Last year, Thomas More rocked the PAC with a 35-29 win against Washington and Jefferson, stealing the automatic bid out from under the Presidents' nose.

This year, they did it again, holding No. 11 W&J under 30 yards of total offense in the second half and picking off three Presidents passes to win on the road, 14-7. Thomas More, ranked No. 20, became the first Division III team to clinch an automatic bid to the 2009 playoffs. Weekend scores, including game stories.

Central, Monmouth and Mount St. Joseph each clinched automatic bids as well on Saturday. Central shut out Buena Vista 17-0 to clinch the Iowa Conference automatic qualifier, Monmouth pulled away from Illinois College 44-17 to clinch the MWC and Mount St. Joseph had little trouble with Manchester to wrap up the HCAC 31-7.

No. 13 Mississippi College fell to Howard Payne 38-24 as Adam Shaffer threw five interceptions as part of seven Choctaw turnovers. No. 7 Otterbein is unbeaten no longer, struggling at Marietta without quarterback Austin Schlosser and losing 25-22 a week before its big showdown with No. 1 Mount Union. Kraig Ladd was just 23-for-48 passing but it went along with three touchdowns, including a 10-yarder to Mike Sloboda in overtime to lead Illinois Wesleyan to a 28-22 upset of No. 9 North Central. The win throws the CCIW into a three-way tie for first as Wheaton (Ill.) had little trouble with Elmhurst. No. 2 UW-Whitewater had no problem this time around with UW-Stevens Point, beating the Pointers 41-12 to avenge the only loss the Warhawks have had in the past five years of WIAC play.

Nick Bourassi set the tone with an 80-yard touchdown run on Maine Maritime's first play from scrimmage and the Mariners ran out to a Division III record for rushing yards in a 76-49 win at Coast Guard. They rolled up 730 yards on 63 carries to obliterate the mark of 670 set by Olivet in 2004, led by Bourassi's 217 yards on just nine carries. Coast Guard's Jon Resch came off the bench to answer with 469 yards passing and six TDs.

Cal Lutheran pulled away from No. 21 Occidental in a 24-14 win, taking the driver's seat in the SCIAC. The Kingsmen have yet to play Redlands. No. 23 Delaware Valley was missing quarterback Mike Isgro but rolled up 513 yards of offense behind back up Mark Hatty in a 47-21 win at King's. Hatty threw for 267 yards and three touchdowns in his first start. No. 24 Alfred did the same, rolling past Rochester without starting quarterback Tommy Secky. Middlebury defeated Trinity (Conn.) 34-21 to end the Bantams' winning streak. Union beat RPI 20-15 to get back the Dutchman Shoes for the first time since 2005. Kean edged Rowan 23-20 in double overtime to hand the Profs their second loss of the season. Albright remained unbeaten with a 49-28 victory against FDU-Florham, setting up the showdown with Delaware Valley next week. More on the scoreboard.

Dickinson, Johns Hopkins and Franklin and Marshall each won to remain in the first-place tie in the Centennial, while Moravian beat Ursinus to knock the Bears out of the group. St. Norbert closed out Minahan Stadium in style, ending a 71-year run with a 44-0 pasting of Beloit. Concordia (Ill.) scored in the first overtime and went for two, converting to defeat Concordia (Wis.) 22-21 to move into a tie for first in the NATHC.

The top Pool C candidates won out on Saturday, as No. 15 St. Thomas rolled over Augsburg 42-3, Coe handled Loras 38-13, DePauw defeated Birmingham-Southern 35-21 and Mary Hardin-Baylor crushed East Texas Baptist 52-10. The Tommies got an opening kickoff return for a touchdown from Fritz Waldvogel for the second consecutive week in the win. Wesley, Case Western Reserve and Huntingdon, the three top Pool B playoff candidates, each won.

Plus, five tight games were played on Friday at the UMAC's Dome Day: the highest-scoring game of the season, the lowest-scoring game and three more games decided by a total of eight points.

MacMurray and Crown led off the Upper Midwest conference's annual Dome Day with a track meet on Friday morning in Minneapolis as MacMurray won 68-62 in overtime in the Metrodome.

The game came just short of tying the Division III record for most points in regulation, which was 138, set when Brockport State beat Hartwick 70-68 last November in an ECAC bowl game, then a couple of scores short of the 72-70 Hartwick-Utica quadruple-overtime game from 2007.

The teams punted just three times, none in the second half as the teams combined to score 35 apiece in the fourth quarter and finished the game with a combined 1,110 yards of total offense.



"Once we got to overtime," MacMurray coach Jake Box said, "I said, 'hey, let's be aggressive.' We played man coverage, brought a lot more people, rushed them more. Maybe we should have done that earlier ... they've scored 62, there's no point in sitting back. Let's get after it." Listen to the full postgame interview on the Daily Dose.

Crown threw three incomplete passes sandwiched around a 3-yard run after Garrett Starkey had opened the extra session with a 20-yard touchdown pass to Jeremy Whitaker. This week's schedule and Friday's scores, including live video and audio.

The Division III high for the season was followed by the Division III low, as Minnesota-Morris got a 37-yard field goal from Matt Privratask with 3:55 left and made it stand up to beat Macalester 3-0. A Macalester 36-yard field goal attempt went wide left as time expired. Two more one-point games followed and the final game went to Greenville, 26-20 over Northwestern (Minn.), making the final margin of victory 17 points for five games combined.

Check back later for more preview as we get ready for Saturday's Week 9 games.

Keith McMillan might get a few days off here and there, but Around the Nation never dies.

That's why Keith opened up his column this week to the readers.

As part of Around the Nation's season-long recognition of D3football.com's 10th anniversary, readers were invited to send their favorite Division III football memories of the past 10 years. And what we got was a great set of some of your great moments.

Whether it's the dad who got to enjoy four years of watching his son play, the surprise trip to a far-distant playoff game, a record performance or helping a team prepare to face a rival, great memories run the gamut, from the unheralded to the ones that were front-page news.

Read on for more in this week's Around the Nation.

Augustana offensive lineman Blaine Westemeyer and Hardin-Simmons wide receiver ZaVious Robbins were named finalists for the William V. Campbell Trophy by the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame (NFF). As finalists, they will receive an $18,000 post-graduate scholarship and have a chance to win the HealthSouth endowed Campbell Trophy, previously known as the Draddy Trophy. They were selected from a pool of 154 semifinalists among all NCAA divisions and the NAIA.

Candidates are nominated by their schools, must be a senior or graduate student in their final year of eligibility, have a grade point average of at least 3.2 on a 4.0 scale, have outstanding football ability as a first team player and have demonstrated strong leadership and citizenship.

