Top 25 rankings

[Rick Akins]

Not griping about the top 25, Pat.  Sorry for the tough weekend.  I promise,  ALL of us who read and/or post on here love d3football.com and all you do to spotlight our schools and d3 sports in general.  Thanks for the incredibly hard work you, Keith and the others do to get accurate, relevant and interesting information about d3 sports out to us and the world!!

[Pat Coleman]

What are the voters seeing differently in the OAC this year? 4 teams in the top 11? I know the OAC has always been viewed as one of the top conferences, but what is being perceived differently this year than in the past? It isn't uncommon for a number of teams in this conference to start off 3-0 or 4-0 after playing non-conference games and/or against the bottom teams in their conference, and having 2-3 teams in the top 20. But I don't ever recall so many teams from this conference (or any conference, for that matter) ranked so high. Just curious.

Foss,

I think the league needs some clarity -- we know all of those teams are fairly good but until they play each other it's going to be hard to say for sure which of that group is clearly the second best team.

[gordonmann]

You saw a small hint of that this week with John Carroll dropping most of their votes following the loss to ONU.

[K-Mack]

What are the voters seeing differently in the OAC this year? 4 teams in the top 11? I know the OAC has always been viewed as one of the top conferences, but what is being perceived differently this year than in the past? It isn't uncommon for a number of teams in this conference to start off 3-0 or 4-0 after playing non-conference games and/or against the bottom teams in their conference, and having 2-3 teams in the top 20. But I don't ever recall so many teams from this conference (or any conference, for that matter) ranked so high. Just curious.

Good question. I had to think for a minute or so to really try to explain why.

Without reading anyone else's response on this yet, I think you can pinpoint two, maybe three, reasons for this:

1) The lack of a clear-cut No. 2 in the OAC. Usually Mount Union is Team A, and we can readily identify Team B, whether it be Capital, Ohio Northern, Baldwin-Wallace or John Carroll. This year, we're waiting for those teams to play to get that clarity, and in the meantime (reason 1 1/2), other leagues which traditionally feature similar depth haven't shown it so far. The CCIW usually features 3-4 teams you can consider voting for, not one or two (after North Central's loss to Wash U., although they remain in the poll, and Augustana, which lost to B-W). The WIAC also has a very clear top two, when in other seasons they have had 3-4 teams siphoning each others' votes until we see the head-to-head matchups later in the year.

2) The reduction of the MAC from 11 to 8 teams this year has actually had a wide-ranging effect beyond the three teams that moved. The 11-team MAC used to feature 9 conference games, now it features 7. Meanwhile, Rowan was consistently struggling to fill its schedule with D3s, and Wesley and Salisbury are members of a 5-team league, so they have dates galore to fill. What's happened is the strongest schools out East have taken the opportunity to schedule each other more often than before (not just Rowan-CNU, but now also Wilkes, Montclair State, Widener, N.C. Wesleyan, Wesley, Salisbury, even Kean and Albright).

So you know, normally you might find the NJAC and MAC leaders in the 6-12 range, right now you see neither, partially because of the crossover scheduling and partly because it seems to be an off year for the MAC and a competitive year for the NJAC with no clear leader in either conference.

I think the lack of clarity in the too-deep OAC and the lack of clarity in other leagues which are showing virtually no depth, plus Hardin-Simmons' early schedule and the slow recovery of traditional top 15 powers Linfield, Bridgewater and Trinity (Texas) from off years is contributing to the bunch-up of OAC schools around the 10 range.

I don't believe it'll last, but I do believe that so far, with the defense the four major OAC teams are playing, they all deserve to be there.

Capital's given up 10 points, Baldwin-Wallace 14, Mount Union 21 and ONU 22 all in three games ... pretty legit.

[Presto]

i don't know if this is the place to post it but you guys do a great job with this website kmack i really enjoy reading your stories good job everyone.

[Foss]

Thanks for the responses, guys. Keith, appreciate the comprehension breakdown.

Yeah, it will be nice when the top non-Mount OAC teams start playing each other (and Mt. Union). We'll get a much better idea how good they are after then, and will likely see some up and down movement in the poll. I think it's worth noting that the combined record of their (Capital, BW, and ON) opponents up to this point is 8-19. Take away the losses against the OAC teams and their opponents are still only 8-10. As already mentioned, we'll know a lot more about the top non-Mount OAC teams as the season progresses.

[K-Mack]

i don't know if this is the place to post it but you guys do a great job with this website kmack i really enjoy reading your stories good job everyone.

You can post that on any thread you want to. 

[Presto]

lol kmack ok its true this is a great site.

[AUPepBand]

Yes, Alfred fans enjoy the shout out....sort of like D3's answer to hitting the front cover of SI....whoa, hold on, there's a curse associated with that, isn't there?! 

[Rick Akins]

K-Mack:

You ARE the Mount Union of the message board!!  Great analysis of the top 25 right now and why so many OAC teams are so high.  Makes sense to me!

[texgrad69]

I guess these rankings mean something to somebody.  The only thing I care about is UMHB makes the playoffs and wins their last game. 

[K-Mack]

I guess these rankings mean something to somebody.  The only thing I care about is UMHB makes the playoffs and wins their last game. 

Hey, that's a fine attitude to have and one of the things we ALL like about D3 vs. those other guys, that we sort everything out on the field.

That said, in my experience, people really do get a lot out of the rankings, even if it's nothing more than board fodder for the days between Saturdays.

[AUPepBand]

K-Mack:
Thanks for the shout out for Alfred in ATN. It's evident you do your homework. Pep is still amazed at the Saxons' dominance of an outstanding Springfield football team. But a team is only as good as its next game... Go AU; keep your nose to the grindstone.

[sjfcclimbing]

I guess these rankings mean something to somebody.  The only thing I care about is UMHB makes the playoffs and wins their last game. 

Hey, that's a fine attitude to have and one of the things we ALL like about D3 vs. those other guys, that we sort everything out on the field.

That said, in my experience, people really do get a lot out of the rankings, even if it's nothing more than board fodder for the days between Saturdays.

I think these rankings have one other importance, they start to form opinions that are a basis for the final seedings. If you believe the stats, home field advantage in the play-offs means alot and if your going to play Mt. Union a neutral spot sounds better then Alliance. Of course, one could argue that Salem is no longer neutral but a second home for Mt., LOL.

[Ron Boerger]

The rankings here have precisely *zip* to do with how teams are seeded in the playoffs.  Consult the Playoff FAQ for more.