So I’m at my real job on Sunday, on the sports copy desk at USA Today, sitting not far from a Wisconsin native. Another editor stops by his desk. The Wisconsin native asks the other if he saw that UW-Whitewater won and would be headed back to the Stagg Bowl.

Some people here know me as a Division III football geek/guru (you make the call), but in this case, I was like a fly on the wall, listening to two casual fans’ honest opinions about Division III football.

“You see who won?”
“No, who?”
“Wisconsin-Whitewater. They’re going back to the championship to play Mount Union.”
“Oh. Now they’ll get killed.”

Normally, I’d butt in there, as most of us expect a pretty tight rematch between the Warhawks and Purple Raiders. But for some reason I kept listening.

“You’ll never guess who scored three touchdowns?”
“Who?”
“Derek Stanley. The guy who used to be a running back at Wisconsin (Madison), and beat up his girl and got kicked off the team. He must’ve ended up at Whitewater.”

‘Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat?’ I thought to myself. ‘I didn’t know that. I’m supposed to know stuff like that about D3. I’ve never heard anyone say a negative word about Derek Stanley. And Whitewater doesn’t really seem like it would need to build with transfers with questionable pasts. And he’s a receiver, not a running back. I’m so confused.”

So eventually I spoke up. And we determined that it was BOOKER Stanley who was convicted in July of beating and choking a woman in his off-campus apartment. The running back was kicked off the team this offseason by new UW coach Bret Bielema, and according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel in April, inquired about enrolling and playing for Whitewater.

The Warhawks already had a Stanley, thank you very much (not to mention some running back that appears to be holding down the starting job). As far as I know, DEREK is a model citizen.

A journalist always gets his facts straight … eventually.

The moral of the story, kids, is: You might learn a lot more about Mount Union and UW-Whitewater this week than you ever thought you would. But don’t believe everything you hear, and always consider your source.

Definitely keep this in mind as you read fans’ chit-chat about Saturday’s national championship game. 🙂

Have at it everybody:

Well,
We’ve always enlisted readers’ help for the year in review, and last year you helped us produce the biggest year in review ever. Hopefully we can boil it down some, but with 234 teams and about 1,200 games, there’s just so much to cover.

That’s where you all come in. With the popularity of the Daily Dose, some of the more serious posters can be a big help in looking back at a great season. (Obviously we’ve one game left, but it can’t hurt to start looking back at the rest now)

Here are the ground rules:

Season in review
Around the Nation will begin accepting brief suggestions from readers (and players, coaches and school-affiliated professionals) for our 2006 Year-in-Review, due out in January 2007. Use last year’s review (linked at the top right-hand corner, posted Jan. 25, 26 and 27) as a guide for which categories we’re looking to fill, or make up your own. ATN cannot promise public credit for your suggestions this year, and we may or may not use them.

But if you think Kean was the surprise team of ‘06 or Luther was the biggest disappointment, let us know here. We’d like to hear your games of the year, plays of the year, players, coaches and things, but most importantly, your off-the-beaten path nominations and suggestions. Things we haven’t covered much or would have no way of knowing about are where you can help most.

I know better than to promise I will use everything you post here, but as we look toward this season’s grand finale — done the right way, on the field … I can’t mention that too many times — let’s look back at the season that was.

Try to refer to previous year in review columns (2005 Parts One, Two and Three) … but of course you can make up new categories for fitting issues.

Here are a few things off the top of my head … this is just a brainstorm, so feel free to contribute your thoughts, unrefined. As few or as many as you have. And certainly we can come up with a Best X and think of a better one, if we all put our heads together. Thanks in advance.

Best regular season rushing performance: Justin Beaver’s 286 vs. UW-Lax
Best playoff rushing performance: Nate Kmic’s 371 vs. St. John Fisher
Most confusing score triangle: UWW 7, UMHB 3; Wesley 34, UMHB 20; UWW 44, Wesley 7
Most impactful play: Jim Migliore’s OT TD catch for Rowan vs. Cortland in Week 10. The Profs eventually won the NJAC and played 3 playoff games, Cortland missed the playoffs at 9-1.
Best big-time acknowledgements: ESPNews’ Division III playoff selection show, featuring Pat Coleman on analysis, Colby-Bates photo in SI, NCAASports.com playoff videocasts, USA Today’s planned feature on Salem, Va.
Worst big-time acknowledgements: USA Today columnist Ian O’Connor writing that the “lower division” playoffs just test who has the fewest injuries in a column defending the BCS; ESPN’s TMQ calling Mount Union the home of bad sportsmanship for some of their margins of victory (will have to check the direct quotes, but you get the gist)
Best games: Whitworth at UW-Stout, Bethany had a couple of really interesting ones.
Worst playoff score comparison: Millsaps’s 21-0 loss to Carnegie Mellon, which lost 37-0 to Wesley, which beat UMHB but lost to UWW 44-7.

Again, these are tentative and just ideas at this point. Feel free to chip in … don’t worry, there’ll be plenty more come January. You won’t spoil yourself by following this thread/post.

Don’t say you weren’t warned.

D3football.com values all of its patrons, so those of you who want to beef with each other can continue it here.

In the meantime, I’ll be keeping the Well-thought-out, respectful discussion on the semifinals free of smack talk, whining, bickering, beefing and any other kind of knuckleheadedness that doesn’t pertain to the title in the thread.

Believe it or not, some people just want to come on to the Daily Dose and talk football without being called names, having their motives questioned, etc.

That stuff will be acceptable on this thread, since it’s clearly labeled for such discussion.

As for the other clearly labeled thread, please save me the trouble of moving/removing any of your posts.

If you don’t understand why I moved your post, it might just be because it didn’t add anything constructive to the discussion over there, which was clearly part of the stated goal.

The offending posts (I was kind enough to find them a new home, as opposed to deleting them entirely) follow:

rigg0123 Says:
The 5th of December, 2006 at 11:49 am

I’d like to give a shout-out to the Mt Union Purple Raiders. The greatest sports dynasty of all time.

GIT R DONE boys GIT R DONE!!

I can’t wait for Saturday. MU 56 — SJFC 3

DOC SWAMI Says:
The 5th of December, 2006 at 12:21 pm

ST JOHN’S FISHER WILL GET WHAT ROWAN DID OUT WEST AT LINFIELD IN 2004. MT UNION IS FAVORED BY 17 AND SHOULD WIN BY AT LEAST 28. UW WHITEWATER IS FAVORED BY 13′. I REALIZE THAT WESLEY IS BETTER, BUT WHITEWATER I BELIEVE IS READY FOR THE SHOWDOWN WITH MT UNION AGAIN. WHITEWATER WILL WIN 31-7.

Purple Crush Says:
The 5th of December, 2006 at 2:50 pm

You are dreaming if you think the score will be that bad. Stop being a HOMER and get real, clone!

rigg0123 Says:
The 5th of December, 2006 at 3:01 pm

Hey-
Aren’t you the one claiming UMHB was going to cruise through the south region and crush Wesley?
You all still crying about your first round match-up down there in Texas? Maybe the selection commitee knew what they were doing after all.