FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Retired Old Rat]

I'm not in favor of the expansion to 40.  Adds a week so eight really bad teams can say they made the playoffs.  I'm guessing SJU would have been the 33rd team in last year but I'm ok with them not making the playoffs.  Had a down year, didn't deserve to make it.  Feel bad for the kids of course, but that's life.

[OzJohnnie]

I'm not in favor of the expansion to 40.  Adds a week so eight really bad teams can say they made the playoffs.  I'm guessing SJU would have been the 33rd team in last year but I'm ok with them not making the playoffs.  Had a down year, didn't deserve to make it.  Feel bad for the kids of course, but that's life.

I simpathise with you, ROR.  So many conferences with the AQ make squaring the circle of the strongest field with the auto-qualified field impossible.  FCS has 10 AQ's for 24 post-season slots.  A much better ratio.

[DuffMan]

I'm not in favor of the expansion to 40.  Adds a week so eight really bad teams can say they made the playoffs.

I agree with you, but proponents will say that's not sticking with the mission of D3 football.  It's all about the "access ratio", and in football, the access ratio was lower than the target for all other sports.

Stats guru Logan Hansen thinks the Pairwise system is garbage. 

It'll be an interesting season in D3FB!

[Pat Coleman]

I agree that it's not a good system for football.

However, with eight extra at-large bids, it would be hard for the committee to screw things up so badly that we don't get all the national title contenders in the field.

And ROR: Those eight really bad teams ALREADY make the playoffs. The new at-large teams are likely all going to be better than at least six of the automatic qualifiers.

[SagatagSam]

If we are looking to trim fat from the field, the committee could have looked to revise some of the grace periods for conferences like the ASC which will lose their automatic qualifier status because they have dropped below the minimum.

And/or, they could establish a true pool B, where any conference that has less than 8 members doesn't receive an automatic bid but is put gets some special consideration before pool C bids are awarded. (Ex. 4 bids for 6 conferences that have fewer than 8 football members.)

[Pat Coleman]

Agreed -- I think changing the threshold for an automatic bid only for football, and changing the grace period was really difficult, and this nearly impossible thing was actually easier to do, plus fixed the access ratio.

[faunch]

So with a 40 team playoff what do MIAC fans think about the MIAC continuing with the championship game?

[SagatagSam]

So with a 40 team playoff what do MIAC fans think about the MIAC continuing with the championship game?

I could take it or leave it. If I'm the one making the decision, I probably err on the side of getting rid of it, for a few reasons:

1) With an additional eight spots, I think the MIAC has the potential to be a consistent "two-bid" league. More often than not, we were talking about how close the conference was to having a second (or maybe even a third) team in. Granted, the majority of those years were prior to the UST departure. But, I think there are years where we could have SJU, Bethel, and then a solid argument for someone like a Gustavus, Concordia, etc.

2) It is difficult finding non-conference games as it is. This would make for 9 MIAC games and you've only got to find one NC game each year.

[faunch]

So with a 40 team playoff what do MIAC fans think about the MIAC continuing with the championship game?

I could take it or leave it. If I'm the one making the decision, I probably err on the side of getting rid of it, for a few reasons:

1) With an additional eight spots, I think the MIAC has the potential to be a consistent "two-bid" league. More often than not, we were talking about how close the conference was to having a second (or maybe even a third) team in. Granted, the majority of those years were prior to the UST departure. But, I think there are years where we could have SJU, Bethel, and then a solid argument for someone like a Gustavus, Concordia, etc.

2) It is difficult finding non-conference games as it is. This would make for 9 MIAC games and you've only got to find one NC game each year.

Agreed...a thought I have is that with the "conference" championship game it's possible that two MIAC teams could play against each three times in one season. It's likely that the NCAA will want the first weekend to be games matching teams from the same region. Could it ever happen that the MIAC championship teams would get matched up again in round one or two of the playoffs? That would be absolutely silly #IMO

[AO]

2) It is difficult finding non-conference games as it is. This would make for 9 MIAC games and you've only got to find one NC game each year.

Finding 2 NC games is easy. ARC has two openings, WIAC has 3. Try finding 5 NC games.

[Pat Coleman]

At the moment, the rules prohibit matching teams from the same conference in the first round.

[faunch]

2) It is difficult finding non-conference games as it is. This would make for 9 MIAC games and you've only got to find one NC game each year.

Finding 2 NC games is easy. ARC has two openings, WIAC has 3. Try finding 5 NC games.

It would still be asinine to have a third game of the season in the second round.
If MIAC has an undefeated team and a one loss team or even two loss second place team they  will both likely get in with and 40 team field.

[art76]

Finally had a moment to listen to the latest podcast where the Johnnies get some lip service in regards to their past long-standing rivalry game with the team that left the MIAC for D1 ...

[sjusection105]

So with a 40 team playoff what do MIAC fans think about the MIAC continuing with the championship game?

The "conference championship" week is garbage IMO and was put in after the departure of UST to make certain schools feel good about their season. It's all about making oneself feel warm and fuzzy 

[SagatagSam]

The real challenge is will the so-called "brigade of losers" allow us to migrate back to a traditional conference schedule? My understanding is that schools like Macalester, Carleton, Hamline, etc. advocated for the current schedule because it would avoid having to play either SJU or Bethel (or whoever rises to the top in the future).

Wasn't that a condition of MAC coming back to the MIAC?