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ATN Podcast 369: Easing into the playoffs

This slimmed-down version of the first round actually worked out pretty well. Five of the eight games went down to the final couple of minutes, and the three blowouts were against the No. 38, No. 39 and No. 40 seeds in the tournament. So now that that’s out of the way, we can move on to the Round of 32. But first, we’ll recap those eight games, you’ll hear from some of the key playmakers on Saturday, including both winners of our game balls, just like it should be.

Is John Carroll upset at having to play Mount Union? Not that we can tell. Is Mary Hardin-Baylor upset about playing Hardin-Simmons? Not exactly — UMHB is just happy to be playing a D-III team, as Cru coach Larry Harmon said after the game.

How did the ESPN+ experiment work out after one game? Should there be more bowl games? We’ll tackle those questions and get an insider’s advice on how to punch up your broadcasts. And we’ll talk about who this Round of 40 really benefited.

Plus, we chat with John Carroll coach Jeff Behrman for Fast Five (Nifty Nine), about the injury to quarterback Nick Semptimphelter and his quick recovery, Behrman’s approach to practice, his quarterback and top receiver’s quick rapport, and facing Mount Union again

The D3football.com podcast is a weekly in-season podcast by Patrick Coleman and Greg Thomas, which was started in 2007. New episodes are published weekly during the season.

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.
John Carroll athletics photo by Doug Beigie

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ATN Podcast 368: Much ado about bracketing

Why is Endicott playing in the first round? Why is Ursinus? Why does Centre get a bye? Why does Salisbury have to face a 6 or 7 seed in its first game instead of a 9 or 10?

When the teams are already identified and all boiled down to a number value by a mathematical equation, the bracket is all we can talk about, and go figure, sometimes decisions are still being made by geography. Sometimes the NPI ranking of a team doesn’t match up with what the general Division III fandom thinks, or what our voters think.

And it doesn’t seem like we would learn anything from talking to the NCAA committee chair, so we decided instead to interview the algorithm. Or in this case, we talked to Logan Hansen about who the last teams in and first teams out were, how John Carroll and Mary Hardin-Baylor made their big jumps up the NPI ranking, and exactly how much of an impact the UW-River Falls win over UW-Oshkosh on Saturday had — it’s more than you probably think. And it’s way more insightful than most committee chair conversations, so we hope you agree.

Plus, we chat with Linfield coach Joe Smith for Fast Five, about west coast D-III football, his team’s two-quarterback system, and the Wildcats finally being able to put last season’s loss to Whitworth in Week 11 behind them. And we take a number of your questions in our mailbag segment.

The D3football.com podcast is a weekly in-season podcast by Patrick Coleman and Greg Thomas, which was started in 2007. New episodes are published weekly during the season.

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.
Endicott athletics photo

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ATN Podcast 367: Close calls

A couple of key teams had a couple of close calls, and they were games that we were keeping a close eye on on Saturday. In Podcast 367, we’re talking about Cortland pulling out its narrow win over Brockport to clinch the Empire 8 conference automatic bid, as well as Mount Union’s similarly narrow win against Marietta to clinch the automatic bid from the Ohio Athletic Conference.

What did we learn from these games? Did Cortland or Mount Union get moved down on Patrick or Greg’s ballots? Did Brockport or Marietta move up? And what can we take away from Hardin-Simmons picking up that second win against Mary Hardin-Baylor?

And who has rizz?

Those are the burning questions we start the show with.

In addition, Cortland coach Curt Fitzpatrick will join us to talk more about the strength of that Brockport defense, how he got his team’s offense jump-started, why they don’t run a bunch of gadget plays, and where Saturday’s new leading receiver came from, plus getting ready for the Cortaca Jug rivalry game with Ithaca.

Logan Hansen will break down teams’ chances of getting that top eight seed, plus who the projected 12 at-large teams are once the dust settles on Saturday after the Week 11 games. Also, who will benefit if there is an upset or two among those key games this week? Plus we highlight even more stories from around each region of Division III football, and you probably know who the favorites are in the playoffs, but we tell you who the dark horse teams might be that could win a couple games in the bracket. And Dem Spicy Boys are back, or at least one particularly spicy running back.

The D3football.com podcast is a weekly in-season podcast by Patrick Coleman and Greg Thomas, which was started in 2007. New episodes are published weekly during the season.

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.
Mount Union athletics photo by Ed Hall Jr.