Around the Nation podcast: Welcome to 2013

Posted on September 8, 2013 by Pat Coleman

Christopher Newport seems particularly happy here.
CNU athletics photo by Joey Gardner

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Maybe you went 9-1 and missed the playoffs in 2012, or maybe you went 0-10 and … well, missed everything. Maybe you had a fantastic season last year and hoisted some kind of trophy, perhaps made of walnut and bronze. Regardless of what you did in 2012, though, that’s over, and the new season is underway. Christopher Newport can celebrate, St. John’s can breathe a sigh of relief and Mount Union can take it back to the drawing board and try again.

Keith McMillan and Pat Coleman break down the first week’s action and analyze it all for you. The Around the Nation podcast is our weekly discussion of what went down and what’s about to happen.

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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

By the way, the tags below include the schools we talked about.

ATN Podcast: When a surprise isn’t a surprise

Posted on November 19, 2012 by Pat Coleman

Mary Hardin-Baylor bounced Louisiana College from the playoffs, perhaps a round sooner than it should have been.
Photo by Andrew Zavoina, d3photography.com

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Maybe an upset isn’t an upset when 76 percent of you pick it to happen. There were five road teams who won on Saturday in the opening round of the playoffs and one of them was an upset if you believe in the other Top 25. But when Elmhurst and North Central each went on the road and won, and Bethel won on the road as well, they each struck blows for their conferences.

•Updated bracket, playoff features

But so did Concordia-Chicago. So did Framingham State, despite losing. There aren’t moral victories necessarily in the playoffs but it’s better to go out 20-19 or 24-23 than it is 73-14. But every game gets discussed and we look ahead to what we hope will be a great second weekend of the playoffs as well.

Keith and Pat talk about that and more in this week’s Around the Nation Podcast, sponsored by the City of Salem, hosts of Stagg Bowl XL. Tickets on sale now!

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Postgame show

Here’s this week’s D3football.com reports, highlight packages and postgame interviews.

And this week’s photo galleries from our friends at d3photography.com:

Christopher Newport at Mount Union

ATN Podcast: Guest Brad Bankston, committee chair

Posted on November 11, 2012 by Pat Coleman

How exactly did Bridgewater State get into the field? We get as much info for you as we can.
Bridgewater State file photo

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We know you have plenty of questions about how teams were chosen for the Division III playoffs and why. While we’re always glad to answer them to the best of our knowledge, it’s good to hear something a little more authoritative, so we’re glad to be joined by Brad Bankston, the chair of the NCAA Division III football championships committee.

Bankston and Pat Coleman talk about everything from those invisible final regional rankings, the at-large decision-making process, and as much detail as possible about how Bridgewater State got in and how Concordia-Moorhead (and others) didn’t. Will the trend of two-loss teams getting at-large bids continue? Why don’t all four regions rank their teams the same way? How has the committee’s conference call changed technologically, and how might that affect the actual decision-making process?

It’s a good conversation, and Bankston is about as frank as any national committee chair has been in the past decade. This is not just the party line. Listen in.

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Although Keith McMillan participated in putting the questions together, he was unable to take part in the interview because of scheduling. However, there will also be a full Around the Nation Podcast with Pat and Keith for Monday morning.