FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[USee]

Discussion on UWO winning yesterday putting Wheaton in.

UWO and Wheaton

Logan was on the podcast today and said this as well. If UWO had beaten River Falls Saturday then UWO and Wheaton would be in the playoffs and JCU/UMHB would be out. That just confirms the fact this system rewards win percentage above all else.

I mean, not above all else, right? Wheaton's win percentage doesn't change if UWO beats UWRF. Wheaton's SOS does.

I agree Pat. My point is their win percentage certainly changes if they play Simpson instead of UWO. In that case the UWO/UWRF result doesn't matter under this system right? And Logan, prior to Saturday, was telling fans on the bubble they should be rooting for UWRF to beat UWO. I suppose that was true for UMHB and JCU fans, but it certainly wasn't true for Wheaton and RF fans. All of which highlights the how we are all still learning the nuances of this new system.

And while I have you (theoretically), is there any way D3football.com can announce who plays in the bowl games? I know the NCAA tourney obviously takes a lot of resources on the penultimate weekend but it's hopefully still news worthy of reporting....I had no clue who the opponent for Wheaton was in the Isthmus bowl until I saw Carroll Fan's post of someone else's twitter feed. Maybe I missed it. Hopefully with a smaller number of games on this first weekend there can be some coverage of the Bowl games.

Finally I will add, and I know you understand this, I am a huge fan of D3FB.com and you/your team and do all I can to promote the site and the coverage you guys provide!

[Pat Coleman]

Thanks -- we will have a list of all the bowl games on our site later today once the last ones are announced, but here's the list:

Opendorse Bowl Series
at Canton, Ohio
ForeverLawn Bowl: Hanover vs. Wabash, 1 p.m.
Extra Points Bowl: Marietta vs. Westminster (Pa.), 6 p.m.

Chesapeake Challenge Bowl Series
at Salem, Virginia
Cape Henry Bowl: Wilkes vs. Washington & Lee, 1 p.m.
Cape Charles Bowl: Moravian vs. Shenandoah, 5 p.m.

Centennial-MAC Bowl Series
Widener at Muhlenberg, 12 p.m.
Franklin & Marshall at Delaware Valley, 12 p.m.
Dickinson at FDU-Florham, 12 p.m.

Fusion Bowl
Husson at SUNY-Maritime, 1 p.m

Culver's Isthmus Bowl
at Madison, Wisconsin
UW-Stout vs. Wheaton, 2 p.m. CT

Cousin's Subs Lakefront Bowl
at Wisconsin Lutheran College
Monmouth vs. St. Norbert, 11 a.m. CT

ECAC Bowl Series
Asa S. Bushnell Bowl:
Clayton Chapman Bowl:
Scotty Whitelaw Bowl:

I think we will spend some small amount of attention on these games, yes, since there are only eight playoff games on Saturday.

[USee]

Thanks Pat. Wow. I had no idea there were that many bowls. Though I am sad I am now focused on bowl games instead of playoff games, I am thankful you guys have a handle on it! Hopefully with Wally's alma mater also playing and a couple of top 25 teams participating it will garner some attention from the D3 faithful.

[CarollFan]

Wasn't there a rule that a conference had to have a certain number of teams to get an AQ? Northwestern of the UMAC won 7 games but only beat 5 teams. They played and beat two of those teams twice. WIAC (and some CCIW) teams are always going to struggle with finding out of conference games. Seems like allowing teams to beat the same team more than once isn't a great use of the data either.

The ASC has 4 teams.  UMHB made it in with 5 wins against 3 teams.  I know they have a problem scheduling other opponents. UMHB also has a loss to Bethel (Tenn), a NAIA team not included in their NPI calculation.

[SpartanHouse4]

The one thing I found odd on the bracketing is some better ranked teams can't host because of some limitation to their stadium?

Lake Forest hosting in mind boggling to me. They won the worst conference in D3 and played a brutal team in non-conference. Why do they get rewarded with a bye and host a round 2 game?

