Category Archives: General

ATN podcast: Some serious looking ahead

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Hmm, yes, it’s getting late in the season and slowly but surely there are a lot fewer variables in the playoff picture.

Keith and I run through some of them, plus discuss the Top 25 distress from the past weekend, ponder the various choices for the No. 2 spot in our poll and on our ballots, consider how the NCAA might pair up West Coast and Southeast/Southwest teams that make the playoffs and the like. Plus Keith gives his take on a couple of interesting play calls, including taking points off the board.

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

Or you can click the play button below to listen.

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It’s Game Day: Pick your pictures

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This is another good game day to be sitting in front of the virtual TV. I’m not entirely sure I will shell out $12 for the Linfield/Willamette game — and with our Adam Johnson on the scene in McMinnville, I know we’ll get a good perspective on the game anyway.

Tonight I’ll be watching the Wheaton/North Central game online. Still pondering what early game or games I’ll be following most closely this afternoon, but I’ll probably use one computer to surf through a bunch of games and the other to follow Otterbein/Capital or Whitewater/Stevens Point or the like.

Gordon Mann reports in from Williamsport, Pa., that the weather will have an impact on the Delaware Valley/Lycoming game. Lycoming still has grass, which is a couple years away from being in the minority. Just under half of Division III football fields have one of the various brands of infill artificial turf.

Where you’re at, I hope it’s mild and dry.

Time for our own All-Star game

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The news today that Division III football players won’t be able to participate in the Aztec Bowl this season only drives home more strongly the point that Division III football should have its own All-Star game.

Aztec Bowl 2006 championsThe Aztec Bowl has been fine in a lot of ways. Sure, we wish it gave more players the chance to participate, or that it were held in a place that we could get to, or that it didn’t coincide with the Stagg Bowl or the playoffs, but it did provide three things: organization, funding and a ready-made opponent (the Mexican college league’s champion).

But after ONEFA dropped the ball, we can’t expect the AFCA to be left holding the bag for another $50,000, considering that would double what they already spend. I’m convinced we could do it cheaper, and I know we could do it better, here at home.

Why should we spend all the money it takes to fly people to Mexico and deal with all the administrative hassles required in crossing the border, etc.? Why should we tell seniors who play on the Stagg Bowl teams, or sometimes the semifinal teams, that they can’t play because Mexico schedules the game when it’s convenient for them?

For the vocal minority that insists the Stagg Bowl should be played in a warmer climate, here’s your chance. Let’s put the All-Star game in a warmer climate, scheduled after the Stagg Bowl, and see how it draws. Let’s give 96 seniors the chance to participate instead of 48.

And meanwhile, let’s find that all-important $100,000. Unfortunately, that’s a significant amount of money, far more than D3sports.com’s annual budget. (That’s why we all work full-time jobs.) But if scheduled in the right location, I think we can get it done.