FB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[Desertraider]

I'm sure they are really good, but who have they beat?  Does UWW count as a big win? or is that like beating ONU?  Platteville is a big win, but is that much different than Mount smoking Berg, both regionally ranked.  The JCU games seem like a perfect comparison between UWO and Mount

Ok - can I sum up how most of those that matter view Berg? Who cares? I will anyway. Berg is a decent team - they are ok - they are not a big win, they are not a good strong regional win - regardless of the regional ranking at the time. Let me ask you a question:
What is the difference between 1-5 Capital and 5-1 Berg?
Answer - no it is not 4 wins - 2 points. Thats right 2 points. Mount beat 1-5 Capital by 58 and 5-1 Berg by 56. Berg is slighlty north (2 points north) of a win against Capital. Sure Mount could have scored more against Cap - Mount could have scored more against Berg too. The loudest cheer at Berg was when Mount pulled the starters and the coaches from Berg celebrated  . If I am seeding teams based on right now - I see it the same as Pat. UMHB, UWO and Mount as #1 seeds, with UMHB overall 1, UwO overall 2....

By the way - who has UWO beat? The bottom of the WIAC right now Eau Claire, River Falls and Stout - would give Berg, ONU and Otter a great game, and I would probably take them to win a couple.

I would like Mount to have home field all the way to Salem (the neutral home field) like 2015 - but the blame (due to a 9 game conference schedule) is placed squarely on the shoulders of Berg, ONU and the like. Their 9-1 / 8-2 doesn't help Mount regionally if they are only 2 points better than Cap and Wilmington.

on Nov 12th, whats the difference between UWO and Mount, re: JCU?  30+ points?

It won't be viewed that way. It will be seen simply as game #1 of the year (and maybe the added consideration of a new coach, new staff, etc..) and game #10 of the year. Mount will win. I think Mount will win comfortably. I hope Mount wins in a manner that causes jcu to ask if football is really a sport they wish to continue playing (NOT due to injury - rather due to score).

The better question is: who wins Mount v. UWO?
The answer: The fans of course!

[wally_wabash]

Quite a bit to unpack here. 

In a world where regional rankings matter and Mount doesn't have the past year postseason tiebreaker any longer.  I feel that Mount is safe in the quest for a top two overall seed (UMHB as the other).  But UW-O might have a legitimate gripe since they were in the title game last year. 

My questions (and maybe its only for Pat or Wally_Wabash)

1) Does Mount have an advantage for being 10-0 while UW-O would only be 9-0 (8-0 really)?

The primary criteria are pretty specific when it says "win percentage" against D3 opponents, so no.  9-0 and 10-0 are the same thing according to a strict application of the criteria.  Outside the criteria, we've also seen/heard hints from committee chairs in the past that they can be somewhat sympathetic to the scheduling challenges for teams like Oshkosh (geographically inconvenient, competitively disadvantageous for most D3s to want to play, etc.).  I think that lack of countable OOC games would be a larger  negative for a team like Oshkosh if they didn't play in a league like the WIAC.  If you win that league, you've validated your quality regardless of whatever club team you had to play in September.   

2)  Heidelberg should be regional ranked at 9-1, does ONU have a shot at being Regionally ranked at 8-2?  Giving Mount two RRO, which would obviously help.  I'm not sure UWO can get to two without UWW, UWL, or UW-Stout sneaking into the regional rankings at 7-3

I think it's possible for ONU to be ranked, but we'll have to see how the rest of the region shakes out.  The CCIW is uncommonly deep and can reasonably wind up with as many as four ranked teams this year, IMO.  So that's four.  UMU and Heidelberg (should they stay at just one loss) will be two more.  The NCAC champion will be one.  Probably the Franklin/RHIT winner will be one.  The Hope/Trine winner deserves a ranking.  That's nine.  So now you've got ONU in the mix with Lakeland, a second NCAC team, an MIAA runner up, and maybe RHIT if they lose to Franklin.  Is ONU the best of that bunch?  Maybe, but it's not a certainty. 

In the West, 3-loss UWW may well be ranked.  Consider they would be 1-3 against RROs (I'm sure nobody else will have played 4 regionally ranked teams this season), they'll have a big SOS...their biggest problem is that the West tends to be pretty deep and they'll have a bad win percentage as far as the rankings go.  So the West committee will have to decide if they like UWW's 7-3 better than say 10-0 MacMurray or Monmouth/Lake Forest or George Fox or the SCIAC champion or even .  That'll be an interesting thing to watch once we start seeing regional rankings on Nov. 1. 

All of that being said- I think if ONU does get ranked and UWW doesn't, UWO will still grade out better than Mount Union.  They'll have a monster SOS advantage and they'll have last year's tournament record in their back pocket as well.  I'm in agreement with Pat that the likely order of seeds (if we're projecting wins for all of these teams the rest of the way) would be 1- UMHB, 2- UWO, 3- UMU. 

on Nov 12th, whats the difference between UWO and Mount, re: JCU?  30+ points?

Results versus common D3 opponents is a primary criteria.  If the margins in those games are wildly different, the committee *could* use that to move Mount Union ahead of Oshkosh.  But, the games being 11 weeks apart temper that comparison a bit and I'm not sure any margin of victory for Mount Union would be enough to overcome the disadvantages that UMU has with SOS and last year's tournament record.  But the common opponent result is definitely a piece of data that can be used. 

