Division III basketball fans made their opinions known last year on an ESPN.com poll regarding basketball rivalries, making Hope/Calvin the best rivalry by an overwhelming margin.

Now we’re hoping you can help out Division III football fans. As part of ESPN’s current promotional vehicle, where they are visiting all 50 states in 50 days, they have posted a fan poll for each of the 50 states.

It’s the Indiana poll we’re concerned with. The fifth question on the survey asks what the state’s best rivalry is, and DePauw vs. Wabash football is the last choice on the list (typical lack of respect), but is holding onto first place in the survey. As of this writing, the rivalry has 32.6% of the 15,767 votes, slightly ahead of some schools called Purdue and Indiana, who apparently play basketball. The Monon Bell game between DePauw and Wabash is one of the top rivalries in Division III football.

Vote early. Vote often, or at least on any computer you can get to. Remind ESPN that there are other schools besides those in Division I.

La Crosse Tribune columnist Kirk Bey tells us today that UW-La Crosse standout receiver Scott Burnoski wants to play basketball for the Eagles this winter.

Could Burnoski, who had 72 catches for 931 yards and 14 touchdowns last year as a senior, help the 7-18 men’s basketball team? Perhaps. But he still has Arena Football possibilities to consider as well.

This isn’t a unique situation. In Division III you essentially have five years to play four, and occasionally student-athletes take the final year and play a different sport. The first name that came to mind was a local one for me, when Catholic U. point guard Sammy Briggs, a four-year starter, played football the next fall and helped the Cardinals reach the 1997 Division III playoffs as the No. 2 receiver.

Who else knows of players who have played four years of football and one year of basketball, or vice versa? Fill us in.

A little more than two months after UW-Oshkosh women’s coach Pam Ruder took the head coaching job at Southwestern, Oshkosh has finalists for the position, according to the Oshkosh Northwestern.

The finalists are Oshkosh West HS coach Terri Schumacher, Milwaukee Pius HS boys’ basketball coach Joel Claassen, DePauw women’s coach Kris Huffman and former UW-Oshkosh player and graduate assistant Trish Betthauser. Betthauser later was an assistant at Indiana.

Absent is assistant coach Kris Schoonover. She told the paper in June, “This came real quick. But yeah, I’ve been approached to take over the position.”

The Scranton Times-Tribune is publishing a countdown of the Top 25 area coaches, and while most of the people on the list coach or coached high school sports, two Scranton basketball coaches have done pretty well in the coach’s box and on the list.

Check out features on No. 4, former Scranton men’s coach Bob Bessoir (top photo) and No. 2, current Scranton women’s coach, Mike Strong.

I’m heading up to Philadelphia shortly to address the Division III Sports Information Directors at the CoSIDA convention. I’m not expecting to break any news of a basketball nature but if I do, I’ll post it either from the hotel or upon my return.

To the SIDs reading this — see you there!