FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[faunch]

Look at it this way Faunch, it's a closer drive than Collegeville and at least Bethel has some away seating, which is more than some MIAC schools. You can also watch at home for free.

I'll be watching on my phone from a tailgate lot at Kinnick...looking forward to watching the boat 🛶 sink again!

[Retired Old Rat]

O'Shaughnessy is available on the 13th.

[OzJohnnie]

O'Shaughnessy is available on the 13th.

I would be the best game played there all year.

[DuffMan]

At least Bethel has turf, now.  I say we just take over the home stands.

[SJU13]

SJU retains #5 by a slim 1 point margin in the D3 poll. Bethel moves up to #13. La Crosse retained #12 after their close contest with UWW.

[GoldandBlueBU]

In the spirit of thankfulness, I'd just like to express my gratitude for this board, the posters on it, & all of the posters' insights! Always look forward to reading the commentary! Such a source of enjoyment! Thank you!

Agree completely!  Especially following a sport that has a relatively niche following (d3 football, that is), there aren't a ton of folks at the workplace, or where ever, that you come across who pay close attention to the MIAC.  It's great to come on here and hear other's insight, or sometimes semi-insider information. Faunch is even fun to read when he's not whining about something (hasn't happened yet, but fingers crossed!

[art76]

Bethel will need to play a nearly perfect game, especially up front, to have a chance. I'm hoping things break our way nationally so that there's still a prayer for Pool C if SJU holds serve. Not looking likely at this point though. We need some upsets and RPI and Cortland to win. The Whitworth loss was a good first break for Bethel though. If GAC gets regionally ranked, that would be another. Add in UWRF beating UWO, etc etc that's a lot of what if's. Need to win Saturday.

Pretty much sums up what I've been thinking as well...

BU has a pretty good team this year - good enough to take the Walnut and Bronze? Nope. But could take a pretty deep run and perhaps be one of the last 8 or maybe even 4 teams left standing. Now knowing that a second loss to the Johnnies would most likely put that out of reach is just a hard pill to swallow.

[RoyalsFan]

Look at it this way Faunch, it's a closer drive than Collegeville and at least Bethel has some away seating, which is more than some MIAC schools. You can also watch at home for free.

I'll be watching on my phone from a tailgate lot at Kinnick...looking forward to watching the boat 🛶 sink again!

So why are you complaining about the lack of visitor seating if you aren't even going to be there? 

[DuffMan]

So why are you complaining about the lack of visitor seating if you aren't even going to be there? 

Because he cares about the rest of us?!

[MIAC23]

So why are you complaining about the lack of visitor seating if you aren't even going to be there? 

Because he cares about the rest of us?!

Or just something else to whine about.

[DuffMan]

There has been some excellent sandbagging by our Royal compadres.  SJU is without their starting QB and playing on the road.  BU lost a close one at SJU last time.  To me, the Royals are favorites in this iteration.

[art76]

There has been some excellent sandbagging by our Royal compadres.  SJU is without their starting QB and playing on the road.  BU lost a close one at SJU last time.  To me, the Royals are favorites in this iteration.

Not sandbagging from me, but thinking the Johnnies have more depth than BU does making this an "even" game. Kind of wondering how AO will set the spread for the Pick 'ems.

[SagatagSam]

An exciting week for pick 'ems for the scoreboard watchers. St. Olaf beat the spread by a half point thanks to Gustavus missing an extra point in the second quarter. Macalester looked to cover by scoring a TD to go up 28-7 late in the second quarter, but St. Scholastica beat the spread by half a point on a TD with 2:57 to play in the game. The Johnnies had Carleton covered in the third quarter, but the Knights scored in the fourth quarter to beat the spread by 2.5 points. The Johnnies nearly recovered as Ethan Stark intercepted Beau Nelson's pass at the Johnnie 2-yard-line and looked to take it back for a pick-six with less than 20 seconds to play but was chased down at the Carleton 30-yard-line.

This week evened things out a lot across the conference in the pick 'ems. Teams above .500 ATS almost all lost, and almost all teams below .500 ATS won (except Augsburg). Looks like the Auggies are the team to pick against this season.

2021 Record Against the Spread
Bethel   5-4
Carleton   5-4
Gustavus   5-4
Macalester   5-4
St. John's   5-4
Hamline   4-5
St. Olaf   4-5
St. Scholastica   4-4
Concordia   3-6
Augsburg   2-7

[GoldandBlueBU]

There has been some excellent sandbagging by our Royal compadres.  SJU is without their starting QB and playing on the road.  BU lost a close one at SJU last time.  To me, the Royals are favorites in this iteration.

Not sandbagging from me, but thinking the Johnnies have more depth than BU does making this an "even" game. Kind of wondering how AO will set the spread for the Pick 'ems.

Same - I think BU's chance was a little better in the earlier game, with SJU coming off of a bye, and basically another bye against ML, and a still relatively rusty QB. 

Outside of the 2013 team, which I think was maybe Bethel's best team -where they were able to have their way with a slower / down SJU team, the recipe for BU to beat SJU has been running the ball and dominating time of possession.  I don't think BU is quite built on the o-line this year in a way that will allow them to do that (which is a shame, because they have a bruiser of a running back in Kunkle).

Like Hazz said, it will take a nearly perfect game for Bethel to pull off the win.  My hopeful side would think that maybe with home field advantage, and BU knowing that they more or less MUST win to advance, and SJU knowing that they're in regardless, maybe helps a little?

I am curious about AO's line also.  Maybe SJU -5.5?

[faunch]

So why are you complaining about the lack of visitor seating if you aren't even going to be there? 

Because he cares about the rest of us?!

Or just something else to whine about.

Or maybe because the last time BU and SJU played there about 9,000 people there? Granted it was about 60 degrees and gorgeous and it will maybe be mid 30's this week.....I think people will come out for this game.
Or maybe because "Royal Stadium" is listed as having a capacity of 3,500 and about 2,000 SJU fans showed up in Carleton last week?
This game should be played somewhere that can actually accommodate 4,000 plus.
I understand that there were supply chain issues and Bethel didn't get their upgrades completed. I give them credit for investing in their facilities. 

Or maybe because this is what there is for visitor seating:
https://ibb.co/t2bNYLC