Great story about Duncan Robinson's journey from Sewanee to a starring role for D-1 Belmont.


https://www.tennessean.com/story/sports/college/2021/02/28/belmonts-own-duncan-robinson-luke-smith-proving-he-belongs-d-1/6743373002/

My hits
The W. - Its marketing. There are two reasons why colleges market: raise money and attract applicants. Given the demographics shifts and the cliff drop in the college bound population, I think I know what the college is most worried about right now. That said, I'll take the period any day over the "Gold Within" tag line. Even there, I'll just say I wouldn't presume my marketing team to tell me how to my job, and I won't tell them how to do theirs.


Morel - Almost from day one this guy has been taking hits for not being Creighton, Raeburn, or for that matter, BJ Hammer. However, the superstitious me says the football gods frown on running off a coach that gets you to the playoffs and a conference championship.


Playoffs- How did Wabash get sent to North Central and Hanover get sent to Mount Union? Hanover clearly would be a higher seeded team. Why would they get sent to the top seed in the region with no difference in travel costs or any issue regarding scheduling rematches?

Ok, its Bell week. Time for some fun you just can't make up . . .

https://thedepauw.com/dsg-shirts-have-depauw-securin-the-wrong-bell/

QuoteFree Monon Bell shirts were distributed by DePauw Student Government to students at a pep rally ahead of the first home basketball games Tuesday, Nov. 12. The back of this year's shirt says "Securin' the bell since 1932" with a picture of not the Monon Bell, but the Liberty Bell, famous crack and all.



Chris Neal, DePauw Student Government Vice President of Programming, made the initial announcement about the shirts late last week. He was not available to comment on the mix-up at the time of publication.

Quote from: Pat Coleman on November 11, 2019, 10:33:01 AM
I keep seeing people talking about stands on one side, but my understanding, like that of 83LG, is that while there will be only one permanent grandstand, there will still be bleachers on the opposite side.

Just received this rendering yesterday. Hadn't seen it before. Gives you a pretty clear idea of what the overall field will look like. I like the concept of opening up the stadium to the rest of campus. Having the large, permanent, and almost entirely unused visitors bleachers right behind the chapel did effectively cut the stadium off from the main part of campus.

I recall hearing when I was on campus for homecoming that the field and track footprint would be shifted just a yard or two away from Knowling Fieldhouse. That could have been in reference an earlier version of the plan or such a minor adjustment could still be considered within the same 'footprint' of what was there before.

Quote from: CollegeGolf18 on November 09, 2019, 03:47:40 PM
By virtue of Denison losing today, Wabash wins the NCAC AQ bid regardless of the result next week in the Monon Bell game.

Someone might want to fact check that. If memory serves, a three way tie may negate [size=78%]the head to head tiebreaker. We can pencil in Denison beating Kenyon. Either OWU or Witt will have just two c[/size]onference losses after next week. I've been to too many bell games to write next week off. The only thing you can stick a fork in is any Pool C discussion, although we probably could have done that in September.

I know it should make it easy if Wabash has wins over the other two tied teams, but I'm pretty sure the ncac aq tiebreaker provided for an alternate system with three tied teams, at least it used to. We had a rather rollicking discussion here the last time this issue came up.

Quote from: wally_wabash on November 14, 2018, 08:58:21 AM
When you schedule your out of conference games, you have no idea if that team is going to post a good record three or four years later when you actually play. 

UWSP went 4-6 this year and previously went 6-4, 5-5, 7-3, 5-5, 2-8, and 4-6. UWSP has never been a real playoff threat.  In previous years Wabash has scheduled Albion (4-6 and 1-9), Hampden Sydney (6-4, 7-3), and Hanover (5-5, 6-4).

With a full round robin 9 game conference schedule, our SOS is always going to be heavily weighted toward the middle. For whatever reason we have not chosen to or been able to schedule teams that make frequent appearances in the second or third round. Muhlenberg scheduled Thomas More as its non-conference opponent this year who went 7-3 and has made frequent playoff appearances.

