FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[OzJohnnie]

http://d3football.com/top25/2017/week1

UST is up to 4th
SJU up to 8th

Surprisingly, CON doesn't even get a vote.

[gbpuckfan]

From the d3football.com snap judgements column on the weekend:

"The hot topics getting national attention are St. John's 98-0 victory over St. Scholastica and third-ranked UW-Whitewater being upset by Illinois Wesleyan. On the surface, both results are surprising. But it's not the number of points that the Johnnies put up, or the fact that the Warhawks lost that shocked me. I think the bigger issue here is that St. Scholastica is a good football program. The Saints have made the playoffs five of the past six years. That's why one prominent head coach complained to me recently about the "socialist" playoff system. This result again shows that St. Scholastica is probably not one of the top 32 teams in the country, even when it earns a Pool A bid. That's what is going to bother those in the D-III football community more than the staggering point total of one game."

Could someone please tell these guys about New Coke?

http://d3football.com/columns/around-the-nation/2017/snap-judgments-week-one

I will be waiting for that coach/school to introduce a resolution to change the playoff system.

Somehow, I don't think it will happen because I suspect most coaches like knowing if they win their conference they are in the playoffs.

But did anyone ever say CSS was one of the best 32 teams when it earned those bids for five years?

[scottyeagle93]

Perhaps the MIAC coaches should make an agreement to NOT schedule any further games with the UMAC.

SJU-98-     St. Scholastica-0
GAC-38     Westminster- 0
Hamline-51  Crown 0
Augsburg-42 Northwestern 7

MIAC-229- UMAC 7 who gains anything of value out of games like these?

Worked out well for Northwestern last year, and Hamline-Crown was quite a bit closer than this year. 

[OzJohnnie]

Perhaps the MIAC coaches should make an agreement to NOT schedule any further games with the UMAC.

SJU-98-     St. Scholastica-0
GAC-38     Westminster- 0
Hamline-51  Crown 0
Augsburg-42 Northwestern 7

MIAC-229- UMAC 7 who gains anything of value out of games like these?

Worked out well for Northwestern last year, and Hamline-Crown was quite a bit closer than this year. 

Yes. It's seems that the MIAC has taken a big step forward this year and/or UMAC back.  Conference play could end up being quite exciting if this weekend is an accurate indication of what the MIAC will offer this year.

[OzJohnnie]

Mrs Oz and I are sitting down for the evening and watching an episode of MASH (the one where Radar is mistakenly promoted to lieutenant) and a commercial comes on announcing the 10 year anniversary special of Keeping up with the Kardashians.  10 years?  Time flies.  Feels like at least 25.

[carletonknights]

Carleton hosts Macalester for the annual Book of Knowledge contest. The Scots pulled off the win last year and on paper, they look like the better team this pre-season. Hopefully, by playing in Northfield, the Knights can pull a minor upset off and take back the trophy for the year, but I don't expect that to happen.

Slight bias here, but I am confident the Knights will win this one.  They had some talented freshman last year on both sides of the ball who will have hopefully taken a step forward in their first college offseason and their starting offensive line returns.  I'm not sure how the QB will be this fall, they played all three last year and two of them were seniors.  But whoever is back there, it sure helps to have two 6'4" receivers you can just chuck it up to.  I think the Knights will win this game thanks an improved defense and those big bodies at receiver. I'll throw out 21-13.  And let's not forget who's side history is on here: aside from last year and 2014, this series has been dominated by Carleton.

I'm ready for my plate of crow...  A disappointing game to watch, very sloppy.  Macalester had 2 offsides penalties on the first drive of the game and Carleton took advantage marching down the field and scoring an easy touchdown.   Things went south for Carleton after that.  Immediately on the next drive Zayton (Carleton QB) pick-six for Mac.  After then things didn't get much better: the Knights threw three more INTs in the first half and picked up two personal fouls.  The defense played well though, only letting the Mac offense notch a field goal after all those turnovers.  Finally at the end of the half, Carleton D came up with a pick and the O took advantage giving the Knights a 13-10 lead going into half. 

2nd half was worse.  The offense couldn't do much, spent a lot of time going horizontally instead of vertically (outside zone stuff, bubble screens), QB threw another pick.  Carleton bench got flagged for sideline interference, on another play looked like Mac was going to start the drive pinned inside the 10 but the Carleton DB picked up a kick-catch interference call.  Finally, the Carleton secondary got beat deep twice on 68 and 64 yard touchdown passes.  Not sure if they were gassed from being on the field so much, but that was disappointing to see.  Carleton scored a touchdown late to tighten up the score a bit, but it was already over.

