post

ATN Podcast 382: Top 25, more replay, new PAC, NJAC

How about that as the handy guide for topics for discussion in the latest edition of our podcast, namely, ATN Podcast 382?

We talk about the preseason Top 25, and the wide range in voting for lots of teams, not just for North Central. Seriously, UW-La Crosse has a far wider range of spots from our 25 pollsters, and so do a number of other schools. Plus, we bring in Kean coach Dan Garrett, who can tell you what might be on a coach’s mind when they’re filing a preseason ballot in our poll.

Patrick and Greg talk about who are the biggest outliers on their own Top 25 ballots as well — you’ll never guess who Patrick has at No. 24 on his ballot, for example.

This edition of the podcast is sponsored by GameStrat: The Most Reliable & Fastest In-Game Video Replay System on The Market. D-III football coaches should click here to learn more.

J.P. Williams, the NCAA’s liaison for the Division III football championship, aka the person at the NCAA who runs point on the football season, playoffs, and the committee, joins us to talk first off about officiating, since he is a Division I football official himself. Want to get involved? Williams tells his story. Plus, how do we get replay review at more Division III playoff games? And what did the committee learn from last year’s expanded playoffs? Williams talks through those things.

Joe Onderko, the commissioner of the Presidents’ Athletic Conference, joins us to talk about the new look of the conference, why the conference’s big rivalries tend to draw so well, how the schools get along with each other when they’re so close together, and where the PAC stands on putting conference athletic events behind a pay wall, as a number of conferences have this offseason.

And Dan Garrett not only talks about the Top 25 process, but also has a few words of encouragement for everyone who needs to be more active, and talks about who to watch both for the Cougars and in the NJAC as a whole.

Plus … Mailbag topics include: What do we think when we see teams so wide apart in various voters ballots, and what’s our take on the Empire 8’s attempts to bring redshirting back to Division III. And you’ll also learn where Patrick and Greg will be traveling the first two weeks of the season.

Patrick and Greg cover it all in the latest edition of the D3football.com Around the Nation podcast.

The D3football.com podcast is a podcast that is weekly during the season and monthly in the offseason, by Patrick Coleman and Greg Thomas. The podcast was started in 2007. 

Hit play, or subscribe to get this podcast on your mobile device.

You can subscribe to the Around the Nation Podcast in Apple Podcasts, and many other places. You can also get this and any of our future Around the Nation podcasts automatically by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://www.d3blogs.com/d3football/?feed=podcast

Here’s how to find us on some of the major podcasting apps:

Theme music: Power 2 by DJmentos.
Photos by Washington & Jefferson athletics; Kean athletics; Ryan Coleman, d3photography.com

post

ATN Podcast 381: Spicing up the offseason

It’s been a spicy past month or so and when you’re coming up on a food-related holiday like the 4th of July, we’re keeping the fire hot and the burgers, dogs, bratwurst, corn on the cob and more so that you can grill us with your questions. That’s right — we’ve got some great mailbag questions and we tackle as many of them as possible on this edition of the podcast.

Plus …

This edition of the podcast is sponsored by GameStrat: The Most Reliable & Fastest In-Game Video Replay System on The Market. D-III football coaches should click here to learn more.

Plus, we have three great guests to chat with in this edition of the podcast as well, which we snuck just in under the wire for June of 2025. We start with Curry running back Montie Quinn, a second team D3football.com All-America pick who had a fantastic finish to the season. We hear from him about his pursuit of the school’s rushing record, who helped him get it, and why it was important that he just keep running. Plus, how did Quinn get from South Carolina to the Boston suburbs? And how is he preparing for the 2026 season and trying to improve on his record-setting performance?

Blaise Faggiano, the head coach of Utica, joins the podcast this time around and since he was on the national committee at the time the whole changeover to NPI took place, and the “dials” were set in such a way to almost entirely discount strength of schedule, well, we grill him on that as well. But we also talk about how his team has benefited from taking a foreign tour trip, and what the great local specialties are in central New York, and his hopes for his team for 2025.

And we visit once again with Carnegie Mellon coach Ryan Larsen — we chatted with him briefly in Podcast 380 about his team’s trip to Spain, but this conversation is about the CMU schedule for 2025, why he made it so challenging and how he thinks it will help his team improve, even if the NPI might not credit the Tartans the way we would hope. It’s a great argument for still scheduling strong even if the committee doesn’t want to reward that.

Mailbag topics include: Is the ASC done with offers to SCAC teams, who else is looking for bowl game alliances, what’s on your Fourth of July menu, what do we make of the North Central quarterback situation, why does D-III spring ball look different than the other divisions, how much will our preseason Top 12 differ from the way last season ended, and what our thoughts are on Geneva and Westminster (Pa.) not facing each other this season.

Patrick and Greg cover it all in the latest edition of the D3football.com Around the Nation podcast.

The D3football.com podcast is a podcast that is weekly during the season and monthly in the offseason, by Patrick Coleman and Greg Thomas. The podcast was started in 2007. 

Hit play, or subscribe to get this podcast on your mobile device.

You can subscribe to the Around the Nation Podcast in Apple Podcasts, and many other places. You can also get this and any of our future Around the Nation podcasts automatically by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://www.d3blogs.com/d3football/?feed=podcast

Here’s how to find us on some of the major podcasting apps:

Theme music: Power 2 by DJmentos.
Photos by Pat Coleman, Damara O’Malley, D3sports.com

 

post

ATN Podcast 316: All eyes on Platteville, plus regional rankings

Some things we can’t seem to avoid talking about every week this season:

  • The Cortaca Jug game in Yankee Stadium
  • The University of Wisconsin-Platteville

This week, Platteville made headlines again, and for the second week in a row, extremely positive headlines as the Pioneers shook up the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference with a 17-14 win against then-No. 3 UW-Whitewater. What in the name of Dan Arnold is going on with this program? How did the Pioneers go from losing back-to-back games by an average of 40 points, to these two consecutive wins against River Falls and Whitewater?

We’ve had these questions. We assume you’ve had these questions. So we ask these questions. We ask them of Ryan Munz, the Platteville head coach, who is our guest on Fast 5, plus maybe a couple of extra minutes at the top of the podcast.

Plus, it’s really time to dig into how the playoffs are set up in Division III football. If you’re new to Division III, this is a must-listen. Even if you’ve been following for a few years, a refresher might be helpful and yes, some things have changed, even if they are small things.

In all, 69 schools merit serious mention in this week’s podcast. That includes the way in which Cortland beat Utica, how North Central handled Washington U., Austin College and Beloit breaking long losing streaks, not to mention Bowdoin pulling off an unexpected victory as well.

In addition, Pat and Greg hand out game balls, spotlight the unexpected in Stat of the Week, make guesses about Week 9 games and more. There’s a list in small type at the bottom of this page of all the teams that are talked about.

Fan question in the mailbag from @mikey_shoultz: What team from the bottom 10 ranked conferences in your conference rankings has the best chance to win a playoff game?

Pat Coleman and Greg Thomas talk about it all in the latest D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast. The D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast is a regular conversation covering the wide range of Division III football.

Hit play, or subscribe to get this podcast on your mobile device.

Full episode: [display_podcast]

You can subscribe to the Around the Nation Podcast in Apple Podcasts, and many other places. You can also get this and any of our future Around the Nation podcasts automatically by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://www.d3blogs.com/d3football/?feed=podcast

Here’s how to find us on some of the major podcasting apps:

Theme music: Power 2 by DJmentos.
UW-Platteville athletics photo