[emma17]

Great posts, there's some good reading in these parts.

merle, I appreciate your argument for the RRO's; maybe Mt gets the overall 2-seed if the committee doesn't look any deeper. If they look deeper, I think UWO gets the nod.

I love what desertraider said: It's no fault of Mt's and we all win if Mt plays UWO. I especially win if UWO gets home-field as that is a game I will happily drive to see.

[merlecanlas]

Great posts, there's some good reading in these parts.

merle, I appreciate your argument for the RRO's; maybe Mt gets the overall 2-seed if the committee doesn't look any deeper. If they look deeper, I think UWO gets the nod.

I love what desertraider said: It's no fault of Mt's and we all win if Mt plays UWO. I especially win if UWO gets home-field as that is a game I will happily drive to see.

Isn't D3 much better than the four team "playoff" in FBS?

[Desertraider]

Great posts, there's some good reading in these parts.

merle, I appreciate your argument for the RRO's; maybe Mt gets the overall 2-seed if the committee doesn't look any deeper. If they look deeper, I think UWO gets the nod.

I love what desertraider said: It's no fault of Mt's and we all win if Mt plays UWO. I especially win if UWO gets home-field as that is a game I will happily drive to see.

Isn't D3 much better than the four team "playoff" in FBS?

YES! Sorry D1/FBS - unless you have at least 16 teams...it just don't count.
Oh and by the way, that Desertraider is an idiot! What he said about Mount being the #3 seed, blah blah blah - no. Mount needs to be seeded higher so they host UWO.....then I win cause I can go and watch. Oh wait...I am Desertraider Oh well...more wine!

[hsbsballcoach7]

Good news with Vidal on the depth chart this week.

I'm getting excited for the potential playoff matchups already. Heck, I'd ride to Wisconsin from Alliance to watch a UWO-UMU game. Still business to take care of first!

[Desertraider]

I saw Vidal listed as well. Wondering if it is like the injury Alarms had a couple years back. He was still listed, but didn't play much for a couple games. No offense to Wilmington but giving Vidal some time off this week, maybe against Musky as well, wouldn't be the worst thing that could happen. Have to hit playoffs - first - but have to hit them healthy.

[Craft_Beermeister]

^  consider it done

HScoach thanks for the prayers they appear to be working.

[WRMUalum13]

I think we have an answer to the "what to call josh petrucelli" debate. In an interview on 91.1 today DeAngelo Fulford referrred to him as "Petro!"

[BillyRayJimBob]

Watching the Wilmington video feed with the intermittent audio.

Apparently, there are a couple of guys that do not know they have an open mic ... LOL!
"Damn, dude!"
"Damn!"
"Need to smack that dude on the next play."  (Following a 15-yard Wilmington penalty.)
"What is half the distance to the goal?"

I wish the audio weren't so intermittent!  Reminds me of those stories of cockpit crew members with a stuck mic talking about their previous night's exploits over ARTCC frequency!

[Kira & Jaxon's Dad]

Fulford fumbled shot gun snap, rolled right, threw a 30 yd TD pass.

Ho Hum

[Dr. Acula]

Berg is down 21-7 to Etta.  Better wake up.  Every game is a playoff game if you want a pool C.

[BillyRayJimBob]

Watching the Wilmington video feed with the intermittent audio.

Apparently, there are a couple of guys that do not know they have an open mic ... LOL!
"Damn, dude!"
"Damn!"
"Need to smack that dude on the next play."  (Following a 15-yard Wilmington penalty.)
"What is half the distance to the goal?"

I wish the audio weren't so intermittent!  Reminds me of those stories of cockpit crew members with a stuck mic talking about their previous night's exploits over ARTCC frequency!

Yeah ... I heard it, after the Raiders scored to make it 42-0 ... "Step up a division and see if you can talk."

[section13raiderfan]

Im watching Mount vs Wilmington on the net and my observation is that the  JV team would beat the starters for the Quakers. How do they get kids to go out for football there? More fans traveled from across the state from Alliance than travelled across the campus for Wilmington to see this game. Wilmington football has nowhere to go but up from here. I dont believe we even have an incomplete pass yet. Its pitch and catch out there. 42-0 at the half.

[Desertraider]

Watching the Wilmington video feed with the intermittent audio.

Apparently, there are a couple of guys that do not know they have an open mic ... LOL!
"Damn, dude!"
"Damn!"
"Need to smack that dude on the next play."  (Following a 15-yard Wilmington penalty.)
"What is half the distance to the goal?"

I wish the audio weren't so intermittent!  Reminds me of those stories of cockpit crew members with a stuck mic talking about their previous night's exploits over ARTCC frequency!

Yeah ... I heard it, after the Raiders scored to make it 42-0 ... "Step up a division and see if you can talk."

I heard that one as well. In addition:
"Damn. I'm a grown ass man" (heard a girl laughing in background)
"Ya heard me. I'm a grown ass man" (same girl laughing)
"No way he was in. They give it to him" (After Mounts 1st score)
"Holding all day on that" (After the second score)
"****. Man hit him. ****." (When Fulford went left and back to right for 7 or 8)

Classy Wilma.