Around the Nation board

[Pat Coleman]

Doesn't the committee put all the teams in the field into the final regional rankings? 

No, it doesn't. It will eventually seed them, of course, and put them into the field, but they are not regionally ranked unless they deserve to be.

[HSC85]

Thanks for the clarification Pat.

[K-Mack]

Doesn't the committee put all the teams in the field into the final regional rankings? 

No, it doesn't. It will eventually seed them, of course, and put them into the field, but they are not regionally ranked unless they deserve to be.

I meant to answer that. Pat's right of course, they do the regional rankings same way they do every other week, put the 10 teams in each region in order based on the criteria. Because of the AQs, some teams past 10 will be in the playoffs, and some teams ranked higher than 8 in a region might get left out.

It's still a useful tool for adding extra significance to regular season victories

[D O.C.]

d3football.com staff....is this the busiest week of the season on the boards?

[Pat Coleman]

This or Selection Sunday week in basketball, yes.

[golden_dome]

About the selection show Sunday, is it available anywhere on the internet? Or is there anyway to get an ESPNews feed via internet?

[K-Mack]

d3football.com staff....is this the busiest week of the season on the boards?

Without looking at the numbers ... yes.

We always do the most traffic on selection sunday. WIth playoff curiousity and rivalries, Week 11 is definitely the busiest

About the selection show Sunday, is it available anywhere on the internet? Or is there anyway to get an ESPNews feed via internet?

Not that I know of. If you can't watch on TV, this website is your best bet.

With Pat not in studio this year, I don't think you're missing much if you miss the show. They just have an anchor read and Pat analyze. FWIW.

We'll have the bracket posted as soon as it's allowed, plus all the analysis and fan reaction here on the boards you could possibly desire.

Also, I just posted on the DIII on Fox thread ... At least 3 games on my DTV tomorrow.

ESPNews on right now in the background ... dude just said six teams enter the weekend hoping to play for a national championship in college football. Uh, add 32+, 16+ and 16+ to that. Or say Division I if you mean Division I.

(b-boy stance)

[K-Mack]

Just thought I'd post this, BTW:

If I'm reading the handbook right, the selection committee is:

Springfield Coach Mike DeLong
Rowan AD Joy Solomen
IWU Coach Norm Eash
OAC Commish Tim Gleason
ODAC Commish Brad Bankston
Grove City coach Chris Smith
Knox AD Chad Eisele
Redlands coach Mike Maynard

That's two from every region, and each of them is co-chair of a nine-member evaluation committee (the ones who did the regional rankings) that's been closely eyeing this the whole year.

We've had good relationships with the committee chair in the past and gotten interviews to help us learn how this works, and I bet we'll be able to do the same this year, albeit after the fact. I'm not 100% sure if the nine-member evaluation committee does the final regional rankings and then lets the selection committee do its work, and I forget how coaches and commissioners with teams on the table are allowed to participate in deliberations.

I do know that list up there is of people who have a lot of experience with D3 and care a lot of about it, and I'm not just saying that.

For some reason, in past seasons, we have not necessarily made a big deal of who is on the committee. It tends to sound like a lot of people still think it's a magic goblin in the NCAA offices that's responsible for making decisions.

[Ralph Turner]

...

I do know that list up there is of people who have a lot of experience with D3 and care a lot of about it, and I'm not just saying that.

For some reason, in past seasons, we have not necessarily made a big deal of who is on the committee. It tends to sound like a lot of people still think it's a magic goblin in the NCAA offices that's responsible for making decisions.

Keith, good points...

One other thing about the committee composition.

It does not take much investigation to find a coach from your own team/conference or alma mater participating or chairing the committee in another sport.

I think that such talk impugns the professionalism that drives these men and women to excel at their jobs.

[K-Mack]

I think I'm finally putting my old bio on the site to bed, but I wanted to save it somewhere since it's sort of a piece of work (pun intended):

Keith McMillan, Managing Editor  Although I recall my Dad taking me to a Tufts-Bowdoin game when I was growing up in Somerville, Massachusetts, my first real foray into Division III football came as a high school junior in Southern New Jersey. My teammates were being recruited by UCLA, North Carolina and Purdue. I was getting letters from places like Allegheny, Albright and Macalester, only some of which I'd heard of.

I played cornerback and safety from 1994-97 at Randolph-Macon of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference. I finished my career with 10 interceptions, including four in one game at Catholic, in two seasons as a starter. We finished 8-2 my senior year, tying for the conference title, but missing the playoffs under the old 16-team system.