Blaine Westemeyer has started for three years on the Augustana offensive line and has helped the Vikings lead the CCIW in rushing for three years. Westemeyer has a 3.93 grade point average as a biochemistry major, was awarded the Augustana Summer Research Fellowship in 2008 and received a grant from the University of Utah earlier this year to perform cellular protein research. Westemeyer is a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and an active participant in the Athletes-Giving-Back community outreach program. He also serves as a hospice volunteer.

ZaVious Robbins is Hardin-Simmons' all-time leader in kickoff return yards and was all-conference as a receiver and kick returner in the ASC. He has a 3.90 grade point average as a marketing major and was named the University's most outstanding marketing student. Robbins also volunteers for Meals on Wheels and the Keep Abilene Beautiful program.

The Green Bay Packers have promoted former Mississippi College wide receiver Jake Allen from the practice squad to their active roster. Allen will suit up for the Packers this weekend in their game against the Minnesota Vikings.

Allen, a 2007 D3football.com All-American, spent the season's first seven weeks on the Packers' practice squad after spending the entire 2008 season there. The 6-4 receiver will wear #13.

Allen enjoyed an All-American career with the Choctaws from 2005-07. In his final season, Allen set school records for receiving yards and receiving touchdowns.

Each week during the regular season we look at some of the key statistical performances from the weekend in Division III football, highlighting one per region.

Occidental defensive end Alex Wertheimer harrassed the La Verne offense, as he tallied four sacks for a loss of 20 yards to go along with a pair of quarterback hurries and a pass broken up in a 14-13 win. Six of his seven tackles were for a loss and he pushed the Leopards back a total of 25 yards. La Verne finished the afternoon with 5 yards on 27 carries.

Bryson Tucker returned to running back for Mary Hardin-Baylor and ran for 218 yards and a pair of touchdowns, the fourth-best single-game total in school history. Tucker entered the week with no stats from scrimmage, rather, he had 28 tackles from his safety spot. Tucker was pressed into service as a running back in midseason in 2008 as well and finished with 672 rushing yards and four touchdowns.

Albright had seven sacks for minus-38 yards, 11 tackles for a loss for minus-46 yards, a forced fumble, one fumble recovery, four interceptions, blocked a punt, and broke up five pass attempts in a 31-17 win.

Manchester might be the only conference unbeaten given less of a chance of winning its conference than Otterbein is in the OAC. The Spartans beat Hanover 30-8 on Saturday, moving them to 4-3, 4-0 in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference. Manchester lost to Trine, Earlham and Kalamazoo to open the season in non-conference action and finishes the season with Mount St. Joseph and Franklin before traveling to Anderson. The four HCAC wins are Manchester's most in the past decade.

While the eyes of most casual observers are focused on the eventual Albright-Delaware Valley in Week 10 as the be-all and end-all of the MAC race, there's a third team still in the hunt.

And it's part of the continuing turnaround for Lebanon Valley under coach Jim Monos, whose second stint in the top spot for the Dutchmen has spurred a revival of the program. How are the Dutchmen doing it? Adam Samrov tells the story in this week's Around the East.

A little to the west, if there's going to be a turnaround it hasn't exactly started yet. But for Juniata, it could well be underway this week, as Carmen Felus' crew got its first win of the season this week. Ryan Tipps finds out how Felus intends to rebuild the program in this week's Around the Mid-Atlantic.

Concordia (Wis.) is working to battle back from an 0-3 start and has a chance to capture its first Northern Athletics Conference title. Clyde Hughes has more in Around the Midwest. Curry's new quarterback is finding his groove in Around the Northeast. Plus, it was a squeaker Saturday in Around the West.

That and more in this week's Around the Region.

Time is running down this season and the teams that can step up in a tough situation, or avoid a letdown in a key spot have the chance to get themselves a step closer to the playoffs.

For three teams, that was beating a ranked opponent in a conference game. And sure, we couldn't wrap up the week without talking about Linfield, North Central and Otterbein. But there are other questions out of the weekend.

Is Linfield for real? Will Mount Union get moved to the East? Who might be the top seed in the West if that happens? Do we really need to worry about anyone other than the three primary contenders for Pool B playoff spots? What happens if DePauw, Centre and Millsaps finish tied? Is Wabash in better shape than expected? Keith McMillan and Pat Coleman explain more in this week's Around the Nation podcast.

Go to the podcast page and click the play button 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

Scroll down for more Saturday coverage. Plus check out our weekend photo galleries:
• John Carroll at No. 20 Ohio Northern
• Gustavus Adolphus at Augsburg

Yep, Week 8 of the Division III football season was so good we had to slap a name on it. But with showdowns for first place in the CCIW and NWC and a showdown for presumably second in the OAC spotlighting today's schedule, there's plenty to keep a Division III fan glued to the computer. Saturday's scores and game stories.

No. 14 Capital led by 11 points in the fourth quarter, but crosstown rival Otterbein, ranked No. 10, scored twice, including a 34-yard touchdown catch on fourth down by Dan Gendron to give the Cardinals a 35-34 victory. Capital had a chance from midfield but dropped a wide-open pass downfield that would have put the Crusaders in field goal territory.

If second place in the OAC is a lock for an at-large bid this game looms large, with Otterbein yet to play Mount Union.

No. 13 North Central showed it had bounced back from its season-opening loss to Ohio Northern by limiting No. 3 Wheaton to 111 passing yards and blowing the game open in the fourth quarter to defeat the Thunder 27-7.

Aaron Williams and Aaron Boehme each ran for more than 100 yards as No. 6 Linfield ended its two-game losing streak to Willamette, beating the No. 17 Bearcats 30-27 to take over sole possession of first place in the Northwest Conference.

Eric Rockwood kicked a 31-yard field goal with 12 seconds left to lift Alfred past St. John Fisher 31-28. The undefeated Saxons survived their biggest Empire 8 test to date. Mount St. Joseph remained unbeaten, knocking off Franklin 26-16 to remain on top of the HCAC.

St. John's survived the upset bid of St. Olaf, holding on to beat the Oles 10-3 thanks to a sack on the final play of the game. Tommy Kowalick hit a 22-yard field goal with four minutes remaining in regulation and senior defensive back Brandon Hudson preserved the score with an interception on the ensuing possession as Salisbury gutted out a 19-16 win against Union. UW-Stevens Point continued UW-La Crosse's slide, beating the Eagles 26-14. Kody LeMond caught four touchdown passes to help lead No. 18 Wabash past Wooster 37-27, while No. 21 Wittenberg won a non-conference game against Carnegie Mellon.

