Tag Archives: Westminster (Pa.)

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ATN Podcast 366: Understanding the playoffs

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Most years, we dedicate some space on the website or some time in our podcast to really give newcomers to Division III football a bit of a primer as to how the playoffs are structured, how at-large bids are determined, the whole 10 yards. But this year, let’s face it — we’re all newbies in some manner. Nobody has ever actually put together the Division III football bracket in this manner.

So, forget what you learned last year, or any of the previous 10 or more years. All that is out the window. You’ve been hearing about NPI — the NCAA Power Index? If you’ve been hearing angry things, well, hey, we don’t love the system either, but it’s what we have, so we’re going to give it to you straight. Patrick and Greg spend the top of the show detailing what we know about the 40-team playoff bracket, how it will be constructed, what it means to be a Top Eight seed and more. Then Logan Hansen will talk a little more about what goes into the NPI and how it’s calculated, and lastly we’ll take your questions in our mailbag segment, and there were a lot of questions, so we took several more than usual.

Five teams clinched automatic bids to the playoffs this week as well, and save themselves from having to worry at all about NPI. That includes Susquehanna, and we’ll talk with River Hawks coach Tom Perkovich in our Fast Five conversation. And we go through our usual run of high points from Region 1 through Region 6, Greg gets put on the spot about a swing state, Patrick does weather on the 8’s, and more.

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.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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.
Susquehanna athletics photo by Brandon Love

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ATN Podcast 365: Hope is not lost

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This past week, a number of teams had their shot. They had the opponent they wanted to play on the field in front of them. They generally even had that game at home, in front of their home fans.

But in Week 8 of the 2024 Division III football season, it didn’t really break as these teams hoped. Not for Ursinus, not for Coe, not for Case Western Reserve, not for Washington U. Not even for St. Olaf, if you want to dig down that far.

In the past, that would generally be it. A chance at reaching the Division III playoffs was going to be a stretch. But not anymore, not with 12 at-large teams, a 40-team bracket, and an NCAA Power Index rating system that just might save some of these teams.

Who has hope? Patrick and Greg break it down with analysis, rather than overreaction.

Marietta made the Top 25 this week for the first time in program history, and Pioneers coach Andy Waddle sits down with us for Fast Five. This is a program that has come a long way, but still has its two biggest games of the regular season yet to come, and both are on the road.

Plus, Patrick and Greg hand out game balls. Patrick pulls out a highlight clip from 21 years ago, and yes, a number of clips from this past weekend. Plus we go through more highlights from Region 1 through Region 6, we answer a couple of reader questions in the mailbag, and not only does Greg wax poetic in On the Spot, we Axe poetic as well. Plus, it’s our 365th podcast — we now have a podcast for every day of the year. So that’s a thing.

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.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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.
Jason Kapusta, Westminster (Pa.) athletics; Wheaton athletics photo by Michael Hudson photography; Marietta athletics photo by Rebecca Wheeler Photography

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ATN Podcast 364: Sorting out the chaos

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No, we didn’t get a four-way tie for first in the MAC after this weekend, but we still have plenty of chaos across Division III football after seven weeks. Part of this is because eight more playoff bids means more teams are in contention for the playoffs, but mostly, we’re just talking about teams chasing conference automatic bids.

So in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference, that’s five teams in contention. In the WIAC, it’s really six. It’s four in the MAC and at least three in the ODAC. We’ll run those down and talk about which big games are left in each conference.

Our Fast Five guest is Western Connecticut (WestConn) coach Joe Loth, whose Wolves are laying waste to MASCAC teams in their final year in the league before they and Castleton get kicked to the curb.

Plus, should we let Greg throw in a bonus conference just to make sure he can play his random card? Does Patrick stick with his prepared material or abandon it to make sure he doesn’t get stuck holding a card? Which conference told its coaches that tiebreakers had changed after the season started? And we’ll get you a daily double of defense in game balls, give you more defensive prowess in Stat of the Week, run down the new NPI numbers — you know, the NCAA Power Index — and explain why they might be wrong, or at least, not the same as the numbers you see elsewhere. And we’ll tell you who’s having fun in the 1, who’s going for 2 in the 2, what’s the key to the 3, what’s the score in the 4, who’s looking alive in the 5 and who’s got a new bag of tricks in the 6. That plus the mailbag, games to watch, on the spot and more in this week’s podcast.

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.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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.
d3photograpy.com photos by Doug Sasse, Mike Atherton, Wade Gardner; D. Scherbenco, King’s athletics; Chris Ryan, W&L athletics; Jason Kapusta, Westminster (Pa.) athletics