FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Pat Coleman]

I haven't seen any roster sortable by hometown/high school. Would never have considered it before you mentioned it. May not be available on PrestoSports sites.

That's...odd. Every E8 team except Morrisville has a roster you can sort by hometown and high school. The first two schools I looked at in the LL (St. Lawrence and Union) have it as well.

None of those are Presto sites, right? I think I was fairly clear about the difference.

[faunch]

Solid first half for the Johnnies.
They need to figure out what happened in the second half ASAP.  They can't be fall asleep like that once the conference season begins--especially in two weeks when the Toms come to town.

That was a disappointing second half.  I'll chalk part of it up to the long road trip however you are correct that they can't afford to play that soft in the MIAC.

[OzJohnnie]

The defense looked a bit vulnerable most of the game, I thought. They looked susceptible to being outworked, particularly in the backfield.  The offense turned noticably casual in the second half.

I wasn't sure what to put it down to but a two-day road trip, particularly when players haven't done it before, can be a disrupting routine. We'll see how they play next week before I light my hair on fire with kerosine.

[OzJohnnie]

So four field goals (and two missed field goals) and two defensive touchdowns (with one missed extra point) for the win. The Vikings are an insane football powerhouse this year. Crazy good.

[Bombers798891]

I haven't seen any roster sortable by hometown/high school. Would never have considered it before you mentioned it. May not be available on PrestoSports sites.

That's...odd. Every E8 team except Morrisville has a roster you can sort by hometown and high school. The first two schools I looked at in the LL (St. Lawrence and Union) have it as well.

None of those are Presto sites, right? I think I was fairly clear about the difference.

The odd part was that you wrote you haven't seen "any" you could sort by hometown. Unless the E8/LL are unique in their website choices, it's just seemed odd that you'd never come across one of those.

[Pat Coleman]

I haven't seen any roster sortable by hometown/high school. Would never have considered it before you mentioned it. May not be available on PrestoSports sites.

That's...odd. Every E8 team except Morrisville has a roster you can sort by hometown and high school. The first two schools I looked at in the LL (St. Lawrence and Union) have it as well.

None of those are Presto sites, right? I think I was fairly clear about the difference.

The odd part was that you wrote you haven't seen "any" you could sort by hometown. Unless the E8/LL are unique in their website choices, it's just seemed odd that you'd never come across one of those.

Only because it had never occurred to me to try to sort by hometown because I don't ever have the need to.

[art76]

The MIAC games for week 3 of the 2016 season

As a collective, the MIAC finished non-conference play with a record of 10 and 8*, the asterisk being the NAIA loss by the Cobbers. As we look at the non-conference games as indicators moving forward, it seems early on that it is really starting to look like a two horse race this season for the conference title. Let's look at the four MIAC games in week 3.

Hamline is idle this week.

Carleton at St. Thomas. Good night, Knights. The Tommies haven't yet been really tested this year and won't be again this week. This is the last "tune-up" game before they head up to Collegeville in week 4.

St. Olaf at St. John's. The other Northfield team getting sent to one of the two better teams in the conference this year. Just change the names of the teams from the previous paragraph for comment.

Augsburg at Gustavus. Gustavus is going to start 3 and 0 again this season, and be "right there" with the Johnnies and the Tommies at this point next week. This sets up week four as having two games where all the teams will be undefeated – but I am getting ahead of myself.

Game of the week, Concordia at Bethel. Even if I weren't a Bethel alumnus, this is the only game with a little bit of uncertainty in it. The three other games in the conference this week will all have at least three touchdown spreads, and most likely, many more points than that. Both of these teams have been better in the near recent past. Both are in the running for the number three position in the conference. A loss most likely means a position in the conference of no higher than fourth at the end of the year. If Concordia wins, they are still in the play-off hunt discussion with a single loss to a non-NCAA team. If Bethel can keep from making it close at the end, then they will get that first W for the year.

Mr. Obvious

[hazzben]

Game of the week, Concordia at Bethel. Even if I weren't a Bethel alumnus, this is the only game with a little bit of uncertainty in it. The three other games in the conference this week will all have at least three touchdown spreads, and most likely, many more points than that. Both of these teams have been better in the near recent past. Both are in the running for the number three position in the conference. A loss most likely means a position in the conference of no higher than fourth at the end of the year. If Concordia wins, they are still in the play-off hunt discussion with a single loss to a non-NCAA team. If Bethel can keep from making it close at the end, then they will get that first W for the year.

I guess technically that's true. But I haven't seen much from Bethel that leaves me thinking they're in the running for #3 in the MIAC this year. At this point, I think they're gonna have to battle to end up 6-4. Which I'll admit is a total shocker.

