FB: Northwest Conference

[D O.C.]

Osh in control 34-20.

[George Thompson]

I am sure he has not met a defense like UMB.

[D O.C.]

Well, if they ran some live against their own defense in practice.

[D O.C.]

UMHB holds 1st and 10 on their own 10. Bent Perra from behind on 4th down.
24-10.
Folding.

[wildcat11]

UMU's road to the Semi's is once again littered with posers.

[D O.C.]

Yep. Although it flipped a little bit because CRU gets Brockport at home instead of Oshkosh for the semis.

[wildcat11]

I know he threw a TD today but overall I though Wyatt Smith looked better behind center than UST's qb. I think Linfield is for a pretty good offensive run the next three years.

[MonroviaCat]

I know he threw a TD today but overall I though Wyatt Smith looked better behind center than UST's qb. I think Linfield is for a pretty good offensive run the next three years.

so many weapons...and I think our D will be just fine. 

[Kelly Boggs]

Young Mr. Smith is going to be a forced to be reckoned with in the future. He's the real deal. I/we were very impressed.

[D O.C.]

 By Rusty Rae • McMinnvile News-Register Sport Editor •

Nov 30, 2017

Is the NCAA screwed up?

When it comes to Division III football, absofreakinglutely!

Watching the way the NCAA managed the DIII playoffs up close and personal for the last two years and from afar since Linfield joined the NCAA in 1996, it's obvious this is an organization driven by the Peter Principle.

The NCAA thinks its DIII national playoffs means something special – and they certainly should. But if you're one of the committee's pets who appear to have preferential bracket treatment, the opportunity to achieve success is enhanced.
Ask Hardin-Simmons head coach Jesse Burleson how he feels about the latest version of what passes for a national championship bracket.

"With the way Division Three works out, you never know. The national committee can do anything they want. I don't understand it, don't necessarily agree with it. But they don't ask my opinion on those things. So wherever they send us, our motto is 'Put the ball down and let's play,'" said Burleson.
Burleson's a stand-up guy, unlike the DIII committee members.

Linfield faced a similar situation last year when it traveled to play the Cowboys in the first round.

Why must a top-10 team like Hardin-Simmons this year, or Linfield last year, travel to a first-round game?

Well, honestly, because that's the way the NCAA operates.

The NCAA bigwigs cry budget whenever this subject arises. Like everyone else in this world, they must live within their allotted funds from the NCAA. OK, fine.

Currently, those who are administering the playoffs seem stuck in the 1950s with a "that's the way we've always done it" mentality.

First, the NCAA was established to protect and develop student athletes. Getting to the playoffs represents a reward, of sorts, for playing at a high level during the season: earning a conference title.

The playoffs should be a grand experience for every team. A part of that experience is testing yourself against the best in the nation.

But because of the D3 Midwest/east coast bias, some teams don't compete on a level playing field.

If the NCAA doesn't have enough funding to operate a first-class 32-team tournament, the easy solution is simply cut back the number of teams in the bracket to match the current budget. Either do it right, or don't do it at all.

You'd think if this were simply a budget issue, the DIII committee could just go to the fat cats in Indianapolis (where the NCAA headquarters are located) and get funding to produce a top notch DIII national championship tournament, rather than the good ol' boy barbecue they currently call a national championship.

But here's the problem: of its nearly $1 billion budget, the miserly NCAA gives Division Three, by rule, $26 million and change.

You'd think with nearly $800 million that rolls in from the basketball tournament, and the $600 million from the National Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) Championship, the NCAA could find enough spare change to adequately fund the DIII playoffs.

However, since 1997, inmates appear to be running the asylum. The FBS championship is not an NCAA-owned event, so that cash is not available; it is divided among the FBS schools, who could care less about the DIII, the largest division of the NCAA in terms of number of schools and student athletes.

Money corrupts, and the megabucks of the FBS corrupt absolutely.

If a budget issue, let the NCAA find a sponsor willing to spring for the additional cash to run the playoffs properly.

If the DIII committee is interested in a real national championship, rather than its Midwest/east coast scramble, the top-16 teams would be guaranteed a first-round home contest. Further, the first round would reverse seed teams, so the number-one team plays the number 32 team (as you see in the D1 basketball tournament in March).

