Two teams have claimed berths in the D-III playoffs, and once again the top half of the poll remains entirely unchanged. A couple of potential conference realignment notes, and more follow the jump.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Automatic bids claimed:<\/strong><\/span> NESCAC<\/strong>: Saturday:<\/span> Amherst (6-0) at Trinity (CT) (5-1) Empire 8<\/strong>: Alfred fell out of the poll, replaced by St. John Fisher. Ithaca’s win clinched their 40th consecutive winning season.<\/p>\n Saturday:<\/span> Ithaca (6-2, 3-1) at Alfred (6-2, 3-0) CCIW<\/strong>: Saturday:<\/span> #6 North Central (8-0, 5-0) at #12 Wheaton (8-0, 5-0) Wisconsin<\/strong>: Saturday:<\/span> #1 Whitewater (8-0, 5-0) at Oshkosh (4-4, 3-2) American Southwest<\/strong>: Saturday:<\/span> #4 Mary Hardin-Baylor (8-0, 6-0) at Sul Ross State (2-6, 1-5) Northwest<\/strong>: Saturday:<\/span> Whitworth (4-4, 2-2) at #15 Linfield (6-1, 4-0) Minnesota<\/strong>: Saturday:<\/span> Carleton (3-5, 2-4) at #5 St. Thomas (MN) (9-0, 7-0) Ohio<\/strong>: Saturday:<\/span> Of course, Mount Union has won a ridiculous 99 straight regular-season road games; its last regular-season loss on the road was in 1991… to Baldwin-Wallace. They’re also on a 51-game regular-season winning streak overall. If they extend those streaks Saturday, they win the conference outright for the 19th year in a row. (Friggin’ ridiculous.)<\/p>\n #2 Mount Union (8-0, 7-0) at Baldwin-Wallace (7-1, 6-1) Middle Atlantic<\/strong>: Saturday:<\/span> #11 Delaware Valley (7-1, 5-0) at Albright (5-3, 3-2) Atlantic Central<\/strong>: Saturday:<\/span> Newport News Apprentice (2-6, 0-2) at Frostburg State (1-7, 0-1) Southern California<\/strong>: This has been a long, long time coming; this week, it was announced that back on September 30 Chapman had formally applied to join the conference. Since dropping to D-III in 1994, they’ve played every team in the league every year anyway (for the most part), as well as abiding by all conference bylaws and restrictions despite not being a member. Chapman had originally applied in 1994, but the conference declined, having just expanded and being unwilling to take on yet another new member at that time. The conference will announce its decision in April; given the school’s already existing alignment with the conference, I expect the application will easily be approved.<\/p>\n Saturday:<\/span> Chapman (4-3) at #20 Cal Lutheran (6-1, 5-0) (non-conference) Centennial<\/strong>: Gettysburg trailed 50-27 with 18 minutes to go, but scored 34 unanswered points to come away with the victory.<\/p>\n Saturday:<\/span> Ursinus (7-1, 6-1) at Muhlenberg (6-2, 6-1) New Jersey<\/strong>: Cortland scored with 1:19 to go on a 19-yard TD pass from Dan Pitcher to Mike Humphrey to come back, and a last-ditch 30-yard field goal attempt by Montclair’s Jake Delvento veered wide left to preserve the mild upset. The loss removed the final undefeated Pool A team from the East Region. New Jersey coach Eric Hamilton picked up career win #200 in the win over WCSU.<\/p>\n Saturday:<\/span> In other words, I sure hope someone loses and solves the problem.