Woo, baby, the regular season is getting down to the end and there are two giant games on tap this weekend.

We’ll have a blogger live at Alliance for the game between No. 4 Capital and No. 1 Mount Union. More on this game in Around the Great Lakes. I’m just hoping it’s a competitive game. We’ve seen so many so-called big games involving Mount Union turn into big freakin’ blowouts.

Keith McMillan and I will be in Belton, Texas, to call the game between No. 6 Mary Hardin-Baylor and No. 2 UW-Whitewater. Why are we going to Texas instead of Ohio? (Many of you have … well, let’s use the polite term and say asked.) It’s pretty simple — first of all, it’s a Division I-A style game, featuring two highly ranked teams from different conferences, one making a long trip. This time of year, non-conference games are rare and big-name games are even more rare. Second of all, note what I said about Mount Union and blowouts. Third, projected high of 76 tomorrow. 🙂

We booked this trip before Justin Beaver’s injury, but it becomes even more interesting now. UMHB has allowed fewer than 20 rushing yards per game this season and Whitewater’s vaunted offensive line will have its hands full.

Keith and I have started compiling our list of what teams we’ve seen and what stadiums we’ve been to. We’ve seen all four teams play and between the two of us we’ve been to all of the stadiums except the one UMHB plays in.

Keith is supposed to be writing more about this game today. I leave for the airport soon but we’ll figure out a way to get it online. He’s possibly the only person who’s seen both of the teams play, covering the UMHB/Christopher Newport game in Week 2 and the UWW/UW-La Crosse game two weeks ago.

Elsewhere in Division III, a colleague of ours just reported in from St. Louis that he’s staying in the same hotel as the Carnegie Mellon football team. He chatted up players, mentioned he knows the D3football.com guys, and reports they asked him to tell us to put them in the poll!

Carnegie Mellon is 7-0. Here’s the Tartans’ opponents:

No. 30 Carnegie Mellon (7-0):
Sep 02 AWAY Hiram (0-7) W 6-27
Sep 09 AWAY Grove City (1-6) W 0-28
Sep 16 HOME Westminster (Pa.) (2-5) W 33-6
Sep 23 HOME Franklin and Marshall (2-5) W 34-14
Sep 30 HOME Colorado College (3-4) W 50-24
Oct 14 AWAY Case Western Reserve (3-4) W 10-20
Oct 21 HOME Chicago (2-4) W 27-0

Nobody here with a winning record. They play at Wash U (5-3) Saturday afternoon. If they win that game they might be taken seriously. Otherwise, do the math: their opponents are 13-35.

The annual Johnnie/Tommie game takes place this weekend, as does the Rte. 13 rivalry between Wesley and Salisbury. Surprising Sul Ross looks for validity against Hardin-Simmons. Springfield heads to the grass to take on Ithaca. Long trips for Springfield in back-to-back weeks.

Another option team not many people talk about is Coast Guard. Granted, a season-opening loss to Merchant Marine, the best team on the schedule, doesn’t do much for national recognition, but I had the honor of being asked to call their Homecoming game for their Internet broadcast last weekend and had a good time. Steve Arguelles, who is tied for the national lead in interceptions with eight (matching King’s Craig Haywood), is a legitimate safety as a freshman. Presumably teams will try to avoid him as his career continues. But Christian George, the quarterback, is the key to the team. He left the game early with what appeared to be an ankle injury and if he can’t go this week, Coast Guard is in big trouble at Maine Maritime. Backup Niles Pierson basically wasn’t allowed to do anything in his time under center.

Also looking for legitimacy is Alfred, which hosts No. 17 Hobart. Alfred might be a great team but its schedule is so backloaded that we have no real clue. They lost by a touchdown at Springfield early in the season and close with No. 17 Hobart, No. 20 Ithaca and No. 19 St. John Fisher. Yikes!

Other games are on the radar as well — check out Defiance/Mt. St. Joseph.

Today is also the annual Dome Day in Minneapolis, where the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (not a D-III member league but with nine of its 10 schools in Division III) holds its championship. We have photographers at the Metrodome now to shoot all five games. It started at 8 a.m. CT. We’ll hear more from them later, if they can see straight after all’s said and done.

Keith deals with it in the Game Day blog post and comments, but Justin Beaver’s injury is a big blow for UW-Whitewater. Remember, fellow All-American Steve Angiletta broke his collarbone in a scrimmage in Week 1 and Union hasn’t gotten him back yet.

Can UWW make the playoffs without Beaver? Definitely, though this upcoming week’s game at Platteville has a different tenor to it. The UMHB game was never a gimme and is less of one now. We’ll know a little more next week.

Cortland State is officially the best team I’ve seen this year. (Competition for that “honor” comes from Wilkes, Hobart, Williams and Delaware Valley.) With Alex Smith they should be a Top 10 team, though I only saw him today for a drive and a half. Ray Miles was pretty decent as a replacement.

“We’re not a Top 25 team”
That’s what one Bridgewater fan communicated to me this afternoon. While I think that’s a bit harsh, I’m not surprised about the loss. Unfortunately, Bridgewater was floating upwards in our poll (and higher in the coaches’ poll) because of the attrition around it. Teams do not float on my ballot, at least not much. I feel pretty happy about the 17 that Bridgewater was at on my ballot and they will probably slide in at about 21 on mine this week.

One of the things I like about our poll is that when it’s not broken, our voters don’t fix it. I expect more of the same this week when voters analyze No. 4 Capital winning by a touchdown at No. 17 Ohio Northern. Doesn’t that prove the poll was pretty accurate, at least relative to those two?

Mt. St. Joseph has never been higher than No. 25 in our poll and has a shot at getting there this week. That would be about right after this week.

The sun’ll come out
There are some lingering questions about Rowan and they’ll be in the spotlight tomorrow at noon against Buffalo State. John McGraw will be there to call the game for D3football.com.

There was good news about injured Alfred player Julio Fuentes, as it was reported he has feeling in his legs. Continued best wishes for his recovery. He was injured back in September against Thiel.

Hmm …
Coast Guard won at Bridgewater State which makes the Bears the favorites in the NEFC Bogan. They did not win a game in two years in the Liberty League before moving. Curry remained unbeaten on the other side of that league.

Also …
Olivet wins at Albion to stay unbeaten in the MIAA. … CCIW could be a two-bid league if Augustana and Wheaton win out. … Similarly the SCIAC if Cal Lutheran beats Occidental, though that seems less likely after CLU’s two-OT loss to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. … Hmm, yeah, more St. Norbert dominance. … Some Oshkosh fans were bemoaning the playoff system on the board and in e-mails to us this week. Those arguments just went Splatteville. … Carnegie Mellon still unbeaten. Waiting for the game at Wash U and the finale with Thiel before we know for sure what the Tartans have.