D3football Daily Dose

ATN Podcast: Bracket breakdown

Pat Coleman — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:47:32 +0000

Thirty-two teams, 16 games and one fairly controversial Pool C decision.

What does the selection of Washington and Jefferson mean for future NCAA playoffs? What message does it send to coaches who want to schedule to help their teams get into the tournament? I think it’s fair to say Keith McMillan and Pat Coleman are more than a little concerned.

Plus, Keith and Pat break down the entire bracket and talk about all 16 first-round games, including the fact that one bracket has the No. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10 teams in the country in it? If only it had No. 1 and No. 2, it would be a men’s basketball bracket.

Yes, truth be told, it could be worse. That’s why we’re not calling it a Bracket of Death. But it’s a great bracket, with four games between teams that all have a legitimate chance of winning first-round games.

That makes this a long podcast, but hopefully worth it. At least if you’re a fan of a playoff team. Or the playoffs in general.

Click the play button below to listen.

You can load the podcast page in iTunes or can also get this and any of our future Around the Nation podcasts automatically by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://www.d3football.com/dailydose/?feed=podcast

Interview with the committee chair

Pat Coleman — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:09:51 +0000

Joy Solomen sat down with In the HuddLLe (two L’s for Liberty League, don’t ask) to talk about the Division III playoff bracket, how it was put together, and ask some of the tough questions from Frank Rossi, Pat Coleman and James Baker about the selections.

It’s an interesting conversation that any Division III fan who wants to understand the NCAA’s thought process should really listen to.

Click the play button below to listen.

ATN podcast: All the playoff info you need

Pat Coleman — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 06:07:55 +0000

Thirty-two playoff spots. Twelve are secure. How will the other 20 shake out? That’s the focus of this week’s Around the Nation podcast.

Some conferences are easy to figure, with head-to-head games lined up to decide who takes home the automatic bid. Some are a little complicated, including the potential four-way tie in the Centennial and the Northern Athletics Conference.

And then there’s the at-large bids. We identified up to 14 teams that could get consideration for Pool C bids. Problem is, there’s just six spots to go around.

Who? When? And where can you get the selection show? Yeah, that’s important. And that’s why we lead off this most important week of the Division III football season with this Around the Nation podcast.

Click the play button below to listen.

ATN podcast: QB changes, changing of the guard

Pat Coleman — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 06:11:32 +0000

Four teams clinched. A couple teams played their way out of at-large bids. A few new quarterbacks took the field and the PAC had a … wait, a not-so-new champion.

Suddenly, it seems Washington and Jefferson has lost more PAC championships than it’s won over the past five years. What happened? That’s one of many topics Keith McMillan and Pat Coleman take on in this week’s Around the Nation podcast.

In addition, get their take on the first regional rankings and a look at how they might change. Find out how a backup quarterback prepares and gets prepared for being thrust into the lineup, and how it makes a difference for everyone else on the offense. We pick up on a handful of teams that are flying below the radar but still having surprisingly strong seasons. Plus, a look back at Dome Day and Maine Maritime’s record rushing day.

Click the play button below to listen.

Game Day gets an early start

Pat Coleman — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:38:19 +0000

You had to get here pretty early in the morning to follow what might well end up being the most exciting game of the week. In the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference’s annual Dome Day, MacMurray and Crown led off with a track meet. MacMurray defeated Crown 68-62 in overtime. The game came one score from tying the Division III record for most points in regulation, which was 131, set when Earlham defeated Manchester 69-62 on Sept. 10, 2005.

Once the game got to overtime, the overall scoring record was in danger as well, which was set two years ago, when Hartwick beat Utica 72-70 in quadruple overtime on Nov. 10, 2007.