<\/p>\n William Paterson (4-4, 3-4) at #22 Cortland State (7-1, 7-1) Iowa<\/strong>: Cornell applied this week for readmission to the Midwest Conference, which they had left in 1997 to join the IIAC. Their reasons, aside from the usual public-relations spiel about relationships and whatnot, probably have a lot to do with 11 losing seasons in the last 12 and a 1-36 conference record over the last five seasons.<\/p>\n Saturday:<\/span> #13t Wartburg (9-0, 6-0) at #16 Central (IA) (8-1, 6-1) Southern<\/strong>: Saturday:<\/span> Austin (4-3, 2-2) at #21 DePauw (8-0, 5-0) University<\/strong>: Case had won 38 consecutive regular-season contests before being upset by the Maroons.<\/p>\n Saturday:<\/span> Chicago (6-2, 1-0) at Carnegie-Mellon (4-4, 0-1) Old Dominion<\/strong>: Hampden-Sydney extended their regular-season winning streak to 18 with their win over winless Guilford.<\/p>\n Saturday:<\/span> #17 Hampden-Sydney (8-0, 4-0) at Washington & Lee (6-2, 5-0) Liberty League<\/strong>: Saturday:<\/span> St. Lawrence (4-4, 4-0) at Rochester (2-5, 1-3) Presidents’<\/strong>: Saturday:<\/span> #9 Thomas More (8-0, 6-0) at Waynesburg (6-2, 4-1) Heartland<\/strong>: Saturday:<\/span> Earlham (0-8, 0-6) at #23 Franklin (7-1, 6-0) Michigan<\/strong>: Saturday:<\/span> #8 Trine (8-0, 4-0) at Kalamazoo (3-6, 2-3) North Coast<\/strong>: Saturday:<\/span> According to the most recent information I have regarding the NCAC tiebreaker, the first tiebreak which would be relevant in the case of the three-way tie goes to the team which had the highest power ranking used to construct the conference schedule (which serves as a proxy for strength of schedule). I believe<\/em>, but cannot confirm, that this means Wabash would get the bid. Don’t hold me to that.<\/p>\n Wabash (7-1, 5-0) at #7 Wittenberg (8-0, 4-0) USA South<\/strong>: Saturday:<\/span> Christopher Newport (4-4, 4-1) at Maryville (TN) (3-5, 2-3) Midwest<\/strong>: As reported above, Cornell is applying to rejoin the conference. St. Norbert emerged from the week’s in-conference carnage with sole possession of first place, which did a lot to sort out the conference race.<\/p>\n Saturday:<\/span> If Carroll, Lake Forest, Illinois College, Lawrence, and Knox win, and<\/em> Carroll leads all four quarters against Grinnell, and<\/em> St. Norbert doesn’t lead a single quarter against Lake Forest… then Carroll gets the auto-bid. Any other situation, and St. Norbert gets it one way or another, primarily because the only three-loss team with the head-to-head tiebreaker over SNC is Illinois College, and they can’t be in a two-way tie with St. Norbert because either Grinnell or Carroll is also going to finish at 6-3 in conference.<\/p>\n \/exhale<\/p>\n Lake Forest (2-7, 2-6) at St. Norbert (6-3, 6-2) New England FC<\/strong>: One casualty of my time-crunch last week is that I was unable to report something tragic that occurred last week: Maine Maritime’s Admiral’s Cup victory over Mass Maritime was dampened by the news that assistant coach Richard Dykas had been killed early on Sunday morning after that game in a single-car accident near Penobscot. Condolences to his family and to the Mariner community.<\/p>\n Saturday:<\/span> Anyway, next week, the winners meet to determine the conference auto-bid, which is the important part.<\/p>\n Boyd Division<\/em> Eastern CFC<\/strong>: Saturday:<\/span> SUNY-Maritime (9-0, 6-0) at Gallaudet (5-4, 3-3) Northern<\/strong>: Nobody won at home this week, oddly.