Game Day: Fall, for sure

I mean, in your part of the country anyway, I’m sure it’s fall. But here in Minneapolis I woke up to snow on the ground. Not enough to last the day or affect any games around here, probably, but just a reminder that Oct. 10 is … yeah, way, way too early for snow.

I’ll be watching Concordia-Moorhead (Division III team No. 120 on my list of whom I’ve seen) at No. 15 St. Thomas, basically as prep for next week’s Game of the Week broadcast of the St. Thomas-St. John’s game. Ryan Tipps is at the Emory & Henry/Hampden-Sydney game, while Gordon Mann is at FDU-Florham at Delaware Valley. The short trip is my deal with the folks at home. New rule in the Coleman house: If I take a plane one weekend, I stay home or stay in the Twin Cities the next weekend. Keeps the peace.

I still have a few Minnesota schools I haven’t seen yet and will get to those eventually. Hamline will be the only MIAC team I haven’t seen, then throw in a bunch of stadiums I’ve never seen a game at: Hamline, Carleton, Concordia, Crown … pretty much you name it.

Looking at this week’s schedule on paper has me thinking not at all about last week, where there weren’t a lot of games where we could foresee upsets. We have two games between Top 25 teams (No. 1 Mount Union at No. 21 Capital, No. 22 Redlands at No. 24 Occidental), and then UW-Whitewater, Mary Hardin-Baylor, Wheaton, Linfield, Central, Case Western Reserve, Monmouth, Otterbein, St. Thomas, Cortland State and Ithaca are each playing teams where you could conceivably pick them to lose.

Stick around, watch, listen, follow live stats. The wireless connection at St. Thomas wasn’t great the last time I was there but we’ll see. I’ll be on Twitter at least from my phone, hopefully blogging.

Game day: Welcome, the rest of you

After today the only teams that won’t have played are in the NESCAC, so the Division III football season will be in full swing.

I’ll be at St. John’s, where the No. 11 Johnnies host UW-Eau Claire. Keith McMillan is in Massachusetts, where Curry will play host to Widener. And you’ll be wherever you are, of course, so keep us up to date, even if it’s in front of your computer surfing through games. (That’s also one of my favorite places from which to track Division III football.)

We went through the other big games yesterday in the Triple Take, so I won’t repeat. But there are intriguing games in the Liberty League, especially, with Hobart traveling to Dickinson, Union hosting No. 8 Ithaca, and RPI opening its brand-new Division III football palace.

Elsewhere, I’ll be interested to see the results of “Air Raid vs. Wishbone” as McMurry hosts Austin College. DePauw’s tumultuous offseason finally comes to an end when the Tigers travel to Anderson. Could this year’s Augsburg/Wartburg game live up to the last two years? That seems hard to imagine, but it’s one of a handful of intriguing night games, along with McMurry/Austin, East Texas Baptist/Redlands, UW-Platteville/Dubuque, Buffalo State/St. John Fisher and even Carroll/Beloit.

Chime in with what you know, plus follow us on Twitter, since we’ll be following everyone else and passing along the most interesting tidbits that way.

Football West of the Rockies

Seems like we have a new generation of West Coast fans who don’t understand the geography of Division III. I’ve gotten a couple of e-mails like this in the past 48 hours.

seems like your “Top 25” seems to be “East” and midwest heavy. Their is
football west of the Rockies!

Indeed, there is.

There are nine Division III football teams in California.
There are three Division III football teams in Oregon.
There are three Division III football teams in Washington.

That’s it: 15 out of 239, 6.2%. Add in Colorado College if you like to get to 16.

I’d note that 8% of our Top 25 teams are West of the Rockies.

For a more visual representation of Division III football, see below. You’ll have to zoom out to see the entire country, as our space here is limited.


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