In the end, though, MacMurray came up with one stop in overtime. I spoke with MacMurray coach Jake Box after the game and the recording is below:

The UMAC has four more games here today, and then we have a hundred more on Saturday, so we’re already set to go. There’s a big game in Washington, Pa., one in Dover, Del., one in Union, N.J., one in Bloomington, Ill., and others elsewhere. The PAC automatic bid could be wrapped up on Saturday, as can the HCAC, IIAC and the MWC, while others could be clinched with a combination of a win and a loss.

The ever-traveling Craig Burroughs is here at Dome Day, who writes for Don Hansen and travels to more games than the entire D3football.com braintrust put together. (Well, close anyway. Between me, Keith, Gordon and Ryan Tipps I think we do out-do Craig, but not by much. We don’t usually see JV games and we don’t go to non-Division III games either.)

I’ll put more MacMurray-Crown observations in the comments.

ATN podcast: Showdowns, Pool B and more

Pat Coleman — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:56:41 +0000

It’s the time of year where playoff implications abound. Where conference races begin to make sense. Where it’s no time for a letdown, but occasionally it’s time for a wake-up call.

The wake-up call? That was for Centre, which got shut out by Millsaps. No letdown? That’s Wittenberg and Mississippi College. Playoff implications, all over the place, for sure.

Also, we haven’t talked about Pool B very much this year, and Keith McMillan and I explain why in this week’s Around the Nation podcast.

Click the play button below to listen.

Also, check out Otterbein’s video of their final touchdown.

ATN Podcast: Beginning to make sense

Pat Coleman — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 05:49:08 +0000

A few conference races came into focus. A few big plays decided a few big games. And we march ever closer to Selection Sunday. Keith McMillan and Pat Coleman break down the games and look at the big numbers, from 297 to 12,903.

Click the play button below to listen.

Podcast: FDU’s one-man army

Pat Coleman — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:20:11 +0000

You don’t have to look at FDU-Florham’s statistics long to know the key to the Devils’ offense. Heading into Saturday’s game at Delaware Valley, quarterback Bill Winters accounted for 345 of the team’s 420 yards per game — 270 passing, 74 running and a touch of receiving yards for good measure.

While wins have been hard to come by, records have not for Winters. He has already broken the college’s all-time records for completions and passing yards and has the touchdown record in sight. D3football.com’s Gordon Mann caught up with Winters and his coach Rich Mosca after Saturday’s game to talk about his development as a quarterback, their goals for the rest of the season and what Winters’ legacy at FDU-Florham should be.

ATN Podcast: Do we re-evaluate Mount Union?

Pat Coleman — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 05:20:01 +0000

A handful of voters switched their No. 1 vote this week, giving UW-Whitewater six nods for the top spot compared to Mount Union’s 19. But what do we make of Mount Union’s close win at Capital? What does history tell us about past Purple Raider teams?

Keith McMillan and Pat Coleman discuss that and more in this week’s Around the Nation podcast.

Click the play button below to listen.

ATN Podcast: The poll isn’t perfect

Pat Coleman — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 06:28:44 +0000

Sure, the D3football.com Top 25 teams went 25-0 on Saturday. We’re happy about that, don’t get me wrong. But that doesn’t mean the Top 25 is perfect, or that the right 25 teams are ranked, at least not in my mind and Keith’s mind.

We’re five weeks into the 2009 season. But are some teams still getting votes from some voters based on what they did in 2008? In a sense, that’s unavoidable — I mean, we all put Mount Union and UW-Whitewater up high on our ballot because of what they did in 2008 … and 2007 … and 2006 … well, anyway, you get the idea.

See, that’s the paradox of voting in a Top 25 ranking. Some things make sense in some cases, but no single rule works for all teams and all comparisons.

So why is Willamette ranked ahead of Concordia-Moorhead despite the Week 1 loss? Or, more extreme, why is Ohio Northern behind North Central? Keith and I will try to make some sense of it all in this week’s Around the Nation Podcast.

Oh, plus, one of the two podcasters changed his No. 1 vote this week. Who and why? You’ll have to listen.

Click the play button below to listen.