No. 2 UW-Whitewater won at home for the 34th time in 35 tries, putting up three touchdowns in the second quarter and rolling to a 38-14 win against UW-River Falls. Top-ranked Mount Union picked off five passes in a 56-0 win against Wilmington. Lebanon Valley improved to 6-1 for the first time since 1961, beating King's 40-14.

DePauw's Jon Ellis and Derrick Karaszia each topped 100 yards rushing against Division III's 16th-ranked rushing defense, statistically, as DePauw beat Trinity (Texas) 26-18. The victorious Tigers moved into a tie for first place as No. 25 Centre dropped to its first loss with a thud, losing 24-0 at Millsaps. Unbeatens Thomas More and Washington and Jefferson each won to set up next week's PAC showdown.

Curry took back top dog status in the NEFC's Boyd Division, beating Plymouth State 20-9. Delaware Valley recorded six turnovers and five sacks in winning at Lycoming 21-7. The win kept Delaware Valley tied for first in the MAC with Albright, which defeated Widener 31-17 to remain unbeaten. Four teams remain with one loss apiece at the top of the Centennial Conference, as Dickinson, Franklin and Marshall and Ursinus all improved to 4-1 to join idle Johns Hopkins in a first-place tie.

Last year at this time there was a lot of discussion about the future of the Division III All-Star experience.

The Aztec Bowl had gone away. And even that, to be honest, wasn't a full All-Star Game. It's one team of D-III players, playing in a location that wasn't accessible to Division III fans, conflicting with the Division III playoffs.

That left talented players (you know, the ones on the best two teams) unable to participate.

Other games have cropped up. There's a replacement in Mexico, one in Salem and one so far removed from those ideas that it's only on the drawing board.

Where do we go from here? Keith McMillan explores the All-Star possibilities in this week's Around the Nation column.

Each week during the regular season we look at some of the key statistical performances from the weekend in Division III football, highlighting one per region.

Brad Boyle completed 25 of 45 passes for 295 yards and a touchdown with no interceptions in Coe's 35-21 win against Wartburg. Those numbers may not be surprising in and of themselves, but Boyle's season-long run is a little more impressive: zero interceptions in 209 attempts. He's thrown for 11 touchdowns and run for five more to help the Kohawks to a 5-1 start.

Michael Zweifel's 20 catches for 330 yards and three touchdowns was mentioned on the front page on Saturday, but it was hardly the only big receiving performance of the week. Pomona-Pitzer wide receiver R.J. Maki caught 18 passes for 202 yards and two touchdowns against La Verne, Frank Ross caught 17 passes for 228 yards and a touchdown vs. Capital and Jeff Koeneman had 15 receptions for 140 yards and three scores against North Central.

Quartez Ashmore was all over the field for 12 tackles, 11 solo as Mississippi College beat Mary Hardin-Baylor 17-14. The linebacker's work against quarterback LiDarryl Bailey in the option game helped hold the Cru to no points in the second half.

Maine Maritime running back Jim Bower had 250-plus yards for the second consecutive week, rushing for 258 yards on 41 carries with four touchdowns. He had 252 yards and three TDs against Worcester State in Week 6.

Brandyn Brown contributed both on defense and special teams for Wittenberg in its 10-7 win against Wabash. He intercepted a pass to stop a Wabash drive, made five tackles and had a pass break up, returned four punts and then returned a kickoff 53 yards to set up the game-winning field goal.

The Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference announced today the implementation of a scheduling framework in the sport of football that includes playing a second game against the same WIAC opponent effective with the 2011 season. One of the games will be designated as a non-conference contest and this schedule is one of a number of initiatives adopted previously as part of the conference's efforts to reduce operating costs.

"The goal of playing an additional game vs. a WIAC opponent is to reduce the number of long-distance trips, particularly those involving air travel, that many of our football teams have been forced to take in the past to fill out non-conference schedules," said WIAC Commissioner Gary Karner. "While no one is particularly enthused about playing a WIAC opponent a second time, the current economic climate combined with limited opportunities we have for scheduling other Division III institutions located in the upper Midwest in the sport of football, leaves us with few viable alternatives."

Karner also noted that one advantage to simply adding an extra game against a conference opponent is, in the event the overall economy and operational budgets improve or more favorable scheduling opportunities present themselves, the additional game can be eliminated with little substantive impact on the remainder of the schedules.

• A few of the other notable cost-reduction initiatives implemented recently by the WIAC include:

• Establishing later start times for contests so as to minimize the number of overnight stays for visiting teams.

• Limiting postseason tournament brackets in all team sports to a maximum of six teams.

• Restricting teams to taking no more than one trip during the regular-season outside of an established regional perimeter.

• Suspending the annual conference summer workshop and football and basketball media days for 2009.

• Freezing officiating fees at 2008-09 levels.

These cuts are in addition to budget-reduction measures already imposed by the state or UW System such as the employee salary freeze and mandated furloughs. It is estimated that the conference-imposed cuts will save an additional $250,000 in direct budget expenditures and a total of nearly $450,000 across the conference when factoring in expenditures paid from other sources (e.g., foundations, booster clubs, fund-raising) as well as those activities funded directly by student-athletes.

The big games only get bigger as the season progresses, and it seems the game for the Little Brass Bell never ceases to have playoff implications these days. Last year North Central took the bell and, eventually, the CCIW title. But this year, the Cardinals are more than a little banged up, and while they're putting huge offensive numbers on the board lately, they won't likely have the security of an at-large bid if they lose to Wheaton this time around. Clyde Hughes has more in Around the Midwest

Is Rowan the Rodney Dangerfield of the East Region? At one vote in the Top 25, it would be easy to make the argument. Adam Samrov runs down the Profs' resume in Around the East.

In last week's Around the Nation, Keith McMillan wrote about teams battling back from a loss. In the case of North Carolina Wesleyan, they have it down to a science. Not in a bad way. The Battling Bishops have gone 1-2 in non-conference games every year of their brief existence. But 1-2 against the likes of Hampden-Sydney and Salisbury means a little more than the average 1-2. Ryan Tipps writes about these late bloomers in Around the Mid-Atlantic.

Plus, in Around the Northeast, some wins come special delivery, as special teams played a big role. That and more in Around the Region.

A few conference races came into focus. A few big plays decided a few big games. Such was the state of Week 7 in the Division III football season.

In the American Southwest Conference, it was an interception of backup quarterback Kyle Noack that set Mississippi College on the path to the upset of Mary Hardin-Baylor and the Choctaws' first regular-season Top 25 ranking after receiving votes in 18 previous polls.