<\/p>\n Saturday:<\/span> Rockford (0-8, 0-5) at Benedictine (IL) (6-2, 5-0) Upper Midwest<\/strong>: Thursday:<\/span> Eureka (1-7, 1-4) at Greenville (6-3, 5-0) Independents<\/strong>: Saturday:<\/span> Macalester (5-3) at Martin Luther (5-3) Two teams have claimed berths in the D-III playoffs, and once again the top half of the poll remains entirely unchanged. A couple of potential conference realignment notes, and more follow the jump.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,7],"tags":[11],"class_list":["post-144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-division-iii","category-division-news-and-notes","tag-d3"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p185sV-2k","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":148,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144\/revisions\/148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nSt. Thomas (MN) (Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference)<\/em>
\nDePauw (Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference)<\/em><\/p>\n
\nat Amherst 70, Tufts 49
\nWilliams 38, at Hamilton 7
\nat Trinity (CT) 25, Middlebury 10
\nat Wesleyan 41, Bowdoin 7
\nColby 10, at Bates 6<\/p>\n
\nThe NESCAC has no tiebreakers, so it’s still very much in the air as to who gets to call themselves champions. Amherst can clear that up quite decisively with a win this week, which would knock Trinity out of contention altogether and leave Amherst-Williams as the deciding game.<\/p>\n
\nWesleyan (4-2) at Williams (6-0)
\nColby (3-3) at Tufts (1-5)
\nMiddlebury (2-4) at Hamilton (1-5)
\nBates (1-5) at Bowdoin (1-5)<\/p>\n
\nRochester 24, at #25 Alfred 14 (non-conference)
\nat St. John Fisher 38, Frostburg State 6 (non-conference)
\nat Springfield 39, Hartwick 20
\nat Ithaca 30, Utica 6<\/p>\n
\nAlfred can clinch the conference title with a win over Ithaca. If that doesn’t happen, we’ll have to rely on the Alfred-Utica game next week; an Alfred win creates a three-way transitive tie, while an Alfred loss would give St. John Fisher the title… unless Fisher loses this week, in which case Ithaca gets it.<\/p>\n
\nSpringfield (6-2, 2-2) at #25 St. John Fisher (8-1, 3-1)
\nUtica (5-3, 0-3) at Hartwick (2-5, 0-4)<\/p>\n
\n#6 North Central 47, at Elmhurst 13
\n#12 Wheaton 20, at Augustana (IL) 14
\nat Illinois Wesleyan 24, Millikin 14
\nat Carthage 23, North Park 10<\/p>\n
\nThe conference title and automatic bid get decided on Saturday as the unbeaten behemoths collide. The loser still has a good chance at an at-large invitation, but in Division III you never, ever want to risk that.<\/p>\n
\nCarthage (5-3, 2-3) at Illinois Wesleyan (6-2, 3-2)
\nAugustana (IL) (5-3, 3-2) at Elmhurst (5-3, 2-3)
\nMillikin (3-5, 0-5) at North Park (2-6, 0-5)<\/p>\n
\nat #1 Whitewater 27, Stevens Point 14
\nat Platteville 38, River Falls 17
\nLa Crosse 29, at Stout 28
\nat Eau Claire 20, Oshkosh 14<\/p>\n
\nWhitewater is going to want to win this week to put this to bed, as a loss puts them at risk of finishing tied with Oshkosh, which would of course be bad. (For them.) Even if they lose this week, though, they can still secure the title by winning next week.<\/p>\n
\nStevens Point (5-3, 3-2) at River Falls (0-8, 0-5)
\nStout (4-4, 2-3) at Platteville (5-3, 3-2)