NPI needs some tweaking - this bracket makes zero sense.

[Pat Coleman]

Lake Forest won't actually host, but that doesn't take away from your point that they were seeded to host.

[wally_wabash]

Wasn't there a rule that a conference had to have a certain number of teams to get an AQ? Northwestern of the UMAC won 7 games but only beat 5 teams. They played and beat two of those teams twice. WIAC (and some CCIW) teams are always going to struggle with finding out of conference games. Seems like allowing teams to beat the same team more than once isn't a great use of the data either.

The ASC has 4 teams.  UMHB made it in with 5 wins against 3 teams.  I know they have a problem scheduling other opponents. UMHB also has a loss to Bethel (Tenn), a NAIA team not included in their NPI calculation.

This probably won't help, but also new to the way they're measuring teams this year is a home/away multiplier.  If UMHB beats UWW by the same score in Belton rather than in Whitewater, UMHB misses the cut. 

The one thing I found odd on the bracketing is some better ranked teams can't host because of some limitation to their stadium?

Lake Forest hosting in mind boggling to me. They won the worst conference in D3 and played a brutal team in non-conference. Why do they get rewarded with a bye and host a round 2 game?

NPI needs some tweaking - this bracket makes zero sense.

The MWC is definitely not the worst conference in D3.  It's not strong, for sure, but not the worst. 

[CarollFan]

Do you guys know what the specific reason is Lake Forest can't host?

[Pat Coleman]

Do you guys know what the specific reason is Lake Forest can't host?

They didn't file in time.

They chose not to file because of a mistaken impression by the administration that they needed lights.

However, even if they did file, their press box is not adequate to the task -- there are no separated booths for coaches, and that's a requirement. That could be fixed on the fly, but they would have had to file in time.

[wally_wabash]

Thanks Pat. Wow. I had no idea there were that many bowls. Though I am sad I am now focused on bowl games instead of playoff games, I am thankful you guys have a handle on it! Hopefully with Wally's alma mater also playing and a couple of top 25 teams participating it will garner some attention from the D3 faithful.

I'll be paying some attention to these games this weekend.  The proliferation of bowl games means we have some really good stories that haven't quite ended yet.  Wisconsin Lutheran is going for an 8th win in a single season which would be a new program high.  Moravian's strong season gets one more lap.  Stout vs. Wheaton is just a bloody good football game.  Westminster vs Marietta is a fun measuring stick for how deep the PAC really might be.  Lots of good stuff in these games. 

[Pat Coleman]

WLC is just the host of the game, not a participant -- but that program is getting closer to being a participant!

[wally_wabash]

WLC is just the host of the game, not a participant -- but that program is getting closer to being a participant!

Of course they are and I knew better.  I'm going to take a timeout and regroup.   

[CarollFan]

Wheaton gets UW-Stout in Isthmus Bowl.

Isthmus Bowl

Regarding Stout, Carroll beat them in the non conference game 28-16. We were able to stop some of their drives on 5 sacks and a pick. They finished 3rd in the WIAC in scoring averaging 33.8/game.
On defense they were 2nd against the run and last (8th) against the pass.

A common opponent with Wheaton is UWO and UW-Stout's QB #6 Adam Moen went 27 for 39 (69.2%) for 352 yards and 3 TD's against UWO. Stout looks like they started passing more in the second half of the season.  They didn't have a 300 yard passing game until game 6 and then the last 5 games were all over 300 yards.

[Jbothe]

North Central people on the board.  How are you feeling about your team this year. I only saw them Saturday against IWU.

Healthy?

As strong as the last couple of years.  I would love to see a CCIW champion.

[SpartanHouse4]

Lake Forest won't actually host, but that doesn't take away from your point that they were seeded to host.

Can you explain why Lake Forest was seeded ahead of Platteville, Hope, Aurora, and Wartburg?