ATN Podcast: Tiebreakers, bids and rivalries

Defense
Kentel Noel and Christopher Newport still control their own destiny.
CNU photo by Heidi Naylor

So much to talk about this week and we didn’t even get to it all — we try to keep the podcast under an hour and almost did so this week. But not quite.

Let’s run it down for you.

  • Six conferences yet to be decided
  • Three could end up in three-way tiebreakers
  • Pool B took another blow. Who gets those bids?
  • Are those new faces or just bad teams in the playoffs?
  • How did W&L and Muhlenberg sneak up on everyone?
  • Pat and Keith talk about their trips to Wittenberg and Muhlenberg
  • Rivalry games still have a lot to play for

That just about covers it. All that and yes, more, in the Around the Nation podcast.

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ATN podcast: Welcome to 2010

There’s one question that’s on pretty much everyone’s mind when it comes to the Division III football season: Can Mount Union and UW-Whitewater do it again, after meeting in the Stagg Bowl for each of the past five seasons?

The bad news? Sure, they can. But will they? That’s what we should really be asking. And in the first podcast of the 2010 season, Around the Nation columnist Keith McMillan and D3football.com executive editor Pat Coleman ask that question, and talk over the possible answers. Plus, get a preview of where you can find our gurus on the road this season and more.

Click the play button below to listen.

You can load the podcast page in iTunes or 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

Please note, this is a new feed.

Heading to Ohio

We don’t usually travel to Mount Union in the regular season. In the most general terms, we want to go where the news is, and in the past 10 years there hasn’t been much in Alliance, Ohio, this time of year other than a Mount Union victory.

Nothing wrong with Mount Union winning, you know, it’s just that it’s hard to justify the trip when it’s likely to be just another check mark in the ‘W’ column.

But this week I’m breaking with that tradition and heading to Alliance, because of a comment Mount Union coach Larry Kehres made to me during an interview this summer. Kehres asked me, “Have you ever been to Mount Union?”

I was a little taken aback at the question, wondering if he had more than one interview scheduled that day and forgot which one this was. I’ve been there probably 10 times. I think I said, “Sure, I’ve been there.”

He responded, “Well, you haven’t been to Mount Union until you’ve been here at night.”

So I looked at the schedule: two home night games for Mount Union, against Muskingum and Baldwin-Wallace. So off I got. Baldwin-Wallace hasn’t had much success on defense this season and it doesn’t look like a great game on paper, but heck, I’ll have seen Mount Union at night. I’ll be broadcasting audio of the game Saturday night, along with Brandon Stewart.

In the afternoon I’ll be heading over to Meadville, Pa., to see Allegheny host Wabash. By the end of the trip, my all-ime list of schools I’ve seen play will be at 119, halfway to the current Division III total of 238. Adding Baldwin-Wallace and Allegheny, plus Allegheny’s stadium will make 66 schools’ stadiums in which I’ve seen a D-III game.

It’s going to take a while to get those other 119 teams, though.