Around the Nation board

[Ralph Turner]

Cost Consciousness

Redlands at Cal Lutheran; Trinity at Mary Hardin-Baylor; Dubuque at Linfield; McMurry at St. Thomas.

In this case, I tried to keep everyone as close to home as possible, with matchups like CWRU and Mount Union and Benedictine at North Central. But even going cost-conscious on the California and Texas teams left me with two flights. This is harder than it looks. Sending McMurry to Linfield requires an even more costly charter flight, which is why I've avoided it.

Why not Dubuque to St Thomas (312 miles) and McMurry to Linfield. One Flight.  The home team in all scenarios likely wins and two get flown for round #2.  The only chance for a bus ride in the second round would be a McMurry win over Linfield.

Linfield, UMHB and Tommies comprise the football equivalent of a "Bracket of Death!"

[thewaterboy]

No Triple Take today?

[K-Mack]

Cost Consciousness

Redlands at Cal Lutheran; Trinity at Mary Hardin-Baylor; Dubuque at Linfield; McMurry at St. Thomas.

In this case, I tried to keep everyone as close to home as possible, with matchups like CWRU and Mount Union and Benedictine at North Central. But even going cost-conscious on the California and Texas teams left me with two flights. This is harder than it looks. Sending McMurry to Linfield requires an even more costly charter flight, which is why I've avoided it.

Why not Dubuque to St Thomas (312 miles) and McMurry to Linfield. One Flight.  The home team in all scenarios likely wins and two get flown for round #2.  The only chance for a bus ride in the second round would be a McMurry win over Linfield.

Linfield, UMHB and Tommies comprise the football equivalent of a "Bracket of Death!"

That makes a lot more sense than what I have out there. I'm going to change it.

Triple Take here:
http://bit.ly/vUZkMf

Long week, I just finished my take before lunchtime.

[Ralph Turner]

Thanks for the comments, K-Mack.

With all of the talk about Massey, I went to the D-III Massey board.

Massey does not disconnect the NESCAC from the rest of D-III.
I have pulled out the Top 15 non-NESCAC D-III schools in the "rest of D-III".

1) UMHB
2) UWW
3) McMurry
4) North Central
5) Wesley

6) Linfield
7) Salisbury
8) UMU
9) Tommies
10) Cal Lutheran

11) Del Valley
12) JHU
13) UW-Oshkosh (which played both UMU and UWW)
14) Redlands
15) Trinity

The "Cost Consciousness Bracket" is a real Bracket of Death!!!

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

Here's how I see the brackets at the moment... I don't know if any potential games are over 500 miles in the East or North though. The West actually looks fairly normal seed wise... the South is a mess though. The only option I can think of there is swap Mount Union and Johns Hopkins which would save a flight in the 2nd round

East:
1 Mount Union     10-0   OAC champ
2 Delaware Valley 10-0   MAC champ
3 Wesley           9-1   Pool B
4 Kean             9-1   NJAC champ
5 Salisbury        8-1   E8 champ
6 WNEU            10-1   NEFC champ
7 Hobart           7-1   LL champ
8 Norwich          7-3   ECFC champ

North:
1 UW-Whitewater     9-0   WIAC champ
2 Wabash           10-0   NCAC champ
3 North Central     8-1   CCIW champ
4 Franklin          9-1   HCAC champ
5 Illinois Wesleyan 9-1   CCIW Pool C
6 CWRU              9-1   UAA Pool C
7 Albion            6-4   MIAA champ
8 Benedictine       7-3   NAC champ

South:
1 Mary Hardin-Baylor  9-0   ASC champ
2 Johns Hopkins      10-0   CC champ
3 Trinity (TX)       10-0   SCAC champ
4 McMurry             7-2   ASC Pool C
5 Centre              8-1   SCAC Pool C
6 Thomas More         9-1   PAC champ
7 Hampden-Sydney      8-2   ODAC champ
8 Christopher Newport 8-2   USAC champ

1 vs 5 meets 3 vs 4... 2 vs 8 meets 6 vs 7 (looked better before Hampden-Sydney lost and fell down from 5 in the seedings)

West:     
1 St Thomas       10-0   MIAC champ
2 Linfield         8-0   NWC champ
3 Cal Lutheran     7-1   SCIAC champ
4 Dubuque          9-1   IIAC champ
5 Monmouth         9-1   MWC champ
6 St Scholastica  10-0   UMAC champ
7 Redlands         7-1   SCIAC Pool C
8 Illinois College 9-1   MWC Pool C

3 vs 7 meets 2 vs 6 (flight)... 1 vs 5 meets 4 vs 8 (although if St Thomas and Illinois College are within 500 miles (I know it's close but not sure) then 1vs8 and 4vs5

[smedindy]

So you think it's IC before Endicott?