\nEau Claire (4-4, 2-3) at La Crosse (2-6, 2-3)<\/p>\n
\nat #4 Mary Hardin-Baylor 45, Howard Payne 3
\nat #10 Hardin-Simmons 34, McMurry 13
\nat Louisiana College 38, Texas Lutheran 21
\nat Mississippi College 38, Sul Ross State 21
\nEast Texas Baptist idle<\/p>\n
\nMH-B wins the title with a win in either of their last two games. They should have an easier time accomplishing that than Hardin-Simmons will have winning their one remaining game, so pencil this one in.<\/p>\n
\nLouisiana College (5-3, 5-1) at McMurry (5-3, 3-3)
\nMississippi College (4-4, 2-4) at Texas Lutheran (3-5, 2-4)
\nEast Texas Baptist (3-5, 2-4) at Howard Payne (2-7, 1-6)
\n#10 Hardin-Simmons (8-1, 6-1) idle<\/p>\n
\nat #16 Linfield 38, Menlo 0 (non-conference)
\nPacific Lutheran 35, at Lewis & Clark 23
\nWillamette 28, at Whitworth 12
\nat Puget Sound 42, Pacific (OR) 31<\/p>\n
\nLinfield can salt away the title with a win over Whitworth or at L&C next week, or single losses by both PLU and Willamette (one of which is guaranteed next week, as the two play at PLU).<\/p>\n
\nPacific Lutheran (6-1, 3-1) at Pacific (OR) (0-7, 0-5)
\nLewis & Clark (4-3, 2-2) at Willamette (6-2, 3-1)
\nPuget Sound (2-6, 1-4) idle<\/p>\n
\n#5 St. Thomas (MN) 43, at Gustavus Adolphus 6
\nat #22 Bethel (MN) 36, Concordia-Moorhead 20
\nSt. John’s (MN) 31, at Carleton 13
\nSt. Olaf 42, at Hamline 10
\nAugsburg idle<\/p>\n
\nFinis. The Tommies claimed the conference title and the auto-bid with their win at Gustavus.<\/p>\n
\n#19 Bethel (MN) (7-1, 5-1) at Hamline (1-7, 0-6)
\nSt. John’s (MN) (5-3, 4-2) at St. Olaf (6-2, 4-2)
\nGustavus Adolphus (3-5, 2-4) at Augsburg (3-5, 1-5)
\nConcordia-Moorhead (4-5, 3-4) idle<\/p>\n
\n#2 Mount Union 28, at Otterbein 10
\n#14 Ohio Northern 45, at Marietta 6
\nBaldwin-Wallace 27, at Muskingum 16
\nJohn Carroll 28, at Capital 20
\nHeidelberg 36, at Wilmington 3<\/p>\n
\nA Baldwin-Wallace win Saturday would lead to a potential three-way tie. In terms of the conference championship, there would be co-champions, as the OAC does not use tiebreakers to settle that issue. However, they do have to use them to determine the automatic playoff bid. In the OAC, a tie involving more than two teams is settled by a vote of the league coaches not involved in the tie… which could be very interesting, as the league could conceivably try to game the system a bit by giving the auto-bid to B-W or ONU, and then dare the D-III committee to leave Mount Union at home.<\/p>\n
\nWilmington (0-8, 0-7) at #13t Ohio Northern (7-1, 6-1)
\nJohn Carroll (4-4, 4-3) at Heidelberg (4-4, 3-4)
\nOtterbein (4-4, 3-4) at Marietta (2-6, 1-6)
\nCapital (3-5, 3-4) at Muskingum (3-5, 2-5)<\/p>\n
\nat #11 Delaware Valley 51, Kings 7
\nat Wilkes 31, Lycoming 14
\nat Lebanon Valley 42, Widener 38
\nAlbright 41, at FDU-Florham 15<\/p>\n
\nDelVal would win the conference title with a win at Albright Saturday, or a win over Widener next week. It’s a safe bet.<\/p>\n
\nWilkes (5-3, 4-1) at Widener (3-5, 2-3)
\nLebanon Valley (4-4, 3-2) at Lycoming (5-3, 3-2)
\nFDU-Florham (3-5, 0-5) at Kings (0-8, 0-5)<\/p>\n
\n#3 Wesley 17, at Salisbury 14
\nat St. John Fisher 38, Frostburg State 6 (non-conference)
\nat LaGrange 21, Newport News Apprentice 14 (non-conference)<\/p>\n