[GoldandBlueBU]

Game of the week, Concordia at Bethel. Even if I weren't a Bethel alumnus, this is the only game with a little bit of uncertainty in it. The three other games in the conference this week will all have at least three touchdown spreads, and most likely, many more points than that. Both of these teams have been better in the near recent past. Both are in the running for the number three position in the conference. A loss most likely means a position in the conference of no higher than fourth at the end of the year. If Concordia wins, they are still in the play-off hunt discussion with a single loss to a non-NCAA team. If Bethel can keep from making it close at the end, then they will get that first W for the year.

Mr. Obvious

I'd lean towards a loss to the Cobbs, based on what I've seen so far.  My line would be something like Bethel +8.5.

My expectation coming into the year was that they'd definitely lose to UST, keep it competitive - but lose to SJU, and then likely win the rest of their conference games.

Now, I'd slide SJU into that definite loss category, put Concordia into a probable loss - but likely competitive, and think that chances are they'll win the rest, with Gustavus being a likely win, but a challenge.

From watching them, it just feels like they're really close to being a very good team on offense, with lots of talent in Tusler, Bloom, Marquartd, and Nueville, just not quite there yet.  Given that they won't contend, I'd rather see Anderson as soon as they're confident in his knee.  The defense still has some growing to do, particularly in the secondary, which is causing them to sell out so much to stop the pass that their run defense suffers.

[art76]

I guess technically that's true. But I haven't seen much from Bethel that leaves me thinking they're in the running for #3 in the MIAC this year. At this point, I think they're gonna have to battle to end up 6-4. Which I'll admit is a total shocker.

6 and 4 means they run the table over the rest of the conference, conceding to the Tommies and Johnnies, thereby making them #3 in the conference. And, like you, I think they'll struggle to win all 6 of those games.

[sowilson]

Unfortunately I believe Augsburg has a good chance to defeat GAC.   GAC lost their starting quarterback and starting running back in the game against UWRF.

[GoldandBlueBU]

I guess technically that's true. But I haven't seen much from Bethel that leaves me thinking they're in the running for #3 in the MIAC this year. At this point, I think they're gonna have to battle to end up 6-4. Which I'll admit is a total shocker.

6 and 4 means they run the table over the rest of the conference, conceding to the Tommies and Johnnies, thereby making them #3 in the conference. And, like you, I think they'll struggle to win all 6 of those games.

6 - 4 is "best case", yes, given losses to UST and SJU.  5-5 is probably most likely.  I don't agree that they'll struggle for each of their wins.  They're still talented enough that they'll roll over the lower ranks of the conference.

Still looking forward to watching the season play out with UST and SJU and how the playoffs stack up, but it makes for a more boring conference season certainly, given that one could with a relatively high degree of comfort foresee UST going 10-0 as the AQ, and seeing SJU at 9-1 also getting a bid, as it seems there is unlikely a 3rd team to throw a wrench in things.

[sowilson]

Unfortunately I believe Augsburg has a good chance to defeat GAC.   GAC lost their starting quarterback and starting running back in the game against UWRF.

Sorry to hear that sowilson. Never like to hear that but it does open the door a bit for the Auggies. Let's see if they can take advantage of the situation as the offense should be coming together sometime this year.

You won't want to look at the Hansen ratings, IIRC Augsburg dropped 26 spots and now St. Olaf is ranked higher.  It will be an interesting game this weekend in St. Peter, the Gustavus defense is improved over last year, the offense will need to regroup.

[OldAuggie]

Unfortunately I believe Augsburg has a good chance to defeat GAC.   GAC lost their starting quarterback and starting running back in the game against UWRF.

Sorry to hear that sowilson. Never like to hear that but it does open the door a bit for the Auggies. Let's see if they can take advantage of the situation as the offense should be coming together sometime this year. I don't think AUG's slow start is a pure talent issue but is due to a bunch of young players that need to get some experience. I said earlier that teams like AUG need to re build and if playing a bunch of youngsters like this is the only way then so be it. When these same kids are upper class men they will be battle tested and ready. Life in the middle tier of the MIAC is not pretty sometimes. 

[OldAuggie]

Unfortunately I believe Augsburg has a good chance to defeat GAC.   GAC lost their starting quarterback and starting running back in the game against UWRF.

Sorry to hear that sowilson. Never like to hear that but it does open the door a bit for the Auggies. Let's see if they can take advantage of the situation as the offense should be coming together sometime this year.

You won't want to look at the Hansen ratings, IIRC Augsburg dropped 26 spots and now St. Olaf is ranked higher.  It will be an interesting game this weekend in St. Peter, the Gustavus defense is improved over last year, the offense will need to regroup.

I think that's about right for this week. AUG has looked bad up to this point.