We made some progress in the bracketing process for the NCAA playoffs this year! Every team that earned a first-round bye was actually awarded one. Seems like a low bar when you talk about it that way, but … if there were a big sign up in the committee room, it would say, “1 year without giving a first-round bye to a team which didn’t earn it via NPI.”

In the end, this bracket has a lot to like — even though a number of teams are in the NCAA playoffs for at least the fifth consecutive year, 10 teams, in fact — there are still a lot of new matchups. Susquehanna vs. W&J isn’t seen very often. Concordia (Wis.) and Coe? LaGrange and Framingham State certainly not. Hanover and Grove City? How about the MIAA-WIAC crossover games?

We talk with John Snell, the NCAA football championships committee chair for Division III, and he tells us what was important for the committee this year, and yes, a good part of it was restricting as many flights as possible and removing the chance of them from this bracket.

Somehow, we knew this would happen, and wrote a whole song about it! Yes, there’s a new parody in this edition of the podcast.

What are the best first-round games and the best second-round games? What team playing in the first round could advance a couple of rounds in this bracket?

Also, what is semifinal sauce? And what would the Texas teams have to do, in theory, to keep from having to play each other so early in the playoffs? We hear you, we feel you, we ask the question. Plus, we take a bunch of your mailbag questions.

• Printable bracket file
• First-round schedule
• Second-round schedule
• Final NPI numbers
• Patrick Coleman getting dumped with sports drink at Fenway Park
• Postgame interviews with Merchant Marine … after the dunking

We also hand out game balls, bring you through the crazy stats of the week, highlight the key goings-on in Region 1 through Region 6, get you games to look forward to next week. And we take your questions in the mailbag segment. That and more in this edition of the D3football.com Around the Nation podcast.

Hit play, or subscribe to get this podcast on your mobile device.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

You can subscribe to the Around the Nation Podcast in Apple Podcasts, and many other places. You can also get this and any of our future Around the Nation podcasts automatically by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://www.d3blogs.com/d3football/?feed=podcast

Here’s how to find us on some of the major podcasting apps:

• Apple Podcasts: D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast
• iHeart Radio: D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast
• Spotify: D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast

Theme music: Power 2 by DJmentos.
Photos by Coco LeGrand, DePauw athletics; F&M athletics; Framingham State athletics