Category Archives: Around the Nation

Our Around the Nation column takes on the world of podcasting.

ATN Podcast: Do we re-evaluate Mount Union?

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A handful of voters switched their No. 1 vote this week, giving UW-Whitewater six nods for the top spot compared to Mount Union’s 19. But what do we make of Mount Union’s close win at Capital? What does history tell us about past Purple Raider teams?

Keith McMillan and Pat Coleman discuss that and more in this week’s Around the Nation podcast.

Click the play button below to listen.

You can load the podcast page in iTunes or can also get this and any of our future Around the Nation podcasts automatically by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://www.d3football.com/dailydose/?feed=podcast

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ATN Podcast: The poll isn’t perfect

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Sure, the D3football.com Top 25 teams went 25-0 on Saturday. We’re happy about that, don’t get me wrong. But that doesn’t mean the Top 25 is perfect, or that the right 25 teams are ranked, at least not in my mind and Keith’s mind.

We’re five weeks into the 2009 season. But are some teams still getting votes from some voters based on what they did in 2008? In a sense, that’s unavoidable — I mean, we all put Mount Union and UW-Whitewater up high on our ballot because of what they did in 2008 … and 2007 … and 2006 … well, anyway, you get the idea.

See, that’s the paradox of voting in a Top 25 ranking. Some things make sense in some cases, but no single rule works for all teams and all comparisons.

So why is Willamette ranked ahead of Concordia-Moorhead despite the Week 1 loss? Or, more extreme, why is Ohio Northern behind North Central? Keith and I will try to make some sense of it all in this week’s Around the Nation Podcast.

Oh, plus, one of the two podcasters changed his No. 1 vote this week. Who and why? You’ll have to listen.

Click the play button below to listen.

You can load the podcast page in iTunes or can also get this and any of our future Around the Nation podcasts automatically by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://www.d3football.com/dailydose/?feed=podcast

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ATN Podcast: Sold or not sold?

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By this point in the season, it’s hard to call teams flukes, and teams that have gone above and beyond what we expected of them have to be dubbed something else, perhaps surprise teams.

If you’ve played three or four games and are undefeated, that’s one thing. If you’ve knocked off a team that was believed to be better than you are, that’s what makes you a surprise.

But can we believe in you? That’s another question. Most of these teams have yet to play the best team on their schedule. How will they hold up as the road gets tougher? That’s what Keith McMillan and I tackle in this week’s Around the Nation podcast. We look at more than a dozen teams with the goal of answering one simple question: sold or not sold?

One team we didn’t touch on in the podcast is St. Norbert. I would have to go with not sold, for the moment, waiting for the Monmouth game on the road to find out more. Hopefully Keith will weigh in in the comments section.

Click the play button below to listen.

You can load the podcast page in iTunes or can also get this and any of our future Around the Nation podcasts automatically by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://www.d3football.com/dailydose/?feed=podcast

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