We missed last week, but we didn’t really miss much as almost everything went according to form. This week has only a couple of major games to deal with:
#14 Ottawa at #18 Bethany (KS) (Ottawa wins KCAC title with win)
#23 Dakota Wesleyan at #22 Northwestern (IA)
The weekly recaps are going to be missing game details from here on out, unless something truly special happened and I happened to catch it. This is because I’ve been brought on as a contributing author at Bring on the Cats, the Kansas State Wildcats blog at SBNation, and that’s going to have to take priority. Unfortunately, the “mining press releases for neat stat tidbits and game story notes” is by far the most crushing and time-consuming aspect of the process of writing these recaps. In order to at least keep you abreast of the progress of conference races, that’s just going to have to be sacrificed.
(When the playoffs roll around, we should get back to more details. No worries there.)
I have composed a handy primer for playoff formats and guidelines, because we’re getting very very close to starting to hand out bids.
CENTRAL STATES:
Eliminated: Southwestern Assemblies of God
Could go this week: Texas College, Northwestern Oklahoma State
Conference-leading Langston is idle this week, so the one-loss teams have nothing to worry about. Even more to the point, Southern Nazarene plays a non-conference game against associate member Oklahoma Panhandle State, and Bacone gets Texas College which is a gimme, and will eliminate the latter. NW Oklahoma State should beat SW Assemblies and stay alive, but a loss kicks them to the curb as well.
DAKOTA:
CONFERENCE CHAMPION: Valley City State
VSCU put the conference away over the last two weeks. The main question for VCSU is whether they can work themselves into the playoff picture. As things stand, they’re not in, and they probably need at least three more spots in the poll to feel safe.
FRONTIER:
Eliminated: Montana Tech, Montana Western
Could go this week: Montana State-Northern, Rocky Mountain
Carroll stole a march over their chasers over the last two weeks, beating each once. A Carroll win, which is a near certainty, doesn’t eliminate anyone. Rocky Mountain should cling to life with a win at Montana Tech; Eastern Oregon has a tougher test hosting MSU-Northern, but should also hang in there.
GREAT PLAINS:
Eliminated: Dordt, Briar Cliff, Midland
Could go this week: Concordia (NE), Nebraska Wesleyan, Hastings
Dakota Wesleyan visits Northwestern in a big game this week. The loser isn’t eliminated, but will be in very bad shape. The winner won’t be in much better shape, but they’ll still only be a game out. Doane and Morningside should both come out on top; either winning would will eliminate the three teams in the “could go” lost. Nebraska Wesleyan and Concordia should pick up wins as well.
HEART OF AMERICA:
Eliminated: Culver-Stockton, Graceland
Could go this week: Avila, Peru State, Evangel, Central Methodist
The big story over the last two weeks has been Evangel’s slide, losing twice to teams they should have handled. They should be in a four-way tie for first place right now; instead, they’re on the verge of extinction. Each of the three leaders picked up a single conference win over the last two weeks; two of them, however, also picked up their first losses of the year: Missouri Valley to Benedictine, and then Benedictine to MidAmerica Nazarene. That leaves the leaders in a three-way tie, and they’re all 1-1 within the circle.
All three should win easily this week, and that will remove the four above-mentioned teams from contention. Idle Baker will remain alive, barely, but on life support.
KANSAS:
Eliminated: Tabor, Bethel (KS), Southwestern (KS)
Could go this week: Saint Mary (KS), McPherson, Kansas Wesleyan, Friends, Sterling, Bethany (KS)
CLINCH ALERT: Ottawa
Nobody tripped over their own feet the last two weeks, so the conference race looks like we’d expect it to. Ottawa can clinch the title with a win over Bethany, as they’ll have tiebreakers over both two-loss teams. Should Bethany win, Sterling would still be eliminated with a loss to Friends in a game which could go either way.
MID-SOUTH:
Eliminated (East): Pikeville
Eliminated (West): nobody
Could go this week (East): Kentucky Christian, Campbellsville, Virginia-Wise
Could go this week (West): Union (KY), Cumberlands (KY), Belhaven, Shorter, Bethel (TN)
CLINCH ALERT: Cumberland (TN) (West)
Georgetown should win, which will remove everyone from the East race except Lindsey Wilson, who they’ll play next week. A loss really mangles things. Campbellsville should knock off Kentucky Christian, eliminating them regardless. Out west, Cumberland should win, eliminating everyone but Bethel and Belhaven; each of those teams would eliminate themselves with a loss in that case, handing Cumberland the division title. Bethel, however, has little chance of losing. Belhaven probably will, though.
MID-STATES:
Eliminated (Mideast): Concordia (MI), Quincy, Saint Francis (IN), Taylor
Eliminated (Midwest): Waldorf, Trinity International, Olivet Nazarene, Iowa Wesleyan
Could go this week (Mideast): nobody
Could go this week (Midwest): Grand View, William Penn
Mideast: The race is Saint Xavier vs Marian, period, and it doesn’t matter what happens this week because the winner of their titanic tussle next week takes the title. Not that Saint X is going to lose to winless Concordia, of course. Saint Francis (IN) should win also, as should Taylor.
Midwest: Saint Francis (IL) should handle Grand View, which will eliminate them. Saint Ambrose should have no trouble with Waldorf, either; if both Saints win, William Penn, who should also win with no problem, is gone.
INDEPENDENTS:
Menlo has played themselves out of any playoff contention. Azusa Pacific slipped up against Lindenwood, but they retain the #11 spot in the poll, and have a clear shot to the automatic bid assigned to independents (which includes the Dakota teams). They should handle Southern Oregon this week.