The point is that while I agree with Wally that we can't always know the record of a future non-conference opponent, we are not scheduling teams that we can reasonably expect to go 8-2 and give us any kind of leg up with SOS. As for the OOWP factor, by my count it looks like NCAC nonconference opponents this year went 47-42, which is frankly a better record than I thought it'd be. However, unless we are willing and able to schedule teams that are consistently regionally ranked, our chances in Pool C will remain slim. There is a solution involving a team an hour away from Crawfordsville that is usually regionally ranked and almost always has an 8 win season. Perhaps we should swallow our pride and just schedule Franklin.

Taking my homer hat off - I'd really have to make an honest argument that Illinois Wesleyan deserved to be ranked higher than Wabash or Wittenberg in the north region. I think its academic since as a two loss team they still would not have gotten in over Muhlenberg. But as a .555 SOS number with a 1-2 RRO record, the committee could have easily justified putting Wabash and Witt behind IWU.

Ok, I'll bite. What's the current 3 way tiebreaker rule for the NCAC? I'd assume Denison would get the AQ under the "Rose Bowl Rule."

Quote from: DPUTigers on November 13, 2017, 09:25:52 AM
DePauw beat themselves, but just going to leave this photo here. Wabash with an illegal formation on the second fake field goal.
https://twitter.com/CoachJohnson64/status/929747587955134464

OK - I'll take this up. Its not like either one of us has any football to look forward to next weekend.

Better video here: https://youtu.be/n7LilGMUQwE?t=2m13s

Wabash lined up for the second fake FG with only ten players. So for starters - wabash converted the 4th down with one fewer player on the field. So there's that going for DePauw's effective coverage on the second fake fg.

Second - should there have been a flag called? As a recovering football official, I'll be happy to admit I've missed my fair share of calls.  You know what call I never missed? Any call related to counting players and verifying down linemen.  We've got nothing better to do between plays. We do it every single play.  All the time. Its easy. If there aren't exactly 11 on each side of the ball, your hair stands up on the back of your neck. If there are 12, easy flag for illegal substitution. So why no flag here? If there are 10 on offense, this is where the rules between high school and the NCAA differ. NFHS says you must have 7 down linemen. Per NCAA Rule 7-4-a-4, you can have no more than 4 in the backfield. With 11 players it means the same thing. With only 10 on the field, only having 6 on the line is legal since there are still no more than 4 in the backfield (PK, H/QB, 2 TEs).

You can't blame the officials for this one. 

It'd be worth asking Coach Morel, but it wouldn't surprise me if playing 10 was part of the design on this fake play. After the last fake, everyone is looking for the missing man lined up on the Wabash sidelines. Nobody on defense is going to want to miss their assignment and so with one man missing from the kicking team, maybe a few are worried about where their man is and not paying attention to that TE. Or maybe somebody from Wabash forgot to run out onto the field and they pulled off the second fake anyway.

Just took delivery of the monon bell branded swag for the local telecast party this Saturday. Hope the college is not trying to tell me something by sending me a case of fidget spinners that double as bottle openers.

Quote from: wally_wabash on October 24, 2017, 02:05:20 PM
I do remember being almost done with that week's edition of the Bachelor when the EIC came in and broke the news.  We had to completely scrap the front page and rearrange almost the entire issue at the last minute.  It was a long, but exciting night in the basement of the Chapel. 

Thankfully - there is the bachelor archive.

Looks like Putnam County is going to be the beneficiary of some court ordered community service time.http://www.bannergraphic.com/story/2454783.html
http://www.journalreview.com/news/article_5c6c4ea0-b8ba-11e7-a8a8-e7ad7aeab8df.html

Anybody heard any semi-official word on the monon bell broadcast this year? I understand that it will not be on AXS.

