The regular season came to a close, sort of with a whimper. There were no surprises whatsoever in games affecting the playoff field. Every single team that had reasonable hopes of getting into the playoffs as an at-large won last week, and in all five games where a conference’s autobid was still contested, the favorites won, keeping locks out of the at-large pool. As a result, only nine of the 32 teams in the field have more than one loss — but surprisingly, two of those teams got in via Pool C. Of the teams in the field, only two lost last week, but they’d already secured autobids.

Conference champions (bold indicates Pool A (automatic) bid):
American Southwest Conference: Mary Hardin-Baylor
Centennial Conference: Johns Hopkins
College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin: North Central
Eastern Collegiate Football Conference: Norwich
Empire Eight: Salisbury
Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference: Franklin
Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference: Dubuque
Liberty League: Hobart, Union (NY)
Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association: Albion
Middle Atlantic Conference: Delaware Valley
Midwest Conference: Monmouth (IL)
Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference: Saint Thomas (MN)
New England Football Conference: Western New England
New England Small College Athletic Conference: Amherst
New Jersey Athletic Conference: Kean
North Coast Athletic Conference: Wabash
Northern Athletic Conference: Benedictine (IL), Concordia (IL)
Northwest Conference: Linfield
Ohio Athletic Conference: Mount Union
Old Dominion Athletic Conference: Hampden-Sydney, Washington & Lee
Presidents’ Athletic Conference: Thomas More
Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference: Trinity (TX)
Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference: Cal Lutheran
University Athletic Association: Case Western
Upper Midwest Athletic Conference: Saint Scholastica
USA South Athletic Conference: Christopher Newport
Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference: Wisconsin-Whitewater

Pool B bid:
Wesley (DE) (independent)

Pool C bids:
Centre (9-1)
Illinois College (9-1)
Illinois Wesleyan (9-1)
McMurry (8-2)
Redlands (9-1)
Saint John Fisher (8-2)

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Tags: d3

All twelve teams that could have secured their league’s automatic bids Saturday did so, bringing the known teams in the playoff field to 20. The remaining five automatic bids will be determined on Saturday, and the single Pool B and six Pool C bids will be awarded on Sunday.

Automatic bids already claimed:
American Southwest Conference: Mary Hardin-Baylor
Centennial Conference: Johns Hopkins
College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin: North Central
Eastern Collegiate Football Conference: Norwich
Empire Eight: Salisbury
Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference: Franklin
Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference: Dubuque
Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association: Albion
Midwest Conference: Monmouth (IL)
Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference: Saint Thomas (MN)
North Coast Athletic Conference: Wabash
Northern Athletic Conference: Benedictine (IL)
Ohio Athletic Conference: Mount Union
Old Dominion Athletic Conference: Hampden-Sydney
Presidents’ Athletic Conference: Thomas More
Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference: Trinity (TX)
Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference: Cal Lutheran
Upper Midwest Athletic Conference: Saint Scholastica
USA South Athletic Conference: Christopher Newport
Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference: Wisconsin-Whitewater

bold indicates team will clinch their conference’s automatic bid with a win.
italics indicates team will clinch their conference championship outright with a win, but no autobid.

7-1 Lewis & Clark at #5 Linfield (Northwest)
8-1 Huntingdon at #7 Wesley (DE)
8-1 Widener at #11 Delaware Valley (Middle Atlantic)
#14 Kean at #15 Montclair State (New Jersey)
7-0 Amherst at 5-2 Williams (NESCAC)
8-1 Case Western at 5-4 Carnegie Mellon (University)
7-3 Framingham State at 8-1 Western New England (New England)
6-1 Hobart at 4-4 Rochester (Liberty; Union (NY) wins autobid if Hobart loses)

I have composed a handy primer for playoff formats and guidelines, because we’re getting very very close to starting to hand out bids.
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Tags: d3

Eight teams claimed automatic bids last week; this week thirteen more can join them (and five absolutely will one way or another). Also, TWO new all-divison career record were set (both previously held by players from Westminster (MO), which was not even remotely coincidental), and you’ll just have to read to find out what those records were.

Automatic bids already claimed:
Centennial Conference: Johns Hopkins
Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association: Albion
Midwest Conference: Monmouth (IL)
Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference: Saint Thomas (MN)
Presidents’ Athletic Conference: Thomas More
Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference: Cal Lutheran
Upper Midwest Athletic Conference: Saint Scholastica
Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference: Wisconsin-Whitewater

bold indicates team will clinch their conference’s automatic bid with a win.
italics indicates team may clinch their conference’s automatic bid with a win, depending on other results.

