FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[sjusection105]

AO- give us the UMAC low down on Martin Luther. GAC beat them the first weekend in non-conference play.

BTW- isn't this the same school who knocked the Johnnies out of the Hoops Tourney this past spring?

You can read up on the Knights via Reusse or D3football's Joe Sager  As sfury and maniac have already pointed out, they do not have a powerhouse basketball team like Bethany is building in Mankato.  I certainly hope Martin Luther can figure out a way to run their veer against the Johnnies to make it somewhat competitive, but their defense has struggled against the lower tier UMAC teams like Iowa Wesleyan and Minnesota-Morris.  It's hard to prepare for the veer if you don't play against it much and they have the athletes to run it well, but maybe not the size to get it going against the Johnnies.

As for the Johnnie's path to the Stagg, the committee chair Catanzaro sounded fairly defeated about the flights and the weak East.  Just way too many weak East teams that can't get to Mount Union without a flight this year.  It doesn't sound like they even bothered discussing St. John's vs Brockport as a #1 seed since they knew it would give the bracket too many flights if the Johnnies were a #1.  They didn't have to go into the previous year's results to break a tie between undefeated teams, it was solely geographic.  On the plus side, as a player I'd be pretty excited about flying down to Texas for the Quarterfinals.

The Johnnies took care of the Cobbers.......so I consider that being prepared for the Veer.

[sfury]

AO- give us the UMAC low down on Martin Luther. GAC beat them the first weekend in non-conference play.

BTW- isn't this the same school who knocked the Johnnies out of the Hoops Tourney this past spring?

No that was BETHANY Lutheran that kicked SJ2 by 30+ on its home court..... same conference & denomination thought.

Maniac, it was a horrible loss and incredibly disappointing but let's not be totally unfair to our Johnnies. Final was 102-92! As I mentioned before, though, we -- and everyone else in the conference -- hated Bethany at Worthington CC. My coach always gave me a bad time saying I secretly loved them growing up so close to MAnkato and going to Bethany camps for five years. But that's precisely why I wanted to beat them so bad during my two years at Worthington. My sophomore year we lost to Bethany 127-88 at their gym, then brand new. Few weeks later down in Worthington we beat them 116-113. Shot 53 free throws. Afterward I went and ate with my parents at McDonald's and Bethany bus had stopped there. We sat and talked with Art Westphal, longtime Bethany coach who we knew from my years going to camp and my uncle being the longtime women's coach in Worthington. Poor Art just kept saying "Those were not college refs." I thought they called a good game...

So 20 years later, Bethany of all teams, frickin' Bethany, knocking off the Johnnies....enraging and brought back some bad memories.

As for the bracket, it's annoying but I'm not totally up in arms (not like in 05 when SJU was ranked 3rd in nation and was 3rd in their region). Instead of having to win two brutal games to win the title, it's three now. (as Rube likes to say, the team can't look past people, we can).

[DuffMan]

Like the Road Warriors of 2000, Johnnies. Use duffman as your inspiration.  Stag or bust!

To be honest, my biggest contribution to that Stagg run in 2000 was probably managing towels for Linneman during the deluge during our 2nd round game at PLU.

[DustySJU]

Looking at the UMHB schedule results it's got to be incredibly boring to be part of that team.  They're beating teams by 60 points!

At least in the MIAC we have competitive games and anticipate a level of excitement.

It's got to be anti-climatic to be a Cru fan.

Don't look past HSimmons.

Johnnies Rule.

Developing...

[Pat Coleman]

Yeah, St. John's gets exactly the same treatment that St. Thomas did in the quarterfinals last year. ::shrug:: By the time you get to the quarterfinals, there aren't exactly going to be scrubs left, guys. Going to have to play someone to advance. I'd like to see teams cross over but we aren't talking about teams like Hobart and Salisbury out of the East anymore. Brockport and Frostburg went 10-0 and won decent leagues so it's not like one of them would come to SJU and lose 45-7.

[OzJohnnie]

Johnnies Rule.

Tommies drool.

[Redtooth]

As a long time D3 football player, coach, fan and former AD I feel the need to share some observations and thoughts on the playoffs and the selection process that seems to change (without notice) almost every year at appease the flavor of the day of the committee.  This year's goalposts (figurative use) were in different locations than last year when I was AD for a school in consideration for a Pool C bid.

There has been a long time belief (supported by everything discussed by the NCAA) that 4 geographic regions exist in Division III; West, North, South and East....over the past couple of years while Regional Rankings have been created and used prior to selection, no pure region has been created for the tournament...with the exception of the EAST.  Two years ago, the committee sent Mount Union there and as expected they ran through the region like crap 💩 through a goose.  Why does the committee feel so compelled to protect the weakest region of the country under every possible measurement or metric?  This year.....3 ranked teams make up the juggernaut of a bracket known as the EAST.....and one of them is guaranteed to make the Semis.  If I had won either the big Mega Millions or PowerBall last month I would bet that money that St. Thomas could have won that bracket without a game within 28 points...that includes Brockport.  Who did Brockport play that gave the committee the belief that they deserve a #1 seed?  Incredibly weak rationale to protect them.

