FB: Presidents' Athletic Conference

[Pat Coleman]

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?

I hope the committee would set it up that way.

[Ralph Turner]

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?

I hope the committee would set it up that way.

+1!

[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?

I hope the committee would set it up that way.

Then that would be the de facto championship game. I wonder if it would count towards the conference W/L record. I am really oppose to conference foes facing off in the first round, but it would only be right in this case (no pun intended).

[ExTartanPlayer]

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

Agree, playoffs and polls and rankings aside, this should be an excellent football game.

[D3MAFAN]

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

Agree, playoffs and polls and rankings aside, this should be an excellent football game.

I have this on my slate of games to watch. I think Wash U has been floating under the radar from an outsider view, I watch a good amount of their game against Berry earlier in the year. This will be a good opportunity for Case to make a statement against a good Wash U team. Good luck to both teams this weekend.

[DagarmanSpartan]

This is going to be a VERY tough game for CWRU; probably their first real "test."

We'll find out if the Spartans are "for real" this week.

[Bob.Gregg]

I'm rooting for CWRU....
If we get to the DOOMSDAY scenario in the PAC, perhaps, it'll get fixed....

Go, TMC.  Go, CWRU.  Go, W&J (just for the tie-breaker implications).

Simple solution is available.  Just won't be implemented.

[DagarmanSpartan]

Case definitely passed the test today.

56 points, over 700 yards of total offense, and over 430 yards rushing against a 6-1 opponent to move to 8-0 on the season.

This should definitely help Case's national ranking.

Let's hope that they win out!

[E.115]

Well that was an entertaining game to watch of Case Western Reserve @ Wash U....definitely lived up to the hype.

707 yards of total offense for the Spartans and 526 yards of total offense for the Bears.  DRUMROLL...1,233 combined total yards!

Case Western Reserve 56
Wash U 38

BOX SCORE: http://athletics.case.edu/sports/fball/2016-17/boxscores/20161029_c8ei.xml

[WashJeff68]

W&J vs St Vincent was a one point game at the half. Adjustments were made and W&J scored 21 unanswered points for a 22 point win.

This takes W&J to 6-2 ensuring their 33rd consecutive winning season. Quite an accomlishment for the Presidents.

Jeff in Seattle (grandkids time) 

[E.115]

Two takes:

Defense Falters as WashU Football Falls to No. 25 Case 56-38

http://bearsports.wustl.edu/sports/fball/2016-17/releases/20161029pe7ise


#25 CWRU Runs Over WashU 56-38 to Clinch Share of 2016 UAA Title

http://athletics.case.edu/sports/fball/2016-17/releases/20161029pirqak

[ADL70]

Spartan's OL ought to be in line for team of the week.

[SaintsFAN]

W&J vs St Vincent was a one point game at the half. Adjustments were made and W&J scored 21 unanswered points for a 22 point win.

This takes W&J to 6-2 ensuring their 33rd consecutive winning season. Quite an accomlishment for the Presidents.

Jeff in Seattle (grandkids time)

And assures TMC of the tiebreaker, should Thomas More win next week.

[ExTartanPlayer]

Well.  What a lovely weekend.  Sadly, I did not see any Division III football as my wife and I were on a road trip to-and-from Asheville, NC (a lovely drive through West Virginia, Virginia, Tennesee, and finally North Carolina) but my wife dutifully kept me informed of the scores as we were driving home yesterday.

1. Thomas More (7-0, 8-1) takes care of business against Bethany

2. Case Western (6-0, 8-0) notches an excellent non-league win over 6-2 Washington University in St. Louis, co-leader of the SAA at the moment.  This is a big win for the playoff portfolio; if TMC ends up with the Pool A, as we currently believe, then Case will have a nice win, possibly against a regionally-ranked opponent, in their pockets.  I think it's critical that CWRU finish undefeated if they want a Pool C bid, though.  The league does not always get a lot of respect in the regional-rankings and my suspicion is that a loss to either Westminster or CMU would result in the RR's just tossing out everyone in the PAC save for Thomas More.

3A. Carnegie Mellon (5-2, 5-3)
3B. Westminster (4-2, 6-2)
3C. Washington & Jefferson (4-2, 6-2)

Not entirely unlike last year, we have a cluster of good-but-not-great teams that all beat one another jockeying for position.  In the h2h contests:

CMU 35, Westminster 23 (at CMU)
Westminster 16, W&J 10 (at Westminster)
W&J 55, CMU 52, overtime (at W&J)

So everyone won their game at home and lost on the road.  The difference for me, if there is one at all, is that Carnegie Mellon comfortably beat Westminster at home (taking a 35-16 lead in the fourth quarter and ultimately winning by two scores) and also took W&J to overtime on the road; that's the best two-game profile any of the three can offer against each other.  The net point differential here is +9 for CMU, -3 for W & J, and -6 for Westminster if that means anything.  I think all of them are about equal so they're basically all co-third-place at this point for me.  Both Westminster and CMU will be able to stake their claim as the league's 2nd-best team against Case, regardless of what the final standings will show with the unbalanced schedule.

6. St. Vincent (2-4, 4-4) resides comfortably in the middle.  Better than the bottom of the league (wins over Thiel, Geneva, Grove City) but lopsided losses against everyone listed above.  Thought they might take a step forward this season but clearly not quite there yet.

7. Thiel (2-4, 3-5) slides up a few spots this week after beating Waynesburg.  I know they have a h2h loss against Geneva, but the body of work from the season tells me that Thiel is a little better team overall - their offense is actually quite good.

8. Geneva (2-4, 3-5) also grabbed their third win of the season.  Despite their loss against Waynesburg, I'm sliding them up thanks to the trio of wins against Bethany, Thiel, and Grove City.  You can really argue for Geneva at 7 and Thiel at 8 and I wouldn't argue, since Geneva did actually win h2h; I just think Thiel's better offense makes them a little scarier opponent overall, and the Thiel-Waynesburg-Geneva trio of results makes this a confusing nonlinearity, much like CMU-Westminster-W&J above.

9. Waynesburg (2-4, 2-6) now is officially not just a one-year downturn last year.  Their two wins are 14-10 against winless Grove City and 10-9 against Geneva.  Yuck.

10. Bethany (0-6, 1-7) went 0-for-5 against the league's heavy hitters.  One close effort with W&J.  Overall a disappointing season for the Bison, who had really reached "consistently competitive" status over the last five or six seasons, usually good for something between 3-7 and 6-4.

11. Grove City (0-6, 0-8) continues to scuffle along.  Can they beat either Bethany or Thiel and end a three-season streak of futility?

[SaintsFAN]

It's been floated about on other board and I agree with the idea that it would be great to see Thomas More and Case play in Round 1 of the tournament this year.  Hopefully this will happen, if both teams win out. 


Thomas More has a roadie at Thiel this week and it sounds like the Saints defense will be challenged.  Back in 2000, Thiel was TMC's only loss and it prevented the Saints from making their 2nd appearance in the Tournament.  Ironically, this was David Armstrong's last Thiel team.  The same David Armstrong who is now President at Thomas More College. 

Anyways, again I expect Thiel to really test TMC; sounds like their offense has come a long way from the past 5 years.