In the North Coast Athletic Conference, a game-winning field goal followed a gigantic kickoff return and lifted Wittenberg over Wabash.

And in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, well, you see the photo. Keith McMillan and Pat Coleman talk about those plays, the ramifications, and other happenings from Saturday in this week's Around the Nation podcast.

Go to the podcast page and click the play button 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

Scroll down for more Saturday coverage.

The Division III football landscape got rocked Saturday afternoon, as one of the big three got taken down and another battle of unbeatens went in the unexpected direction.

Dustin Retherfo intercepted Kyle Noack with less than two minutes left in a tie game and Brannon Walls turned it into a 31-yard field goal with four seconds left as the Mississippi College Choctaws defeated No. 3 Mary Hardin-Baylor 17-14. And No. 10 Wabash, playing without starting quarterback Matt Hudson, fell on a 31-yard field goal on the last play of the game as Wittenberg remained unbeaten with a 10-7 win. Follow along with Saturday's scores.

After a scoreless first three quarters, helped in large part by four interceptions by Wabash's Addrian Frederick, the Tigers got on the board with an Aaron Huffman touchdown pass to Michael Cooper. The Little Giants answered when Josh Miracle connected with Kody Lemond, but Wittenberg's Brandyn Brown returned the ensuing kickoff 53 yards to set up the game winning score.

St. John's and St. Thomas treated 12,903 fans to a great finish as the No. 6 Johnnies defeated the No. 15 Tommies 20-17 in overtime. St. Thomas rallied from a 14-0 deficit in the fourth quarter, taking advantage of a pair of St. John's miscues to tie the game with 2.2 seconds left in regulation. The Johnnies defense held the Tommies to a field goal in overtime and answered four plays later, as Kellen Blaser dove for the pylon (photo) to end an 8-yard touchdown run and seal the victory. Photo gallery.

Second-ranked UW-Whitewater had little trouble with UW-Stout, winning 38-3 as Jeff Schebler broke the Division III record for career kicking points, passing former Mount Union kicker Mike Zimmerman. For the Purple Raiders, Kurt Rocco completed 24 of 34 passes for 406 yards, with Cecil Shorts pulling down 13 passes for 297 yards and two touchdowns in a 44-14 win at Heidelberg. It was the fourth-best passing day in Mount Union history.

Zack Harris' 31-yard field goal gave Wittenberg the upset win at Wabash. Wittenberg athletics photo by Brad Tucker

No. 11 Monmouth dropped another Midwest Conference unbeaten, beating Ripon 35-13 and cementing its spot atop the league. No. 24 UW-La Crosse had a more entertaining battle with UW-River Falls as the Eagles nipped the Falcons 49-47 in triple overtime. No. 14 North Central bested Carthage in an offensive explosion, 63-48. The teams combined for 1,152 total yards and 63 first downs. At the other end of the spectrum, Illinois Wesleyan defeated Augustana 7-0.

Michael Zweifel pulled in an IIAC-record 20 receptions for 330 yards to lift Dubuque past Simpson 36-33. Ursinus pulled Johns Hopkins back to the pack in the Centennial Conference with a 16-14 win over the Blue Jays. Johns Hopkins kicked an apparent game winning field goal but the Bears called timeout just in time. The Blue Jays' second try was no good. No. 23 Delaware Valley dominated Wilkes 23-0 to improve to 5-1, 3-0 in conference. Albright stayed undefeated with a win at King's, 36-14.

No. 16 Capital held off John Carroll 28-20 to remain on track for a possible at-large bid to the playoffs. No. 13 Otterbein held off Wilmington 28-20 to remain in the chase as well. No. 17 Willamette rallied past Pacific Lutheran 35-17.

Concordia (Ill.) knocked off Lakeland 41-32 to create a four-way tie for second in the Northern Athletics Conference. Castleton State won its first game ever against Anna Maria in Week 1 and did it again this week, though the Amcats kept it closer before falling on a late field goal, 24-21.

With 32 teams headed to the playoffs, 23 automatic bids and a few even set aside for those not in a conference with a bid, everyone who wants to get into the playoffs has a path to follow to get there. But just because your team isn't going to run the table doesn't mean there isn't something left to play for.

That's what St. John Fisher showed this past week, pounding Ithaca after starting the season 2-2. It's what Randolph-Macon learned last year and a philosophy the Yellow Jackets might be following again this time around.

So if, say, you're Redlands, which just saw its shot at going 9-0 end on an illegal formation call in the closing seconds of regulation on Saturday night, it's not over. Keith McMillan invokes history and gets the pulse of the Bulldogs in this week's Around the Nation.

Plus, this week's Ten Best might be the best of the ten. Over the first 10 years of D3football.com, there were many memorable conference races. But only one can be the absolute best. Keith ranks them, from bottom to top, in this week's column. That and more in the latest edition of Around the Nation.

The Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference has announced that Earlham College will join the membership beginning in the 2010-11 academic year. Earlham, located in Richmond, Ind., will join the conference after spending the past 20 years affiliated with the North Coast Athletic Conference.

Douglas Bennett, Earlham's president, had told Earlham's student newspaper, The Earlham Word, that the school's goal is to win half of its games every season. A switch from the NCAC would help meet that goal, the paper cited Bennett as having said.

Earlham has not had a winning season in football since 2000. The Quakers were actually above .500 in NCAC games last season, but lost all three non-conference games, each of which were against HCAC schools, by an average of 43-19.

"We are very pleased to have Earlham College join the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference as our tenth member beginning in the fall of 2010, as they have a rich tradition of strong academic and intercollegiate athletic programs," said Christopher Ragsdale, commissioner of the HCAC. "Many of our conference members have already been competing in non-league contests with Earlham College. They (Earlham College) are centrally located to our other conference schools which make them a natural fit."

The addition of Earlham marks the first change in membership for the HCAC since Rose-Hulman joined the league in 2006. Earlham will be centrally located in the conference that also includes Anderson, Bluffton, Defiance, Franklin, Hanover, Manchester, Mount St. Joseph, Rose-Hulman and Transylvania.

"I am extremely excited that Earlham has been invited to join the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference," says Bennett. "In joining Heartland, we are rejoining a number of colleges and universities that have been institutions with which Earlham has competed for many decades. We are delighted to now be in a conference with them."

The HCAC currently sponsors 16 championships in men's and women's athletics. Beginning in the 2010-11 academic year, Earlham will be competing in 13 of 16 sports in the HCAC, excluding men's and women's golf and softball.

