FB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[ExTartanPlayer]

Well, Alma had a pretty convincing (31-7) win over North Park last Saturday, so they must not be all that bad.  Especially when you see that North Park only lost 28-31 in week 1 to a Concordia (Wis.) team that was in the playoffs last year.

Alma should be congratulated for their win over NP; after last season, any win for them is a good win.  But context matters when interpreting this stuff, and saying "they beat a team that played one of last year's playoff teams close in week 1!" takes a few leaps of logic that we need to clarify.

Concordia (Wis.) was a playoff team last year from one of the, uh, "least good" conferences in Division III.  That Concordia team got eviscerated by the two best teams it played (including 5-5 Augsburg from the MIAC, who beat them 51-17) and also lost to a Trine team that went 1-5 in the MIAA.  In any conference but the NACC, they're not going to the playoffs, and that's not a potshot at the NACC, just a realistic view.  Throwing out the fact that they were a playoff team without that bit of context is a little on the disingenuous side.

North Park is a trendy sleeper pick of sorts after their surprising three-win season last year, and I was surprised that Alma beat them, but please take a look at NPU's record over the last decade before you get too proud of Alma's win there.

[sac]

fwiw, masseyratings.com is giving Alma a pretty good chance at a 3-7 season and a 50/50 game with Olivet that could make it 4 wins.

Alma's non-conf schedule is quite a bit easier this year so take that into consideration.   Alma played Heidelberg, IWU, Lakeland and UW-Oshkosh last year, this year they traded  North Park and Concordia, Ill (CURF for Sager) for IWU/Oshkosh.  A decidedly easier task.

And while they went 1-9 last year they did lose an OT game to Olivet and nearly beat conference champ Albion.

They may not have been the bottom of the barrel program some thought.  Plus one win is still one more win than Calvin had last year.

[sac]

btw, its early but Massey is saying the MIAA will be close, decided by these 3 games

Adrian 23 Albion 22
Hope 21 Adrian 20
Albion 30 Hope 28

[Mr. Ypsi]

fwiw, masseyratings.com is giving Alma a pretty good chance at a 3-7 season and a 50/50 game with Olivet that could make it 4 wins.

Alma's non-conf schedule is quite a bit easier this year so take that into consideration.   Alma played Heidelberg, IWU, Lakeland and UW-Oshkosh last year, this year they traded  North Park and Concordia, Ill (CURF for Sager) for IWU/Oshkosh.  A decidedly easier task.

And while they went 1-9 last year they did lose an OT game to Olivet and nearly beat conference champ Albion.

They may not have been the bottom of the barrel program some thought.  Plus one win is still one more win than Calvin had last year.

True, but on the downside, it's also 9 more losses than Calvin had!

[ExTartanPlayer]

Alma's non-conf schedule is quite a bit easier this year so take that into consideration.   Alma played Heidelberg, IWU, Lakeland and UW-Oshkosh last year, this year they traded  North Park and Concordia, Ill (CURF for Sager) for IWU/Oshkosh.  A decidedly easier task.

Sorry if that came out wrong; the intent of my post was not to bash on Alma so much as to say "Yo, D3SportzBall, "beating a team that lost close in Week 1 to a team that was in the playoffs last year" is a little misleading."  But you do make some great points that Alma's 1-9 last year included a couple of close losses and a brutal OOC schedule - Heidelberg, IWU, and UWO is a triumvirate that only a handful of Division III teams (like, literally, maybe 10, tops; Mount, UWW, UMHB, Linfield, North Central, Wesley are the only teams I can rattle off that would definitely be "favorites" against all three, anyone else is probably a toss-up) could comfortably navigate unscathed.  It's not like they were close to winning those games, but you're absolutely right that trading out three Top 25-caliber teams for a couple of opponents on their level could lead to a 3-7ish record.

[D3SportzBall]

Well, Alma had a pretty convincing (31-7) win over North Park last Saturday, so they must not be all that bad.  Especially when you see that North Park only lost 28-31 in week 1 to a Concordia (Wis.) team that was in the playoffs last year.

Alma should be congratulated for their win over NP; after last season, any win for them is a good win.  But context matters when interpreting this stuff, and saying "they beat a team that played one of last year's playoff teams close in week 1!" takes a few leaps of logic that we need to clarify.

Concordia (Wis.) was a playoff team last year from one of the, uh, "least good" conferences in Division III.  That Concordia team got eviscerated by the two best teams it played (including 5-5 Augsburg from the MIAC, who beat them 51-17) and also lost to a Trine team that went 1-5 in the MIAA.  In any conference but the NACC, they're not going to the playoffs, and that's not a potshot at the NACC, just a realistic view.  Throwing out the fact that they were a playoff team without that bit of context is a little on the disingenuous side.

North Park is a trendy sleeper pick of sorts after their surprising three-win season last year, and I was surprised that Alma beat them, but please take a look at NPU's record over the last decade before you get too proud of Alma's win there.

Wow, talk about taking what I said and making it what you wanted it to seem like I said.  I was just trying to give Alma some credit for not being dumpster-fire bad like some people might have thought after getting slaughtered in week 1.   I still don't think they're great, nor am I getting "too proud" of their win.  Just interesting to see them rebound after such a demoralizing defeat in their first game.

[D3SportzBall]

Alma's non-conf schedule is quite a bit easier this year so take that into consideration.   Alma played Heidelberg, IWU, Lakeland and UW-Oshkosh last year, this year they traded  North Park and Concordia, Ill (CURF for Sager) for IWU/Oshkosh.  A decidedly easier task.