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

So you think it's IC before Endicott?

I do have it that way, but I think it's a tough call and certainly could go the other way. That was the last team in on my board. It would create some shuffling if Endicott made it. I think I'd arrange it so they'd be the 7 in the east, Wesley would move to the South as the 4 seed, Thomas More would move to the North as somewhere between a 4-7 seed (probably 6), and Benedictine would move to the West as the 8 seed. Then the West would be 1 vs 8 meeting 4 vs 5 and 2 vs 6 meeting 3 vs 7. The South would be 1 vs 6 meeting 2 vs 5 and 3 vs 8 meeting 4 vs 7 (which looks better than my earlier way)

[Ralph Turner]

Illinois College to St Thomas = 489 miles

[K-Mack]

I enjoy all the projections and discussion here and elsewhere.

Mount Union to the East as No. 1 even with Del Val?

Kean I think would have to be seeded ahead of Wesley if they were in the same bracket, on h2h.

The flight-heavy bracket is often the bracket of death, Ralph.

How about you getting to see your alma mater in a playoff game!?!? (we think)

[Pat Coleman]

I enjoy all the projections and discussion here and elsewhere.

Mount Union to the East as No. 1 even with Del Val?

Kean I think would have to be seeded ahead of Wesley if they were in the same bracket, on h2h.

The flight-heavy bracket is often the bracket of death, Ralph.

How about you getting to see your alma mater in a playoff game!?!? (we think)

Agreed on Kean/Wesley. If we were seeding that side of the bracket 1-16 instead of two 1-8's I think it would make sense to have Kean a 5 and Wesley 6.

I laid out in the story why Mount Union is still moved over. But it's not Mount Union vs. Delaware Valley, it's St. Thomas vs. Delaware Valley. With the new spelled-out tiebreaker, it makes sense.

[smedindy]

Let's face it, everyone is going to complain about the brackets:

Basically, if you're in, you have to beat everyone in front of you.

I could say, "Once again geography does in the Little Giants. We always have to play the CCIW and either Mt. Union or Whitewater in the playoffs. Boo-hoo-hoo!"

But to get the title, you gotta beat 'em anyway.

[K-Mack]

Let's face it, everyone is going to complain about the brackets:

Basically, if you're in, you have to beat everyone in front of you.

I could say, "Once again geography does in the Little Giants. We always have to play the CCIW and either Mt. Union or Whitewater in the playoffs. Boo-hoo-hoo!"

But to get the title, you gotta beat 'em anyway.

Eggs. Actly.

To be the man, you gotta beat the man. And while Cal Lutheran, Wabash and a few others have tougher-looking roads, everybody has to go through Mount Union, UW-W, UMHB, Linfield, Wesley or the best MIAC/CCIW team, so there's no real easy road to Salem. Six of one, half dozen of the other.

Plus as Pat pointed out at the podcast, not many people saw UW-W coming when they did  (though I famously waffled in that year's surprises and disappointments column but called UW-W Stagg Bowl-worthy) and who knows if we'll see the next new powerhouse coming. This is when the new teams to fear are determined.

You might wish you were on a different side of the bracket, or you might be the new team to fear.

[K-Mack]

Legendary waffling. Belgian almost:

McMillan: You can't pick against Linfield, but the road is so stacked against them. Plus, they are one quarterback injury away from coming back to the pack. UW-Whitewater has the beef up front and the offensive firepower to hang with red-hot St. John's and white-hot Linfield, so I'll take the Warhawks just to be different, although all three are Stagg Bowl-worthy.

[K-Mack]

Known about this site for a long time but barely ever read it.

http://awfulannouncing.com/pammies/pam-ward-chronicles/

Given that we deal with college football, and occasionally Pam Ward, I thought you guys might appreciate this. It's a weekly rundown of funny quotes from all announcers, not just Pam.

I think I can make this list during the Stagg Bowl ... wait, forget it.

[smedindy]

I love that feature, but having announced some games I know how hard it is to keep your mouth moving straight, and filling during blowouts is a whole 'nuther thang.