Around the Nation board

[dea]

Thanks guys

[Ralph Turner]

Rather than start a new thread, the feature today about blowouts prompts a few thoughts...

1)  There were several "new" teams in the playoffs this year.  In the South, we had Thiel and Ferrum.  Even Wesley had not been in "recent memory".    The excitement of a "new" team, and the run it may have, is fun to watch.  The Ferrum/Wesley game was a blowout, but to quote that famous American, Robert Leroy Parker, "Who are those guys?" 

2)  Cinderella is fun to watch.  Thiel and Wesley in the South were exciting.  UW-Whitewater seemed to have too much of a "pedigree" to qualify as Cinderella, but they made it to Salem and provided excitement doing it.

3)  Mount Union's blowout over someone is boring.  Wesley's monkey stomps over Ferrum and Bridgewater and near monkey-stomp over UMHB were intriguing.

4)  If the brackets are eliminating the bye and forcing the #1 seed to play the weakest of the Pool A's that geographic proximity will permit in the 1st round, IMHO, then we should have expected 3-4 more blowouts under the 32 team format.  I think that we will continue to see those blowouts.  However, as Pat points out, d3fans are looking to see outcomes that those extra Pool C bids provide us,  the best of the rest that the pundits of that mind clamor to make this a real "tournament" of the best "32" football teams.

In that case, I will take the early round blowouts.  Give me some good quality team like Capital showing why they should be in the playoffs.  The Wilkes blowout by Rowan in the "dubious East bracket", may be one of those blowouts that might have been a bye in some years.  In retrospect, Central played respectably against UW-W.

As I reviewed the 2003 South Bracket, in that 7 point average were an OT win by 1, an OT win by 7 and Bridgewater's defeat of CNU by 23.  The 23 point win was the only victory by more than a TD...very close bracket!

Thanks for the table of the blowouts.  That is a good article to archive.

[Pat Coleman]

No problem. But do you think that a 1-8 game is that much more likely to provide a blowout than a 2-7 game was in previous years? None of the No. 8 seeds was blown out by 35. (No. 1 Linfield did blow out No. 4 seed Occidental by that margin, however.)

[Ralph Turner]

Actually, I see very little difference in a 1-8 and a 2-7 in most regions.  Thus, I would expect 3-4 more blowouts per year.  (I don't think I made that clear at all.    )

In previous years, the #6 was catching the #3 team.  In 2005, that historical #6 team was pushed to #7 in 3 regions and faced the "#2" seed in those regions.  (For that matter, there were several NCAA seedings with which I disagreed greatly, e.g., Ithaca at #7, Monmouth ahead of Central.  Fie on geographic proximity!)

The lowest 4 Pool C teams were #5 Capital, #8 Central (which performed respectably vs. UW-W), #5 Cortland and #6 Wilkes (the poorest showing of all, a 42-3 loss to Rowan).  Those "weaker" Pool C's pushed some weaker Pool A's lower in the brackets! 

[smedindy]

I was surprised by the North seeding as well. I expected Lakeland to be the #8, MSJ #7 and Albion #6. Would that have changed the results? No, not really. But Wabash would have wiped out Lakeland by more than they beat Albion, and Albion may have given Augie a better game.

[Pat Coleman]

Yes, well, Wilkes continued the fine tradition set forth by other Division III teams whom the committee selected over our objection.

[Ralph Turner]

Pat, you have been forthright in your selection process for as long as I can remember your projections.

I would appreciate your side-by-side comparison the NCAA's picks and their outcomes vs your teams that sat at home.

That might make a good feature article in 2006!

[Pat Coleman]

We did touch on it in the Around the Nation that ran the week of the playoff openers.

http://www.d3football.com/atn.php?id=84

The sorry for the false hopes award
When D3football.com tells you it's hit on 27 of 28 teams just about every year, and hit on 31 of 32 this year, that means one team out there read our projections and got their hopes up. Here's this year's 'one we missed' and past winners:
2005: We projected Alfred; the committee preferred Wilkes.
2004: We got them all.
2003: We projected UMHB; the committee took Simpson, who promptly gave the MWC its only NCAA playoff win since expansion.
2002: We projected Hartwick; the committee took W&J, which squeaked past second-year CNU and got routed at Trinity.
2001: We picked Menlo and Linfield in Pool B, the committee took Whitworth (0-1) and Ithaca (advanced to regional final). In Pool C, we chose UW-Eau Claire, the NCAA took Montclair State (0-1).

[TheCoach]

Does anyone know of any GA positions/student asst. jobs that will be opening at the end of the season.  (D1, DII or DIII).

[bisonpride]

Check it out for the flash news from Washington Post..

Here's other Ricca story but this time it's about the father, John Ricca and the CUA Football program.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/18/AR2006011802489.html

[Tuxguy]

I was just reading about Eric Mangini, the new Jets head coach. In Notables 1/23/06 States he is a 1975 Grad of Wesleyan college. It gave his age as 35, can this be right? I was still in High school, and I'm 10 years older than him? 

[frank uible]

He is 35yo.

[Tuxguy]

Thanks Frank, Me bad......I went back and read it again,  says..... Bill Belichick, a 1975 Wesleyan Grad.

[K-Mack]

Well all,
the time is finally here. I think.

I turned in the year-in-review to Pat earlier this week. It is taking him a couple days to format and edit for publication, but I imagine it would be up by Friday. It's probable that if you're here discussing it, then you've already seen it, and maybe even read through half of it.

The year-in-review took no less than 25 hours to compile (a normal ATN takes about 6-10), so that's where the delay came in. Opening up 55 of last year's categories to fans and readers helped me cover some things I would not have thought of myself (like the Marietta/Baldwin-Wallace game, for instance), but it meant that I was working an hour or two a day until about Jan. 10 (we usually take a break from the Stagg Bowl and start up on this project sometime after New Year's) simply cutting and pasting from people's e-mails -- including those solicited from d3 staff members -- into different category headers. Once I got to there, I started writing ... and chopping, re-organizing, etc. Pat offered to help a few times, and as you can see, Gordon and Pat Cummings added their input, and several fans contributed quite a bit ... but I still took on most of the job, and perhaps bit off more than I could chew.

Pat wrote half and I wrote the other half the first year we did it, which may have been why it was up by Jan. 6. Last year I believe it posted Jan. 27, and this year my goal was the 15th, which we missed by a few days.

But for good reason. Even after chopping down fan submissions and other writers' submissions, and getting rid of a few categories that didn't fit this year or we didn't have anything for, it apparently reached Pat at more than 14,000 words. We tried to break it up into parts and make it as readable as possible, as half that would have been a long read.

A couple things you should know about the year-end, if you care to read this far into this post:

1. Some e-mails and quotes were edited for clarity, grammar and length.

2. I'd love to have a research assistant or two next year, either all season or just for this project. I spent hours just charting how all 231 teams did in comparison to our preseason prediction, for example. We also spent some time researching where Justin Beaver's season fit among the great D3 seasons.

3. I wrote most of the capsules, or tried to source the quoted material where I didn't. But there are some parts written or re-written by other D3 staff, for the record.

That pretty much covers it, actually. I think I've said enough. Time to open up the floor to you all. I'll be answering questions, I guess, and considering your comments here and on the blog for the next week or two, depending on interest.

Hope you enjoyed your insight into the process.

[Ralph Turner]

...

2. I'd love to have a research assistant or two next year, either all season or just for this project. ...

Wanted: Research assistant.  Must be familiar with Division 3 NCAA Football.  Must have online access to D3.football.com.  50 Karma points for the season.