FB: Presidents' Athletic Conference

[SaintsFAN]

Watched most of the Westminster/W&J game. W&J won two very close games in a row. No magic today. Westminster shut down W&J's offense with six sacks, limited W&J's ground game to 71 yards and intercepted Coughlin three times. W&J's defense kept them in the game but gave up 233 yards rushing and 337 total yards.. Westminster improves their record versus W&J to 3-32 lifetime.

Spent some time on Westminster's web site. They have improved dramatically under coach Scott Benzel and I predict if he sticks around they will become a force not only in the PAC but regionally and perhaps even nationally. They have 128 on their roster of whom 85 are freshmen. They have 24 players from Florida alone and are recruiting heavily in the DC area and who knows where else. I can see CWRU and CMU having broad based recruiting because they are larger schools with a national footprint but I'm not aware of any other PAC school that compares with Westminster when it comes to recruiting geography.  Even Thomas More sticks pretty close to home.

So the PAC has evolved from years of domination by one school, a period where there were two schools dominating, to today where their are 5 quality programs in the conference. Life in the PAC could get very interesting going forward.

Westminster has CMU and CWRU coming up. As Ex Tartan said, both are in for a real test. W&J needs one more win to have it's 33rd consecutive winning season. They finish with St Vincent, Geneva and Waynesburg so it looks like they will continue the streak. I'm sure Sirianni and his staff will will get them motivated every week.

Thomas More has just started recruiting Florida.  They have a freshman RB from down there who scored a TD a couple weeks ago.  This offseason will mark the 3rd one they've been down there.  They also have a good relationship with schools in GA.  Not to mention they are newly in the Cleveland area too.  This will be very interesting to see what happens if they can add the kids from the South to the best from Indy and Cincy -

[E.115]

Case Western Reseve has broken into the Top 25

http://www.d3football.com/top25/2016/week8

TMC #13

EDiT: Westminster ranked in this poll as well http://m.herosports.com/d3-football-rankings

[Pat Coleman]

Can't really call it a poll if there aren't voters and votes. It's a ranking, not a poll.
#copyeditorpetpeeve

[DagarmanSpartan]

In Division I, similar rankings are referred to as polls, i.e., "the ESPN Coaches' Poll," etc.

In addition to being #25 in the d3football.com poll, CWRU is also #19 in the herosports.com rankings.

http://herosports.com/d3-football

I sure hope that CWRU can pull off these last three wins and get back in the playoffs.  That, and a Tribe victory in the World Series (coming off an NBA title from the Cavs) would make Cleveland a pretty darned good sports town (Browns excluded), eh?

[ExTartanPlayer]

A few days late, but Carnegie Mellon's Rich Lackner won career game #200 in his 31st season at the helm. 

We had a brief pregame ceremony honoring the 2006 CMU team, which went 11-1 and won a first-round playoff game against Millsaps before falling to Wesley.  We also held the third annual Carnegie Mellon football alumni banquet in the evening, something I helped plan and hope to continue as an annual event.

On the field, the game went about as expected.  Thiel is definitely improved from last season, especially on offense, but they couldn't stop the Tartans.  Carnegie Mellon was never really threatened once they got out to the lead, but also never really put the game away until very late.  Thiel QB Ryan Radke was impressive, as was RB Nick Barca.  CMU's offense was led by the usual suspects: Benger went over 1,000 yards for the season, with 130 yards and 4 touchdowns.  Sophomore RB Rory Hubbard contributed 109 combined rushing and receiving yards.  WR Matt Forjan had a career day with 139 yards and a touchdown; Prather chipped in 60 yards.

Couple of interesting results around the league.  Westminster over W&J is a big one.  CWRU struggled with Geneva.  Several interesting games ahead in the next few weeks.  Won't be able to attend, but interested to see what happens with CMU vs. Westminster this coming weekend.

[SaintsFAN]

In Division I, similar rankings are referred to as polls, i.e., "the ESPN Coaches' Poll," etc.

In addition to being #25 in the d3football.com poll, CWRU is also #19 in the herosports.com rankings.

http://herosports.com/d3-football

I sure hope that CWRU can pull off these last three wins and get back in the playoffs.  That, and a Tribe victory in the World Series (coming off an NBA title from the Cavs) would make Cleveland a pretty darned good sports town (Browns excluded), eh?

[Pat Coleman]

In Division I, similar rankings are referred to as polls, i.e., "the ESPN Coaches' Poll," etc.

Not following the connection here -- the ESPN Coaches' Poll has multiple people who actually vote.

[DagarmanSpartan]

Pat,

I thought that the d3football rankings were voted upon by a group of 25 different people.  Do they not all have a vote, much as the voters in other rankings that are commonly known as "polls" do?

[Pat Coleman]

When you poll, do you poll one person? That's why we refer to multiple-person polls as polls and single-person and computer rankings as rankings.

