoff system b/c there is a handful of teams that could win it all. Sadly even with double the number of D3 teams there is still only a handful of teams that could win it. Seems like D1 should expand to a playoff system and D3 should shrink down a little bit.
I have to disagree with you, run.
We have 230+ teams in D3 and we have equal access to the playoffs. Our ratio is roughly the same as March Madness, and no one is clamoring to tamper with that one too much.
The Pool A bids provide equal access to every college that is a member of a conference.
The Pool B bids are allocated as if all 30 teams are lumped into the 3 big conferences. Access is equal.
The Pool C bids are available to coaches who see how they can earn one. Scheduling aggressively can pay off for seeding. If UMHB goes 10-0 with wins over CNU and UW-Whitewater, they have made a strong case to host thru the first 4 rounds on the playoffs. They maight not have gotten such consideration by playing the schools that H-SC has scheduled in the non-conference.
If Ferrum wins the USA South, they deserve a playoff bid. Since we are already to 22 conferences, that makes for 5 weekends of playoffs. Adding the Pool B and C bids to get to 32 is only logical, and makes for more discussion.