FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[BiggieSmalls]

I think Gendreau, Frank, and our linebacking unit would be people that would be difficult to potentially replace like for like or cause us to have to change things to accommodate their absence.

Given the spread of their wins I can't help but feel like Bethel would be rising in the rankings if they didn't get knocked out of the top 25 after playing SJU.

Beating the snot out of Gustavus (OK), Macalester, Augsburg and Hamline doesn't move the needle for a Top 25 voter. Similarly Brockport beat the snot out of St. John Fisher, Hartwick, Hilbert and Morrisville State (OK) and it didn't get them ranked either.

Pat - You guys may have addressed this already, but with the NPI and conferences like MIAC with only 2 competitive teams this year, how do you see teams like Bethel and SJU scheduling going forward?

[Pat Coleman]

It's a great question -- first off, the way this system is fine-tuned is only guaranteed to exist for 2024 and 2025 and then it can be re-evaluated. Secondly, yes, beating Crown is better than losing to a top 5 team, but it's not good enough to get an at-large bid.

I think coaches will still want to prepare themselves for the postseason.

[AO]

MIAC PICK-EMS
WEEK 9
THE OLD PAINT BUCKET: 2PTS
Hamline @ Macalester (+7.5)

Augsburg (+18.5) @ Concordia
Carleton (+40.5) @ Bethel
St. Olaf (+7.5) @ Gustavus
#3 St. John's @ St. Scholastica (+60.5)
St. Thomas @ Morehead State (+7.5)
#19 Washington and Jefferson @ Case Western Reserve (+5.5)

[SagatagSam]

Johnnie-Tommie statistic of the weekend.

Attendance in Collegeville for SJU-GAC: 11,514
Attendance in St. Paul for UST-San Diego: 1,152

Difference: 10,002.

[faunch]

Johnnie-Tommie statistic of the weekend.

Attendance in Collegeville for SJU-GAC: 11,514
Attendance in St. Paul for UST-San Diego: 1,152

Difference: 10,002.

If a tree falls in the woods...and no one is around to hear it..."

If a D1 football game is played...and barely 1,000 people are there see it...did it really happen?"

Let' not forget the hockey scores...
Friday, Goldy 7 Tommie 1
Saturday, Goldy 6, Tommie 2

[Pat Coleman]

Johnnie-Tommie statistic of the weekend.

Attendance in Collegeville for SJU-GAC: 11,514

Thanks for this -- I added it to our all-time attendance page.
https://d3football.com/notables/top-single-game-attendance

[hazzben]

It's a great question -- first off, the way this system is fine-tuned is only guaranteed to exist for 2024 and 2025 and then it can be re-evaluated. Secondly, yes, beating Crown is better than losing to a top 5 team, but it's not good enough to get an at-large bid.

I think coaches will still want to prepare themselves for the postseason.

I think the issue is there are a lot of options between those extremes of Crown and Top 5. As it stands now, SJU/BU know most years they'll have one Top 25ish NPI game in conference. As well as another 4 in the Top 100, and most years one of those probably in the Top 50 as well. The current dials don't do anything to incentivize a team to schedule another Top 25 non-con game to that mix.

Bethel is a perfect example. Northwestern (NPI 106) and UWEC (NPI 135) aren't Crown bad and they aren't Top 50 good. But both were a very likely win for Bethel and haven't hurt our NPI a bit. Unless the adjust the dials to care more about SOS than Win %, why would we go out out upgrade those teams to say UWS or UWRF or Central?

Coincidentally, UNWSP and UWEC are great examples of why the current NPI is a bit broken. Having watched them both back to back, UWEC is a much better team than UNWSP. But the overweighting of Win% favors their 4-3 against poor comp vs UWEC's 2-5 versus much better competition. Massey for instance has this as a 100% likelihood of a UWEC win, predicting 31-3. That matches what I saw subjectively of both teams. Neither could stop Bethel on O, but UWEC had two WR's that were light years better than anything UNWSP had on the field.

[AO]

It's a great question -- first off, the way this system is fine-tuned is only guaranteed to exist for 2024 and 2025 and then it can be re-evaluated. Secondly, yes, beating Crown is better than losing to a top 5 team, but it's not good enough to get an at-large bid.

I think coaches will still want to prepare themselves for the postseason.

I think the issue is there are a lot of options between those extremes of Crown and Top 5. As it stands now, SJU/BU know most years they'll have one Top 25ish NPI game in conference. As well as another 4 in the Top 100, and most years one of those probably in the Top 50 as well. The current dials don't do anything to incentivize a team to schedule another Top 25 non-con game to that mix.

Bethel is a perfect example. Northwestern (NPI 106) and UWEC (NPI 135) aren't Crown bad and they aren't Top 50 good. But both were a very likely win for Bethel and haven't hurt our NPI a bit. Unless the adjust the dials to care more about SOS than Win %, why would we go out out upgrade those teams to say UWS or UWRF or Central?