I covered the Yellow Jackets and the ODAC for two years after that at a Virginia newspaper, and moved on to cover Division I football and the NFL, among other things. I now work as a copy editor for USA Today and am a member of the Football Writers Association of America.

I still believe Division III football is the game in its purest form, combining the complexity and intensity of college football without most of the extraneous stuff that drags down the game at some of the higher levels. Not to sound high and mighty — I love all kinds of football — but Division III is truly where we play the game for love. As we move on in life, we take a lot more from the game than just knowledge of 40 fronts, hot reads and zone coverages.
I've been to every Stagg Bowl since Mount Union crushed Lycoming in 1997 — we went then as players volunteering to help kids at an NCAA-sponsored clinic. Since then, I've seen games in and talked to some of the most interesting people from just about every conference and area that Division III football permeates. I definitely consider it a privilege as a well as a job to be part of the D3football.com broadcast team as well as your Around the Nation columnist.

If I'm lucky, I'll someday spend a fall touring the country, watching games at the nation's most storied Division III universities, and either making a periodic column or book out of it. In fact, I'll accept donations for that trip starting ... now.

Division III football has been a part of my life since we used to kicked off of Tufts' field for playing tackle football with our Pop Warner equipment on there as youngsters. Having played and covered it, I'll always try to keep in mind the effect the game has on players, parents and the institutions it's played at. Sure, it's just a game. But it certainly isn't a waste of time.

E-mail Keith at keith@d3football.com

[K-Mack]

 Nice.

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[kickerdad]

Just thought I'd post this, BTW:

If I'm reading the handbook right, the selection committee is:

Springfield Coach Mike DeLong
Rowan AD Joy Solomen
IWU Coach Norm Eash
OAC Commish Tim Gleason
ODAC Commish Brad Bankston
Grove City coach Chris Smith
Knox AD Chad Eisele
Redlands coach Mike Maynard

That's two from every region, and each of them is co-chair of a nine-member evaluation committee (the ones who did the regional rankings) that's been closely eyeing this the whole year.

We've had good relationships with the committee chair in the past and gotten interviews to help us learn how this works, and I bet we'll be able to do the same this year, albeit after the fact. I'm not 100% sure if the nine-member evaluation committee does the final regional rankings and then lets the selection committee do its work, and I forget how coaches and commissioners with teams on the table are allowed to participate in deliberations.

I do know that list up there is of people who have a lot of experience with D3 and care a lot of about it, and I'm not just saying that.

For some reason, in past seasons, we have not necessarily made a big deal of who is on the committee. It tends to sound like a lot of people still think it's a magic goblin in the NCAA offices that's responsible for making decisions.

How long do these folks serve on the committee at one time and do they all go off and on at the same time?

[D O.C.]

Could you imagine if the Warhawks were also in the bracket with the Johnnies, Linfield, Central, UMHB, et. al.?

...and that is their rightful place, however, when I substitute Mount Union College for Mary Hardin Baylor, well, I get excited because surely the team of the millennium could come out of that bracket unscsathed....

[K-Mack]

Just thought I'd post this, BTW:

If I'm reading the handbook right, the selection committee is:

Springfield Coach Mike DeLong
Rowan AD Joy Solomen
IWU Coach Norm Eash
OAC Commish Tim Gleason
ODAC Commish Brad Bankston
Grove City coach Chris Smith
Knox AD Chad Eisele
Redlands coach Mike Maynard

That's two from every region, and each of them is co-chair of a nine-member evaluation committee (the ones who did the regional rankings) that's been closely eyeing this the whole year.

How long do these folks serve on the committee at one time and do they all go off and on at the same time?

That's a little unclear to me. Maybe someone else can answer ... I thought it was two-year cycles, but it appears that people cycle off the committee every two years, but some seem to stay on longer. I suppose I could look back through my last 10 Stagg Bowl media guides and give a better answer.

What I do know is that they don't cycle off all at once, as noted in this week's column.

Also, there are RACs (regional advisory committees) ... the nine-member teams who put together the regional rankings. Then the two co-chairs of the four RACs are on the selection committee. Then one of those eight members chairs the committee and acts as the mouthpiece, etc. (Kaiser/Solomen, etc.)

I have asked some questions so that I am more clear and can speak more knowledgeably about how the committee works, and can distill all that info for you guys.

[Pat Coleman]

I think you can re-up once, then possibly re-up one more time if you become national chair? I'm a little fuzzy on that myself.