FB: Northwest Conference

[MonroviaCat]

.... somebody asked earlier why the posting numbers were down .....   

asked---and answered

[desertcat1]

+K

[bluenote]

.... somebody asked earlier why the posting numbers were down .....   

asked---and answered

...I saw that. 

[bluenote]

+K

.... just got you to 1000 big guy! 

[Pat Coleman]

.... somebody asked earlier why the posting numbers were down .....   

Yeah. Sorry -- I just get really annoyed when people question the ethics of the professionals who volunteer their services for this very thankless task of creating NCAA brackets. Question their judgment, sure -- I often do, but not their ethics. That's a clearly definable line that hopefully people can see.

[olddog]

If the NCAA had placed Linfield in the east bracket this year (and most other years, also), we would be in the semi-finals.    Alas, no; both MHB and Linfield have to get to the semi-finals the hardest way possible.   Almost every year.

Gotta love the NCAA selection committee.    NOT.

That very same committee sent an East Region team all the way across the country to play you in McMinnville last year. How quickly you forget. Two years ago, you got an East Region team in the quarterfinals.

Let's look at the records:
Linfield away playoff games:
2009 - at UWW    Both undefeated.
2010 - at St. Thomas    No dispute; we had one loss.
2011 - at Wesley     We were undefeated; Wesley has one loss.  But, we had to travel.
2013 - at UWW     Both undefeated.
2014 - at MHB and Widener    No dispute since both were undefeated and we had one loss.    Yet, we easily beat Widener, 45-7.
2015 - at St. Thomas     Both undefeated.
2016 - at Hardin Simmons    Both one loss; but, they did not even win their conference.
           at MHB - No dispute.

Show me any other team that has been in the Top 10 as much as Linfield these last 8 years.   Did they have that much long distance playoff travel?   

And, four times we were undefeated.     How many times did the other consistent Top 10 teams had to travel when were undefeated?

The NCAA Playoff Selection committee is biased.    The voting power is in the midwest, between Ohio and Minnesota.   They avoid, anytime possible,  sending their best teams on the road to Linfield or MHB.

A friend of mine, (big school fan, not a D III fan) noted what I saw.    He could not understand why Linfield, ranked #8, did not have the first two games at home.    His feeling is the top 8 seedings should be based on the final season polls.   

George

Interesting seeing the Kats complain about being on the road, hum ...

[D O.C.]

I think everyone understands when d3football.com has stated many times it's $udget.
George must know that. He questions all things being equal why he can't see more home games.
Again, GT, Coach Smith has accepted the way the bones are thrown. We can try.
If getting back to the Stagg is so hard, we can cling to being mentioned as elite team.
May be that's de-evolving.

[Pat Coleman]

I think everyone understands when d3football.com has stated many times it's $udget.
George must know that. He questions all things being equal why he can't see more home games.
Again, GT, Coach Smith has accepted the way the bones are thrown. We can try.
If getting back to the Stagg is so hard, we can cling to being mentioned as elite team.
May be that's de-evolving.

The problem for Linfield is that it hasn't beaten these midwestern opponents in the playoffs and it makes it really hard to justify sending those teams to Linfield when all else is equal:

vs. St. Thomas: Lost in 2015, 2010
vs. UW-Whitewater: Lost in 2014, 2013 (and more)
vs. UW-Oshkosh: Lost at home in 2012

In order to win some of those tiebreakers with these teams, Linfield is going to have to go on the road and beat them, like UWW did when it came to Linfield in 2005. Linfield hasn't beaten any of these teams on the road and they only beat St. Thomas at home in 2009. Linfield lost the homefield advantage in 2010 in a decision even George Thompson doesn't dispute.

On the opposite side, Linfield went to Mary Hardin-Baylor and won in 2014, and then UMHB had to come to Linfield in 2015. There it worked in Linfield's favor, right?

I can't promise this is the committee's thinking, because they surely wouldn't admit to it even if I asked, but there's a decent amount of evidence here to suggest that's the case.