That would produce a true championship tournament in which teams who have fought through a season and earned a top 16 ranking receive rewards for their performance. Each successive round would give the highest ranked remaining team the privilege of a home-field advantage, leveling the playing field.

That would remove all the mystery from the current bracket selection process, and would give each team more of an equitable chance to test itself against the top competition.

Currently, with their selection process, some of the top teams, such as St. Thomas and others this year, enjoy a cupcake schedule for the first two rounds. That means their teams do not get beaten up in the early rounds and are at full strength for the latter rounds.

Linfield lost its defensive player of the year, Jason Farlow, to injury in the Hardin-Simmons contest. The 'Cats have lost other top players in early round games in other years, which impacted their ability to compete at that high level.

Linfield head football coach Joseph Smith, notes, "There is massive inequity for any team coming out of the West Region – even Oshkosh, even Mary Hardin-Baylor – when you play a team like St. Thomas who has two patsies (in the first two rounds) and then gets to play the third round.

"It's just not right you have some teams that are fresh, playing teams who have had to slug their way through a couple of first round games against top teams where attrition happens — so in those third round games, they are not at their best," he said.

Of course, the NCAA didn't endear itself to Smith and the 'Cats this year when it stranded the Linfield group at the airport without a backup plan when their charter jet was a no-show.

Adding insult to injury, the powers that be continue to force West Coast teams to play on East Coast or Central time zones. This hearkens to the old days when football fields had no lights. That required the games starting at noon so they would be completed before dark. Today every school has lights, so that time constraint should not be in play.

"If you are trying to have a level playing field, why would you have a team play at 10 a.m.?" asks Smith. Indeed, this year for Linfield, between the airplane snafu and his squad starting their game two hours earlier than normal (for their circadian rhythms), the degree of difficulty in playing the number-one team in the nation on the road grew exponentially.

Don't expect the NCAA to change anytime soon. As noted earlier, is a Midwest/east coast focused organization. The West Coast is represented only by the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and the Northwest Conference.

Honestly, neither the coaches of teams in the Midwest/East, nor the NCAA, care.

And that's why the NCAA remains screwed up.

[Pat Coleman]

I assume/hope this was written as a column and not a news article, because I don't see any attempts to talk to anyone at the NCAA about the subject of this piece.

[George Thompson]

By Rusty Rae • McMinnvile News-Register Sport Editor •

Nov 30, 2017

Is the NCAA screwed up?

When it comes to Division III football, absofreakinglutely!

Watching the way the NCAA managed the DIII playoffs up close and personal for the last two years and from afar since Linfield joined the NCAA in 1996, it's obvious this is an organization driven by the Peter Principle.

The NCAA thinks its DIII national playoffs means something special – and they certainly should. But if you're one of the committee's pets who appear to have preferential bracket treatment, the opportunity to achieve success is enhanced.
Ask Hardin-Simmons head coach Jesse Burleson how he feels about the latest version of what passes for a national championship bracket.

"With the way Division Three works out, you never know. The national committee can do anything they want. I don't understand it, don't necessarily agree with it. But they don't ask my opinion on those things. So wherever they send us, our motto is 'Put the ball down and let's play,'" said Burleson.
Burleson's a stand-up guy, unlike the DIII committee members.

Linfield faced a similar situation last year when it traveled to play the Cowboys in the first round.

Why must a top-10 team like Hardin-Simmons this year, or Linfield last year, travel to a first-round game?

Well, honestly, because that's the way the NCAA operates.

The NCAA bigwigs cry budget whenever this subject arises. Like everyone else in this world, they must live within their allotted funds from the NCAA. OK, fine.

Currently, those who are administering the playoffs seem stuck in the 1950s with a "that's the way we've always done it" mentality.

First, the NCAA was established to protect and develop student athletes. Getting to the playoffs represents a reward, of sorts, for playing at a high level during the season: earning a conference title.

The playoffs should be a grand experience for every team. A part of that experience is testing yourself against the best in the nation.

But because of the D3 Midwest/east coast bias, some teams don't compete on a level playing field.