7-1 Baldwin-Wallace at #2 Mount Union (Ohio)
2-6 Sul Ross State at #4 Mary Hardin-Baylor (American Southwest)
7-1 Wittenberg at #10 Wabash (North Coast)
#12 Delaware Valley at 7-1 Lycoming
#13 Wheaton (IL) at #6 North Central (CCIW)
7-1 Saint John Fisher at #11 Salisbury (Empire Eight)
#17 Montclair State at 5-3 Rowan
#25 Centre at #18 Trinity (TX) (Southern CAC)
#21 Illinois Wesleyan at 5-3 Carthage
#22 Franklin at 0-8 Earlham (Heartland)
3-4 Rensselaer at #24 Hobart (Liberty)
6-3 Norwich at 7-1 New York Maritime (ECFC)
8-1 Dubuque at 5-3 Coe (Iowa)
6-2 Benedictine (IL) at 0-8 Rockford (Northern)
8-1 Washington & Lee at 7-1 Hampden-Sydney (Old Dominion)
6-2 Ferrum at 6-2 Christopher Newport (USA South)

I have composed a handy primer for playoff formats and guidelines, because we’re getting very very close to starting to hand out bids.
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: d3

Because I’m late with this, I get to announce that the first spot in this year’s playoff field has been filled. Congratulations to Saint Scholastica on their Upper Midwest Athletic Conference championship and their impending trip to the post-season (the league’s first playoff representative).

Big games this week (bold indicates team will win conference title and autobid — or divisional title and not autobid, as noted — with a win; italics means they can do so):

Friday night: 8-0 Saint Scholastica 70, Presentation 20 – Saint Scholastica wins UMAC title and autobid

Saturday:
1-6 Gustavus Adolphus at #3 Saint Thomas (MN)
#11 Salisbury at #7 Wesley (DE)
#8 Thomas More at 5-2 Westminster (PA)
5-2 Ursinus at #14 Johns Hopkins
5-2 Rowan at #18 Kean
6-2 Central (IA) at 5-2 Wartburg
4-3 Albion at 7-0 Adrian
6-1 Lycoming at 5-2 Lebanon Valley
7-1 Monmouth (IL) at 6-2 Carroll (WI)
1-6 Coast Guard at 5-2 Framingham State (NEFC Bogan Division)
8-0 Endicott at 7-1 Western New England (NEFC Boyd Division)
6-0 Lewis & Clark at 4-2 Pacific Lutheran
5-2 Chicago at 6-1 Case Western

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.
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: d3

The #10 team in the nation, unbeaten, got bushwacked by a winless foe, the Division III single-game record for team total offense got broken, a few teams are now in position to officially claim playoff bids, and one team was so offensively destroyed that I can kick a field goal longer than their entire offensive output this week.

#1 Wisconsin-Whitewater at #20 Wisconsin-Oshkosh
#3 Saint Thomas (MN) at #10 Bethel (MN)
4-1 Pacific Lutheran at #5 Linfield
#6 North Central at #15 Illinois Wesleyan
#18 Johns Hopkins at 4-2 Gettysburg
5-1 Lebanon Valley at 6-1 Widener
4-2 Bridgewater at 6-1 Washington & Lee

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Tags: d3

I don’t have anything really exciting to lead with this week, so let’s just get right down to business. This week’s games to watch:

#2 Mount Union at 4-1 Heidelberg
#14 Delaware Valley at 4-2 Albright
#18 Salisbury at #23 Alfred
4-0 Centre at #24 Birmingham-Southern
4-2 McMurry at 4-1 Texas Lutheran
6-0 Endicott at 4-2 Plymouth State
4-2 Emory & Henry at 5-1 Hampden-Sydney
5-1 Washington & Lee at 5-1 Randolph-Macon
5-1 Huntingdon at 5-0 Trinity (TX)
5-1 Westminster (MO) at 5-0 Saint Scholastica

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Tags: d3

Two top ten teams stumble, while a team returns to the top ten after knocking off a scholarship FCS team? Say WHAT?

There’s only one game matching up two top-25 teams this week, but there are a lot of other important contests as well:

#3 Saint Thomas (MN) at 4-0 Augsburg
#15 Cortland State at #11 Montclair State
2-2 Washington (MO) at #12 Wabash
#14 Wittenberg at 4-1 Huntingdon
#20 Wartburg at 5-0 Dubuque
3-1 Springfield at #22 Salisbury
3-1 Heidelberg at 4-0 Muskingum
4-1 Randolph-Macon at 3-1 Catholic
4-1 Washington & Lee at 4-1 Emory & Henry
3-1 Bridgewater at 4-1 Hampden & Sydney

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Tags: d3