Football West of the Rockies

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Seems like we have a new generation of West Coast fans who don’t understand the geography of Division III. I’ve gotten a couple of e-mails like this in the past 48 hours.

seems like your “Top 25” seems to be “East” and midwest heavy. Their is
football west of the Rockies!

Indeed, there is.

There are nine Division III football teams in California.
There are three Division III football teams in Oregon.
There are three Division III football teams in Washington.

That’s it: 15 out of 239, 6.2%. Add in Colorado College if you like to get to 16.

I’d note that 8% of our Top 25 teams are West of the Rockies.

For a more visual representation of Division III football, see below. You’ll have to zoom out to see the entire country, as our space here is limited.


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ATN Podcast 21: Who’s looking good?

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There are plenty of teams we can point to in the early going this season who are playing poorly. Three of them got upset on Saturday. So while we talk about what happened in the West Region this weekend, there are also some teams who are looking good, even better than expected, through this past week’s games.

Keith McMillan and Pat Coleman take a look at those storylines and more in this week’s Around the Nation podcast.

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Game Day from Pella, Iowa

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I’m in Central Iowa at Central (Iowa) to watch Central take on Wartburg, where it’s a tad bit warmer and a heck of a lot drier than the last time I was here.

That was the national quarterfinal game between Central and Bethel, a game that was delayed by more than an hour and on a day in which our crew nearly didn’t get out of Iowa, after a massive accident closed I-35 just north of the Minnesota/Iowa border.

Much better today, sunny, low 80s, a little wind. Great crowd. Good conditions for football.

We also got a tip from elsewhere, that Shane McSweeney was getting the start at quarterback for Wesley instead of Jason Schatz. Plenty of games to keep track of today.