ATN Podcast 378: The Texas two-swap

Posted on March 30, 2025 by Pat Coleman

After keeping fans waiting for more than a year, the American Southwest Conference finally had something to say about its membership situation, and it did so with a bang, swiping two teams from the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference to shore up its membership and bring it back to six for the fall of 2026.

Who does that affect? It affects the SCAC folks, who were on the way to getting an automatic bid to the NCAA playoffs, and we’ll hear more about the reaction of the conference when we sit down with conference commissioner Dwayne Hanberry on this edition of the D3football.com Around the Nation 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, the two schools that are going back to the ASC are doing so, apparently $4 million richer apiece. But for Schreiner, this represents a big leap up in competition for a program which hasn’t even played a game yet! Schreiner isn’t set to play a varsity game until 2026, but the Mountaineers’ timeline just got altered a bit. We talk with Schreiner’s head coach — Keith Allen, the second coach in this young program’s history — about how that changes things for him, one month into his tenure.

And more change in Division III this upcoming season includes, of course, the fact that there won’t be nearly as many fifth-year players. That’s the case all over now that the extra year of eligibility because of the COVID pandemic has largely worked its way through the system. At Coe, they’ll feel the loss of two seniors classes at once, and coach Tyler Staker tells us how they’ll adjust and what’s expected of the student-athletes who need to step up in 2025.

A lot of news happened in the past month aside from the ASC/SCAC as well, and we’ll talk through it all, including the upcoming NESCAC presidents’ meeting, the new Cortland coach, our soon-to-become Division III schools in Azusa Pacific and St. Francis (Pa.), and which one of those said it will dominate Division III. Plus, with two brand-new football programs coming online in the Conference of New England in the fall, where would the CONE likely rank? Stat of the Week in March? Conference rankings in March? 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.

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ATN Podcast 278: October’s classics

Posted on October 23, 2020 by Pat Coleman

Four teams are playing games in October and all four were supposed to be playing within a few miles of each other last Saturday, Of course, Because Of The Pandemic, that didn’t exactly happen. Bluffton is still planning to take the field this weekend for the first time, Trine finishes the fall at 2-0, Manchester got to open its new stadium and Adrian has a chance to finish 2-1.

Each of those four teams takes something different away from its October schedule but they all got a chance to get some work in, and play in the season they were intended to play in. Pat was at Manchester and at Trine and we talk with all four of these teams on the latest D3football.com podcast. Guests: Bluffton coach Aaron Krepps, Trine quarterback Alex Price and coach Troy Abbs, Adrian running back Steven Moses and coach Jim Deere and Manchester coach Nate Jensen.

We discuss that and more in Podcast 278.

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

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Quick Hits Week 11: Easy as A-B-C

Posted on November 15, 2019 by Greg Thomas

It’s last call for the NCAA tournament this week as the final six Pool A bids will be decided. No Pool B bids this year, but there are plenty of Bowls and Bells to go around. Which games influence one of the best Pool C fields we’ve seen in the D3football.com era? Our panel breaks it all down for you as we deliver our final Hits of the regular season.

Our regular crew is Keith McMillan, Ryan Tipps, Pat Coleman, Adam Turer, Frank Rossi and Greg Thomas.

— Greg Thomas

Which game is the Game of the Week?

Keith’s take: No. 3 UW-Whitewater at UW-Oshkosh. Especially with it under the lights, no game will have Pool C teams more on pins and needles.	Ryan’s take: No. 9 Bethel at No. 17 St. Thomas. The only game between ranked teams makes this an easy pick.	Pat’s take: No. 3 UW-Whitewater at UW-Oshkosh. Not only have there been a lot of close games involving Whitewater this season, but this game has the chance to upset the apple cart most in terms of playoff bids.
Adam’s take: Cortaca. We’ve never seen anything like this before.	Frank’s take: No. 3 UW-Whitewater at UW-Oshkosh. The final game of the season has the most playoff implications of the bunch this weekend.	Greg’s take: No. 3 UW-Whitewater at UW-Oshkosh. It’s the title game in the Division’s best conference. There are Pool A and Pool C implications. And it is the last kickoff in the regular season. A grand finale if there ever was one.

Which Top 25 team is most likely to get upset?

Keith’s take: No. 14 Union. RPI smoked Ithaca last week, and would be returning the favor from when the clinched-bid shoe was on the other foot last season.	Ryan’s take: No. 10 John Carroll. This came has lost some of its cachet with BW’s loss last week, but an upset would mean the OAC is going to lose some postseason representation.	Pat’s take: No. 14 Union. Not as much on Union as it is on RPI, which played with a little more fire last week and will be glad to get up for a rivalry fame and cost its archrival a playoff home game.
Adam’s take: No. 14 Union. RPI has momentum and would like nothing more than to ruin its rival’s playoff seeding while reclaiming the Dutchman Shoes.	Frank’s take: No. 20 Case Western Reserve (at Carnegie Mellon). The Tartans have been tough at home in season-ending games against the Spartans. This time, they knock them off.	Greg’s take: No. 9 Bethel. Because, yes, you can have a top 25 team upset another top 25 team and because I trust the Tommies’ offense a hair more than I do the Royals offense this weekend.

