FB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[emma17]

Doc- if it's your opinion that Mater Dei high school would beat Mt. Union I'll take that bet all day.
No doubt the high school has serious athletes, but in my opinion they cannot make up for the football strength that comes with 2-3 years of college workouts. Those big high school linemen would eventually get demoralized and demolished on the line of scrimmage and ultimately become pancake batter.

[D O.C.]

Yes Sir, my post was for THIS YEAR.
High Schools have weight programs too.
Remember, you can't coach speed.

I posted it as fantasy football. Look at my link in April-June.
See the same reels Alabama, Ohio St., Oregon, USC got.

[HScoach]

No need to feed the troll.  This has all the makings of arguing with "purple".

[Mr. Ypsi]

Yes Sir, my post was for THIS YEAR.
High Schools have weight programs too.
Remember, you can't coach speed.

I posted it as fantasy football. Look at my link in April-June.
See the same reels Alabama, Ohio St., Oregon, USC got.

That will come as bad news to my next door neighbor, who is the track coach for sprinters at Eastern Michigan U.

I suspect he would say you are spouting total BS.

[Apologies to HScoach, but couldn't resist the rebuttal to the troll.]

[formerd3db]

Mr. Ypsi,
I was bummed Eastern Michigan lost in the last seconds on the FG. They almost did it. They lost 4 games by a field goal this year, similar to last year. But, they had a great season IMO and are on the right track.That is a good thing.

Edited for spelling corrections

[Mr. Ypsi]

Mr. Ypsi,
I was bummed Eastern Michigan lost in the last seconds on the FG. They almost did it. They list 4 games by a field goal this year, similar to last year. But, they had a great season IMO and ate on the right track.That is ahood thing.

Craig Creighton is clearly their best coach since Elton Rynearson, for whom the EMU stadium is named.  Rynearson's record of 114 wins will probably never be broken (he stuck around too long or he might be even more revered - in the last half of the 20s he was 44-4-2 - but eventually accumulated 58 losses.)  Jim Harkema looked like #2 (only coach to win a bowl game, 1987), but he flamed out and was fired after starting 0-4 in 1993.  EMU still had delusions of grandeur back then; hopefully they are more realistic now.

I missed the Camellia Bowl due to a prior engagement.  Sounds like I missed a good one, but probably eases the pain!

[D O.C.]

13 rings means you don't even have to read a website simply call names, HScoach?

[formerd3db]

Mr. Ypsi,
I was bummed Eastern Michigan lost in the last seconds on the FG. They almost did it. They list 4 games by a field goal this year, similar to last year. But, they had a great season IMO and ate on the right track.That is ahood thing.

Craig Creighton is clearly their best coach since Elton Rynearson, for whom the EMU stadium is named.  Rynearson's record of 114 wins will probably never be broken (he stuck around too long or he might be even more revered - in the last half of the 20s he was 44-4-2 - but eventually accumulated 58 losses.)  Jim Harkema looked like #2 (only coach to win a bowl game, 1987), but he flamed out and was fired after starting 0-4 in 1993.  EMU still had delusions of grandeur back then; hopefully they are more realistic now.

I missed the Camellia Bowl due to a prior engagement.  Sounds like I missed a good one, but probably eases the pain!

I know what you mean!  Yes, thanks for the history reminder of the stadium name.  EMU started out in the MIAA "way back when" and, indeed, had the great record during the period you mentioned.  I knew Coach Harkema's mother and younger brother (who was HC at Owosso High School and was an assistant to his brother at Grand Valley State when that program was started (sadly, both of them have passed away) and we used to have some great talks about those programs, including Eastern when Coach Jim was the head coach there.  I was elated when Eastern won the MAC and the California Bowl that year, especially since they put it to Central Michigan that year as well, as Central was the "ring leader" in trying to get them kicked out of the MAC at that time, which you were at Eastern during that period as well as I recall.

Of course, you know "the rest of the story" since then and, again, I am glad they are getting stable and on the right track as we mentioned.  Hopefully, CC will stay for a while. 

Now...back to regular DIII programming/discussion!

[Ralph Turner]

Hi, there, UMU.  Tough loss.  It sucks to get out muscled and hustled, particularly by that UMHB defense.  Insane speed and athletic ability on that side of the ball.  Fortunately, the offensive side of the ball is about as imagination-filled as an actuarial convention.

You may not appreciate this, but here's a highlights vid of the big game from an interesting channel.

https://youtu.be/v3N_liQfC48

Thanks!

[SaintsFAN]

Mr. Ypsi,
I was bummed Eastern Michigan lost in the last seconds on the FG. They almost did it. They list 4 games by a field goal this year, similar to last year. But, they had a great season IMO and ate on the right track.That is ahood thing.

Craig Creighton is clearly their best coach since Elton Rynearson, for whom the EMU stadium is named.  Rynearson's record of 114 wins will probably never be broken (he stuck around too long or he might be even more revered - in the last half of the 20s he was 44-4-2 - but eventually accumulated 58 losses.)  Jim Harkema looked like #2 (only coach to win a bowl game, 1987), but he flamed out and was fired after starting 0-4 in 1993.  EMU still had delusions of grandeur back then; hopefully they are more realistic now.

I missed the Camellia Bowl due to a prior engagement.  Sounds like I missed a good one, but probably eases the pain!