Sorry if that came out wrong; the intent of my post was not to bash on Alma so much as to say "Yo, D3SportzBall, "beating a team that lost close in Week 1 to a team that was in the playoffs last year" is a little misleading."  But you do make some great points that Alma's 1-9 last year included a couple of close losses and a brutal OOC schedule - Heidelberg, IWU, and UWO is a triumvirate that only a handful of Division III teams (like, literally, maybe 10, tops; Mount, UWW, UMHB, Linfield, North Central, Wesley are the only teams I can rattle off that would definitely be "favorites" against all three, anyone else is probably a toss-up) could comfortably navigate unscathed.  It's not like they were close to winning those games, but you're absolutely right that trading out three Top 25-caliber teams for a couple of opponents on their level could lead to a 3-7ish record.

I mean, it's only misleading if you interpret it how you did.  All I did was point out a fact, don't know why you thought I was being overly proud of said fact.

[Sir Battlescars]

I agree with D3SportzBall. It was impressive to see Alma bounce back in week 2 with a convincing win. No reason to over critic their opponent and their opponent's opponent.

[Pat Coleman]

Gregory:

Alma is simply not a very good team, unfortunately.  Let's keep it at that for now.  Obviously, you will have a better assessment of them after today's outcome, whatever that might be.

Well, Alma had a pretty convincing (31-7) win over North Park last Saturday, so they must not be all that bad.  Especially when you see that North Park only lost 28-31 in week 1 to a Concordia (Wis.) team that was in the playoffs last year.

Nah, I'm with ExTartanPlayer here. I mean, there are 32 playoff teams and two dozen automatic bids in any given year. Not all automatic bids are created equally. Just because CUW was in the playoffs in 2013 doesn't mean they would have been competitive in the CCIW and North Park hanging with them is completely expected.

[Captain_Joe08]

MIAA wins the MIAA-NACC Challenge 6-1 yesterday. Only former MIAA football only member Wisconsin Lutheran got a win for the NACC over Kalamazoo.

Olivet 49 Aurora 20
Trine 27 Rockford 7
Hope 25 Lakeland 22
Albion 57 Concordia Wisconsin 20
Alma 24 Concordia Chicago 21
Adrian 23 Benedictine 6
Wisconsin Lutheran 32 Kalamazoo 20

[sac]

combined records of opponents to date:

Adrian:  0-8
Albion:   5-3
Alma:     1-6
Hope:    3-4
Kzoo:    7-2
Olivet:   1-6
Trine:     4-4


I didn't realize the entire league had this upcoming weekend off.  Weird.

[OC_SID]

combined records of opponents to date:

Adrian:  0-8
Albion:   5-3
Alma:     1-6
Hope:    3-4
Kzoo:    7-2
Olivet:   1-6
Trine:     4-4

I didn't realize the entire league had this upcoming weekend off.  Weird.

Every one has this week off because of the scheduling agreement with the NACC. The school for each conference who is "off" each week will now be playing the "off" team from the other conference. Make sense?

[sac]

Who chose this weekend for byes?  Enjoy this insanely beautiful weekend.

I might suggest up North somewhere.

[formerd3db]

Who chose this weekend for byes?  Enjoy this insanely beautiful weekend.

I might suggest up North somewhere.

That is a great idea, unless one wants to take in one of the other level area games (Michigan State, U of Michigan, Ferris State or Grand Valley State).  Speaking of the latter two, I am shocked that Ferris is 3-0 and Grand Valley 0-3.  Tony Annese has Ferris on track, although they only had 5600+ for the Ferris/Grand Valley game last week, which surprises me as I thought they would have more.  However, Grand Valley did have 15,500 for their home game against Ohio Dominican the week before according to the box score.  Wow, impressive.

sac, are you then going north or heading to Michigan State or U of Mich?

[sflzman]

Of course as I'm finally starting to not be as busy and I've gotten a chance to look in on the boards and catch up it's te week that there's nothing going on in the MIAA.

I'll start with rubbing in the fact that my Gophers took home the jug tonight in a convincing throttling of Big Blue 

I'll move on to try and catch up with Alma football and put in my two cents after what I've read

First off week one probably could have been a little closer had Alma's two best corners not decided to end their football careers. The south Florida duo of Rhyan Smith and Fabrice Constant both chose to not play this year. Fellow Miami native Jamal Randal - the best athlete returning to the Scots from a year ago - also did not return to campus with financial reasons being his big issue. A problem you run into when charging 40+ a year to come to school.

Week two I thought freshman Dylan Zambrowski really lit a fire for the Scots. The dual threat QB will really be a huge difference for the Scots. The kid is showing early flashes of Mackenzie McGrady and - is it too soon to say this? - maybe even a little inner josh brehm. The problem is that there's not enough skill players around him. The trio of running backs was surprisingly effective and I thought the Scots did a good job of getting Tyler waters the ball many different ways.

The defense also impressed me, and I think even without smith and constant they will be a very solid group in the MIAA. Terry Calagon is an absolute stud and has gotten bigger and stronger since a year ago. They did a good job of shutting down the Cal transfer and making him look rather uncomfortable in the pocket.

Finally I thought that was the most energy I had felt in Bahlke Field since the Scots' last this place MIAA campaign (2008 I believe). The night game was a ton of fun and the stadium was rocking (no literally the student section was moving up and down more than the infamous galloping gurdy bridge)

Overall I'm expecting the Scots to be much more competitive in the league this year and I wouldn't be surprised if we saw Alma pull off an upset or two during the year. Hopefully I'll be able to make it an effort to check in more often on the boards.

Hope everyone is well