Which rivalry game will produce the biggest upset?

Keith’s take: Hampden-Sydney/Randolph-Macon. Psych. Dutchman Shoes, and RPI.	Ryan’s take: RPI over Union. I’m going to duck now as Frank throws sharp objects in my direction.	Pat’s take: Cuyahoga Gold Bowl Trophy. Playoff pictures will become a little more clear when Baldwin Wallace knocks off No. 10 John Carroll.
Adam’s take: Monon Bell. Wabash has already clinched in what has been an overall down year for the NCAC. A DePauw upset would leave the league with a three-way tie at the top, and no team with fewer than two conference losses.	Frank’s take: DePauw over Wabash. Something just tells me that the Bell is going to be DePauw’s at the end of Saturday, which would make the middling Tigers season much easier to swallow.	Greg’s take: The Cuyahoga Gold Bowl. I’m not so sure Baldwin Wallace beating John Carroll is a massive upset, but our Top 25 certainly thinks so.

Which game are you following that nobody else on this panel is following?

Keith’s take: Huntington at LaGrange. The USA South gets wacky if the Hawks stumble.	Ryan’s take: Millsaps at Birmingham-Southern. With seven SAA teams at .500 or better, the conference is interesting well beyond the top one or two teams.	Pat’s take: Catholic at Maine Maritime. Hoping to see the alma mater get to 2-8 here at the end of the season, even after the 678-mile trip.
Adam’s take: Mount St. Joseph at SUNY-Maritime. Will the Privateers be the lone playoff participant with a sub-.500 record? Will Lions quarterback Chaiten Tomlin become the HCAC’s all-time leading passer in his final game?	Frank’s take: No. 22 Brockport at Morrisville State. The Mustangs hung 49 on a decent Fisher team that Brockport couldn’t score more than 17 against. This could be a “look past” game for Brockport if they’re not careful, and playoff seeding depends on it.	Greg’s take: Ohio Wesleyan at Wittenberg. The Bishops are coming off of an impressive win against Denison and have a chance to take back Ye Olde Skull for the first time since 2006. Yes, they play for a skull.

Which team secures its Pool C ticket with a win?

Keith’s take: Redlands, by winning at Occidental. I’m not confident that a win definitely gets many more teams in …	Ryan’s take: Wartburg. With so many great 1- (and even 2-)loss teams out there, the 8-1 Knights falling to Loras would be the nail in their playoff-hopes coffin. But they have a strong SOS, so they would be a good candidate with a win on Saturday.	Pat’s take: Redlands. As secure as anyone can be for an at-large spot, that is.
Adam’s take: Susquehanna. With a win at Juniata, the River Hawks should clinch their first playoff berth since 2009. Back then, the team was called the Crusaders and played in the Liberty League.	Frank’s take: No. 10 John Carroll (at Baldwin Wallace). This game will help keep John Carroll afloat enough to get one of the last Pool C bids.	Greg’s take: Wesley. The Wolverines have had a habit of making things interesting this season, but they just need to grind out one more win to see their name in the field on Sunday.

Which team will be the highest ranked team to miss the NCAA tournament?

Keith’s take: No. 17 St. Thomas, because it moves up after beating Bethel, No. 6 North Central dodges a bullet and No. 10 JCU loses. Maybe?	Ryan’s take: No. 15 Hardin-Simmons. They’re a great squad, but with two losses (and one of the teams that beat them also at two losses), there’s really no chance to see HSU in the mix come Sunday.	Pat’s take: Hardin-Simmons.
Adam’s take: John Carroll. Many voters have the Blue Streaks ranked in their top ten. A win over Baldwin Wallace on Saturday may get them in the top 15 on my ballot. It appears that still won’t be enough to get the OAC a second team in the playoffs this year.	Frank’s take: No. 15 Hardin-Simmons. Losing to only UMHB and TLU shouldn’t lead to this type of ending, but with just five at-large bids, we can say to the Cowboys, “Thanks for playing, and enjoy your lovely parting gifts.”	Greg’s take: St. Thomas. With the BW assist forecasted above, a Tommies win over Bethel should push them up and over current No. 15 Hardin-Simmons and be the highest ranked team to not move on to Week 12.

We invite you to add your predictions in the comments below. Download the Around the Nation podcast on Fridays, where Pat and Keith review the Quick Hits that were prescient, and the Quick Misses that were terribly off base.