Chris Creighton

[gizzmo13]

GEEZ YA BARLEY LOOSE ONE GAME TO A GOOD TEAM AND ALL THE SUDDEN YA CANT BEAT HS TEAMS.. HAHHAA

[HScoach]

Some of the post season discussions around Post Patterns got me thinking about the OAC as a whole and how it's regarded around the nation.  For us older guys we often remember the OAC from a position of strength that was built years ago.   The newbies think the conference is trash beyond Mount. 

I completely understand the nationwide belief that the OAC is nothing outside of Mount because they've owned the conference since the early 1990's.  How can Mount win all the time unless their conference sucks?  Since the Mount run began in the early 1990's the 2nd place OAC team has historically performed pretty well in the playoffs. 

OAC losses to Mount in the playoffs:
2006 - Capital lost to Mount in Round 3 (2 wins)
2005 - Capital lost to Mount in the Round 3 (2 wins)
2002  -  John Carroll  lost to Mount in the SEMI-FINALS (3 wins)
2000  - Ohio Northern lost to Mount in Round 1 (0 wins)
1999 - Ohio Northern lost to Mount in Round 2 (1 win)
1997 –  John Carroll lost to Mount in Round 2 (1 win)

OAC losses against someone else:
2003 - Baldwin Wallace to Wheaton in 2nd round (1 win)
2007 - Capital at Whitewater in Round 1 (UWW was Nat Champs) (0 wins)
2008 - Otterbein to Franklin in Round 1 (Franklin beat NCC in 2nd round, lost to Wheaton in regional final) (0 wins)
2012 - Heidelberg to Wittenberg in Round 1 (horrible loss for the OAC as H'berg had a big lead) (0 wins)
2013 - John Carroll to SFJ in Round 1 (0 wins)
2018 - John Carroll to Randolph Macon in Round 1 (worst of the OAC losses, expected JCU to roll back to Mount in Round 3) (0 wins)

Overall, the 2nd place OAC team is a respectable 10-12 in the playoffs.  Which I would imagine historically compares pretty well to Pool C's from other conference.  Remove the OAC playoff losses to Mount and they're a very solid 10-6.

However I will acknowledge the most telling sign from the data above is that the OAC has really fallen off in the last decade.  Prior to 2007 it was expected that the 2nd place OAC team would win out until reaching Mount again.  Since 2007, the norm has been for the 2nd place OAC team to piss down their leg in the playoffs.  Ala JCU this year.  I believe this is the case from watching the conference too.  The days of ONU, BW and JCU all being competitive are gone.  Now it's Mount and possibly a single competitor (usually JCU). 

I'm not ready to draw the direct correlation to the apparent decline in the strength of the conference to Mount's 50/50 performance in the semi-finals and Stagg over that same time frame, but it is an interesting data point.  Instead I believe that D3 has gotten better as a whole with the rise of UWW and MHB in the last decade coupled with Mount taking a step back in recruiting O-linemen due to the drastic increase in Ohio D2 programs and the retirement of LK as the cause of the increase in competition on the national stage.   

The OAC has never been as competitive top to bottom as the WIAC or CCIW, but unfortunately it appears the conference is trending in the wrong direction.

[Kira & Jaxon's Dad]

HSCoach, you forgot JCU in 2016:

2016 - John Carroll lost to UW-Oshkosh in the SEMI-FINALS (3 wins)

EDIT: Nevermind, JCU was the OAC Champ that year.

[SaintsFAN]

HSCoach, you forgot JCU in 2016:

2016 - John Carroll lost to UW-Oshkosh in the SEMI-FINALS (3 wins)

EDIT: Nevermind, JCU was the OAC Champ that year.

HScoach is the "Chuck Norris" of these boards.

"HScoach doesn't sleep... he waits"

[HScoach]

HSCoach, you forgot JCU in 2016:

2016 - John Carroll lost to UW-Oshkosh in the SEMI-FINALS (3 wins)

EDIT: Nevermind, JCU was the OAC Champ that year.

I see how that was confusing as I was focusing on the non-Mount representative from the conference.  I did so  because the national narrative is that the OAC sucks outside of Mount.  Below is the edited data with Mount as a Pool C added in.

OAC losses to Mount in the playoffs:
2006 - Capital lost to Mount in Round 3 (2 wins)
2005 - Capital lost to Mount in the Round 3 (2 wins)
2002  -  John Carroll  lost to Mount in the SEMI-FINALS (3 wins)
2000  - Ohio Northern lost to Mount in Round 1 (0 wins)
1999 - Ohio Northern lost to Mount in Round 2 (1 win)
1997 –  John Carroll lost to Mount in Round 2 (1 win)

OAC losses against someone else:
2003 - Baldwin Wallace to Wheaton in 2nd round (1 win)
2007 - Capital at Whitewater in Round 1 (UWW was Nat Champs) (0 wins)
2008 - Otterbein to Franklin in Round 1 (Franklin beat NCC in 2nd round, lost to Wheaton in regional final) (0 wins)
2012 - Heidelberg to Wittenberg in Round 1 (horrible loss for the OAC as H'berg had a big lead) (0 wins)
2013 - John Carroll to SFJ in Round 1 (0 wins)
2018 - John Carroll to Randolph Macon in Round 1 (worst of the OAC losses, expected JCU to roll back to Mount in Round 3) (0 wins)

Mount playoff losses as OAC runner-up:
2016 – MHB in the semi-finals (MHB national champs) (3 wins)


Overall, the 2nd place OAC team (including Mount) is a respectable 13-13.  The non-Mount OAC teams are 10-12 in the playoffs.