\nWesley took the crown with their win over Salisbury. Their fate is now in the hands of the selection committee, as the ACFC has no automatic bid. Assuming they beat Kean at home next week, they shouldn’t lose much sleep over it, as they’re probably a shoo-in.<\/p>\n
\n#3 Wesley (8-0, 3-0) and Salisbury (6-2, 1-1) idle<\/p>\n
\n#20 Cal Lutheran 41, at Claremont-M-S 14
\nat Chapman 28, Occidental 24 (non-conference)
\nWhittier 37, at Pomona-Pitzer 17
\nRedlands 27, at LaVerne 7<\/p>\n
\nCal Lutheran would clinch the conference title this week with an Occidental loss, or next week by beating Oxy themselves. Should both Redlands and Oxy win this week, there would be a three-way transitive tie if Oxy then defeated CLU; I do not know what the SCIAC procedure is in this situation, and therefore I don’t know whether Redlands even has a chance to claim the auto-bid. If point differential in games among the tied teams is relevant, Redlands has a very good chance; they barely lost to CLU, but stomphammered Occidental. They’ve also got a good chance if overall record is in play.<\/p>\n
\nRedlands (6-1, 4-1) at Whittier (2-5, 1-3)
\nClaremont-M-S (5-2, 2-2) at Occidental (4-3, 3-1)
\nPomona-Pitzer (0-7, 0-4) at La Verne (0-7, 0-4)<\/p>\n
\nat Moravian 24, #21 Ursinus 17
\nMuhlenberg 26, at Dickinson 13
\nat Franklin & Marshall 31, McDaniel 28
\nat Johns Hopkins 48, Juniata 0
\nat Gettysburg 61, Susquehanna 50<\/p>\n
\nMoravian’s upset win now means that there are all kinds<\/em> of possibilities here. Ursinus would win the conference title with a win over Muhlenberg, but that is by no means a certainty. Should Muhlenberg win, they would capture the title if Johns Hopkins beats F&M, as Muhlenberg would then have the tiebreaker over both Ursinus and Hopkins. If F&M and Muhlenberg win, things get very messy.<\/p>\n
\nJohns Hopkins (5-3, 5-2) at Franklin & Marshall (6-2, 5-2)
\nGettysburg (5-3, 4-3) at McDaniel (4-4, 3-4)
\nDickinson (2-6, 2-5) at Juniata (0-8 ,0-8)
\nSusquehanna (1-8, 1-8) at Worcester Tech (3-5) (non-conference)
\nMoravian (5-4, 5-3) idle<\/p>\n
\nat Cortland State 10, #13 Montclair State 9
\nat Rowan 34, Morrisville State 21
\nBuffalo State 34, at William Paterson 20
\nat Kean 34, Brockport State 14
\nNew Jersey 22, at Western Connecticut State 16<\/p>\n
\nMontclair had been in the driver’s seat since winning their first conference game of the season over Rowan, and it all went down the drain on Saturday with the loss to Cortland. Now, the three teams are locked in a three-way transitive tie. They’ll be declared co-champions should they finish tied. The next tiebreaker for the auto-bid is results vs. 4th, 5th, so on; this would be irrelevant should they all win out, but very relevant should they all lose once (or twice). That leaves opponents’ opponents’ winning percentage, which is just way to complex to get into; I can report that at this moment<\/em>, that tiebreaker would favor Cortland State.<\/p>\n
\nBrockport State (2-6, 2-5) at #24 Montclair State (7-1, 6-1)
\nWestern Connecticut State (0-8, 0-7) at Rowan (7-1, 6-1)
\nNew Jersey (4-4, 4-3) at Kean (5-3, 5-3)
\nMorrisville State (1-7, 1-6) at Buffalo State (2-6, 2-5)<\/p>\n
\nat #15 Wartburg 24, Luther 18
\n#17 Central (IA) 35, at Buena Vista 7
\nat #19 Coe 34, Loras 6
\nSimpson 21, at Cornell (IA) 13
\nDubuque idle<\/p>\n
\nWartburg wins the conference title with a victory over Central. A Central win and a Coe loss gives Central the title, while if Central and Coe both win that sets up a possible three-way transitive tie. For determining the auto-bid, the first tiebreaker after head-to-head in IIAC is to eliminate the team which was in the playoffs most recently. Both Coe and Central made the field last year; it’s not clear whether that means they would both be eliminated (giving Wartburg the clear advantage), or whether it would only be Coe, who advanced further in the playoffs last year (giving Central the advantage).<\/p>\n
\nBuena Vista (3-5, 2-4) at #18 Coe (7-1, 5-1)
\nDubuque (3-5, 2-4) at Luther (4-4, 3-3)
\nCornell (IA) (0-8, 0-6) at Loras (3-5, 2-4)
\nSimpson (2-7, 2-5) idle<\/p>\n
\nat #24 DePauw 30, Birmingham-Southern 23 (not a conference game yet)
\nat Millsaps 30, Sewanee 0
\nat Rhodes 38, Centre 31
\nat Huntingdon 56, Trinity (TX) 30 (non-conference)
\nAustin idle<\/p>\n
\nDePauw had already clinched the conference title and the auto-bid last week.<\/p>\n
\nTrinity (TX) (3-5, 1-3) at Centre (4-4, 2-3)
\nBirmingham-Southern (5-3, n\/a) at Rhodes (3-5, 2-3) (not a conference game yet)
\nMillsaps (6-3, 5-1) and Sewanee (1-8, 0-5) idle<\/p>\n
\nat Chicago 24, #23 Case Western 20
\nat Washington (MO) 20, Carnegie-Mellon 13<\/p>\n
\nThe very nature of the UAA makes it impossible to determine a champion until the final week, so we’ll just wait and see what’s up come Saturday.<\/p>\n
\nWashington (MO) (6-2, 1-0) at Case Western (7-1, 0-1)<\/p>\n
\nWashington & Lee 49, at Catholic 14 (Friday)
\nat #18 Hampden-Sydney 49, Guilford 20
\nat Bridgewater 24, Emory & Henry 10
\nRandolph-Macon idle<\/p>\n
\nWashington & Lee wins the title if they beat Hampden-Sydney Saturday. If Hampden-Sydney wins and RMC loses, HSC wins the title. If HSC and RMC win, things get a little more complicated. HCS would win the title with a victory over RMC next week. If RMC were to win, the tiebreaker goes to point differential in games between the three teams, and there’s no point trying to analyze that until next week.<\/p>\n
\nBridgewater (6-2, 2-2) at Randolph-Macon (7-1, 3-1)
\nCatholic (3-5, 1-3) at Guilford (0-8, 0-4)
\nEmory & Henry (4-5, 0-5) idle<\/p>\n
\nat Rensselaer 21, Union (NY) 7
\nat Hobart 38, Worcester Tech 13
\nRochester 24, at #25 Alfred 14 (non-conference)
\nMerchant Marine and St. Lawrence idle<\/p>\n
\nSt. Lawrence would win the title with a win in either of the team’s remaining two games. If they lose both games, Hobart can take the title by winning out. Otherwise, it gets too complex to talk about this week; as many as four different teams could end up at 4-2 (although it’s only possible for a three-way tie, as Rensselaer and Merchant Marine play next week).<\/p>\n
\nHobart (5-2, 3-1) at Rensselaer (4-3, 2-2)
\nMerchant Marine (3-5, 2-2) at Union (NY) (2-5, 2-3)
\nSusquehanna (1-8) at Worcester Tech (3-5, 1-4) (non-conference)<\/p>\n
\nat #9 Thomas More 37, Westminster (PA) 13
\nWaynesburg 34, at St. Vincent 28
\nat Washington & Jefferson 21, Grove City 14
\nGeneva 34, at Thiel 20 (not a conference game yet)
\nBethany (WV) idle<\/p>\n
\nEither Waynesburg or W&J will end up with two conference losses, and Thomas More cannot finish with more than one. That means that only the winner of the Waynesburg-W&J game has a chance, and since Thomas More has the tiebreaker over W&J, W&J is out of it. Therefore, Thomas more wins the title unless Waynesburg beats both them and W&J, in which case Waynesburg is the champion.<\/p>\n
\nWashington & Jefferson (6-2, 4-1) at Thiel (0-8, 0-5)
\nBethany (WV) (4-4, 3-2) at Grove City (3-5, 1-4)
\nSt. Vincent (2-6, 2-3) at Westminster (PA) (2-6, 1-5)
\nGeneva (4-5, n\/a) idle<\/p>\n
\nFranklin 69, at Anderson 10
\nHanover 27, at Bluffton 20
\nat Defiance 41, Rose-Hulman 21
\nat Mount St. Joseph 24, Manchester 13
\nEarlham idle<\/p>\n
\nFranklin wins the title this week with a win and a Hanover loss. If neither of those two things happen, and Defiance loses, the winner of next week’s Franklin-Hanover game is the champion. If Defiance wins, we’ll discuss the ramifications next week.<\/p>\n
\nMount St. Joseph (5-3, 4-3) at Hanover (6-2, 5-1)
\nDefiance (5-3, 5-1) at Manchester (2-6, 1-5)
\nAnderson (2-6, 2-4) at Rose-Hulman (4-4, 3-3)
\nBluffton (3-6, 2-5) idle<\/p>\n
\nat #8 Trine 51, Olivet 14
\nat Alma 35, Kalamazoo 10
\nat Albion 38, Adrian 21
\nHope idle<\/p>\n
\nNothing this week is even relevant. Next week, the winner of the Albion at Trine game wins the conference title, period.<\/p>\n
\nHope (2-6, 2-2) at Adrian (3-5, 2-2)
\nAlma (2-6, 1-3) at Olivet (0-8, 0-4)
\nAlbion (5-4, 4-1) idle<\/p>\n
\nat Wabash 20, Allegheny 3
\nat Wooster 62, Hiram 0
\nDenison 20, at Oberlin 10
\nat Ohio Wesleyan 30, Kenyon 14
\n#7 Wittenberg idle<\/p>\n
\nWe’ll assume Wooster beats Kenyon (if they don’t, the winner of the Wabash-Wittenberg game wins the auto-bid anyway). If Wabash wins this week, they win the title outright. If Wittenberg wins out, they win the title. If Wittenberg wins, then loses to Wooster, it’s a three-way tie… which gets very hairy.<\/p>\n
\nKenyon (0-8, 0-4) at Wooster (4-4, 3-1)
\nAllegheny (5-3, 3-2) at Hiram (1-7, 1-3)
\nOhio Wesleyan (1-7, 1-3) at Oberlin (3-5, 2-3)
\nDenison (3-6, 1-4) idle<\/p>\n
\nat Shenandoah 24, Averett 14
\nat North Carolina Wesleyan 56, Methodist 6
\nat Christopher Newport 27, Ferrum 21
\nMaryville (TN) 40, at Greensboro 6<\/p>\n
\nIf Newport wins and NC Wesleyan loses, CNU gets the auto-bid. Beyond that, it’s far too muddled to sort out until next week.<\/p>\n
\nNorth Carolina Wesleyan (5-3, 4-1) at Shenandoah (3-5, 3-2)
\nFerrum (3-5, 3-2) at Averett (5-3, 3-2)
\nGreensboro (1-7, 0-5) at Methodist (2-6, 1-4)<\/p>\n
\nSt. Norbert 37, at Ripon 13
\nat Grinnell 42, Illinois College 29
\nat Monmouth 16, Carroll (WI) 13 (OT)
\nat Lawrence 29, Beloit 23
\nat Lake Forest 35, Knox 6<\/p>\n
\nThe conference season concludes this week, so somebody<\/em> is going to claim the automatic bid. Obviously, if St. Norbert wins, they’re the champion. If they lose, things get ludicrously convoluted. The MWC’s second tiebreaker after head-to-head is total quarters led. And basically, as a result of that tiebreaker, there are two possibilities:<\/p>\n
\nRipon (6-2, 5-3) at Lawrence (2-7, 2-6)
\nGrinnell (6-3, 5-3) at Carroll (WI) (6-3, 5-3)
\nIllinois College (5-4, 5-3) at Beloit (4-5, 4-4)
\nMonmouth (5-4, 5-3) at Knox (1-8, 1-7)<\/p>\n
\nBogan Division<\/em>
\nMaine Maritime 35, at Bridgewater State 13
\nFramingham State 34, at Coast Guard 13
\nWestfield State 28, at Mass Maritime 14
\nat Worcester State 41, Fitchburg State 6
\nBoyd Division<\/em>
\nat Salve Regina 30, Plymouth State 14
\nat Endicott 23, Western New England 15
\nCurry 28, at Mass-Dartmouth 10
\nMIT 17, at Nichols 14<\/p>\n
\nThe season ends this week for the conference, and things are much clearer than in the Midwest, thank God. Maine Maritime wins the Bogan Division with a win and<\/em> a Framingham loss; otherwise Framingham wins. In the Boyd, Endicott will claim the title with a win or a WNE loss. If Endicott loses and WNE wins, WNE gets the crown. If Endicott, WNE, Plymouth, and Salve Regina all lose, Endicott wins the division. If MIT, UMD, Salve, and Curry win, Endicott gets the title. Finally, if MIT, UMD, Plymouth, and Nichols win… well, I don’t know what the next tiebreaker after head-to-head is, so I’m no help here.<\/p>\n
\nMIT (1-7, 0-6) at Endicott (7-2, 5-1)
\nMass-Dartmouth (3-6, 2-4) at Western New England (7-2, 5-1)
\nCurry (5-4, 3-3) at Plymouth State (6-3, 4-2)
\nNichols (1-8, 1-5) at Salve Regina (5-4, 4-2)
\nBogan Division<\/em>
\nMaine Maritime (7-1, 5-1) at Coast Guard (2-6, 1-5)
\nWorcester State (5-4, 3-3) at Framingham State (7-2, 5-1)
\nBridgewater State (5-4, 3-3) at Mass Maritime (4-5, 3-3)
\nFitchburg State (1-8, 1-5) at Westfield State (4-5, 3-3)<\/p>\n
\nat SUNY-Maritime 20, Norwich 2
\nMount Ida 25, at Husson 23
\nat Castleton 53, Becker 6
\nat Gallaudet 33, Anna Maria 6<\/p>\n
\nSUNY-Maritime won the conference title with their win over Norwich. The conference does not receive an automatic bid; that said, Maritime’s almost a lock for a Pool B invitation.<\/p>\n
\nCastleton State (5-3, 5-1) at Norwich (7-2, 4-2)
\nAnna Maria (0-9, 0-6) at Mount Ida (5-3, 4-2)
\nHusson (1-8, 1-5) at Becker (1-8, 1-5)<\/p>\n
\nBenedictine (IL) 46, at Lakeland 21
\nConcordia (IL) 49, at Maranatha Baptist 21
\nWisconsin Lutheran 13, at Concordia (WI) 12
\nAurora 36, at Rockford 7<\/p>\n
\nBenedictine will win the title if both they and Aurora win. If that doesn’t happen, things are pretty convoluted, so I’ll hold off on sorting it out until next week.<\/p>\n
\nConcordia (IL) (6-2, 4-1) at Concordia (WI) (2-6, 2-3)
\nWisconsin Lutheran (6-2, 4-1) at Aurora (6-2, 4-1)
\nLakeland (2-6, 1-4) at Maranatha Baptist (0-8, 0-5)<\/p>\n
\n(All this week’s games at the Metrodome, Minneapolis)<\/em>
\nGreenville 51, Crown 20 (Friday)
\nMacAlester 48, Minnesota-Morris 27 (Friday, non-conference)
\nMartin Luther 52, Eureka 13
\nSt. Scholastica 48, MacMurray 18
\nWestminster (MO) 27, Northwestern (MN) 9<\/p>\n
\nTrinity Bible (3-6, n\/a) at Minnesota-Morris (4-4, 4-2) (non-conference)
\nSaturday:<\/span>
\nIt’s all over; Greenville is the 2010 UMAC champion no matter what happens this week. I doubt, however, that they’re going to get a Pool B bid.<\/p>\n
\nMacalester (5-3, 4-2) at Martin Luther (5-3)
\nNorthwestern (MN) (1-7, 1-4) at St. Scholastica (5-3, 3-2)
\nWestminster (MO) (4-4, 2-3) at MacMurray (0-8, 0-5)
\nCrown (6-2, 4-2) idle<\/p>\n
\nMacAlester 48, Minnesota-Morris 27 (Friday at the Metrodome, Minneapolis)
\nat Huntingdon 56, Trinity (TX) 30
\nat Chapman 28, Occidental 24
\nat LaGrange 21, Newport News Apprentice 14<\/p>\n
\nNobody’s going to get an at-large bid here.<\/p>\n
\nChapman (4-3) at Cal Lutheran (6-1)
\nHuntingdon (5-4) at LaGrange (3-5)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"