Tag Archives: podcast

How we rank the teams, 1-238

Posted on by

No, this isn’t a listing of the 238 teams in order — only Kickoff subscribers get that. But Keith McMillan and I thought it might be interesting to take you guys through the process of how we rank teams, discuss why we do so, and the like.

Why do some teams make big jumps from where they ended last year to where they start this year?
How do you rank a brand-new team anywhere but last?
Why do you guys like Panera Bread so much?

We answer those questions and more in the 2009 season’s first Around the Nation podcast.

For those of you who are new, Keith and I sit down, usually by phone, every week and wrap up the week that was, spotlighting the interesting trends and giving you our first analysis of the past week’s games. On Saturday and Sunday we report the news; on Monday we analyze it in the Around the Nation Podcast.

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.d3football.com/dailydose/?feed=podcast

Or you can click the play button below to listen.

[display_podcast]

Thank you, UW-Stevens Point

Posted on by

Those of you who were listening to last couple of hours of our Wheaton-Franklin broadcast probably were puzzled by the occasional references to our Stevens Point studios. That was born out of necessity, but worked like a charm.

At the high school stadium which Franklin used to host its game on Saturday, there were not enough phone lines, so three lines were installed for the radio broadcasts. By the time my brother Ryan and I got to Stevens Point, Wis., where we were getting ready to cover the UW-Whitewater/UW-Stevens Point basketball doubleheader, it was clear these new phone lines were not going to get the job done, as Gordon Mann had been cut off a half-dozen times and the Franklin broadcast had been knocked off multiple times as well.

Luckily, experience has taught me that a new phone line is a disaster waiting to happen, so we traveled prepared. I had a small converter that allowed me to record a cellphone conversation, one we used on Selection Sunday and that is also our ATN Podcast backup. With a couple of patch cables, which (yes) I did bring, we had it wired into the laptop. And thankfully, UW-Stevens Point’s network was available and robust.

So thanks to UW-Stevens Point Sports Information Director Mitch Capelle, who had an NCAA.com broadcast studio in his office for two hours on Saturday afternoon.

It’s not the most jerry-rigged broadcast I’ve been a part of, but I did kind of feel like I was back in 2001. And at least the last half of the game stayed online.

Now, as for Gordon, standing outside in the snow talking into a cellphone (no room in the press box), I can only hope he’s thawed out.

I normally wouldn’t post such an ‘inside baseball’ story, but there were some questions about it so I thought I’d share.

Bracket analysis, podcast

Posted on by

If you think this bracket is good … and I do, at least a little … you should’ve seen the first version that went out. It had one extra flight in it, and that made a world of difference.

Instead, we have business as usual. And I mean business.

I’m in between show No. 3 and No. 4. I’ll be on North Central’s radio station later, where I’ll probably get asked most of the same questions, which is fine, because it’s a different audience. But there are a lot of things on people’s minds.

We took a ton of questions on our post-selection analysis show. If you missed it, it’s below, and it will end up in your feed if you’re a podcast subscriber.

We also talked with Wheaton coach Mike Swider, Willamette coach Mark Speckman, Mount Union quarterback Greg Micheli and Washington and Jefferson coach Mike Sirianni. Plus, you’ll get an interesting insight into the bracket that did not make ESPNews.

Thanks to the more than a thousand people who listened to the show live, and to the 75 percent of our audience that stuck with us even as we went 45 minutes longer than we planned. But we got to everyone’s questions.

[display_podcast]