"Games against HCAC members permeate throughout Earlham's athletic history, with rivalries that began years before formal conference affiliations," stated Frank Carr, Earlham's athletic director. "We believe that renewing this relationship will be a winning situation for all involved."

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 catch for good measure.

The season-long leading rusher and leading passer, Winters isn't exactly a household name even by Division III standards, despite leading the Devils to a win against Delaware Valley last season and nearly upsetting Alfred in Week 2, throwing for 240 yards and running for another 119.

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.

Hear more in a D3football.com Podcast.

Scroll down for more coverage from the week, including new Around the Region columns.

The 2009 playoffs will follow the same breakdown of teams as the 2008 playoffs, according to the first release of the NCAA's Division III football championships handbook this morning.

There are 23 automatic bids to the playoff field of 32 teams. Three bids are held out for teams who are not in those conferences, known as Pool B. Six truly at-large bids are available for everyone left on the table, known as Pool C.

The conferences with automatic bids remain the same as last season. For other answers to your playoff questions, check out our Playoff FAQ as we get ready for Selection Sunday on Nov. 15.

With six weeks gone in the season, we're also publishing the 2009 Strength of Schedule numbers for the first time. These numbers, opponents' winning percentage (OWP) and opponents' opponents' winning percentage (OOWP) are the components the NCAA uses to determine strength of schedule for Division III football.

Concordia-Moorhead and Concordia (Wis.) have each been to the playoffs in the Pools era. But not Concordia (Ill.). The suburban Chicago school hasn't even had a .500 season in that span, going 13-87 over the decade.

But Lonnie Pries' Cougars aren't having that kind of season in 2009. This Concordia is 4-1 and is one win away from its first five-win season since 1992. But that's not the goal, by any stretch. Clyde Hughes has more in this week's Around the Midwest.

In the NESCAC, Trinity (Conn.) is aiming at another perfect season, although like every other NESCAC football season (and unlike every other NESCAC sport) it won't end in the playoffs. That isn't what bothers the Bantams, however. Tom Haley will tell you what does in Around the Northeast.

For years, the knock on Hampden-Sydney was that there was a lot of offense, but no defense. And although the Tigers surrendered 43 points in regulation in a win against Gettysburg, they're given up just 25 in four games since. Ryan Tipps was there to see the Tigers shut down Emory and Henry and writes about it in Around the Mid-Atlantic.

And Adam Johnson got a reminder of how small the Division III world can be, when he ended up having lunch in the same restaurant on game day this past week with the officiating crew that called a fairly famous play in Division III football history. Who and what, in Around the West.

That and more in this week's Around the Region.

It's certainly possible that this will be a relatively mortal season for No. 1 Mount Union, and in the past two weeks, four voters in the D3football.com Top 25 have switched their No. 1 vote from the Purple Raiders to UW-Whitewater.

When we use the term "relatively mortal," we mean "might lose in the national semifinals."

Thankfully, we have a playoff, and don't decide the Division III football championship on paper. But the shift of No. 1 votes away from Mount Union is an unprecedented midseason move, at least without a loss to accompany them.

However, even though the momentum may be seeming to shift after Mount Union's 28-21 escape from Capital, Pat Coleman and Keith McMillan have a bit of a cautionary tale to relate to Division III football fans. The gurus have more in this week's Around the Nation podcast.

Go to the podcast page and click the play button 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

Scroll down for more Saturday coverage. Plus check out our weekend photo galleries:
• Concordia-Moorhead at No. 15 St. Thomas
• Hobart at Union
• Franklin and Marshall at Ursinus
• Augsburg at Carleton

Each week during the regular season we look at some of the key statistical performances from the weekend in Division III football, highlighting one per region.

The U.S. Coast Guard Academy saw its third game decided in the final minute or later, as the Bears fell 37-34 to Fitchburg State in double overtime. It was the Bears' second double overtime loss, following a Week 2 defeat at archrival U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. Coast Guard also defeated Westfield State 8-5 in Week 4, as Casey Paris caught a 14-yard touchdown pass with 32 seconds left.

Carthage rolled up 517 yards of total offense, but just nine of them were on the ground in a 45-38 win against Elmhurst. John Seigler had nine carries for 26 yards but the Red Men total was limited by three sacks for minus-27 yards and a bad snap that led to a play recorded as a team rush for minus-12 yards. For their part, Carthage quarterback Evan Jones was 34-for-48 for 475 yards and Chris Schulz was 1-for-2 for 33 in the win.

28, 21, 7, 5, 5, 2, 5, 0, 8, 7, 3, 19, 11, 16, 8, 3, 0, 2, 1, 11, 34, 12, 4, 15, 9, 8, 2, 20, 7, 47, 5, 4, 11, 3, -1, 13, 2, 7, 12, 5, 2, 0. Such was the afternoon of Levell Coppage, who had 41 carries for 382 yards and three touchdowns for UW-Whitewater.

At the time Chris Graves went out with an injury, Millsaps led Huntingdon 36-24 and trailed slightly in total offense, 334 yards to 297. After that, however, it was a different story. In the final 23 minutes, Huntingdon rolled up 212 yards of offense, and more importantly, 23 unanswered points, while Millsaps had just 60 in losing 47-36.

There aren't many Division III teams who can say they had a chance to beat Mount Union late in the game like Capital can. The Crusaders had another chance on Saturday but couldn't capitalize on the opportunity as No. 1 Mount Union rallied for a 28-21 victory.

Capital took a 21-14 lead early in the fourth quarter when Marty Assmann connected with Dom D'Andrea on a 23-yard touchdown strike. But Kurt Rocco responded with a touchdown pass to Kyle Miller to tie the game and, after a Capital fumble, Scott Panchik ran the ball into the end zone from 5 yards out for the win. More scores and stories from today's scoreboard.

"It was a competitive ballgame. How hard we played, and how we had so many big plays by different guys, made it a fun afternoon," Capital coach Jim Bickel said. "When you look at turning points in the game, the last drive (Mount Union) had at the end of the first have really gave them momentum. And late in the game, they did a great job on both sides of the ball on making the key plays to win the game."

Levell Coppage ran for 382 yards and three touchdowns for No. 2 UW-Whitewater in a 38-14 win against UW-Eau Claire. It beat Justin Beaver's school record by nearly 100 yards. UW-Platteville bolted to a 24-7 halftime lead and used a strong defensive effort to stun No. 16 UW-La Crosse 26-13. Other early-afternoon finals provided clarity in conference races as we just pass the midpoint of the Division III football season. No. 12 Monmouth seized control of the MWC in convincing fashion, beating St. Norbert 54-24. Sean Norris found Andy McClain on a 26-yard touchdown pass to lift No. 4 Wheaton past Augustana, 24-17.

