Oh man.

Back in 2011, Patrick wrote a piece on Selection Sunday morning with the headline “Two-loss teams need not apply,” essentially calling out the NCAA football committee for not even considering two-loss teams in previous years and wondering if that would change.

It did change. It changed that season and in multiple seasons which followed. As the seasons have progressed, getting comfortable that a strong SOS would be rewarded has led teams to schedule some really top-quality non-conference games.

This year, we’re back in the bad-ol’ days, it seems like. And when you ask for an explanation as to how the criteria were applied, the only answer seems to be that there aren’t enough at-large bids.

We know this. Thanks.

That puts a damper on what otherwise is not a terrible bracket. Unless you like competitive balance. Unless you like the criteria to actually be used to determine who gets to have home games and who should be traveling. Sometimes there’s a common opponent result that should be consulted.

Patrick and Greg try to understand why, and we also answer a number of listener questions. What teams do we think can actually win the national championship? How would we try to work within the current system to get more at-large bids? That and more, plus, Whitworth coach Rod Sandberg joins us for our Fast Five interview to talk about his team’s last-minute win at Linfield.

This edition of the podcast is sponsored by d3photography.com, the licensed photography bureau contracted by D3sports.com.

Plus, we hand out game balls and spotlight the key stories in each region.

Patrick Coleman and Greg Thomas discuss, in this edition of the podcast.

The D3football.com podcast is a weekly in-season podcast by Patrick Coleman and Greg Thomas, which was started in 2007.

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Photo: Doug Sasse, d3photography.com