Category Archives: General

Immediate Thoughts on Week 9

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What a difference a week makes.

Last week at this time I was shocked at Chris Sharpe’s performance for Springfield against St. John Fisher and shocked at Susquehanna upsetting Delaware Valley. Just seven days later Springfield gets held to single digits by Ithaca and Delaware Valley looked down right giddy after a gritty win over King’s.

And then there are things that never change. Mount Union 38 Capital 12.

I have a feeling we’re going to see a lot of questions the next two days over how the Empire 8 and CCIW will sort out their three-way tie at the top, should they have one two weeks from now. I don’t know how the Empire 8 will break the tie for their AQ since every conference does it differently. Thanks to the North Central website, here is how the CCIW would handle things.

The Cardinals (6-2/4-1) sit atop the CCIW standings along with the Vikings (5-3/4-1) and Wheaton College (7-1/4-1). Should all three win out, the tiebreaker is point differential between the three schools. Augustana edged Wheaton 17-14 and Wheaton defeated North Central 20-7. The Cardinals’ 27-point victory gives them the edge in point differential.”

Wheaton (Ill.) would still have a good shot at a Pool C bid as they have one-loss and a 10.571 Quality of Win Index (QOWI) coming into this week. Augustana is now just 5-3 in region and will probably miss the playoffs. If you’re a Vikings fan, you’ll need IWU or Carthage to upset North Centralin the last two weeks. That would create a two-way tie at the top between Augustana and Wheaton, with the Vikings winning the head-to-head tie-breaker.

Teams that helped their playoff cause

Well, Concordia (Wis.) for starters. They clinched the Illinois-Badger Football Championship and its AQ today. Congratulations to Coach Gabrielsen and the rest of the Falcons for being the first ones into the party. Mt. St. Joseph pretty much wrapped up another HCAC title by beating Defiance. Wilkes can do the same in the MAC by winning either of its last two games, thanks to Del Val beating King’s today.

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NOTE: In my haste to post this, I overlooked three other teams that locked up bids with wins today. St. Norbert clinched the MWC and its automatic bid by beating Beloit. Even if the Green Knights stumble against Illinois College next week, they would finish the MWC season with a one-game advantage on their closest competitors. The MWC wraps up its season a week early.

As best I can tell, Occidental clinched the SCIAC with their come-from-behind win over Cal Lutheran. The Tigers now have a lead of two games or more on every team but Redlands (3-1 in conference). But Oxy already beat the Bulldogs and only has one conference game left. The worst Oxy can do is finish tied with Redlands and they have the head-to-head tie-breaker advantage.

And Wesley came as close to clinching a Pool B bid as you can by beating Salisbury 13-10. The Wolverines wrapped up the ACFC title and, more importantly for the playoffs, finished their regional season 5-0. The last two games against Chowan (D-II) and Morrisville State (D-III Provisional) won’t impact the record the NCAA Committee looks at for the playoffs.
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Wartburg rallied from a 10-point deficit to beat Buena Vista in overtime and avoid that critical second loss. Considering that the Knights were ranked 10th in the first regional rankings, they may be on the fringe of Pool C consideration as it is. And beating Cornell and Dubuque in the final two weeks won’t boost their QOWI that much. Speaking of teams with one loss, here’s what we’re left with.

Hardin- Simmons
Wheaton
Two of St. John Fisher, Ithaca and Springfield
Franklin
Wartburg
Bethel
Rowan
Capital
UW-LaCrosse

Dropped off: Alfred, Sul Ross State, Defiance, Wooster

Added: Springfield

Special thanks to “TecmoBowler” on the message board for doing the leg work here. He also broke down the biggest games left for each team before this week.

That’s 10 teams for seven spots, assuming the Pool B teams don’t take a Pool C bid. I still think that we’re going to have a two-loss Pool C team in the playoffs when it’s all said and done.

The team that best fits that profile right now is Baldwin-Wallace. The Yellow Jackets are the only team in the regional rankings with two-losses outside of those that need to win their conference to get in. If they can beat Capital in the final game, they would have an edge over the Crusaders. And not getting shelled by Mount Union looks good, too.

Teams that hurt their cause

Aside from the teams who picked up that dreaded second loss today, Rowan tops this list with its overtime loss to Montclair State. The Profs now either have to beat Cortland State next week to take over first in the NJAC or could miss the playoffs entirely. What a turnaround for a national title contender. For that matter, what a turnaround for Montclair State who got mashed 41-3 last week by Cortland. My unsung hero of the day — Vin Doffont who kicked two field goals over 40-yards in the Red Hawks win. If the weather in North Jersey is like what it was in Northeast PA, that’s very impressive.

I know Rowan’s offense has been subjected to a lot of criticism this year. But the Profs’ defense today gave up a 78-yard pass for one score, a nine-play 91-yard drive for another, a 43-yard drive in the final two minutes to allow the tying field goal and a score in overtime.

At a glance, it looks like Alma is out of the MIAA hunt. The best they could do is finish in a three-way tie with Olivet and Hope at 5-2 and the Comets and Dutch both already beat the Scots. How much of the MIAA title will be on the line next week when the Comets and Dutch play? Olivet! Let’s Hope we get a good game (ducks tomato).

Looking ahead to Week 9

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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.