As I said on the front page, this should be a good week of games, at least outside of the top two teams in Division III. Looking forward to what should be classics in the other six games, especially these two East Region games.

As in the past, Keith McMillan and I are making our picks indpendently, without consulting each other. But as you can see, we’re on the same page on which games will be the most competitive, even if we don’t know who will win them.

Predicted scores:

East
Pat: Springfield 42, St. John Fisher 39; Rowan 17, Wilkes 15.
Keith: St. John Fisher 35, Springfield 34; Wilkes 13, Rowan 12

South
Pat: Wesley 24, Carnegie Mellon 20; Mary Hardin-Baylor 40, Washington and Jefferson 17.
Keith: Wesley 17, Carnegie Mellon 7; Mary Hardin-Baylor 42, Washington and Jefferson 14.

North
Pat: Mount Union 49, Wheaton 10; Capital 22, North Central 20.
South: Mount Union 31, Wheaton 9; Capital 24, North Central 17.

West
Pat: St. John’s 17, Whitworth 14; UW-Whitewater 42, UW-La Crosse 28.
Keith: St. John’s 31, Whitworth 21; UW-Whitewater 35, UW-La Crosse 21.

Other storylines
The rematches: Rowan blew out Wilkes in the first round last year. Springfield beat St. John Fisher in a regular season game in October. Mount Union ended Wheaton’s season in 2002, 2003 and 2004, while UMHB did the same to W&J in 2004. Capital beat North Central in the playoffs last season. UW-Whitewater and UW-La Crosse play every year in the WIAC, obviously.

Who’s healthy? Will Justin Beaver play for UW-Whitewater? Is Joel Clark back to 100% for Whitworth? Eric Lowry, Wesley’s top kick returner, may not play.

Who wins in the East? As Keith and I showed, the bracket is up in the air.

Enjoy your travels and cheer responsibly. Let’s play ball!

Last night as I was updating the NCAA playoff results by conference on the front page — something that sits on the site 52 weeks a year and only changes five times — I was struck by the old adage: The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Apologies for the un-fanciness of the standings, but here they are:

Conference    W   L   Pct.
OAC          35   8   .814
NWC          18   9   .667
MIAC         19  11   .633
E8            5   3   .625
NJAC         16  10   .615
MAC          12   8   .600
CCIW         11   9   .550
WIAC          9   8   .529
SCAC          9   8   .529
ODAC         10   9   .526
NCAC         10   9   .526
ASC          11  10   .524
ACFC          4   4   .500
UAA           1   1   .500
PAC           6   8   .429
Independents  5   7   .417
UCAA/LL       7  11   .389
FFC (defunct) 3   5   .375
IIAC          6  11   .353
Centennial    4   9   .308
SCIAC         2   5   .286
Dixie/USAC    2   6   .250
MWC           1   8   .111
HCAC          1   8   .111
MIAA          0   7   .000
IBC           0   7   .000
NEFC          0   8   .000

Who gained and who lost? Well, I think the concept that a rematch automatically follows the original game took a big beating (thankfully). I’ve been reminding people all season that a team playing its first game loses to another team playing its second game does not mean that team is automatically better.

Conferences which gained this week

Northwest Conference: League champion Whitworth became the third conference team to win a playoff game this weekend with the first-round victory against Occidental. It probably is the only one the NWC will get this year but serves as a reminder that the league is not a one-trick pony. (And that’s only for people who don’t remember Pacific Lutheran.)

Ohio Athletic Conference: No. 1 and No. 2 seeds and two big blowouts. ‘Nuff said.

Empire 8: Two W’s for a league that hasn’t sponsored football for very long. The 5-3 record looks a lot better than 3-3 did.

Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference: Two wins gets the league, much maligned for its 1999-2004 performance, above the .500 mark in the automatic bid era.

University Athletic Association: Off the schneid thanks to Carnegie Mellon.

Conferences which fell this week

Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference: Ouch. The SCAC has already been looked at as a one-trick pony league with Trinity the only team to qualify for the postseason. The league hasn’t won a playoff game since Roy Hampton’s ill-fated night on the Riverwalk. The Millsaps loss doesn’t help.

Old Dominion Athletic Conference: Washington and Lee’s loss is almost as bad, though no No. 8 seed has ever won a playoff game … in the two years that No. 8 seeds have existed. Only Bridgewater has won a playoff game from this league, though at least Catholic, Emory and Henry and Washington and Lee have had the opportunity.

Illini-Badger Conference: Only disbanding can pull the league out of this hole.

Liberty League: Two one-and-outs from teams that each won playoff games last year. The conference loses a little bit of the ground it gained in the 2005 playoffs.