FB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[WABCOL86]

I certainly haven't forgotten it's "Depauw to Hell, we got the Bell week.... "  WAF and keep the Bell where it belongs!!

[BashDad]

All that said, Wabash is a solid #2 seed if they win Saturday and will host NCC in round 2 in my opinion.

Which would both suck and be awesome at the same time. Would love to see this Bash team up against the best. Raeburn and co. bring it in big games. Absolutely bring it. That would be fun to watch--if also terrifying--so early in the tournament.

[smedindy]

Let's roll through the rest of the NCAC action this weekend, as we bid adieu to the seniors of 9 of the 10 schools. Thanks for making the NCAC a fun league to watch (even Kenyon and Hiram - no shame in grinding out four years at excellent schools even with losing records).

Oberlin (1-4, 2-7) @ Allegheny (3-2, 5-4) - It's too little too late for the Gators this year, but a 4-2 NCAC slate should mean optimism into 2012. Oberlin can take pride knowing that about 15 more players and they may be contenders for 3rd or 4th place. I can see an Allegheny win, but it won't be easy - it never is against the Yeomen.

Wooster (3-2, 4-5) @ Wittenberg (4-1, 7-2) - Just like 'Gheny, Wooster's come on strong after it was too late. Now they face a Tigers team that may want to pound Wooster into Scot-lets out of frustration. However, last time we thought Wittenberg would take out frustration on a team they almost got popped by C-M.

Kenyon (0-5, 0-9) @ Denison (3-2, 4-5) - It's a shame that any senior has to go out winless in his last year, but I think that's what will happen to the Lords' crew of nine (by my count). They travel to a Big Red squad that is playing for a .500 overall record and one that also has some good building block talent for 2012.

Ohio Wesleyan (2-3, 3-6) @ Hiram (1-4, 1-8) - The Bishops are another team that has started its finishing kick after the race had been run. A .500 league mark could somewhat salvage a frustrating season. We've seen this song before for the Terriers - a season where improvement was expected that doesn't come to fruition. A loss means that Hiram will be 7-93 over the past ten seasons. But think of it this way - they could still be in the OAC.

Wabash (9-0) @ DePauw (4-4) - Well...

[ExTartanPlayer]

Thanks for making the NCAC a fun league to watch (even Kenyon and Hiram - no shame in grinding out four years at excellent schools even with losing records).

Amen to that.  I have a ton of respect for anybody that sticks it out and plays four years of Division III football, from Mount Union on down to Hiram, perhaps even more for guys that slog away at the lesser schools.  As much as I loved playing college ball, I have to admit that it's a very humbling experience to play Division III football, even less glamorous than I expected.

[wally_wabash]

Talk of tournament matchups got me thinking about who's even going to wind up in this quadrant of the bracket.  My best guess, sort of in order of how they'd be seeded...

UMU/UWW (one or the other, not both)
Wabash
NCC
Franklin
IWU
??
Benedictine
Albion

What's up with the question marks?  Could be CWRU, IF they get invited.  If they don't, then who the heck knows.  Monmouth is a team that could get transplanted into the region.  Thomas More is another.  Benedictine is a team that they might ship off to the West #1.  I think we might see an unfamiliar team or two in this quadrant this year.  Franklin/IWU would be a fun game I think (flip a coin as to who would host there...could very well be in  Bloomington if it happened). 

[ExTartanPlayer]

Oberlin (1-4, 2-7) @ Allegheny (3-2, 5-4) - It's too little too late for the Gators this year, but a 4-2 NCAC slate should mean optimism into 2012. Oberlin can take pride knowing that about 15 more players and they may be contenders for 3rd or 4th place. I can see an Allegheny win, but it won't be easy - it never is against the Yeomen.

Oberlin might finally just be worn out.  Allegheny, meanwhile, is playing for a 6-4 season to regain momentum into 2012 and keep their streak of winning seasons alive.  Gators win.

Wooster (3-2, 4-5) @ Wittenberg (4-1, 7-2) - Just like 'Gheny, Wooster's come on strong after it was too late. Now they face a Tigers team that may want to pound Wooster into Scot-lets out of frustration. However, last time we thought Wittenberg would take out frustration on a team they almost got popped by C-M.

Gets my vote for intriguing game of the week.  On paper, Witt should win this game in a runaway, but in reality, I could see Wooster making this a tight game.

Wittenberg obviously has had a slightly disappointing season and is coming off a tough loss which cost them the NCAC title and (in all likelihood) eliminated them from serious playoff consideration.  While I'm sure that some seniors feel like there is plenty to play for, the team might have a general feeling that there isn't much motivation, considering that last week they were playing for a playoff spot. 

Wooster, meanwhile, is riding two straight wins against the weak sisters, but even those can boost a team's confidence...and if you look at the bigger picture, even the losses to WashU and CWRU demonstrated a team that was improving.  They'll be playing for a .500 season and (technically) could finish tied for 2nd in the NCAC if they win this game.

If the "bad" version of Witt's Jekyll-and-Hyde experience shows up, Wooster might win.
If angry Witt shows up, this might be a blowout in the other direction.