A couple takeaways:

In my prediction I talked about Carleton's two big 6'4" receivers terrorizing the Mac secondary, but on Saturday only one of them was still on the roster.  The freshman from last year must've either quit or transferred, which is disappointing as I expected him to have a good year.  The other receiver still on the roster, Birkeland had a few bad drops in the end zone on some long balls that might've reignited the offense.

We'll see how the QB situation looks later this season when I go down for the Augsburg and/or Olaf game, but it's mighty hard to win a game when your QB throws 5 ints.  That being said, it's hard on the QB when you don't have many weapons to help you out.

Defense showed improvements from last year and looked great in the first half.  They'll be tested next week.

And Happy Labor Day to all the American based posters (Sorry Oz )

[57Johnnie]

Looking forward to Duff and BDB telling us what a great time they had at the sturgeon fest in Jim Falls   

[ron doney]

Any Johnnies care to defend the schedule? After Pat and Keith took a few shots at it on ATN. 

[OzJohnnie]

Any Johnnies care to defend the schedule? After Pat and Keith took a few shots at it on ATN. 

http://d3football.com/playoffs/2016/final-playoff-projection

"Condensing the discussion down to a sentence or so, our mock committee chose St. John's because, among the three one-loss teams, St. John's had the best strength of schedule, and in fact, the only one above .500."

Come selection time, the thinking changes.  The MIAC has never had three teams picked and deserving 2-loss teams frequently miss.  A guaranteed pool C selection out of the MIAC requires a 9-1 record.  CSS will have a good record this year, likely taking their conference.  They are a good SOS team to play.

QED

[BDB]

Looking forward to Duff and BDB telling us what a great time they had at the sturgeon fest in Jim Falls   

Can't help you there. I can say that a good time was had by all at the Rutabaga Festival.

"The Only Festival Named After A Root Vegetable!"

http://www.cumberland-wisconsin.com/

[OzJohnnie]

Looking forward to Duff and BDB telling us what a great time they had at the sturgeon fest in Jim Falls   

Can't help you there. I can say that a good time was had by all at the Rutabaga Festival.

"The Only Festival Named After A Root Vegetable!"

http://www.cumberland-wisconsin.com/

[faunch]

Any Johnnies care to defend the schedule? After Pat and Keith took a few shots at it on ATN.

Well St. Scholastica was put on the schedule a couple years ago when Ramler was hired. They'd had some success before he got there and I'm sure he thought that by his third year his team would be much improved. Did anybody think SJU would win be this much based on the results of previous games? Probably not...
Last year SJU beat CSS 49 - 7 and in the playoffs in 2014 35 - 7. 
In three games over four years SJU has outscored CSS 60 - 4.6
It's a also entirely possible that CSS could win the UMAC this year and make the NCAA playoffs where they could potentially play the winner of the MIAC. If that's the case maybe they should just forfeit.

As a comparison U$T has opened against UWEC the last three seasons: scores have been 62 - 7; 42 - 7 and 47 - 13....that's averages out to 50 - 13.5...based on those numbers maybe U$T should find another opponent for opening weekend too?


Maybe next year U$T and SJU could just switch non-conference opponents...CSS plays U$T and UWEC plays SJU.

Keep in mind that the reason for the MIAC having two non-conference games is that Macalester fled the conference in football. They said they would come back when they were competitive again. Last time I checked they've won more than a few games each year...even won their conference and went to the playoffs. It might be time for them to come back or get the hell out of the conference altogether...then maybe a school like CSS could join! 

In the 17 seasons since MAC has been out of the league I count that SJU has played WIAC teams 19 times (UWEC, UWRF and UWW)...in addition to Marietta, East Texas Baptist, St. Norbert and Dubuque to name a few. I think it's difficult to find non-conference opponents at this level when they know they're going to get their lunch handed to them. I give credit to Ramler and CSS for taking on that challenge. 

[57Johnnie]

Looking forward to Duff and BDB telling us what a great time they had at the sturgeon fest in Jim Falls   

Can't help you there. I can say that a good time was had by all at the Rutabaga Festival.

"The Only Festival Named After A Root Vegetable!"

http://www.cumberland-wisconsin.com/

As a matter of fact, I'm a big fan of rutabagas, not so much sturgeon.   

[sju56321]

I liked when we played Bemidji State.
Maybe Mayville again?

[stanbob]

Ah, the annual ritual starts again.  I must set the alarm for 3:55am on a Sunday morning.  Urg. I may watch in bed with the earphones on. I think the other half can sleep through.

Oz, don't put that lovely Angel through that, get up and let her sleep...

I thought you were drinking a bit too much that night... 

I did like that Aussie beer, but I really hope you didn't stay in bed for that fiasco Saturday (Sunday) and disturb your bride...