No. 7 Linfield clinched its 54th consecutive winning season, improving to 5-0 with a 38-20 win against Whitworth. The late-night battle for first place in the SCIAC proved to be a dandy, as No. 24 Occidental scored the last 17 points and rallied at home to beat No. 22 Redlands 27-24 in overtime. No. 10 Case Western Reserve pulled away from Wooster en route to a 53-32 victory.

Third-ranked Mary Hardin-Baylor had little trouble with Louisiana College. In fact, lots of teams had little trouble with their opponents: No. 14 North Central (Ill.) beat North Park 83-7, No. 17 Willamette beat Lewis and Clark 69-24, Rowan rolled over Western Connecticut 72-14 and Mount St. Joseph defeated Anderson 61-28.

No. 15 St. Thomas and No. 6 St. John's kept their undefeated date intact for next weekend, with the Tommies beating Concordia-Moorhead 31-17 and the Johnnies routing Hamline, 41-7. St. Thomas sacked Cobbers quarterbacks eight times and picked them off three times, while Fritz Waldvogel caught 12 passes for 141 yards in the win. Photo gallery. The Johnnies held Hamline to 8 yards on 40 carries and scored with five different ball carriers on offense in their victory.

The Empire 8 race now officially has a favorite in Alfred. The Saxons took care of Hartwick 42-17 behind 203 rushing yards and two touchdowns by Vinson Hendrix. Alfred held the Hawks' offense 170 yards below its average. Meanwhile St. John Fisher rolled over No. 20 Ithaca 40-17, outgaining the Bombers on the ground 303-36. Freshman Christian Zemaitis had 178 yards and five touchdowns on only 18 carries for the Cardinals.

Albright dumped defending MAC champion Lycoming 26-7 behind Tanner Kelly's 480 yards of total offense to improve to 5-0. Montclair State held No. 19 Cortland State in check and put the Red Dragons away when Dominique Dixon returned an interception 16 yards to seal a 16-7 victory. Cortland quarterback Alex Smith, who returned to the team after a season-ending injury in 2007, saw limited action.

Hampden-Sydney won the battle of unbeatens in the ODAC, winning 23-12 at Emory and Henry. Dickinson fell without top receiver Patrick O'Connor, as Johns Hopkins defeated the Red Devils 23-12. Ursinus lost a Centennial Conference game for the first time this season, as sophomore quarterback John Harrison threw for 305 yards in a 21-14 Franklin and Marshall victory. Photo gallery. Huntingdon rallied from a 36-24 deficit and scored the final 23 points to defeat Millsaps 47-36. Buena Vista handed Wartburg its first IIAC loss, 27-15.

For those games and nearly 100 more, check out Saturday's scoreboard.

Some conference races are all but over already. And heck, perhaps the Ohio Athletic Conference was never a race to begin with. But there are plenty of races and automatic bids to be decided here in the final half of the Division III football regular season. The question is, how intense will they be?

In this week's Around the Nation, Keith McMillan rates each of the 28 conference title chases. Will they come down to a two-minute drill? Will someone be kneeling down in Week 11? Or, will the backups be in as teams play out the string?

Last year, for example, the Liberty League came down to a photo finish. So did the Old Dominion Athletic Conference, with a four-way tie.

Plus, Keith takes an early look to see whether your conference has any shot at an at-large bid to the Division III football playoffs.

That and more in this week's Around the Nation.

Those who purchased and read Kickoff have already heard from Wabash coach Erik Raeburn once this season on D3football.com. But that was six weeks ago, before the Little Giants got off to a big start, outscoring opponents 203-44 en route to going 4-0.

Based on the results of Saturday's game at Allegheny, a 37-3 win, it would seem that Raeburn's Year Two is going just fine.

Other than a few turnovers, the Little Giants were firing on all cylinders.

But that isn't much different than last year, when Wabash jumped out to a nice start but got blown out in two of its last three games. Raeburn talked with D3sports.com's Pat Coleman after Saturday's game, about the team's run of North Coast Athletic Conference dominance; coaching under Larry Kehres, who just happens to be his uncle; and when Wabash will schedule Mount Union.

MEADVILLE, Pa. -- The last time Pat Coleman talked with Erik Raeburn was under less-pleasant circumstances, when his Wabash Little Giants had just gotten beaten by DePauw in the Monon Bell game. Before starting recording, Raeburn joked that if they'd played poorly, he was going to make sure Coleman never came to see them play again.

Coleman and Raeburn chatted after Wabash's 37-3 win at Allegheny on Saturday.

D3: Congrats on the win. What do you think about how you guys did?
ER: I was really happy with how we played in all phases, particularly defensively. I guess offensively we were a little sloppy with the football and had a lot more turnovers than I'd like and a lot more penalties, but all in all we're happy to come to Allegheny and get out of here with a win.

D3: At the beginning of the season we talked to you and a handful of coaches entering their second year as head coaches with their program. How's Year Two going for you?
ER: I think it's going good. I feel a lot more comfortable, certainly, in Year Two. I feel like I know our players better and I think it's obvious they understand our system better and they're used to the coaches. I know last year there were only five players on our team that were coached by the same position coach. So, massive change last year and our guys handled it well but I certainly feel more comfortable this year, that's for sure.

D3: Larry Kehres preaches about part of the reason for the success of the Mount Union program year after year after year is continuity of coaches and having the same assistant coaches year in and year out. Is that something you hope for here?
ER: I hope so. I think we have a good coaching staff and some great young coaches and hopefully we'll be able to keep them here. But on the other hand, I know when I was at Mount Union, Coach Kehres did everything he could to help me move up and get a head coaching job and I have some great young coaches that would be terrific head coaches as well. If they get the opportunities I'll be happy for them, but I wouldn't mind keeping them around for a while, too.

D3: In talking to Mount Union guys over the course of the last week or so, about the several Mount Union alumni who are head coaches or coordinators at the Division III level, it seemed like there was a general consensus that you would be the most likely to build a Mount Union-style program, in terms of how its run and what you run. Perhaps they're talking in terms of offense, and you were an offense guy at Mount Union, but do you think that that's something that you're aiming for?
ER: Well, I don't know that anyone can replicate what Coach Kehres has done at Mount Union. He's my uncle and I guess he's been my mentor personally and professionally and he's the guy I look up to most, for sure. I would hope that we're doing things the way he'd like to do them and every time I'm faced with a situation where I have to make a tough decision, I try to think back to my time there and try to envision what he would do. I don't know that anyone's going to ever build a program like he has, at any level. But if we come close to it, we'd be really proud, for sure.