Kenyon (0-5, 0-9) @ Denison (3-2, 4-5) - It's a shame that any senior has to go out winless in his last year, but I think that's what will happen to the Lords' crew of nine (by my count). They travel to a Big Red squad that is playing for a .500 overall record and one that also has some good building block talent for 2012.

+1 here.  Denison coaches would probably love to finish 5-5 this year and point to the upward trend in their recruiting.  Kenyon, meanwhile, is still complaining about losing players to the NESCAC and the Ivy League (sorry, that's never going to get old for me).

Ohio Wesleyan (2-3, 3-6) @ Hiram (1-4, 1-8) - The Bishops are another team that has started its finishing kick after the race had been run.  A .500 league mark could somewhat salvage a frustrating season. We've seen this song before for the Terriers - a season where improvement was expected that doesn't come to fruition. A loss means that Hiram will be 7-93 over the past ten seasons. But think of it this way - they could still be in the OAC.

With a win here, OWU can top off a season that's about as "average" as you can get.  Clearly better than all the bad teams, clearly worse than all the good teams.  Honestly, there's no single result on the schedule where the OUTCOME sticks out as particularly BAD or particularly GOOD, but the lack of competition vs. Chicago/CMU/DePauw is disturbing.  If OWU wants to go from "mediocre" to "decent" they have to play competitive ball against those teams.

Wabash (9-0) @ DePauw (4-4) - Well...

[BayernFan]

There arent any words to express the depth of my hatred for DePauw, or anything related to DePauw.

I have hated them since October, 1978, when I spent an evening as a freshman in the Putnam County Hoosegow for the alleged crime of disorderly conduct, when in fact I was on the DePauw campus as part of an attempt to recover the Monon Bell which had been so cowardly heisted by lowly Dannies too womanly to do their own bidding that night.

Thankfully, Dean Norman Moore, after hearing out my description of the previous evening's events, waved his ever present cigar dismissively and proclaimed.....

"As I've always said...... EVERY Wabash man is entitled to ONE run in with the law!!"

Since using up my quota during my second month on campus.... before ever witnessing my FIRST Monon Bell Game, I have hated DePauw more and more every year.

I have been to every game since.  This will be my 34th.

[smedindy]

Talk of tournament matchups got me thinking about who's even going to wind up in this quadrant of the bracket.  My best guess, sort of in order of how they'd be seeded...

UMU/UWW (one or the other, not both)
Wabash
NCC
Franklin
IWU
??
Benedictine
Albion

What's up with the question marks?  Could be CWRU, IF they get invited.  If they don't, then who the heck knows.  Monmouth is a team that could get transplanted into the region.  Thomas More is another.  Benedictine is a team that they might ship off to the West #1.  I think we might see an unfamiliar team or two in this quadrant this year.  Franklin/IWU would be a fun game I think (flip a coin as to who would host there...could very well be in  Bloomington if it happened).

Case could be shipped East along with Mt. Union. Lord knows.

[GRIZ_BACKER]

Talk of tournament matchups got me thinking about who's even going to wind up in this quadrant of the bracket.  My best guess, sort of in order of how they'd be seeded...

UMU/UWW (one or the other, not both)
Wabash
NCC
Franklin
IWU
??
Benedictine
Albion

What's up with the question marks?  Could be CWRU, IF they get invited.  If they don't, then who the heck knows.  Monmouth is a team that could get transplanted into the region.  Thomas More is another.  Benedictine is a team that they might ship off to the West #1.  I think we might see an unfamiliar team or two in this quadrant this year.  Franklin/IWU would be a fun game I think (flip a coin as to who would host there...could very well be in  Bloomington if it happened).

Looks about right except don't be surprised if Bash and NCC are flipped.  FC may get the home nod due to being undefeated in the region and the lone loss was taking on UWW. Could go either way on the 4/5.  either way FC or IWU probably headed for a trip to Alliance or Whitewater in round two.

[wally_wabash]

Talk of tournament matchups got me thinking about who's even going to wind up in this quadrant of the bracket.  My best guess, sort of in order of how they'd be seeded...

UMU/UWW (one or the other, not both)
Wabash
NCC
Franklin
IWU
??
Benedictine
Albion

What's up with the question marks?  Could be CWRU, IF they get invited.  If they don't, then who the heck knows.  Monmouth is a team that could get transplanted into the region.  Thomas More is another.  Benedictine is a team that they might ship off to the West #1.  I think we might see an unfamiliar team or two in this quadrant this year.  Franklin/IWU would be a fun game I think (flip a coin as to who would host there...could very well be in  Bloomington if it happened).

Case could be shipped East along with Mt. Union. Lord knows.

Also very possible.  I think what my quick and dirty regional analysis shows is a serious lack of depth in the North this year.  There might be two of the best three teams in the nation there (UMU and NCC), another strong CCIW team, and then Wabash and Franklin are wild cards...the league schedules just don't let us know how good those teams really are with respect to the national tournament field.  Past that, it gets thin in a hurry.  So much so that there may not even be 8 North region teams in the field.  It should create an interesting bracket should the committee choose to get creative with interregional matchups. 