[HansenRatings]

I think the confusion here is the HERO Sports doesn't say outright on their site that their rankings are a computer model. I thought it was human (maybe just their staff) at the beginning of the season.

[ExTartanPlayer]

Let's revisit the rankings.

1) Thomas More still looks well-positioned to finish undefeated in league play.

2) Case Western squeezed past Geneva to remain undefeated.  Not a very impressive result but each of the top teams has had at least one survived-a-close-call kind of game.  I'll give them a slight pass; we'll find out in the next few weeks anyway.

3) Westminster notched a real signature win by toppling W&J.  Does this represent a shift in the league balance of power?  For the last...while, W&J has always been firmly entrenched as one of the league's top two teams, barely losing a league game to anyone but Thomas More save for a flash in the pan like 2005 Thiel, or a stray upset against Waynesburg.  This feels more sustainable; there are genuinely multiple contenders in this top echelon of the league, which bodes well for the PAC moving forward.

4) W&J drops a spot after losing to Westminster.  There's fairly little separating teams 2-3-4-5 at this moment; we'll see what happens in the next three weeks as CWRU, Westminster, and CMU all trade blows.  Similar to last year, really, except for the scheduling quirk that will preclude One True Champion from being named.

5) Carnegie Mellon is now 4-3 with three very close losses to three very good teams (overtime vs. 5-1 SAA leader WashU; 20-16 against Thomas More; overtime against W&J) and heading into a pair of very interesting games with Westminster and Case Western to jockey for position in the second/third place league race.  Similar comment to Westminster: really nice season last year, need to capture at least one of the CWRU or Westminster games to establish that they firmly belong in the "top echelon" of the league.

Again...that's pretty clearly the top echelon of the league.  Beneath that there's a pretty big step down...

6) St. Vincent remains the best of the rest, but with decisive losses against Case, Westminster, and TMC they aren't in the same league as the top 5.

7) Waynesburg has rebounded a little from last year's disappointment, but still remains well below the program standard.  Didn't even stay close in the games against the league's top dogs, and eked out close wins against GCC and Geneva.  Gotta beat Thiel and St. Vincent if they want to show genuine progress this season.

8) Geneva played CWRU very tough...but I'm not ready to slide them ahead of Waynesburg just yet since Waynesburg holds a h2h win.

9) Thiel seems to have made some progress from last year.  They're scoring some points, and they've been much more competitive this year than most of last season.  I'm repeating that from last week, having just seen them live against CMU - this year they lost to the Tartans 49-33 instead of 73-19.  Progress. Should have a chance for at least 2 more wins.  If they beat Waynesburg, I might pop them up to the 7 spot.

10) Bethany is a high-ceiling, low-floor team.  I'll never be able to figure out how these guys can take W&J to the wire in the same season that they lost to both Geneva and Thiel.  Lots of athletes, lots of offense, terrible discipline, no defense.

11) Grove City is still in the basement for now.  They will have their best chance(s) for a win in the last three games.  I am really hopeful that DiDonato can turn the program around someday, but it's going to take some work.

[SaintsFAN]

Can't argue with those rankings.  Senior Day at TMC this week.  They should play inspired as a result. 

TMC only has two guaranteed games left in '16, they have their BYE in week 11 after unofficially having one that week when little brother was on the schedule.


EDIT:  I really like how the Saints have used the blowouts this year to get young guys playtime so they are ready when called upon.  The result is added experience for a very young and talented 2nd group on each side of the football. 

[DagarmanSpartan]

When you poll, do you poll one person? That's why we refer to multiple-person polls as polls and single-person and computer rankings as rankings.

Oh, I'm sorry.  Perhaps we had a misunderstanding.  I was comparing the d3football.com rankings and those in Division I (AP and ESPN Coaches), both of which, like the d3football.com rankings, include the input of a group of people.  In my mind, those are all "polls."

We agree that multi-person rankings are generally referred to as "polls."  That's why I would call both the d3football.com rankings and the ESPN Division I-FBS Coaches' Rankings "polls."

We are apparently in agreement then.  Sorry for the misunderstanding!  My apologies!!!

If the herosports rankings are computer generated, then I wouldn't call that set of rankings a "poll," but I would use the term to refer to both the d3football.com rankings and ESPN Coaches' I-FBS rankings as "polls" simply because both involve a collection of people, each with input.

[E.115]

Disregarding polls, rankings, and ... 

Huge game in St. Louis this week for Case Western Reserve (7-0) at Wash U.(6-1).

Wash U is playing with the 5th best passing offense in the country, and has impressive wins under their belt of Berry and Carnegie Mellon...tied for the lead in the SAA. 

PREVIEW: http://athletics.case.edu/sports/fball/2016-17/releases/20161025mjuapc

[D3MAFAN]

Just a hypothetical question after looking at Wally's Pool C projections. If Case and Thomas More both were to make the playoff, would it be bittersweet if both teams met in the 1st round in the playoffs?