The sometimes used criteria about conference matchups was completely upended this year:
SJU and Bethel- different Regions, same side of the Semis
Mount and JC- same Region, could meet in the Quarters
Johns Hopkins and Muhlenberg- different Regions, same side of Semis
Berry and Centre- different Regions, could only meet at Stagg
UMHB and Hardin Simmons- ROUND 1

ZERO consistency with this item on a year over year basis OR even in the same year!  4 teams were absolutely screwed on this item this year...I will leave it to you to figure out who.  The lack of uniformity on this one item calls into question the whole "the NCAA slapped our hands about travel money" from the Chair.

Last point I will make is the need to move to seeding the brackets more inline with what FCS and DII do...best teams get seeded based on a National ranking system....this isn't rocket science and could easily be handled in DIII.

Very proud of what SJU has accomplished this year and believe they have the right formula for a deep playoff run similar to those we made from 2000-03.

Duff- don't forget you were one of my OLine guys for that playoff run!

[AO]

Yeah, St. John's gets exactly the same treatment that St. Thomas did in the quarterfinals last year. ::shrug:: By the time you get to the quarterfinals, there aren't exactly going to be scrubs left, guys. Going to have to play someone to advance. I'd like to see teams cross over but we aren't talking about teams like Hobart and Salisbury out of the East anymore. Brockport and Frostburg went 10-0 and won decent leagues so it's not like one of them would come to SJU and lose 45-7.

Massey has the Johnnies as 23 point favorites against Frostburg and 14 point favorites against Brockport.  I don't know about 45-7 but a monkey stomp could certainly be in play in either game.

I'd say there are absolutely going to be a few scrubs left in the quarterfinals that could lose by 30+ to the elite teams.  Last year Frostburg lost by 37 and Delaware Valley/Brockport could have gotten beat just as bad if they had to face Mount or Oshkosh.

[OzJohnnie]

Bravo @redtooth.  ++rant.  +k.

[Redtooth]

Yeah, St. John's gets exactly the same treatment that St. Thomas did in the quarterfinals last year. ::shrug:: By the time you get to the quarterfinals, there aren't exactly going to be scrubs left, guys. Going to have to play someone to advance. I'd like to see teams cross over but we aren't talking about teams like Hobart and Salisbury out of the East anymore. Brockport and Frostburg went 10-0 and won decent leagues so it's not like one of them would come to SJU and lose 45-7.

Pat,

There is a major difference this year...SJU is 10-0, UST was 9-1.  The MIAC this year has 3 teams in the Final Top 25....3,11,15

Brockport and Frostburg played who?

[Pat Coleman]

Yeah, St. John's gets exactly the same treatment that St. Thomas did in the quarterfinals last year. ::shrug:: By the time you get to the quarterfinals, there aren't exactly going to be scrubs left, guys. Going to have to play someone to advance. I'd like to see teams cross over but we aren't talking about teams like Hobart and Salisbury out of the East anymore. Brockport and Frostburg went 10-0 and won decent leagues so it's not like one of them would come to SJU and lose 45-7.

Pat,

There is a major difference this year...SJU is 10-0, UST was 9-1.  The MIAC this year has 3 teams in the Final Top 25....3,11,15

True. This is the 2018 travel-restricted flavor of the same thing, though.

You're the person who's ever been the closest to doing something about it, so I hope next time you're in a position of authority you take your rantiness and try to work within the system to get things changed. It'll be much more productive.

[OzJohnnie]

Any chance (and yes, I finished some work that needed doing.  More to go in a minute.  I've got to rant.)   Any chance that the committee publishes the final regional rankings today?  It will certainly introduce even more controversy when UWW is above SJU and SJU has beaten 2, possibly 3, regionally ranked opponents, while UWW has beaten only 1, possibly none, regionally ranked opponents.  The holy number of SOS will only be applied in the west of course and hairs will be split to give it prominence while at the same time hairs not split to ignore common opponents.

I can understand the committee being forced to set matchups based on some money formula, but I can hardly believe that applies to #1 rankings as well.  If the purpose of the tournament is to set up the most purple in the semi finals then why even bother with 32 teams.  Much more money can be saved by not even bothering.

[Pat Coleman]

I believe we're not going to get them until Monday U.S. time.

Thomas More will not be regionally ranked, however.

[edward de vere]

give us the UMAC low down on Martin Luther.

Martin Luther can nail you 95 ways to Sunday.

[Mr. Ypsi]

give us the UMAC low down on Martin Luther.

Martin Luther can nail you 95 ways to Sunday.

But ONLY on Sundays, and the games are on Saturdays!

(Anyone know what day of the week ML nailed the theses to the church door?)