Around the Nation board

[Pat Coleman]

I appreciate the UMAC getting a little love with Scholastica winning the top play of the week, but how did the UMAC manage to become the only conference not to be covered by an "Around the Region" columnist?

UMAC is Around the West. That page is one of the many things updated in our new site which we are still waiting to be able to launch. They were "assorted independents" before and still are in that column's beat.

[AO]

I appreciate the UMAC getting a little love with Scholastica winning the top play of the week, but how did the UMAC manage to become the only conference not to be covered by an "Around the Region" columnist?

UMAC is Around the West. That page is one of the many things updated in our new site which we are still waiting to be able to launch. They were "assorted independents" before and still are in that column's beat.

Good to hear, now maybe the UMAC can go out and do something worthy of reporting.

[K-Mack]

This weeks ATN doesn't list the #1 team in the land, UW-Whitewater hosting NAIA Dakota State of Madison, S.D. (Dakota Athletic Conference). 

My mistake. The 70-burger the Warhawks hung on the the Fighting Daks* gets mention this coming week.









* Probably not their real mascot

[BoBo]

This weeks ATN doesn't list the #1 team in the land, UW-Whitewater hosting NAIA Dakota State of Madison, S.D. (Dakota Athletic Conference). 

My mistake. The 70-burger the Warhawks hung on the the Fighting Daks* gets mention this coming week.









* Probably not their real mascot

*Trojans





* Probably their real mascot

[Ron Boerger]

Sounds like the Trojans' protection failed. 

[labart96]

Another great ATN KMack (certainly don't mind seeing a LL team get some press, even if it was a L for the Mariners).

Here's another general interest football story from today's WSJ regarding what players are studying:

What Football Players Are Majoring In

[Ralph Turner]

Another great ATN KMack (certainly don't mind seeing a LL team get some press, even if it was a L for the Mariners).

Here's another general interest football story from today's WSJ regarding what players are studying:

What Football Players Are Majoring In

No Chemistry or Biology majors there.     Zoology is the closest.

No mention of Pre-Med either.

[Ron Boerger]

Would like to see him do this with D3 players.

[K-Mack]

Chris Marve sounds like he is not messing around.

Wouldn't this be a less-fruitful exercise in D3, Ron, since players kinda have to major in something that they intend to make a career out of, since football won't be it?

(you could certainly argue that 95% of the D1 guys need to do that too, just wondering what you think)

[Ron Boerger]

Chris Marve sounds like he is not messing around.

Wouldn't this be a less-fruitful exercise in D3, Ron, since players kinda have to major in something that they intend to make a career out of, since football won't be it?

(you could certainly argue that 95% of the D1 guys need to do that too, just wondering what you think)

That's exactly the point , Keith - a D3 study would (hopefully) show well-rounded athletes who are actively pursuing a career other than "general studies."   I guess we're making the same point from opposite directions. 

[AUPepBand]

K-Mack:
Thanks for the shout out in ATN this week. Pep would have been real pleased to hear the bands at Coast Guard. That highlight of the kickoff return TD was awesome. Sounds like a great atmosphere for football--Pep finds that even non-offensive games can be exciting when the results remain in question to the very end.

AU had a lot of those games when ol' Alex was coaching. As Pep prepares for a five-hour trip to the North Country with his little band of Alfred Saxon football fans armed with instruments (a tuba, two trumpets, a flute, a sax and a couple of drums) Pep remembers a trip to St. Lawrence as a kid when AU may have mustered about 175 yards of offense in a 16-0 win....and the Larries' only regular season loss in 1976 when AU got an early field goal off a Saint fumble and rode it to victory in a 3-2 barnburner.

Hope you can make another visit to Merrill Field soon, Keith, to see our new digs!

On Saxon Warriors!

[redswarm81]

Another great ATN KMack (certainly don't mind seeing a LL team get some press, even if it was a L for the Mariners).

Are you kidding me?  GREAT ATN, K-Mack.  Awesome sucking up to the LL and E8 E5 board posters!     Seriously though,

There's no way ATN can concern itself with a 'most meaningful' rivalry when the stakes are that high.

Games are just games. And they are a welcome diversion to those training for a life of most meaningful service to their country.

reminded me of the coin flip at the Rose Bowl back in January.   Keith Jackson was the honorary coin-flipper, and before he tossed the coin into the air he said to the team captains "this is hallowed ground, enjoy your time on it--have the game of your lives."

So now you, a college football commentator,  can say you've been compared to Keith Jackson.   

[Ralph Turner]

Gotta put in a "vote" for UMHB's special teams to make the "Team of the Week".

2 blocked FG's and a blocked PAT.  (McMurry only converted 1 of 2 PAT kicks and none of the 3 PAT pass attempts.)
Recovered a fumble in the end zone for a TD.
Bad punt snap for a safety.
KO Return for a TD.

That is another difference.

Congratulations to the CRU.

[K-Mack]

Appreciate all the feedback -- and there was lots of it on the CGA/MMA column.

@AUPep ... 3-2 sounds strangely worth watching.

@Ralph, that explains how the Cru got outgained 512-200 and won.

@Redswarm, Keith Jackson? Okay, I'll take it. 

[K-Mack]

To whom it might concern, I just clarified an item in ATN. The original part was written very late at night and I didn't properly say what I wanted to get at:

If you didn't read the column between 12:15 and 3;15 today, you'll notice no difference.

Here's the update:

Poll positions

If after the third week of games, it's okay for the AFCA to put out its first poll (we kid, we kid), it's okay for ATN to dip into these waters. Let's take a quick look at the art/science of top 25 polling.

Here's the question of the week: Why is Linfield ranked?

Cal Lutheran's defeat of the then-No. 4 Wildcats, followed by the Kingsmen's loss to unranked Pacific Lutheran cast doubt upon the whole West Coast. If CLU rose up to 15, then dropped to 24th after the loss, how can Linfield be any higher than 25? And by that logic, PLU (2-0) should be somewhere in the poll as well.

Whether or not a pollster votes for No. 16 Linfield, now 0-1, depends on methodology. If voting for the top 25 teams at this very moment, based on what we know only of 2010, then it's fair to drop the Wildcats right out of the top 25. They have a loss, to a team that lost to an unranked team, and no wins to offset it.

But some voters no team should drop from No. 4 to 'also receiving votes' because of a single game.

I never like to look at polls as one-week deals. Our top 25 is an organism evolving as the teams do each season. Teams rarely stick to the script, consistently producing the same output each week, so why should we? Plus, one could very well believe that Linfield, even with a loss, is still one of the 25 best teams in the country.

I think in the end they will be, but as of this week, I didn't vote for them. I didn't have any grounds to do so, even though two weeks ago they were in my top 5.

But here's where polls are tricky: But do I really believe Trine (No. 14) would beat Linfield if they played this week? What's the right way to judge what we know, based on recent results, and what we suspect, based on historical strength? Should we take last week's ranking into account, or start fresh from the top every week? Certainly a team isn't owed a spot in this week's poll because it was ranked last week. Yet we often wonder how a certain result can produce so much movement in a single week.

A loss like Cal Lutheran's to Pacific Lutheran can produce a ripple effect for a team like Linfield, even though later in the year the Wildcats might defeat the Lutes and render that triangle of results mostly useless.