If you are posting here under the belief that the NCAA would pay for a 32 team field without the vast majority of teams being AQs then you are fooling yourself.  In 15 of the 17 years long AQ era, the national champion was (probably) the 1 or 2 overall seed in the tournament.  In only one year, the first year in 1999 did we get an oddball result that probably wouldn't have happened in the invitation only bracket.    After 1999, you could have held an eight team tournament and come up with the same result.  Scrap the hard AQs and you'll get at least a 16 team tourney.  The D3 philosophy is to primarily promote intra-region and intra-conference play.  The fact that we have at large bids at all is in deference to the fact that your John Carroll's and W-Oshkoshes of the world deserve something to play for too, as do non Pool A conferences and those that don't do full round robin.  Anybody else lucky enough to get in is gravy.  That's why I probably won't be crying too much if Wabash doesn't get an invite on Sunday. 

Here we go again.  This is the last definitive post I've found from our archive with actual data.  If anybody knows if the NCAC has updated their criteria - that'd be great.

Quote from: wally_wabash on October 27, 2012, 05:49:25 PM
Here are the tiebreaks again, as published in 2010:
1- H2H
2- Results vs. other NCAC opponents in descending order (I believe this has to be amongst common opponents)
3- Fewest conference away losses
4- Highest preseason power ranking
5- Team with the longest conference winning streak

So with full round robin, criteria 1 and 2 are moot if we have a 3 way tie with each one loss team with a win and a loss against the other co-champions.

Scenario 1
Wabash, Witt, Denison with one loss.  Denison's loss would be at home.  Both Wabash and Witt's losses were away.  Denison gets the AQ?
Scenario 2
Denison, DePauw, and Witt with one loss. All three losses would be away.  If the power ranking is the preseason ranking, Witt would have it.  If we go to the last criteria, DePauw would have the AQ as they would have a 5 game win streak, Witt would have 2, and Denison would have 2.

Quote from: Caveman # 95 on October 01, 2016, 01:48:22 PM
Wabash's coaching....was wondering when someone was going to address the 800 lb. gorilla in the room.  Morel may be a great guy...and I have heard that from many people...but he is a proven loser as a head coach.  Google it.  The truth hurts. 

What was the WabCol admin thinking when they hired this guy?  Were they just being lazy?  I would think there would be a mile long line of young Coach Creighton-esque types jumping at the chance to coach a team like this.  Admin really screwed the pooch on this one.  They should have lured Carlson out of retirement if they wanted mediocrity.

Sorry - can't let this one sit.  Raeburn batted .500 against Witt.  It was just one loss.  Morel earned the trust and confidence of the players and fellow coaches to earn the top job.  Proven loser?  Last time I checked he was the offensive coordinator for a team that won its conference last year and made it to the third round of the playoffs.  If you want to play the "proven loser" card, remember that Morel actually has a higher w/l percentage than BJ Hammer.  Please, go head and call BJ a "proven loser"  - I dare you.


If you want to speculate on whether Morel or BJ would have gotten the job had both been on campus when Raeburn stepped down, be my guest.  Back here in the real world, a vacancy opened when a successful D3 coach got a once in a lifetime chance to coach D1 FBS football.  Yes it was the worst FBS football program in the country.  But a coach with a young family decided it was an opportunity and they took it.  Best of luck to them.  The normal route to the D1 coaching ranks is the life of a journeyman bench coach from staff to staff on a nearly annual basis until somebody takes a chance on you and gives you a coveted coordinator job.  The Stan Parrish path doesn't exist anymore - even in his era it was anomaly.  So ER is gone in March and there is a vacancy.  March is critical for D3 recruiting.  No NLI program means that you are tracking admissions deposits to see what your freshman class will look like in the fall.  Coaching jobs don't open up in March.  A national search would take two to three months.  Are there coaches out there that would want the Wabash job?  Of course.  How many of them are going to take it in May or June? 


So here's the question for you.  You've got a highly respected coach already on your campus who you know, your team knows, and your incoming freshman class knows.  Oh - and he's already been a head coach before.  You can go with that or see who you can pick up off the street somewhere.  Please think about your words before you call someone lazy or dismiss the administration's decision.


Yes, I'm frustrated that ER left (but happy trails to you and yours).  I'm frustrated that CC left.  I'm frustrated that BJ left.  You can whine about it or support the team we have.  Or in the words of Coach Dale . . .