If the NCAA doesn't have enough funding to operate a first-class 32-team tournament, the easy solution is simply cut back the number of teams in the bracket to match the current budget. Either do it right, or don't do it at all.

You'd think if this were simply a budget issue, the DIII committee could just go to the fat cats in Indianapolis (where the NCAA headquarters are located) and get funding to produce a top notch DIII national championship tournament, rather than the good ol' boy barbecue they currently call a national championship.

But here's the problem: of its nearly $1 billion budget, the miserly NCAA gives Division Three, by rule, $26 million and change.

You'd think with nearly $800 million that rolls in from the basketball tournament, and the $600 million from the National Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) Championship, the NCAA could find enough spare change to adequately fund the DIII playoffs.

However, since 1997, inmates appear to be running the asylum. The FBS championship is not an NCAA-owned event, so that cash is not available; it is divided among the FBS schools, who could care less about the DIII, the largest division of the NCAA in terms of number of schools and student athletes.

Money corrupts, and the megabucks of the FBS corrupt absolutely.

If a budget issue, let the NCAA find a sponsor willing to spring for the additional cash to run the playoffs properly.

If the DIII committee is interested in a real national championship, rather than its Midwest/east coast scramble, the top-16 teams would be guaranteed a first-round home contest. Further, the first round would reverse seed teams, so the number-one team plays the number 32 team (as you see in the D1 basketball tournament in March).

That would produce a true championship tournament in which teams who have fought through a season and earned a top 16 ranking receive rewards for their performance. Each successive round would give the highest ranked remaining team the privilege of a home-field advantage, leveling the playing field.

That would remove all the mystery from the current bracket selection process, and would give each team more of an equitable chance to test itself against the top competition.

Currently, with their selection process, some of the top teams, such as St. Thomas and others this year, enjoy a cupcake schedule for the first two rounds. That means their teams do not get beaten up in the early rounds and are at full strength for the latter rounds.

Linfield lost its defensive player of the year, Jason Farlow, to injury in the Hardin-Simmons contest. The 'Cats have lost other top players in early round games in other years, which impacted their ability to compete at that high level.

Linfield head football coach Joseph Smith, notes, "There is massive inequity for any team coming out of the West Region – even Oshkosh, even Mary Hardin-Baylor – when you play a team like St. Thomas who has two patsies (in the first two rounds) and then gets to play the third round.

"It's just not right you have some teams that are fresh, playing teams who have had to slug their way through a couple of first round games against top teams where attrition happens — so in those third round games, they are not at their best," he said.

Of course, the NCAA didn't endear itself to Smith and the 'Cats this year when it stranded the Linfield group at the airport without a backup plan when their charter jet was a no-show.

Adding insult to injury, the powers that be continue to force West Coast teams to play on East Coast or Central time zones. This hearkens to the old days when football fields had no lights. That required the games starting at noon so they would be completed before dark. Today every school has lights, so that time constraint should not be in play.

"If you are trying to have a level playing field, why would you have a team play at 10 a.m.?" asks Smith. Indeed, this year for Linfield, between the airplane snafu and his squad starting their game two hours earlier than normal (for their circadian rhythms), the degree of difficulty in playing the number-one team in the nation on the road grew exponentially.

Don't expect the NCAA to change anytime soon. As noted earlier, is a Midwest/east coast focused organization. The West Coast is represented only by the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and the Northwest Conference.

Honestly, neither the coaches of teams in the Midwest/East, nor the NCAA, care.

And that's why the NCAA remains screwed up.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Very well said.   I hope he sent it to Indy.

GT

[jamtod]

I was actually assuming that you wrote this under a pen name GT.

[skunks_sidekick]

I was actually assuming that you wrote this under a pen name GT.

WAIT....we now know GT's "working name".  BRAVO JtJ!   

[George Thompson]

I assume/hope this was written as a column and not a news article, because I don't see any attempts to talk to anyone at the NCAA about the subject of this piece.

Pat, sorry, but the NCAA does not listen.    I have talked to them, mailed and e-mailed similar thoughts a few times over the last 7 years about the absurd brackets.    Absolutely no response at all --- ever!     They do not care or listen to the west coast.    Two conferences mean nothing to them.

George