FB: American Southwest Conference

[Etchglow]

Looks like they posted the coaches show with Coach Fredenberg this week:

Direct Link

[Pat Coleman]

The regional rankings are here: https://d3football.com/playoffs/2019/first-regional-ranking

[justafan12]

I know it would cost the NCAA money and they don't like to spend that at the D3 level but has there been any talk recently of expanding the field?  5 bids for non-conference champions is not many to spread out across the country.

When was the last time the number of teams was expanded?

[Pat Coleman]

There's no easy way to extend the season.

About play-in games and the logistics -- there's a ton of issues with adding a week all the way around. We can't really start a week earlier because it's a burden to house all of those student-athletes on campus for an additional week before classes start. We don't want to go a week later because of the holidays. We don't want to go after Jan. 1 because of the expense, and because there are still some two-sport athletes (and even if there aren't, we don't want to make it impossible). We can't play games more than once every seven days.

In addition, there is a hard cap by legislative vote on the football playoffs at 32 teams.

[Inkblot]

One thing that doesn't make sense to me is that as the ratio of teams to field size increases (currently 235/32 = 7.34), the minimum number of teams for an auto bid remains put at 7. It would be more logical to me if the minimum were greater than the number of teams per playoff spot. I know 7 is the division-wide minimum, but that's assuming a ratio of 6.5.

[Ralph Turner]

I know it would cost the NCAA money and they don't like to spend that at the D3 level but has there been any talk recently of expanding the field?  5 bids for non-conference champions is not many to spread out across the country.

When was the last time the number of teams was expanded?

From 16 to 28 in 1999.
From 28 to 32 in 2005.

https://www.d3football.com/playoffs/index

[Ralph Turner]

One thing that doesn't make sense to me is that as the ratio of teams to field size increases (currently 235/32 = 7.34), the minimum number of teams for an auto bid remains put at 7. It would be more logical to me if the minimum were greater than the number of teams per playoff spot. I know 7 is the division-wide minimum, but that's assuming a ratio of 6.5.

... which is why I have tried to revive the concept of D-III splitting into 2 divisions.

We already have some distinctions to the role of football in D-3.

The NESCAC plays 9 games, starting in week #2 and finishing in week #10. They do not participate in the playoffs.
The Midwest Conference plays 9 games in 10 weeks plus the Championship weekend in Week 11 to award the Pool A.
The SCIAC has trouble finding 10 games as do some teams in the NWC.

Back in 2005, there were rumblings of like minded institutions moving to D-4.  Do the math, 247 divided by 6.5 = 38 bids.

If 6 conferences wanted to move the D-4, they could have 6 Pool A bids and 2 Pool C bids and play a 13 or 14 week schedule which might give a national champion in 2 weeks shorter. For example, the NESCAC, the MWC, the NEWMAC, the Liberty League, the North Coast and the SCIAC.

That would leave 30 bids for D-3 to be distributed among 22 conferences. We get 8 Pool C bids which really helps.

[wally_wabash]

Back in 2005, there were rumblings of like minded institutions moving to D-4.  Do the math, 247 divided by 6.5 = 38 bids.

IIRC, the Division IV movement was spearheaded by leaders of institutions that were quite frankly not interested in committing the minimum resources necessary to athletics to be competitive.  Basically, they wanted a club sports division.  They wanted to improve their own win-loss results by convincing some percentage of the division to also not really care.  No thanks. 

I do agree that the Division III tournament is too small for the number of institutions the division has.  I do not agree that we need to find creative ways to carve out access for the schools that we don't think are going to win the championship.  To date, even with the limited number of at-large bids, I don't think anybody can reasonably point to one single instance where the size of the field excluded a team that would be considered a contender to win the tournament.  Good teams do get left out.  But not the best teams.  The best teams are conference champions or have compiled a profile worthy of invitation. 

[Wild Horse Rider]

I agree with Wally.  If you just take last year for example in all levels of NCAA football you get a similar result
D3 champion was their conference champ and received an AQ
D2 has a 28 team playoff out of field of over 160 teams.  Their selection process comes from 4 regions and 7 selections out of each region but the eventual winner was Valdosta State who won their conference championship
FCS has a 24 team playoff out of a field of over 120 teams.  They have 10 AQs and the rest at large.  The champ was N. Dakota State who also won their conference championship
FBS process I believe everyone is aware of that process and Clemson won both the national championship and their conference championship

This argument to expand at large bids is a little like when people start complaining that March Madness needs to expand beyond the 68 teams.  Those "bubble" teams that get left out every year have no real chance to win the title even if they were involved in the dance.  I understand that there are conference runner-ups that are better than some conferences champion but every team controls it's own destiny at the start of the season.  The easiest way to ensure you make the playoffs is to win the games on the schedule. 

[SW66]

But if the only teams that made the playoffs were the ones that had a realistic shot at the NC then we could probably reduce the field to 8 or less. That should not be a criteria they ever consider. Just getting into the playoffs is something these student athletes will cherish for a lifetime and a boost for their school morral.

[Ralph Turner]

Maybe baseball is different, but in 2018 UT-Tyler did not even make the ASC tourney finals.

The Patriots closed down shop and turned in their gear the week before Selection Sunday.
Most observers believe that UT-Tyler was the last or the penultimate pick in Pool C.

They win it all, over Texas Lutheran in National Finals.

Two teams from the same state and the same region, the baseball-deep West Region, which has won 5 of the last 7 national championships.

[TheChucker]

I'm hesitant to stir up this tempest again... but I will anyway.

I see Ohio State's best player Chase Young was caught taking money from an agent (rumored to be an agent, not verified publicly yet) sometime last year. He's tentatively suspended. Does a D1 revenue-producing blue blood like Ohio State get their games vacated for fielding an ineligible player?

https://twitter.com/SInow/status/1192820688962379777?s=20

[Pat Coleman]

I'm still thinking that at the Division III level we can hold ourselves to a higher standard than "what Ohio State does."

[DFWCrufan]

I'm still thinking that at the Division III level we can hold ourselves to a higher standard than "what Ohio State does."

Amen

[Toby Taff]

I'm still thinking that at the Division III level we can hold ourselves to a higher standard than "what Ohio State does."

bingo!