[gren]

I think everyone understands when d3football.com has stated many times it's $udget.
George must know that. He questions all things being equal why he can't see more home games.
Again, GT, Coach Smith has accepted the way the bones are thrown. We can try.
If getting back to the Stagg is so hard, we can cling to being mentioned as elite team.
May be that's de-evolving.

Its not buget or HS would have gone to UMB and Mount to JC I do believe if 2 NWC teams were in there they would face each other in the first round then we would here the budget talk. GO CRU

[wildcat11]

I think everyone understands when d3football.com has stated many times it's $udget.
George must know that. He questions all things being equal why he can't see more home games.
Again, GT, Coach Smith has accepted the way the bones are thrown. We can try.
If getting back to the Stagg is so hard, we can cling to being mentioned as elite team.
May be that's de-evolving.

The problem for Linfield is that it hasn't beaten these midwestern opponents in the playoffs and it makes it really hard to justify sending those teams to Linfield when all else is equal:

vs. St. Thomas: Lost in 2015, 2010
vs. UW-Whitewater: Lost in 2014, 2013 (and more)
vs. UW-Oshkosh: Lost at home in 2012

In order to win some of those tiebreakers with these teams, Linfield is going to have to go on the road and beat them, like UWW did when it came to Linfield in 2005. Linfield hasn't beaten any of these teams on the road and they only beat St. Thomas at home in 2009. Linfield lost the homefield advantage in 2010 in a decision even George Thompson doesn't dispute.

On the opposite side, Linfield went to Mary Hardin-Baylor and won in 2014, and then UMHB had to come to Linfield in 2015. There it worked in Linfield's favor, right?

I can't promise this is the committee's thinking, because they surely wouldn't admit to it even if I asked, but there's a decent amount of evidence here to suggest that's the case.

I agree with that and that's the hump the 'Cats are going to have to overcome.  The program rolled the dice this year in playing at UMHB in the regular season and it didn't work out but I'd rather have the program go for it than play the La Verne, Whittiers, and Redlands of the world in non-conference.

[D O.C.]

Wow! I second PC facts.
We got Oshkosh at home and didn't TCB and let them win it.
We fumbled away the OT game at St. Thomas.
But can't UMHB claim the same losing to us?
The WW semi-final games we've nothing to hang our heads about losing. WW played good enough to win.

The ncaa committee will learn something Saturday if UMHB beats the defending champs at home. If UMU can pull that off, they should continue 😊 to be pampered.

[Andy Jamison - Walla Walla Wildcat]

For 2017 I see  a screaming need to improve every phase of our kicking game as we flat out stunk.  For whatever reason our kickoff return has been lacking something for several years now.  I don't know if it is personnel, scheme, or what but something is off.  Same goes for our kickoff coverage as I'm always holding my breath to see what happens.

I'm excited to see what Troy Fowler or Clark Hazlett bring to the QB position.  My hope is that a lot of the young WR's step up and that John Carroll comes back for his final season of eligibility.  Our O-line should be very good especially if Heck comes back healthy.  Same for the D-line. 

The NWC is going to be really good next year.  I'd expect that Whitworth is feeling really good about their offense for 2017 and trying to find a fix for their D.  George Fox has to be considered a favorite to win the conference with all the experience that they'd bring back.  PLU is going to be better. Lewis & Clark will continue to improve.

Hopefully teams will do well in out of conference games so that we can get better SOS.  That has really hurt us over the past 8 years as the NWC has had too many bad teams.

Let's all say thanks to Wildcat11 for his work!  We are very lucky to have him doing what he does!  Thank you sir!

[MonroviaCat]

For 2017 I see  a screaming need to improve every phase of our kicking game as we flat out stunk.  For whatever reason our kickoff return has been lacking something for several years now.  I don't know if it is personnel, scheme, or what but something is off.  Same goes for our kickoff coverage as I'm always holding my breath to see what happens.

