Triple Take: Back-loaded battles


Matt Behrendt made a splash when he came in off the bench at quarterback for UW-Whitewater last year vs. UW-Oshkosh. This year he’s the starter.
Photo by Ryan Coleman, d3photography.com

We can count on one hand the number of weeks left in the regular season. And there’s still a lot shaping up, with power conferences such as the OAC, CCIW and WIAC on the verge of decisive stretches that pit their undefeated teams against one another.

Regional rankings will also be here soon, which will provide our first glimpse of which teams could be among the highest seeded in the postseason and which are positioned best for the coveted five — or four…no, wait, five — Pool C bids. (Listen to this past Monday’s Podcast to see what that last sentence was all about.)

For Week 8, Pat, Keith and Ryan again bring you their Saturday predictions: Continue reading

ATN podcast: Jumbled standings


If Wash U wins out, a playoff bid could be in the offing.
Hendrix athletics photo by Cody Usher

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Redlands ends Cal Lutheran’s 28-game SCIAC streak, while you’ve probably read about Morrisville State beating Rowan and W&J also made easy work of Thomas More. The MAC got complicated. More so than usual. Keith McMillan and Pat Coleman take a look at those conference races and others in this week’s Around the Nation podcast.

They also take a close look at Pool B, the way teams get into the playoffs when they don’t have an automatic bid to play for. We’re expecting three bids for those teams this year, so in addition to Wesley, there are a lot of contenders out there. We’ll run those down for you. Plus a lot more, of course.

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You can subscribe to the Around the Nation Podcast in iTunes. 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

The tags below include the schools we talked about. Also, here’s your first look at the Postgame Show, with your D3reports and team interviews and highlight packages:

ATN podcast: The surprise unbeatens, winless and more


It could take a while for Chapman to be seen as a real Top 25 candidate.
Chapman athletics photo

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North Park was one of the biggest stories on Saturday night, but there were plenty of other surprises of a different kind. Not teams that broke long streaks or look like they might soon, but some surprise unbeaten teams. That’s teams such as Hartwick, Gallaudet, Olivet, Greenville, Millsaps, Lake Forest, Pacific and others listed in the tags at the bottom of the page. None of those are in the Top 25, and most fans understand why, but if you don’t, we’ll discuss why, whether those teams have a shot to do so and what it would take for voters to do so. (Gallaudet portion transcribed in the comments section.)

Plus the ODAC got more ODACky, the USA South did its thing, sort of, the NESCAC is far enough along for us to talk about and more.

The Around the Nation podcast is our weekly discussion of what went down and what’s about to happen.

Hit play, or subscribe to get this podcast on your phone or portable device.[display_podcast]

You can subscribe to the Around the Nation Podcast in iTunes. 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

The tags below include the schools we talked about. Also, we’re bringing back your first look at the Postgame Show, with your D3reports and team interviews and highlight packages: