{"id":18,"date":"2010-10-13T10:37:09","date_gmt":"2010-10-13T15:37:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/?p=18"},"modified":"2010-10-21T11:41:06","modified_gmt":"2010-10-21T16:41:06","slug":"division-iii-week-seven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/2010\/10\/13\/division-iii-week-seven\/","title":{"rendered":"Division III: Week Seven."},"content":{"rendered":"

As I stated in the introductory post, Division III is very well covered by two fantastic sites, D3football.com<\/a> and D3hoops.com<\/a>.\u00a0 If you’re really interested in digging deeper, I cannot, cannot, cannot<\/strong><\/em> recommend them more highly.<\/p>\n

My attempt at ranking the conferences in Division III simply does not work, unfortunately.\u00a0 Here’s the problem: there are only 40 voters in the AFCA D-III poll.\u00a0 There are 38 D-III football conferences, plus the independents.\u00a0 There are 25 slots on each ballot.<\/p>\n

I’m sure you can see the problem now.\u00a0 Using my rankings, five conferences plus the independents would score a big fat zero, and another 8 conferences would have scores so low that they’re completely irrelevant — including one that actually has a ranked team.<\/p>\n

So we’re not using that method here; indeed, I’m not even going to bother posting it as a comment like I did with Division II.\u00a0 Massey it is.<\/p>\n

Massey’s rankings<\/a> of Division III conferences:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Empire 8 (-.119)<\/li>\n
  2. Illinois and Wisconsin (-.275)<\/li>\n
  3. Wisconsin (-.301)<\/li>\n
  4. American Southwest (-.389)<\/li>\n
  5. Northwest (-.407)<\/li>\n
  6. Minnesota (-.412)<\/li>\n
  7. Ohio (-.426)<\/li>\n
  8. Middle Atlantic (-.493)<\/li>\n
  9. Atlantic Central (-.531)<\/li>\n
  10. Southern California (-.537)<\/li>\n
  11. Centennial (-.610)<\/li>\n
  12. New Jersey (-.636)<\/li>\n
  13. Iowa (-.659)<\/li>\n
  14. Southern (-.715)<\/li>\n
  15. University (-.747)<\/li>\n
  16. Old Dominion (-.779)<\/li>\n
  17. Liberty (-.811)<\/li>\n
  18. Presidents’ (-.909)<\/li>\n
  19. independents (-.941)<\/li>\n
  20. Heartland (-1.009)<\/li>\n
  21. Michigan (-1.045)<\/li>\n
  22. North Coast (-1.097)<\/li>\n
  23. USA South (-1.112)<\/li>\n
  24. Midwest (-1.241)<\/li>\n
  25. New England FC (-1.287)<\/li>\n
  26. Eastern CFC (-1.343)<\/li>\n
  27. Northern (-1.486)<\/li>\n
  28. Upper Midwest (-1.656)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Whew.\u00a0 Note that the New England Small College Athletic Conference, which we will get to later, does not play any<\/em> non-conference games.\u00a0 They also don’t participate in the playoffs, so they’re on their own little island, unconnected from anyone else.\u00a0 Thus, they aren’t in the above list.<\/p>\n

    You’ll note, looking at the numbers, that the conferences don’t easily tier.\u00a0 That’s because their ratings are all based off Massey’s zero point.\u00a0 To put this in perspective for you, New Mexico — clearly the absolute nadir of Division I FBS — would beat the average Empire 8 team by about 17 points.\u00a0 They’d beat the average Upper Midwest team by about 56.\u00a0 That’s the scale we’re really talking about here; these conferences, on average, are separated by no more than a point or two at each rung on the ladder, and there aren’t really any large gaps between groups.<\/p>\n

    That said, just eyeballing the list I can tell you that some conferences are not where they “should” be, historically.\u00a0 Ohio and Old Dominion are both well below their usual performance.\u00a0 New Jersey’s a little light.\u00a0 Centennial’s a little high.<\/p>\n

    So, with that, here’s a look at the AFCA Division III Top 25<\/a>, and on we go to recaps:<\/p>\n

    NESCAC<\/strong>: I’m putting them first, because even though there’s absolutely no basis for comparison, a lot of people think that if they jumped into the fray they’d wallop non-conference competition.\u00a0 That, and doing them first ensures I don’t forget to do them last.\u00a0 But considering the conferences that had no teams receiving votes, I’ll suggest that the fact that two NESCAC teams did<\/em> receive votes this week means they’re closer to the top than the bottom.<\/p>\n

    Those two teams, Amherst and Williams, are tied atop the standings at 3-0.\u00a0 Saturday, Amherst hosts Colby and Williams entertains Middlebury; both of the visitors are 1-2.\u00a0 Wesleyan visits Bates, Bowdoin visits Hamilton, and Tufts is at Trinity (CT).<\/p>\n

    Empire 8<\/strong>: Four of the six teams in this league went undefeated in non-conference play.\u00a0 That answer any questions you might have had as to why they’re ranked atop the list?\u00a0 #17 St. John Fisher (6-0, 2-0) hosts Hartwick (2-3, 0-2), while #21 Alfred (5-0, 2-0) has a non-conference meeting at Rensselaer.\u00a0 Utica (5-1, 0-1) visits Springfield (4-1, 0-1), and Ithaca (4-1, 1-1) is idle.<\/p>\n

    College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin<\/strong>:\u00a0 Six of the eight CCIW teams went unbeaten out of conference.\u00a0 The top two teams play the bottom two Saturday; #6 North Central (5-0, 2-0) hosts Millikin (3-2, 0-2), and #13 Wheaton (IL) (5-0, 2-0) entertains North Park (2-3, 0-2).\u00a0 Both will likely remain unbeaten.\u00a0 In the middle, where three teams are 4-1 overall, Augustana (IL) is at Carthage while Elmhurst visits Illinois Wesleyan.<\/p>\n

    Wisconsin<\/strong>: Actually sort of an off year for the Wiskies, but still acceptable.\u00a0 #1 Whitewater (5-0, 2-0) visits Eau Claire.\u00a0 Platteville travels to La Crosse, Stevens Point visits Stout, and Oshkosh has a road non-conference tilt against NAIA Lambuth.\u00a0 River Falls has the weekend off.<\/p>\n

    American Southwest<\/strong>: #4 Mary Hardin-Baylor (5-0, 4-0) already has a commanding lead here, because they’ve already knocked off their closest rival, #12 Hardin-Simmons (5-1, 3-1).\u00a0 That effectively gives MHB a game-and-a-half lead on the field with four conference games left to go as they head to Southern Oregon (NAIA) for a non-conference clash.\u00a0 Hardin-Simmons hosts Sul Ross State, while East Texas Baptist visits Mississippi College, Texas Lutheran is at McMurry, and Howard Payne travels to Louisiana College.<\/p>\n

    Northwest<\/strong>:\u00a0 Oddly, Pacific Lutheran (4-0, 2-0) is unranked, while Linfield (3-1, 2-0) is ranked #18.\u00a0 The inevitable question raised by this will likely go unanswered this week, as Linfield hosts winless Pacific (OR) while the Lutes travel to NAIA Menlo.\u00a0 Puget Sound visits Willamette, while Lewis & Clark and Whitworth stand idle.<\/p>\n

    Minnesota<\/strong>: One of the biggest surprises of the year is the current situation in which St. John’s (MN) — one of the all-time great teams in Division III history — finds themselves: (3-3, 2-2).\u00a0 They’ve got the week off to think about it.\u00a0 #5 St. Thomas (6-0, 4-0) does not; they should win easily at Hamline.\u00a0 Also unbeaten is #23 Bethel (5-0, 3-0), who will be at home hoping to deliver a killing blow to the title hopes of third-place Gustavus Adolphus (3-2, 2-1).\u00a0 St. Thomas and Bethel will sort it all out between themselves next weekend.\u00a0 In other games, Concordia-Moorhead visits Augsburg and Saint Olaf travels to Carleton.<\/p>\n

    Ohio<\/strong>: Let’s get something straight right away: #2 Mount Union (5-0, 4-0) has not won all but one regular season game in the last fifteen years because they’re a big fish in a small pond.\u00a0 This is a very, very good conference, which usually gets a second team into the playoffs (and that team usually wins in the first round).\u00a0 Mount Union is not Boise State; Mount Union is Alabama if Alabama ran the table every year in the SEC.\u00a0 The OAC went 7-3 in their non-conference games this year.\u00a0 Saturday, Mount Union hosts Heidelberg, who is 2-3 only because they’re 1-3 in conference.\u00a0 They’re tied for the league lead with Baldwin-Wallace (5-0, 4-0), who sits just outside the top 25 by seven vote points.\u00a0 They’ll travel to Ohio Northern (4-1, 3-1, 3rd place) this week to try and keep pace.\u00a0 Otterbein visits Capital, John Carroll heads to Muskingum, and the two worst teams in the conference play as Marietta is at winless Wilmington.<\/p>\n

    Middle Atlantic<\/strong>:\u00a0 Four-way tie for first, four-way tie for last.\u00a0 It’s like a tournament!\u00a0 By Sunday, that’ll be four two-way ties for first (3-0), third (2-1), fifth (1-2), and last (0-3), as the 2-0 teams fight amongst themselves and let the 0-2 teams do whatever they’re going to do.\u00a0 In the winner’s bracket, #11 Delaware Valley is at Wilkes while Widener visits Lycoming; on the consolation side Kings travels to Albright and FDU-Florham heads to Lebanon Valley.<\/p>\n

    Atlantic Central<\/strong>: The first conference on our list with no automatic bid, as they only have four members (one of which isn’t even an NCAA member).\u00a0 Despite this, the conference leader is #3 Wesley (6-0, 2-0), and they’ll make the playoffs if they win out.\u00a0 They’re at home against NAIA Southern Virginia this week before a bye week and a showdown with Salisbury which will decide the conference title, period (and Salisbury, currently 4-1, might make the playoffs in Wesley’s stead should they <\/em>win out).\u00a0 The rest of the conference is in non-conference action as well, with Salisbury hosting Huntingdon and Frostburg State traveling to Washington and Jefferson.\u00a0 Newport News Apprentice is off this week.<\/p>\n

    Southern California<\/strong>: Occidental and #25 Cal Lutheran are tied for the lead (4-1, 2-0).\u00a0 They meet in the season finale; for now, Oxy hosts Pomona-Pitzer and CLU entertains La Verne.\u00a0 Claremont-M-S visits Redlands, while Whittier hosts Chapman in a non-conference tilt.<\/p>\n

    Centennial<\/strong>: Nobody’s ranked, yet Ursinus (5-0, 4-0) is unbeaten.\u00a0 They’re tied with Muhlenberg (4-1, 4-0) atop the standings.\u00a0 Ursinus hosts Johns Hopkins, while Muhlenberg is at McDaniel.\u00a0 Both opponents are 3-1 in conference, as is Franklin & Marshall, who travels to Moravian.\u00a0 Dickinson at Susquehanna and Gettysburg at Juniata round out the slate.<\/p>\n

    New Jersey<\/strong>:\u00a0 Yes, yes, half the conference isn’t even in New Jersey.\u00a0 Good teams here, but the bottom half is terrible, hence their low ranking.\u00a0 #14 Montclair State (5-0, 4-0) hosts Buffalo State, while #19 Cortland State (5-0, 5-0) visits Rowan (4-1, 3-1).\u00a0 William Paterson (4-1, 3-1 as well) travels to Brockport State.\u00a0 The rest of the schedule is dregs; winless Western Connecticut State visits Kean, and College of New Jersey heads to Morrisville State in a clash of 1-4 teams.<\/p>\n

    Iowa<\/strong>: Strong top, middling middle, bad bottom.\u00a0 That’s pretty much exactly how you end up in the middle of the conference rankings, right?\u00a0 Division III Game of the Week candidate: #8 Coe hosts #24 Wartburg, both 5-0\/3-0 and tied for first place.\u00a0 Winner’s got the inside track on the auto-bid.\u00a0 #15 Central (5-1, 3-1) visits fourth-place Luther, and the loser’s pretty much done.\u00a0 Buena Vista at Cornell (IA) and Simpson at Dubuque round out conference action; Loras is idle.<\/p>\n

    Southern<\/strong>: DePauw (5-0, 4-0) has already basically run away with it, and yet they’re unranked.\u00a0 They’ve already beaten the three teams immediately behind them, and their remaining conference games appear to be cakewalks.\u00a0 This week, however, they’ll be at home against Adrian in a non-conference game.\u00a0 Millsaps will visit Rhodes in an attempt to get back within a game of DePauw; Centre, also a game and a half back, has no such opportunity, as they’re idle.\u00a0 Trinity (TX) visits Sewanee (holla SEC!) and Birmingham-Southern (uh, holla Big South?) hosts Austin.<\/p>\n

    University<\/strong>: The Nerdy Nine is only the Freaky Four in football, and therefore gets no automatic bid.\u00a0 Conference play has not yet begun.\u00a0 Case Western (5-0) travels out-of-conference at Hiram; Washington (MO) (3-2) likewise visits Wooster.\u00a0 Carnegie-Mellon and Chicago (holla Big Integer!), both 4-2, are idle.<\/p>\n

    Old Dominion<\/strong>:\u00a0 For those unfamiliar, the ODAC is the official host of both the Stagg Bowl (the D-III football championship) and<\/em> the D-III Men’s Basketball Tournament.\u00a0 Generally, they perform at a level one would expect from a conference entrusted with such important things.\u00a0 Eyeballing their standings and schedules, I think their ranking’s a little slight here, although winless Guilford isn’t helping matters.\u00a0 At the top, three teams are tied.\u00a0 #20 Hampden-Sydney (6-0, 2-0) hosts Emory & Henry (4-2, 0-2), while the other two tee off; #22 Randolph-Macon (6-0, 2-0) visits Washington & Lee (3-2, 2-0).\u00a0 Bridgewater (4-1, 0-1) gets the chance to right the ship against the aforementioned Guilford (0-5, 0-1), while Catholic (2-4, 0-2) takes the weekend off.<\/p>\n

    Liberty League<\/strong>: Frankly, they’re ranked too high.\u00a0 I’m not even going to qualify that statement as an opinion.\u00a0 St. Lawrence (2-4, 2-0) leads the pack, and they’ll be facing second-place Union (2-2, 2-1) with the winner taking (or retaining) sole possession of the lead.\u00a0 Merchant Marine (or King’s Point, whatever makes you more comfortable) visits Rochester for a pillow fight, while Rensselaer hosts #21 Alfred in a non-conference match.\u00a0 Hobart and Worcester Poly are idle.<\/p>\n

    Presidents’<\/strong>: #9 Thomas More (5-0, 3-0) is in charge, with a win in hand over their closest rival, Washington & Jefferson (3-2, 3-1).\u00a0 TMC hosts Saint Vincent in a should-win, while W&J hosts Frostburg State in a non-con.\u00a0 A game back of TMC, Bethany visits winless Thiel while Waynesburg hosts fairly innocuous Westminster (PA).\u00a0 Geneva travels to Grove City for the remaining game.<\/p>\n

    Independents<\/strong>: Nothing of note here.\u00a0 None of these teams are getting at-large bids.\u00a0 Chapman (1-3) visits Whittier, Huntingdon (3-3) heads to Salisbury, and LaGrange (2-4) hosts D-II North Greenville.\u00a0 Macalester (4-2) is idle.<\/p>\n

    Heartland<\/strong>: Oh, Indiana.\u00a0 Franklin (5-1, 4-0) is in the lead, and they get a winnable one at Manchester Saturday.\u00a0 On their heels is Hanover (4-2, 3-1); they’re idle.\u00a0 Franklin and Hanover meet in the regular season finale.\u00a0 Defiance (2-3, 2-1) is still in the hunt, having dealt Hanover that loss; however, they’ve already lost to Franklin, so they need some help.\u00a0 They’ve got winless Earlham this week, so that’s a plus.\u00a0 Bluffton travels to Anderson and Rose-Hulman visits Mount St. Joseph in the remaining games.<\/p>\n

    Michigan<\/strong>: Very bad year for the Mitten People overall.\u00a0 Your leader is 2-4 overall.\u00a0 That’d be Hope (2-0 in conference), and they visit Albion (1-1, 2-4).\u00a0 However… sitting half a game back is the #10 team in the land, Trine (5-0, 1-0).\u00a0 They host Alma (1-5, 0-2), and probably don’t really care if they’re still half a game out come Sunday so long as it’s because both they and Hope won.\u00a0 Olivet visits Kalamazoo, and in a non-conference matchup Adrian travels to DePauw.<\/p>\n

    North Coast<\/strong>: #7 Wittenberg (6-0, 3-0) is in the lead, and hosts winless Kenyon, so I think that’s not changing.\u00a0 Wabash (4-1, 2-0) sits half a game back and entertains Oberlin; slightly tougher, but I think the conference’s two big guns will remain loaded.\u00a0 The other winless team, Ohio Wesleyan, is idle, and Wooster has a non-conference game, inviting Washington (MO) to town.\u00a0 Hiram is also out of conference, as Case Western comes to visit.\u00a0 Allegheny at Denison closes the schedule.<\/p>\n

    USA South<\/strong>: Splat.\u00a0 Averett (4-1, 2-0) hosts Maryville (TN) (1-4, 0-2); their co-leader, North Carolina Wesleyan (3-2, 2-0) hosts Christopher Newport (1-4, 1-1).\u00a0 Then we have Ferrum (1-4, 1-1) at Greensboro (1-4, 0-2), and Methodist (2-3, 1-1) at Shenandoah (1-4, 1-1).\u00a0 Yes, I included everyone’s records for a reason.\u00a0 I thought you’d like seeing “1-4” over and over and over again.<\/p>\n

    Midwest<\/strong>: Things are not normally this bad here.\u00a0 It’s not really that they’re bad, just mediocre combined with bad schedules.\u00a0 Ripon (5-1, 4-1) visits Beloit; they have the effective lead, as they defeated Carroll (WI), who has an identical record.\u00a0 Carroll hosts St. Norbert.\u00a0 Lawrence visits Grinnell, Knox travels to Illinois College, and winless Lake Forest comes to Monmouth to offer a win.<\/p>\n

    New England FC:<\/strong> Not even a vote.\u00a0 In the Bogan Division, Framingham State (5-1, 3-0) holds the lead.\u00a0 They host their closest challenger, Maine Maritime (4-1, 2-1).\u00a0 Three teams are tied in the Boyd Division, and they’re all 5-1\/3-0.\u00a0 Endicott at Plymouth State will settle part of this traffic jam.\u00a0 The third team, Western New England, hosts MIT.\u00a0 Other games: Worcester State at Bridgewater State, Coast Guard at Westfield State, Curry at Salve Regina, Fitchburg State at Mass. Maritime, and Mass-Dartmouth at winless Nichols.<\/p>\n

    Eastern CFC<\/strong>: SUNY-Maritime (6-0, 3-0) hasn’t even gotten a vote.\u00a0 Schedule’s obviously got something to do with it, and worse, the league does not have an automatic bid so they’re probably screwed.\u00a0 They host 1-5 Becker, and that’s not going to help.\u00a0 Husson visits Norwich, Gallaudet is at Mount Ida, and Castleton State travels to Anna Maria.<\/p>\n

    Northern<\/strong>: They do<\/em> have an automatic bid, and that’s probably a shame.\u00a0 The lead is shared by Benedictine (3-2, 2-0) and Concordia (WI) (2-3, 2-0); they play each other at Benedictine for sole possession.\u00a0 Concordia (IL) heads to Rockford, Aurora visits Maranatha Baptist, and Lakeland travels to Wisconsin Lutheran.<\/p>\n

    Upper Midwest<\/strong>: Well, they’re the bottom of the barrel, true.\u00a0 They still have no automatic bid, as they’re still settling in from a chaotic move from the NAIA which involved some membership shuffling.\u00a0 Greenville (3-3, 2-0) is your current leader; they host winless MacMurray, so they’re probably safe for the moment.\u00a0 Minnesota-Morris (3-2, 3-1) is technically tied, and they’ll entertain Northwestern (MN).\u00a0 Winless Eureka visits Crown, Westminster (MO) travels to Martin Luther, and St. Scholastica is idle.<\/p>\n

    Tomorrow, we’ll get to the NAIA, assuming I haven’t just given myself the worst case of arthritis ever!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    As I stated in the introductory post, Division III is very well covered by two fantastic sites, D3football.com and D3hoops.com.\u00a0 If you’re really interested in digging deeper, I cannot, cannot, cannot recommend them more highly. My attempt at ranking the conferences in Division III simply does not work, unfortunately.\u00a0 Here’s the problem: there are only […]<\/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-18","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-i","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18","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=18"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18\/revisions\/96"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}