D3: I understand that he even came out and watched your coaching debut.
ER: Yeah. My first game at Wabash we played at Denison and it was during their bye week so he came down and watched us. It felt pretty good. He didn't tell me he was coming, but as I was coming off the field at halftime he yelled at me, so I saw him. It was nice to get him to be able to come watch our team play. I tried to get some pointers from him, but he wouldn't give me any. He left me on my own. But it was certainly nice to have him and my aunt come watch us play.

D3: He yelled at you or to you?
ER: He yelled to me, yeah. If he yelled at me, I'd still listen. Anything he mentions about football I'm going to do and I'd advise every other coach, if he ever gives you any advice, take it to heart and write it down and make sure you do it, because he knows what he's doing for sure.

D3: I know you guys right now basically have no control over your schedule, between playing the UAA crossover teams, your conference games and DePauw. That's right, you have nothing else?
ER: Yeah. We don't really schedule any games because our conference has a deal with another conference and we play DePauw in our big rivalry game. So our regular season games are locked in, which isn't all bad. It's one less headache as a head coach to not have to go and schedule games. It's not all bad.

D3: I suppose like most coaches, if you're going to play Mount Union, you'd be hoping to play them in December.
ER: That's right. Everybody asks me, ‘when are you going to play Mount Union?' I hope we play them every year because that'll mean we're doing good and advancing in the playoffs. But I don't know, our players would have to play really good, because I'm definitely going to get outcoached if we play against them.

D3: This is 20 consecutive conference wins now for Wabash. Does this stuff prepare you for what comes at the end of the season: the Monon Bell game and potentially playoffs?
ER: Well, I hope. I thought Allegheny was a really physical defense, has a fifth-year senior at quarterback and good on special teams and I thought this would be a good test for us on the road and hopefully force us to get better. Hopefully we'll go watch the films of this game and figure out what we can do better and go to work on that on Sunday.

In some conferences, there are several games you must circle on the calendar in order to determine who will win. In the Midwest Conference, however, there's probably just one. And that game's this weekend, when Monmouth hosts St. Norbert.

Don't think the coaches can downplay the game, either. As Monmouth coach Steve Bell told Clyde Hughes: "First of all, you don't sugarcoat it and say it's just another game because kids are smarter than that and they'll see right through it. They know this one has ramifications and they understand what it is."

More in this week's Around the Midwest.

How do best friends stand on opposite sidelines and never see each other play? When they play the same position. Dickinson's Gregory Lord and Johns Hopkins' Andrew Kase played running back at the same high school. Now they line up with different colors.

Ryan Tipps tells the story in Around the Mid-Atlantic.

It was a surprising week in the Northeast, at least in some places. The favorites won in the NEFC and the NESCAC, but the ECFC was another story. Tom Haley has it in Around the Northeast. Plus, more from Jason Bowen's weekend in Abilene and a look at Otterbein quarterback Austin Schlosser's adjustment to the starting role.

That and more in Around the Region.

Sure, the D3football.com Top 25 teams went 25-0 on Saturday. We're happy about that, but that doesn't mean the Top 25 is perfect, or that the right 25 teams are ranked.

At least, that's the take of Pat Coleman and Keith McMillan, who talk about the contradictions in the Top 25 voting process and how that results in some things that don't necessarily make sense in the poll in this week's Around the Nation podcast. Sometimes a last-second loss is good enough, if you also have a win somewhere against somebody good.

Some things make sense in some cases, but no single rule works for all teams and all comparisons.

So is Willamette better than Case Western Reserve? Should Bethel be a Top 25 team? That's the result of taking a game played on the field and putting it all on paper. Get more 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.

Go to the podcast page and click the play button 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

Scroll down for more Saturday coverage. Plus check out our weekend photo galleries:
• Bethel at No. 6 St. John's
• No. 8 Linfield at Menlo
• No. 12 Wabash at Allegheny
• Gettysburg at Ursinus
• Hamline at Augsburg

Each week during the regular season we look at some of the key statistical performances from the weekend in Division III football, highlighting one per region.

Randolph-Macon completed 20 passes for 295 yards in Saturday's 21-13 win against Washington and Lee. That in and of itself is not all that spectacular, until it's noted that junior wide receiver Earl Peoples caught all 20 of those passes, an Old Dominion Athletic Conference record. Three of Austin Faulkner's incomplete passes were intended for Peoples as well.

Tanner Kelly completed 32 of 39 passes for 436 yards and ran for 63 more as Albright beat Wilkes 43-21. More importantly, it was his fourth consecutive game without a fumble or interception. Wilkes had allowed just 240 yards passing per game in its first three contests.

Week 5: Scoreboard | Weekly ATN podcast | Photo galleries | Top 25

Augustana defeated Elmhurst 21-3 on Saturday, handing the Bluejays their first loss of the season for the fourth year in a row. The Vikings lead the all-time series 51-3-1 and have only lost at home once, in 1979. Elmhurst finished with 186 total yards on 53 plays from scrimmage.

Bryan Blum recorded 20 tackles, 10 solo, in UW-Stevens Point's 48-33 win against UW-Eau Claire, also forcing a fumble, breaking up a pass and recording half a tackle for loss.

Russell Gliadon nailed a 49-yard field goal with less than three seconds left as No. 6 St. John's rallied from a 14-0 fourth-quarter deficit to beat Bethel 16-14. Photo gallery. The win preserved a day in which not one team ranked in the D3football.com Top 25 lost.

Logan Flannery caught a 2-yard touchdown pass to put the Royals up 14-0 at the start of the fourth quarter. The Johnnies answered with a touchdown, a stop and another score but Gliadon missed the extra point to tie. The Royals went three-and-out on the ensuing drive, giving Gliadon a shot at redemption. His field goal was the longest in school history and snapped a three-game win streak for the Royals in the series. Check out Saturday's finals on the scoreboard including box scores and game recaps. Scroll down for video of the kick as well as coverage of teams outside the Top 25.

D3football was on hand for homecoming in Alliance, Ohio where No. 1 Mount Union celebrated by shutting out Baldwin-Wallace, 30-0. After being held in check for the first 25 minutes, Cecil Shorts got a step on his defender en route to a 53-yard catch down the sidelines, then took a snap and ran a draw play for a 7-yard touchdow run in the second quarter. No. 2 UW-Whitewater opened conference play with a similar result, beating UW-Platteville 35-3 behind four Levell Coppage touchdowns. No. 16 Ohio Northern ended its two-game losing streak, but only after a scare from Muskingum. The Muskies were intercepted deep in Polar Bear territory late in the fourth quarter, sealing ONU's 37-34 win.

