Those Other Guys

Non-Division I for the Division I Fan

Archive for category NAIA

It’s Football Time.

Aug 30

Posted by Jon Morse in Division II, Division III, FBS (aka I Couldn't Help Myself), FCS, NAIA | Comments off

After a weekend of NAIA action, for most people the season really begins today.  Excitement abounds, the trolling has begun in earnest on Twitter and message boards, and we’re actually going to get to watch football that matters on our televisions.

Of course, we here at TOG aren’t really all about that stuff, even though we care about it deeply and will be helplessly channel-surfing.

Anyway, we’ll get into fun stuff after the weekend; for the moment, here are the spreadsheets I use — for all five divisions this time (yes, I’m including FBS here as well, because I may as well share it) rather than just the NAIA workbook.  And that has been updated with last week’s games.  Right-click and save.

FBS -247kb

FCS -277kb

D-II -289kb

D-III -369kb

NAIA -145kb

Note: there are a couple of minor errors relating to the postponed games due to Hurricane Isaac.  Specifically, I forgot to note Oregon/Nicholls State as postponed, and listed Louisiana Tech as “idle” this week.  They’ll be fixed next time around.  There may be other postponements before the weekend is over, but it mostly looks like everything that hasn’t been postponed is carrying on as scheduled.

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THERE IS REAL LIVE FOOTBALL TONIGHT.

Aug 24

Posted by Jon Morse in NAIA | Comments off

And tomorrow, as the NAIA season gets underway.  They start a week earlier than the NCAA, and yet not a single one of their schools or conferences had the foresight to sidle up to a television executive and say, “Hey, there, pal… I know you have a lot of really jittery addicts desperate for some football, how ’bout I hook you up?  I’ll even give it to you on the cheap.  Just get us some airtime this weekend, eh?”

Anyway.

Two games tonight, as Rocky Mountain meets Jamestown on a neutral field in Miles City MT at 8:00 ET and the Fighting Saints of Carroll (MT), who lost the NAIA championship game last year to Saint Xavier, visit Montana State-Northern at 8:30.

Tomorrow, there are sixteen games, highlighted by a top-25 matchup between #11t Ottawa and #18 Baker in Ottawa KS.  That game is actually available via streaming at Ottawa’s website.  Kickoff is at 7pm ET.

I’m being a mensch and making my formatting spreadsheets available for download.  (Yes, the score and standings panels I used last year were just pic grabs from Excel.)  Here’s the NAIA schedule spreadsheet.  It’s 118KB, and it’s saved in Excel 2003 format because you may not have upgraded in awhile and I am not a complete dick.  See how that works?  I’ll keep updating this as the season goes on, and I’ll be providing the same spreadsheet formats for the other divisions.

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This is the Craziest Thing Ever.

Aug 23

Posted by Jon Morse in Division II, NAIA | Comments off

So, even though I stopped the previews, I’m still throwing together all my spreadsheets that I’ll need for the season once it starts.  That involves dumping each conference’s composite schedules, among other things.

And that’s when I noticed the insanity.  I didn’t catch it at first when I did the Great American Conference preview, because Arkansas-Monticello and Southern Nazarene had the school listed under its old name of Shepherd Tech.  But when I noticed that West Alabama was playing something called “College of Faith”, I had to look them up to see who the hell they were because I’d never heard of them before.

And that’s when I discovered “College of Faith” had games scheduled against Arkansas-Monticello and Southern Nazarene.  So this must be Shepherd Tech (which two years ago had been Shepherd Film Academy).  Teams have been scheduling this school the last couple of years to make up for holes in their schedule left by the closing of Lambuth University (which is now the Jackson campus of the University of Memphis).  Last year, Harding clobbered them 70-0.

But wait!  Digging deeper to see what the deal was here, I discovered that this is an unaccredited bible college.  That’s nothing surprising; bible colleges often aren’t accredited, because all they offer is bible-related degrees.  Indeed, most states give bible colleges a waiver to operate without accreditation so long as the only degrees they offer are theological.  Not a problem.

But wait! Then I figured out that this is an online college.  An online college with a $99 annual tuition.

Now, that led me to wonder how in hell an online college, which is not accredited, can possibly field a football team.  And then I found this post on the VSN message boards (an NAIA forum), and oh lord.  Seems MidAmerica Nazarene also had a game scheduled against College of Faith, but pulled out, partially in response to uproar about even playing this school.