I'm excited to see what Troy Fowler or Clark Hazlett bring to the QB position.  My hope is that a lot of the young WR's step up and that John Carroll comes back for his final season of eligibility.  Our O-line should be very good especially if Heck comes back healthy.  Same for the D-line. 

The NWC is going to be really good next year.  I'd expect that Whitworth is feeling really good about their offense for 2017 and trying to find a fix for their D.  George Fox has to be considered a favorite to win the conference with all the experience that they'd bring back.  PLU is going to be better. Lewis & Clark will continue to improve.

Hopefully teams will do well in out of conference games so that we can get better SOS.  That has really hurt us over the past 8 years as the NWC has had too many bad teams.

Let's all say thanks to Wildcat11 for his work!  We are very lucky to have him doing what he does!  Thank you sir!

That might be a stretch.....ya know, like the GF attendance numbers

[wildcat11]

For 2017 I see  a screaming need to improve every phase of our kicking game as we flat out stunk.  For whatever reason our kickoff return has been lacking something for several years now.  I don't know if it is personnel, scheme, or what but something is off.  Same goes for our kickoff coverage as I'm always holding my breath to see what happens.

I'm excited to see what Troy Fowler or Clark Hazlett bring to the QB position.  My hope is that a lot of the young WR's step up and that John Carroll comes back for his final season of eligibility.  Our O-line should be very good especially if Heck comes back healthy.  Same for the D-line. 

The NWC is going to be really good next year.  I'd expect that Whitworth is feeling really good about their offense for 2017 and trying to find a fix for their D.  George Fox has to be considered a favorite to win the conference with all the experience that they'd bring back.  PLU is going to be better. Lewis & Clark will continue to improve.

Hopefully teams will do well in out of conference games so that we can get better SOS.  That has really hurt us over the past 8 years as the NWC has had too many bad teams.

Let's all say thanks to Wildcat11 for his work!  We are very lucky to have him doing what he does!  Thank you sir!

That might be a stretch.....ya know, like the GF attendance numbers

I'm wouldn't go as far as Andy with regards to GFU but they are going to experience their "PEAK" year for restart programs.  All of those guys that will be 5th/4th year seniors and have started nearly 30 games should see GFU playing their best football so far (ala Pacific in 2013). They will 100% be conference contenders for at least next season and then we'll see what they're really about in 2018/19.

I'm not sure on PLU yet.  They are losing their WR corp and a big bulk of their DL/LB corp...I think the jury is out on them. 

Lewis and Clark...they started not getting housed nearly as bad this year and I think they will break into the win column next year but still be a long ways away from being a top 1/2 NWC team.

UPS....has young talent in the secondary and at WR but who is their QB?

Pacific lost some of their best defensive talent but have some good players coming back...need more time on them.

I think Willamette is going to stink.

Whitworth has to be thinking that 2017 is going to be the year.  I don't blame them....maybe it will be?

We all know that Linfield has a boatload of questions to get answered.  We will see immediate help on the D-Line as we should see 2-3 additional bodies that were not on the roster in 2016 back into the program's fold (all conference level talent).  That should leave the Linfield defense stacked up front but with questions in the secondary but I do like Mackle, Stowell, Sample, Ransom, Guttadauro, and Tuihalangingi to step up in those roles.

I am jacked to see what this offensive line will look like in 2017. It could be a special group and I think that Choisser will take full advantage of that as the featured RB . Yeah, we do lose who should be considered the 2nd best QB in program history but Linfield has done a great job in developing QB's over the past decade (Boehme, Inns, Yoder) but those guys are going to have to prove it under fire.

Yes, our kicking game sucked.  That has to improve.

[wildcat11]

We got Oshkosh at home and didn't TCB and let them win it.
We fumbled away the OT game at St. Thomas.

We got Oshkosh at home and didn't TCB and let them win it.

I always think how that game would have gone if Dom Forrest didn't break his ankle in the 2nd quarter. That was a game changer.

UST double OT game kills me....we missed two chip shot field goals in that 2nd half that would have been the difference.