No. 3 Mary Hardin-Baylor rushed for 327 yards with Quincy Daniels getting 145 of them in a 23-7 win over struggling Hardin-Simmons. The Crusaders have won 32 consecutive conference games. No. 12 Wabash won its 20th consecutive North Coast Athletic Conference game, shutting down Allegheny in a 37-3 win as Wes Chamblee caught nine passes for 153 yards and returned a punt 86 yards for a touchdown. It was the program's 600th win. "I told our guys they're in good company," coach Erik Raeburn said. "If you have 600 wins as a football program, that's a lot of good football players for a long time. I think our guys are proud to be part of the 600th win and be part of a program with that kind of tradition."

No. 18 Willamette opened NWC play with a comfortable 42-13 win over Whitworth. No. 17 UW-La Crosse got its WIAC play started with a W over UW-Oshkosh, 32-25.

No. 20 Ithaca improved to 2-0 in the Empire 8 winning at Hartwick, 24-20. The Bombers and Hawks combined for 743 passing yards. Scroll down for more Saturday coverage.

Ursinus and Gettysburg combined for 1,327 yards of total offense and in the end, it was Ursinus running the final 6:36 of the game out to win 55-50.

Ursinus led 55-23 in the third quarter and controlled the ball for more than 40 minutes on the afternoon, led by freshman Nick Giarratano's 11 catches for 218 yards and two touchdowns. Matt Flynn threw for 519 yards and seven touchdowns in the loss for the Bullets. Photo gallery.

Rochester picked up its first win of the year and dealt RPI its first loss in the Yellowjackets' 16-10 victory. RPI was ranked in the AFCA Top 25 but didn't receive a single vote in the D3football.com poll. Rochester also controlled the ball for more than 40 minutes, including 24:03 in the second half alone.

Week 5 brings the latest installments in several rivalries that have recently defined conference races. Christopher Newport won a double-overtime thriller 30-27 over Shenandoah to open USA South Athletic Conference play. Trinity (Conn.) scored a fourth down touchdown, recovered an onside kick and scored again to stun Williams 26-21 in the NESCAC.

UW-River Falls scored a touchdown in overtime to draw within one of UW-Stout. The Falcons went for two and the win but came away with neither as the Blue Devils sacked quarterback Ryan Luessenheide on the conversion attempt to preserve a 13-12 victory. Mississippi College put up 491 yards of total offense to outlast Louisiana College 54-44 and remain tied for first in the ASC. Maryville edged Methodist 36-30 in four overtimes.

Carleton retained The Goat, symbolic of its football rivalry with St. Olaf, by defeating the Oles 17-13 helped by a 5-yard touchdown run for offensive tackle Brad Eckelmann. It's the Knights' second win in a row in the series after an 11-year drought. Benedictine upset NATHC neighbor and defending champ Aurora 21-14, intercepting quarterback Mike Anderson three times.

Hampden-Sydney continued its recent run against Bridgewater (Va.), blanking the Eagles 19-0. DePauw edged Millsaps 29-27 with Jordan Havercamp's 42-yard field goal as the difference. Millsaps was also ranked in the AFCA Top 25. Tanner Kelly completed 32 of 39 passes for 436 yards as Albright beat Wilkes 43-21. The Lions are the lone undefeated team in the MAC, thanks to Delaware Valley dispatching Lebanon Valley 28-7.

Gallaudet surprised 2008 playoff hopeful Husson, winning 10-7 at home in an ECFC game despite completing zero of six passes and mustering just 173 yards of total offense. McMurry ended a 17-game losing streak that dated to October 2007 with a win over East Texas Baptist, 45-21. "The main thing was they had to get three monkeys off their back," said McMurry coach Hal Mumme. "They had to get the East Texas Baptist monkey, the conference monkey and the general we haven't won a game and we-have-sophomores-who-don't-even-know-what-it-feels-like-to-win monkey."

On Friday night, Kean notched another big conference win 28-7 over previously unbeaten TCNJ. The Lions came into the weekend with the highest scoring offense in Division III (57.3 points per game through three games). Kean's Jared Chunn ran for 210 yards and two touchdowns. For more, check out the full weekend scoreboard.

Former Cortland State quarterback and current graduate assistant coach Alex Smith has been cleared by the NCAA to return to the Red Dragons' active playing roster this season.

The NCAA has granted Smith the opportunity to use his final season of playing eligibility despite being in his 11th full-time semester as a college student. NCAA Division III rules normally allow student-athletes only 10 full-time semesters in which to play four seasons.

Smith started for Cortland in 2004, 2005 and 2006, although his 2006 season was cut short due to injury in the Red Dragons' sixth game. He also started the opening game of the 2007 season, but was injured in that contest and missed the rest of the year. He received a medical hardship to retain his eligibility from that season.

Smith elected not to play in 2008, but instead served as a volunteer assistant coach. He began this season as a graduate assistant with the team coaching wide receivers and punt and kickoff returners. He was allowed to practice with the Red Dragons this past week, but is not expected to be in uniform on Saturday when Cortland plays at Buffalo State. Smith will be added to the team roster for the Oct. 10 game at Montclair State.

Dan Pitcher, Cortland's starting quarterback at the season's outset, suffered a season-ending torn Achilles tendon injury on Sept. 19 versus Rowan. Junior Hudson Woodward started for the Red Dragons against Kean on Sept. 26 and is the projected starter for Cortland's game at Buffalo State.

A 2004 Niagara-Wheatfield High School graduate, Smith ranks fourth at Cortland with 35 career touchdown passes, fifth with 355 completions and sixth with 4,420 career passing yards. He holds a share of the school single-game record for touchdown passes with five versus Kean as a freshman in 2004. Smith is a 2004 Niagara-Wheatfield High School graduate.

It took a re-evaluation of Division III guidelines. And, probably, an explanation of the whole concept of "social media" to the powers-that-be at the NCAA national office. But what it brought this season was an explosion of sorts.

More and more, Division III athletic departments are taking their coverage into their own hands, bypassing the mainstream print media, which won't cover them anyway, and delivering their news directly into your hands.

Or to your phones. At many schools, that's Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, where you can get in-game notes, scoring updates, postgame interviews and highlights directly from the schools, unfiltered.

Keith McMillan has been following the pulse of this trend and checks in with a couple of schools that couldn't be more apart on the Division III football landscape: Mount Union and Mass Maritime. While a game between the two might not be pretty, they both can execute a similar online strategy that begins in the sports information office.

Keith talks to those schools and more in this week's Around the Nation.