And then, out of the blue, here comes the college’s president, posting a rather butthurt response to the thread defending his school… and, hey, look, I get it.  You’re trying to get a school off the ground, and you’re proud of it, and… hey, maybe you shouldn’t be worrying about fielding a freakin’ football team when you don’t even have a campus!

No, I can safely say that in all my years of following college sports, I have never seen a situation as crazy as this.  It’s absolutely insane.  I mean, how do you even pull that off?  How do you get your players to practice and games when they’re not tied to a location?  I don’t even understand.  What are we going to get next, the University of Phoenix deciding to start an athletic program?  Hey, maybe they can get together with National American University and a few other online programs and save the WAC!

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Previewing 2012: Central States Football League (NAIA)

Aug 21

Posted by Jon Morse in NAIA | Comments off

In ten out of the twelve years of this league’s existence, either Northwestern Oklahoma State and/or Southern Nazarene have won or shared the conference title.  They are now officially gone to NCAA Division II and the Great American Conference, Southern Nazarene walking off with the conference title and a playoff game.  In the near term, that almost certainly leaves Langston as the conference’s monolith; whether they dominate in years to come remains to be seen, but this year?  Forget it.  Langston’s so confident in this year’s success in conference that they’re going to go play a road game at defending NAIA champions Saint Xavier in the non-conference schedule.

And confident they should be.  Bacone is the only thing even resembling a threat here.  Texas College is coming off a winless season and doesn’t look very much improved, while Southwestern Assemblies was no great shakes last year.  Contrast that with Bacone, who went 5-6 but were only outscored by six points; while removing NWOSU and SNU will benefit everyone, the absence is especially relevant for a team which just needed them to be gone to get over a hump.

As always, Oklahoma Panhandle State’s primary affiliation is as an NCAA Division II independent; they are ineligible for the conference championship, and their games do not count in the standings.  Next year will see another new addition to the conference as Oklahoma Baptist joins the circuit with their brand new football team; their stay will likely be short-lived, though, as they’re already trying to get into Division II.

No team capsules for this preview.

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Ehrmahgehrd, It’s 2012.

Aug 21

Posted by Jon Morse in Division II, Division III, Division News and Notes, FCS, Introductions, NAIA | Comments off

This is just a quick hello, and a welcome back for our third year here at TOG.

As I said back in February, things are going to be changing here; I won’t be doing a weekly recap for each division.  This will be more of a “hey, pay attention to this” rather than “hey, pay attention to everything” format.  However, one thing that will be happening over the next couple of weeks as we lead into the commencement of hostilities is that I’ll be making posts previewing each conference.  Each day, expect one conference from each division (three D-III conferences per day, otherwise I wouldn’t get the previews done until mid-September).

Just to get you on the right path for today’s initial previews, the pre-season top 25 for each division:

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D-II/D-III/NAIA Championship Previews

Dec 15

Posted by Jon Morse in Division II, Division III, NAIA | Comments off

It’s finally here: the end of the 2011 season in three divisions is upon us. Brief recaps of the D-II and D-III semifinals, and previews of the D-II, D-III, and NAIA Championship Games follow.

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D-II/D-III Semifinal Previews (and an NAIA note).

Dec 9

Posted by Jon Morse in Division II, Division III, NAIA | Comments off

I’m not providing actual recaps this week, because… well, because this week has been hell. Previews, team capsules, and predictions for the semifinal D-II and D-III playoff games this week follow. No NAIA game this week, as they take a week off between their semifinal and championship weeks.
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NAIA: Week 14 Quick Roundup.

Dec 7

Posted by Jon Morse in Division News and Notes, NAIA | Comments off

Two unbeaten teams faced two one-loss teams in the semifinals… and now nobody’s unbeaten anymore. Scores, SID recaps, updated standings, and this week’s schedule after the jump.
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NAIA: Quarterfinal Recaps/Semifinal Previews.

Dec 2

Posted by Jon Morse in Division News and Notes, NAIA | Comments off

Notes on the quarterfinal round of the NAIA playoffs and previews and predictions for the semifinals are after the jump. Please note: the full recaps I’ve been writing will not appear from this point forward. Real life interferes, and frankly I feel as though I’m just digesting a box score. I’d rather talk about the game. I came to this realization last weekend, but forged ahead on FCS and D-II for continuity’s sake; realizing that time was catching up made the decision for me.

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NAIA: Week 13 Quick Roundup.

Nov 30

Posted by Jon Morse in Division News and Notes, NAIA | Comments off

Three of the top four teams are still alive and kicking, and in the semifinals. Scores, SID recaps, updated standings, and this week’s schedule after the jump.
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