FB: Centennial Conference

[Transplanted_Yankee]

You all will have to give Splik a pass, he has occasionally been know to have sudden outbursts of emotions around topics close to his heart. 

As for Centennial teams in the playoffs I can only see one team getting in based on the Centennial's history in the playoffs.  The only exception I see is either a one loss Dickinson or Ursinus winning the conference and the Mules holding on with one loss.  But if the Mules run the table and win out both Dickinson and Ursinus will have 2 losses and will be out of contention for a Playoff spot.  Both Dickinson and Ursinus would be very strong candidates for ECAC games if they do not make the playoffs.

[old ends]

If home field has an advantage, such as Muhlenberg's field, would the possible weather conditions change any of that?? Maybe even it out a little. A few years ago I was at a dinner across from thier field and walk up to take a look. I thought it was for a local high school. Then someone told me it was a college field and the high school with the same name was near the Reading area.

Picks for this week:
Muhlenberg-- Stats are in thier favor
Ursinus
McDaniel--going with the home team here.
Hopkins

The defense is sometimes the best offense.

[old ends]

How does the Centennial Conference handle tie breakers?? If Dickinson beats Muhlenberg, then loses to Ursinus and well if 4 teams end up 6-2 the tie breaker could get tricky...

I did check back a few years and noticed that it did happen that 4 teams were tied. Could this be another year for this to happen.

[morGhounds]

i would very much like to see dickinson lose to muhlenberg, ursinis lose to moravian, and then beat muhlenberg, and then moravian beat muhlenberg.....I would like to see how this ends up being handled with all the teams having 2 loses..(i think i set that up right?) If the tie breaker was determined by points against, muhlenberg clearly has it in the bag...but it would be close if it was the other way around w/ points for...moravian has put up a decent amount this year

[Reserved Seat]

Picks
Muhlenberg
Ursinus
F&M
John Hopkins

Only one team from the Centennial will make the play-offs based on past history.

[pizzashop]

Section IV - Rules Governing Championship

A. Determining the Conference Champion. The Conference champion will be based on the best won-lost record in a single roundrobin
season.

B. Ties for First Place. In case of a tie for first place at the conclusion of the regular season, multiple champions will be named.

C. Determining the NCAA Tournament Representative
1. Head-to-Head competition;
2. Results against 3rd place team, 4th place team, etc. until tie is broken;
3. Strength-of-schedule criteria, as determined by the NCAA Championships Committee formula, for all games;
4. Team with the fewest overall losses;
5. The most recent team representing the Conference as its automatic qualifier shall be eliminated and the remaining teams shall revert to the Conference's primary tie-breaking criteria (head-to-head competition).
When any secondary criteria separates one or more tied teams, but does not completely break the tie among all teams involved, re-apply the criteria to all groups of teams still tied, starting with the Conference's primary tiebreaker for all sports (head-to-head Centennial competition). (Adopted 6/2/99; Revised 6/5/02; Revised 6/4/03; Revised 6/1/05)

[WR#1]

Muhlenberg (Stay on top for another GOTW in Collegeville) 
Ursinus (Homecoming and a solid defensive performance spells a W for the Bears)
Franklin & Marshall (McDaniel limps into this one and F&M will put up some points on these guys)
John Hopkins

[splik]

I commented on a typo and injected life into a moribund message board.  Hooray for me and my emotional outbursts. 
(Did I use the word moribund right?  Did I spell it right?) 
I liked the Around the Midatlantic Region topic about Muhlenberg losing being a good thing for the conference.  It has nothing to do with me cheering for Dickinson or Muhlenberg.  If Dickinson does win and Muhlenberg wins out, would the latter have good crecentials for a Pool C Bid?
I think I will pick Muhlenberg this weekend based on their stifling defense and, more importantly, their turf.   

[BTEXPRESS]

Splik, if that is an apology, then I accept(HA, HA). I have to agree there is very little emotion on this board. Other than Murph calling out the JuniatA coaches(by the way, where is MUrph?) there has been very little passion.Agree with your Mulenberg pick.

[Murphy]

Murphy is alive and well. 

My feelings about the JC football team haven't changed. 

I think seeing how the season has played out only reinforces the comments I made previously.

Although I will say the players deserve much credit, I have seen every minute of every game, home and away and they continue to play hard inspite of...

I am happy to see though that Splik is still being Splik, Hi Splik.

Regards

[WR#1]

Dickinson @ Muhlenberg Mules squeak one out and stay unbeaten for another GOTF in Collegeville next week
Moravian @ Ursinus A solid performance by the D and homcoming spells another win for the Bears.
Franklin & Marshall @ McDaniel  F&M's offense too strong and McDaniels offense is nonexistent
John Hopkins @ Juniata JHU coming out strong and getting a win

[splik]

BT, 'crecentials'?  you missed your chance at vengeance!  I better proof read a little better myself. 
Hi Murph

I like to see the Centennial and Big Ten share (or I guess shared) the whole 'team that has not been included the longest gets to play rule'. 
So if Muhlenberg loses, do they get a Pool C bid?

[Ryan Tipps]

Now that the regional rankings are out, that should really help give people an idea of what the NCAA folks think about Muhlenberg. I will confess to not knowing the criteria inside and out like Pat & Co., but things are looking up that Muhlenberg could get a Pool C bid with a loss to Dickinson.

The team's two nonconference wins come against TCNJ and Union, two teams that are fifth and eight, respectively, in the East Region rankings. It's also a big perk that the the majority of the Centennial did well in nonconference play. We could see as many as, what, five CC teams end the season at 7-3 or better?

It is a concern, though, that one-loss teams Dickinson and Ursinus are not included on the South Region rankings. That means that there's something in the criteria that makes those teams less desirable than the other one-loss teams listed (Bridgewater, Trinity, etc.). My guess is that Ursinus is hurt by playing a non-D3 team, so they're short what could otherwise be an in-region win. And Dickinson might very well be the 11th team in the region, we just don't know for sure.

The question is whether their negative element of the criteria -- whatever it is -- would affect all the teams in the Centennial. It might, it might not.

Anyway, my gut tells me that a Muhlenberg team that goes 9-1 would have a great shot at getting in. The number of one-loss teams around the country are quickly dwindling, and conferences that frequently send two teams to the postseason (CCIW, OAC, ASC) aren't looking like they're going to have that this year. That makes Muhlenberg look all that much better.

[fbfan814]

As a Juniata fan and someone that has also seen a number of Juniata games both this year and for the past 20 or so years, I would like to invite Murphy to contact the football staff at Juniata and ask them if they could use his expert services.  If he is such an expert at coaching football then I think he is doing his son, himself, and the whole team a disservice by not offering up his help.  Since I highly doubt that he is man enough to do this I suggest that he zip his lip. 

As more of an expert on Juniata football than this man will ever be, I realize that the problem is not the coaches at all.  The coaches can only work with what they have.  Just by looking at the size of the Juniata players compared to every team they have faced this year, they are still out of there league.  Until the school itself decides to make football a priority and allow the coaches to go out and get the type athletes that it takes to bring them back to their glory days things will remain the same.

[old ends]

The information on the Regional rankings and tie breakers shows the knowledge of the people who love DIV III football. Not only in this Conference post, but the others as well, which I hope people read. Some great information