Coincidentally, UNWSP and UWEC are great examples of why the current NPI is a bit broken. Having watched them both back to back, UWEC is a much better team than UNWSP. But the overweighting of Win% favors their 4-3 against poor comp vs UWEC's 2-5 versus much better competition. Massey for instance has this as a 100% likelihood of a UWEC win, predicting 31-3. That matches what I saw subjectively of both teams. Neither could stop Bethel on O, but UWEC had two WR's that were light years better than anything UNWSP had on the field.

I think you might have also had a bad game against UWEC.  Stout was another common opponent we had with UWEC and Stout might say they had a tougher time with us than UWEC.
Your overall point is correct, the NPI does a poor job of ranking teams as the SOS they use is flawed. They also can't really fix it in future years by adjusting the dials more heavily towards this flawed SOS.

[sjujohnnie]

St John's has shut out Carthage in the season opener & now Gustavus this past Saturday. What are the chances that they could shut out St Scholastica & St Olaf? I think I saw a note that about one out of five games under Gary has been a shutout. In 2021 we had 3 consecutive shutouts which was the only time in my lifetime (going back to 1980). We defeated the Cobbers on the road 49-0, Augsburg at home 50-0, St Olaf at home 56-0, traveled to Gustavus only allowing one score in a 37-7 victory, & then shutout St Scholastica 81-0 at home so 4 shutouts in 5 games. Fun to see!

[SagatagSam]

If a D1 football game is played...and barely 1,000 people are there see it...did it really happen?"

It seems fairly apparent that football is going to be a second class citizen at UST for the foreseeable future, especially in light of the huge new investment into hockey and basketball.

[repete]

The quality of the stream has been excellent since the switch to Hudl last year. Given the price it should be. The camera work and replays have been good as well.

Don't get your hopes up for watching the Scholastica stream next week.

Just looked at the archived Carleton game vs. CSS. The frame rate looked about .25 per second. I know there are challenges doing it offsite, but if CSS wants to be a full MIAC member it ought to not have a stream that is likely worse than any in the current UMAC.

VOJ could probably do a better job streaming with a flip phone.

[AO]

The quality of the stream has been excellent since the switch to Hudl last year. Given the price it should be. The camera work and replays have been good as well.

Don't get your hopes up for watching the Scholastica stream next week.

Just looked at the archived Carleton game vs. CSS. The frame rate looked about .25 per second. I know there are challenges doing it offsite, but if CSS wants to be a full MIAC member it ought to not have a stream that is likely worse than any in the current UMAC.

VOJ could probably do a better job streaming with a flip phone.

That's why we kicked them out.

[sjusection105]

If a D1 football game is played...and barely 1,000 people are there see it...did it really happen?"

It seems fairly apparent that football is going to be a second class citizen at UST for the foreseeable future, especially in light of the huge new investment into hockey and basketball.

Football at UST could be looked at as the "Cousin Eddie" of their athletic program. Hockey, Basketball, Baseball, will certainly gain more notoriety if only for the number of games played. It's a shame....

[RoyalsFan]

I think Gendreau, Frank, and our linebacking unit would be people that would be difficult to potentially replace like for like or cause us to have to change things to accommodate their absence.

Given the spread of their wins I can't help but feel like Bethel would be rising in the rankings if they didn't get knocked out of the top 25 after playing SJU.

Beating the snot out of Gustavus (OK), Macalester, Augsburg and Hamline doesn't move the needle for a Top 25 voter. Similarly Brockport beat the snot out of St. John Fisher, Hartwick, Hilbert and Morrisville State (OK) and it didn't get them ranked either.

But yet we have 4 teams with 2 losses and another team with 3 losses in the top 25. If those losses don't hurt those teams, why should 1 loss to the currently 3rd ranked team be such a big negative?

[Pat Coleman]

I think Gendreau, Frank, and our linebacking unit would be people that would be difficult to potentially replace like for like or cause us to have to change things to accommodate their absence.

Given the spread of their wins I can't help but feel like Bethel would be rising in the rankings if they didn't get knocked out of the top 25 after playing SJU.

Beating the snot out of Gustavus (OK), Macalester, Augsburg and Hamline doesn't move the needle for a Top 25 voter. Similarly Brockport beat the snot out of St. John Fisher, Hartwick, Hilbert and Morrisville State (OK) and it didn't get them ranked either.

But yet we have 4 teams with 2 losses and another team with 3 losses in the top 25. If those losses don't hurt those teams, why should 1 loss to the currently 3rd ranked team be such a big negative?

It's been a day or two since I looked at the poll, but those teams also have wins against ranked teams or nearly ranked teams, right?