It’s that time of year when fans start to wonder about their team’s chances at the playoffs and where they might land if they do make it. Considering that we just finished Week 8 of 11, it’s appropriate and totally legitimate to start asking those questions now.

This is also about the time of year when my inbox starts filling up with specific questions about specific teams. So here’s what I’m going to do. Instead of just giving my response, I’ll open it up to other D3football.com staff and readers, especially those with intricate knowledge of the Division III handbook and such. That way, if you’re reaching for a glimmer of hope, you’ll have more chances at hearing an answer you like, although I have to warn you … even with 32 playoff spots, 202 of you get none, and that group usually includes some deserving teams.

If talk of Pools A, B and C confuses you, I suggest you start at our FAQ Page and the accompanying playoff primer:

After that, we’ll start answering individual questions. Although I can’t get to it right this second, here’s the one I’ll start with:

Hey,
First off, I love your column and the whole website. You guys do a great job and it is the only place I go to get my small school football info! Keep up the great work!

Ok, on to the important stuff.
Now I am a little confused about what it takes to get into the playoffs with the new spots. What are the chances of Depauw getting an at-large spot. I know the loss to Millsaps really hurt, and that we won’t have any huge wins. But, right now we are 35 in the Quality Win Index, and if we win out, I would like to think we have a shot at the top 25 in that category. Do you think winning out would be enough to make the playoffs? What if Millsaps wins the SCAC and Trinity then presumably gets an at-large, is there a chance of two SCAC at-larges? Any thoughts you have would be much appreciated, and I hope you get to come to campus for a game sometime this year!

Keep up the good work!
Drew Donovan

I’ll do my best to group all these questions and answers here. For those of you that find this interesting and see similar talk on Post Patterns or elsewhere on the blog, feel free to direct people here.

At some point soon, we’ll do official projections. We also publish the Quality of Wins index that the committee uses to judge strength of schedule when selecting teams.

Well all,
it’s mid-afternoon/early evening on a Saturday. Time to get one of these threads going.

Me? I’m in a very rainy and cold state of Iowa — trust me, anyone that cares will hear all about it in this week’s Around the Nation. Wartburg has outlasted Coe 10-7 in the rain and Central handled Cornell. Ryan Coleman and I got to see some nice campuses and nice teams, but the not-nice weather really limits how much insight one can gain on how well these teams would play on a dry day. I thought it hurt Coe especially.

As I get word of these scores, stunners are everywhere. Bridgewater not ruling the ODAC for the first time since I played, practically? Seven TDs for Chris Sharpe (jaw drops) … Del Val lost to Susque? Eiiiw. Word out of Ohio Northern and possibly DePauw is upset too, but I’m just getting my bearings. This traveling is really tiring … I do it all for you 🙂

Anyway, let’s get the Saturday chatter up…