Keith McMillan and Pat Coleman did a whirlwind tour of Chicago on Saturday, visiting six stadiums, talking to five coaches and seeing one and two-half games. The night culminated in a great Division III atmosphere at Wheaton, where the lights, turf and new video board provided the perfect frame for a great game.
Keith and Pat talk about what they saw and what happened elsewhere in Week 7 in this week’s Around the Nation Podcast.
What exactly happens if the LL ends in a 3 way tie??? It’s nuts how Hobart can win their last 3 games against ranked Alfred, very good Union and Rochester and get stuck in a ECAC game. Two losses by 7 points to two teams that can make the postseason can end your hopes for the playoffs… This is the very beauty of D-3, every week counts… No computers to bail you out…
We tend to wait a little later in the season to deal with tiebreaker scenarios, since the ways they’re broken vary from conference to conference and situation to situation (3-way, 5-way, etc.). The LL has a pretty good history of looking like there might be a three-way tie, so surely in recent seasons we’ve written about their tiebreaker rules.
Your Hobart example, however, is a great counter-argument to Kirk Herbstreit’s assertion that the BCS works because the regular season matters.
Even with a playoff, the regular season matters.
dcfbguy good post, clearly the LL always seems to come down to these three teams. When it comes to a possible at large bid I think this may not happen for any team in the LL this season. I think if it does Hobart will be the only team that will/could get one. Union and Hobart both play a tough out of league schedule, RPI’s out of league games are a joke. BUT in some ways I think this helps RPI gain confidence and strength as the year goes on. The only problem is if they lose 1 game they are (for the most part) not going to get an at large bid to the NCAA and will end up with an ecac game. For Hobart to have any chance of a pool c bid they must must win out their schedule in convincing fashion! This means handle Alfred and I don’t know if any eastern team can handle Alfred this year. Obviously their loss to RPI hurts and may be their downfall. I think RPI will run the table and get the automatic bid (it pains me to say that) but Union is gaining in confidence and experience as the year goes and they do have a realistic chance to defeat both RPI and Hobart. My LL final standings look like this (I know its early for this talk but I love it!)
1.) RPI automatic bid to NCAA
2.) Hobart ECAC bid
3.) Union strong season for growth and watch out next season!
This is how I hope it looks:)
1.) Union automatic bid to NCAA
2.) Hobart ECAC
3.) RPI nothing:)