As of this moment, no team has actually officially clinched a berth in the post-season in any of the lower divisions, but that’s about to change. To save me discussing the ins and outs of playoff selection for each division every week, I’m providing you a handy summary of the process right here, after the jump.
Posts Tagged d3
Playoff Primer 2011.
Oct 25
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
There’s just no way I’m going to get to the remaining recaps for this week before tonight’s action, so I’m going to cover my own ass here and touch on the Thursday/Friday action in the remaining divisions, which will give me until Saturday to get back on track. On the other hand, I suppose this means I can get more in depth on these four games than I would in the full recaps, so consider it bonus coverage.
There are no NAIA games this week prior to Saturday; just two D-II games Thursday and two D-III games on Friday.
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
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
Since we’re actually (gasp) caught up, and I got all four previews up before a single game had been played at any level this week (oh, my), I actually have time to tinker with ideas. So today, I thought I’d take a peek at the differences between the divisions on paper. I’m using the Massey Ratings for this, since Richard includes every team down through the NAIA, and has a formula separate from the one he provides to the BCS in which he does include margin of victory.
Naturally, there’s not really anything surprising here. I will argue as to the aesthetic superiority of the lower divisions in certain respects until I’m blue in the face, but none of those respects includes “quality of play”. Mostly, this is just a fun look at how things compare both on average and on the margins.
Read the rest of this entry »
Conference play really starts to get moving, and some races are already starting to gel.
Several key games this week:
#2 Mount Union at #24 Ohio Northern*
2-2 Saint John’s (MN) at #3 Saint Thomas (MN)
#19 Louisiana at #4 Mary Hardin-Baylor
#7 Wheaton (IL) at 3-0 Illinois Wesleyan
#9 North Central at 3-0 Carthage
#13 Redlands at #20 Cal Lutheran
3-0 College of New Jersey at #10 Kean
4-0 Adrian at #17 Trine
3-0 North Park at 2-1 Elmhurst
3-0 Mount Saint Joseph at 3-0 Franklin
3-1 Monmouth (IL) at 3-1 Saint Norbert
3-0 Maine Maritime at 4-0 Worcester State
4-0 Endicott at 3-1 Curry
3-0 Catholic at 3-1 Hampden-Sydney
3-1 Emory & Henry at 4-0 Randolph-Macon
*grudgingly included since it’s a game between top-25 teams, but… well, find out more after the jump.
Programming note: trying another new format. I don’t know how long it will last, and since nobody’s telling me what works and doesn’t work, I am going to keep flailing away with ideas.
Saturday we had three upsets in the top 11, a slight correction within the top 5, and a whole bunch of shakedown cruises heading into conference play for most of the division. Big games for the coming week:
#3 Saint Thomas (MN) at 2-0 Concordia-Moorhead
#4 Mary Hardin-Baylor at #21 Hardin-Simmons
#8 Thomas More at 3-0 Washington & Jefferson
#9 Ohio Northern at 2-0 Muskingum
#16 Alfred at 2-0 Springfield
#23 Mississippi College at 2-0 Louisiana
2-1 Muhlenberg at 3-0 Johns Hopkins
2-1 Central (IA) at 3-0 Dubuque
For the second week in a row, a top five team stumbled. One conference appears to have decided they’re just not going to lose games, and two others can’t buy a win. The WIAC schedule for the week included seven ranked teams and four of the top five, but after the dust settled three of those teams weren’t ranked anymore.
Big games to keep an eye on this week:
#7 Wheaton (IL) at Wisconsin-Platteville
#18 Kean at #11 Cortland State
Pacific Lutheran at #19 Cal Lutheran
#21 Wittenberg at Washington (MO)
Lebanon Valley at #25 Delaware Valley
Lycoming at Widener
Bridgewater State at Plymouth State
Read the rest of this entry »
A top five team chooses their opening opponent poorly, an entire conference loses their openers, and one game never even finishes. All the info after this.
Read the rest of this entry »