Alright, well, so much for that. St. John Fisher and Ithaca actually did live up to the hype, or the hyperbole.

Wow, it took 146 snaps until someone finally scored in the Fitchburg State/Westfield State game. The first 2½ overtime sessions ended on three missed field goals, a fumble and an interception. I’m not sure what’s more surprising — that fact or the fact that it only took 146 snaps to get through regulation and three overtimes. Catholic and Randolph-Macon, on the other hand, ran 154 plays from scrimmage, 95 of them passes (and 44 of those incomplete).

Was chatting with the Occidental broadcast crew earlier tonight, remarking about the Carleton/Concordia-Moorhead score (Concordia wins 39-31). They reminded me we know Concordia-Moorhead can give up points, which is true, but who knew Carleton could score that many? And a game-ending goal-line stand at that? Between that and the 45 points Hampden-Sydney allowed to Guilford, there’s some defenses that need work.

Muhlenberg’s lack of offense really hurts.

Anyone who knows what to make of RPI putting 48 on Hobart, let me know. It’s tempting to think Hobart’s defense isn’t that great. Sure, Hobart shut out F&M, but F&M only scored six points this week against Carnegie Mellon. I think the Liberty League race is far from over. Union, St. Lawrence and possibly even Rochester are going to have an impact on that title hunt.

Key injuries this week include St. John Fisher’s Mark Robinson (reportedly a separated shoulder) and Ohio Northern’s Jason Trusnik (possible broken bone in foot).

Keep an eye on Huntingdon as a Pool B sleeper.

Games that concern me
Already touched on Hampden-Sydney/Guilford
Same with Concordia-Moorhead/Carleton
Colorado College/Lewis and Clark (how long can a four-game season feel?)

Crazy e-mail of the day

You HAVE to go with the Albright Lions as the team of the week! The game against King’s Colege today was beyond belief! Every coach – no matter what sport they are in – dreams of a team like this Albright one who will play their hearts out until the final horn blows.

Alright, that’s cool and all, but if you bother to look at either the Team of the Week page or the nomination form you could probably figure out that this is not what you think it is.

Week 4 doesn’t have a ton of big games — a lot of focus will be on Ithaca hosting St. John Fisher.

Game that won’t live up to previous years: DePauw at No. 13 Trinity (Texas). Yeah, so this is an obvious one, since it isn’t being played. Unfortunately it sets up the conference for some pretty messy tiebreaker decisions. This game coming off the schedule makes the schedule significantly less interesting.

Game that will live up to previous years: RPI at Hobart, and that’s not a good sign for RPI. Hobart has won the last three, and has outscored the Engineers 82-20 in the past five quarters. And those games were both at RPI.

Game that won’t live up to the hype: No. 17 St. John Fisher at No. 15 Ithaca. No game can live up to the pregame chatter this matchup has generated.

Best game nobody is talking about: UW-Platteville/Augustana has become a very competitive rivalry. The past three games have all been decided by three points or less, except for the 2002 game, which wasn’t decided at all — it was halted by a lightning storm in the third quarter.

Top 25 team most likely to get upset: No. 8 Occidental. Cal Lutheran could be the second-best team in the SCIAC (although Redlands will have something to say about that later). But I would be hard-pressed to call a game between No. 15 Ithaca and No. 17 St. John Fisher an upset possibility since the teams are so close together. I also don’t think No. 19 UW-Eau Claire will win this weekend, but the Blugolds are playing the No. 2 team in the NAIA — this wouldn’t be an upset either.

Off the schneid: There’s a chance for a couple of teams with long losing streaks to end up in the W column this week. Catholic (0-14) hosts Randolph-Macon, who has three wins in that span. Concordia, Ill. (0-13) hosts Eureka, which has three wins in its past 13 as well.

Mass independence: Mount Ida was looking like a possible 6-4 or 7-3 team this year (against, admittedly, a less-then competitive schedule). But that was before an 0-3 start which included allowing 42 points to Norwich. Norwich has scored 12 points in two games since. Becker has gone from having no chance at all in this game for the mythical championship of Massachusetts independent programs.

More mythology: Cortland State can wrap up the mythical SUNYAC football title with a win against Buffalo State (it has already beaten Brockport). … Mass Maritime hosts Maine Maritime for the last undisputed Maritime title. (SUNY-Maritime adds varsity football in 2006).

Guaranteed to have no playoff impact: This isn’t even a comment on the NESCAC, although that conference does finally start play this weekend. It’s the Chowan/Newport News game, which features a former Division III team (Chowan, which announced last year it was dropping to D-II) and a non-Division III team (Newport News, which isn’t an NCAA member but whom we recognize to complete ACFC standings).

Phew. This was one of those weeks I spent in front of the computer — I owed the family a little time so I didn’t travel and instead stuck around and watched the scoreboard, live stats and listened to games.

Started my morning with my usual Saturday wake-up call from Western Wisconsin Sports Radio, which has me on for a few minutes in their morning football show every week to talk national scene for Division III.

I figure I listened to or tracked on live stats about a dozen of today’s games. Caught the ending of the Otterbein/Capital game as Capital had a shot from the Otterbein 35 on the final snap. Capital has got to do a better job on its crosstown rival. Joe Loth has that program headed in the right direction.

Baldwin-Wallace had me concerned — I’d been told by more than one person, including insiders, that they weren’t going to be an OAC factor this year yet they led Ohio Northern 17-0 at one point. Not for long, though.

Checked in on Mount Union about midway through the second quarter and quickly realized there wasn’t going to be any need to check back. Yikes.

Spent a lot of time listening to Alma/Wittenberg. Alma was up 17-0, Wittenberg rallied to take the lead, then Alma pulled away.

My alma mater had my blood pumping in mid-afternoon. Catholic rallied to take the lead at No. 23 McDaniel, then saw the Green Terror tie on the last play of regulation. Two overtimes later, someone finally made an extra point and McDaniel won. Catholic isn’t the best 0-3 team in the country by any stretch (hello, Wittenberg) but it will win some games.

Listened to a good amount of the Mary Hardin-Baylor/Texas Lutheran broadcast. Once I figured out which team was “we” to the broadcasters it was a lot easier. Also spent a lot of time with the Redlands/Trinity (Texas) broadcast, which I usually do with any 10 p.m. game. Thanks for the shout-out to our readers, Mitch and folks. Hope you guys get lots of free shoes and tomato sauce!

Crazy e-mail of the day

Marietta College is going to represent the OAC. How can you leave them out of the top 25. One of the top conferences in the nation. Never mind their previous history. They are for Real.

Sent from Stevens Point, Wis., where I’m guessing this person has seen a lot of Marietta football. Marietta had a nice 6-4 season last year but holding off on Top 25 consideration until they play Capital, Ohio Northern or Mount Union.

Come to think of it, didn’t Marietta coach Todd Glaser come from a WIAC school to take this job? Hmm …

Games that concern me
McDaniel/Catholic: McDaniel’s injury problems are obviously having an effect. Going to drop them on my Top 25 ballot until they show they’re healthy.
Wilkes/Delaware Valley: So Wilkes lost to William Paterson and almost beat Del Val? Which is the real Wilkes and which the real Del Val?
Ithaca/Hartwick: Although Jamie Donovan finally put up numbers worthy of the dominant running back I saw at Cortaca last year, worried about the final. Ithaca was up by 31 early in the fourth quarter, though.
UW-Whitewater/Lakeland: Man, that’s a lot of points. Save some for Oct. 1.

Keith McMillan and I will be there for that game, by the way, between UW-Eau Claire and UW-Whitewater. Looking forward to it.