[Mr. Ypsi]

Talk of tournament matchups got me thinking about who's even going to wind up in this quadrant of the bracket.  My best guess, sort of in order of how they'd be seeded...

UMU/UWW (one or the other, not both)
Wabash
NCC
Franklin
IWU
??
Benedictine
Albion

What's up with the question marks?  Could be CWRU, IF they get invited.  If they don't, then who the heck knows.  Monmouth is a team that could get transplanted into the region.  Thomas More is another.  Benedictine is a team that they might ship off to the West #1.  I think we might see an unfamiliar team or two in this quadrant this year.  Franklin/IWU would be a fun game I think (flip a coin as to who would host there...could very well be in  Bloomington if it happened).

Looks about right except don't be surprised if Bash and NCC are flipped.  FC may get the home nod due to being undefeated in the region and the lone loss was taking on UWW. Could go either way on the 4/5.  either way FC or IWU probably headed for a trip to Alliance or Whitewater in round two.

I also am assuming that Franklin and IWU will meet in round one (assuming, obviously, that both win on Saturday).  Where the game is played will be an interesting test of Pat's speculation that in seeding, the national committee mostly ignores 'region'.  Franklin will almost certainly be above IWU in the final regional rankings that we see (since their loss is non-region), but overall they would both be one-loss teams with IWU having a vastly better SOS (currently 19th vs. 217th).

[GRIZ_BACKER]

Talk of tournament matchups got me thinking about who's even going to wind up in this quadrant of the bracket.  My best guess, sort of in order of how they'd be seeded...

UMU/UWW (one or the other, not both)
Wabash
NCC
Franklin
IWU
??
Benedictine
Albion

What's up with the question marks?  Could be CWRU, IF they get invited.  If they don't, then who the heck knows.  Monmouth is a team that could get transplanted into the region.  Thomas More is another.  Benedictine is a team that they might ship off to the West #1.  I think we might see an unfamiliar team or two in this quadrant this year.  Franklin/IWU would be a fun game I think (flip a coin as to who would host there...could very well be in  Bloomington if it happened).

Case could be shipped East along with Mt. Union. Lord knows.

Also very possible.  I think what my quick and dirty regional analysis shows is a serious lack of depth in the North this year.  There might be two of the best three teams in the nation there (UMU and NCC), another strong CCIW team, and then Wabash and Franklin are wild cards...the league schedules just don't let us know how good those teams really are with respect to the national tournament field.  Past that, it gets thin in a hurry.  So much so that there may not even be 8 North region teams in the field.  It should create an interesting bracket should the committee choose to get creative with interregional matchups.

+k for you wally  while many of us enjoy the rankings and the records (FC and Wabash), our league schedules leave a lot to be desired.  I dont personally condone playing UWW and Mt Union three years running though  LOL.  Personally, Bash and FC should play each other every year.  Good game for each school and the winner has a leg up on seeding at end of year (until the NCAC or HCAC become legit across the board).

[wabndy]

Pat,
Am I correct in reading the D3 football tournament selection committee criteria that cost-cutting adjustments to the bracket are only applicable to 1st round games?  Of course since we never get to see the secret final regional rankings, we don't know for sure which geograpically isolated schools are getting the nailed the worst.  That being said - have you ever gotten the impression that the committee was trying to set up merit-blind cost-cutting matchups beyond the first round?

[ExTartanPlayer]

So much so that there may not even be 8 North region teams in the field.  It should create an interesting bracket should the committee choose to get creative with interregional matchups.

Generally agree, wally, just sort of "thinking out loud" here....

I don't think that you can think about things from a "regional" standpoint until you've answered the following questions:

1) What 32 teams will be in the field?
2) Who are the four #1 seeds?

AFTER those two questions are answered, you can start to build quasi-regional brackets around the four #1 seeds.

There's a lot of hand-wringing on the East Region boards about the possibility that Mount Union will be shipped to headline the "East" bracket this year, but I think those folks are looking at the process backwards.  The committee is selecting Mount Union as one of the four #1 seeds, THEN putting the East Region teams in the bracket with UMU because they're the only #1 seed that falls within driving distance of most East teams. 

Many of the East folks are crying "foul" because they think Delaware Valley deserves a top seed and is getting robbed.  I think they're just crying about semantics.  If DVC (or any other East team) is national-title material, then they will win the game against Mount.  If they aren't, then what's the difference if they got eliminated in the semis or quarters?  The way that I see it, the East folks are just upset that "their" best team might be eliminated in the quarterfinals instead of the semifinals.

[Geezer Citizen]

Revisiting Saturday's game in C'ville.

Mrs. Geezer and I were leaving church yesterday when we saw a young man wearing a Wittenberg football sweatshirt. We struck up a short conversation. His name is CJ Taylor and is a freshman running back for Witt. He lamented that his offensive line was unable to protect the Witt QB, and thus, the offense couldn't do enough.

CJ is a nice young man. I almost felt sorry for him until I remembered that he decided to play for Witt and Joe Finchem.

For all of you going to Greendingle on Saturday, don't let the gestapo ruin your day.


Geezer