FB: Region 3 fan poll

[jknezek]

I'm kind of in the same boat. There are a whole lot of teams that could be in those 7 through 10 spots, as per usual at this point of the season. I tend to lean toward those who have won over those who haven't. So Bridgewater is in, W&L is not. Oddly Susquehanna is in, but they have a good win in the Muhles and a good loss on the road to JHU.

I guess I'm just heavy on results, not so much on history. I don't think we know much about CWRU and with that schedule... uggh. How can they be in the PAC, a conference with so many quality teams, and have missed almost all of them? Talk about luck.

I have SRSU at 5. They played UMHB better than almost anyone over the last season and a half. But that's a real thin resume right now and they aren't moving higher unless the teams ahead of them lose or they pick up a quality win somewhere.

Centre or Berry almost play an elimination game this weekend. The Muhles play no one until JHU so it's going to be hard for me to work them back in without other teams losing.

Guilford only works if you put your faith in Huntingdon. Brevard had almost the same margin of defeat to Davidson, and Brevard is... not good.

The ODAC is on a bye this week, but we should get some clarity there quickly. W&L travels to E&H in 2 weeks. Bridgewater goes to HSC. The two better teams, in my opinion, are on the road. So that will provide some gravitas if they can pull it off.

CMU hosting TMC this weekend is also interesting. Yeah, TMC is floundering at 1-2, but as it stands, both losses come to Top 10s (of course Bridgewater probably holds that position only because they beat TMC).

Some clarity is coming I hope.

[Ron Boerger]

I noticed the large number of teams receiving votes.  After the first 6 or so that everyone had on their ballot, it was tough to discern the 2nd tier.  A few more games and it will begin to shake out, I think.

2 or 3 games is an awful small sample size to boil the ocean.   

[Bob.Gregg]

...I don't think we know much about CWRU and with that schedule... uggh. How can they be in the PAC, a conference with so many quality teams, and have missed almost all of them? Talk about luck.

Can I quote you on that?
That's nearly word-for-word the question I've been asking since they returned to the PAC in 2013....
And, just so you know, I don't believe the inquiries have been well-received on the upper floors of PAC management...LOL (like that bothers me!)

[jknezek]

...I don't think we know much about CWRU and with that schedule... uggh. How can they be in the PAC, a conference with so many quality teams, and have missed almost all of them? Talk about luck.

Can I quote you on that?
That's nearly word-for-word the question I've been asking since they returned to the PAC in 2013....
And, just so you know, I don't believe the inquiries have been well-received on the upper floors of PAC management...LOL (like that bothers me!)

If it's here you can quote it. 

[SaintsFAN]

...I don't think we know much about CWRU and with that schedule... uggh. How can they be in the PAC, a conference with so many quality teams, and have missed almost all of them? Talk about luck.

Can I quote you on that?
That's nearly word-for-word the question I've been asking since they returned to the PAC in 2013....
And, just so you know, I don't believe the inquiries have been well-received on the upper floors of PAC management...LOL (like that bothers me!)

Amen, Bob.  And after losing to W&J Saturday, the Saints have to root for two losses for the Presidents...and even if that happens, CWRU doesn't play either one of the two best programs in the PAC.  Oh well. 

[hasanova]

...I don't think we know much about CWRU and with that schedule... uggh. How can they be in the PAC, a conference with so many quality teams, and have missed almost all of them? Talk about luck.

Can I quote you on that?
That's nearly word-for-word the question I've been asking since they returned to the PAC in 2013....
And, just so you know, I don't believe the inquiries have been well-received on the upper floors of PAC management...LOL (like that bothers me!)

Amen, Bob.  And after losing to W&J Saturday, the Saints have to root for two losses for the Presidents...and even if that happens, CWRU doesn't play either one of the two best programs in the PAC.  Oh well.

It's a grueling season when, for all intents and purposes, the playoffs start in week 3.

[SaintsFAN]

...I don't think we know much about CWRU and with that schedule... uggh. How can they be in the PAC, a conference with so many quality teams, and have missed almost all of them? Talk about luck.

Can I quote you on that?
That's nearly word-for-word the question I've been asking since they returned to the PAC in 2013....
And, just so you know, I don't believe the inquiries have been well-received on the upper floors of PAC management...LOL (like that bothers me!)

Amen, Bob.  And after losing to W&J Saturday, the Saints have to root for two losses for the Presidents...and even if that happens, CWRU doesn't play either one of the two best programs in the PAC.  Oh well.

It's a grueling season when, for all intents and purposes, the playoffs start in week 3.

In 2016, TMC's playoff season began following a week 1 non-conference loss to Franklin.  They have some experience with this as does W&J since their annual game has come around week 3 or 4 for most of the series. 

[Ralph Turner]

South Region Fan Poll Week #4

1)  UMHB	50	1,1,1,1,1	.	.
2)  HSU	45	2,2,2,2,2	.	.
3)  JHU	35	3,3,3,5,6	.	.
4)  W&J	34	3,3,4,5,6	.	.
5   CWRU	30	4,4,4,5,8	.	.
.	.	.	.	.
6)  Sul Ross State	24	4,5,7,7,8	.	.
7)  Carnegie-Mellon	23	5,6,6,7,8	.	.
8)  Berry	19	6,7,7,8,8	.	.
9)  Franklin & Marshall	7	9,9,10,10,10	.	.
10) Bridgewater	4	9,9,x,x,x	.	.
.	.	.	.	.
RV  ETBU	2	10,10,x,x,x	.	.
RV  Wash & Lee	2	9,x,x,x,x	.	.
.	.	.	.	.
.	.	.	.	.
.	.	.	.	.

Corrections are always appreciated.

[ExTartanPlayer]

Apologies for the non-specific post, but I've got a general observation to make about the first couple weeks of the season, so I'm going to post this in each of the respective "fan poll" threads since they will typically get some readership from many different conferences / audiences (of course, within each thread, it can and likely will spawn some discussion specific to that region):

The first couple weeks of the season feel like we're seeing one of the more "wide open" seasons in D3 football in several years, IMHO.  It's not just about UWW losing a few games; all over the Division, we've seen signs that some leagues may not adhere to a traditional hierarchy. 

- Thomas More has already lost to two other conference rivals, turning the PAC into a potentially entertaining four-team horse race;

- Wabash had to scrap their way past an admittedly-improved Hiram team, leaving several NRFP voters believing that Denison and/or DePauw are the teams Wittenberg really needs to be worried about;

- Whitewater already has two losses on the board to "very good but not great; teams that you wouldn't normally expect them to lose to" opponents and travels to UW-Oshkosh this week facing the prospect of their earliest "likely elimination from playoff contention" since 2002;

- St. Thomas picked up an early loss to UW-Stout (?!) and now likely has to play the season under "win the MIAC or risk missing the playoffs" pressure;

- John Carroll, fresh off a season where they snapped Mount Union's forever-long OAC win streak and made an appearance in the national semifinals, took it on the chin from Heidelberg, leaving us wondering if maybe Heidelberg is the real "second banana" to challenge Mount this year rather than JCU

- Wesley, who has had as much success as any non-Purple (UMU, UWW, Linfield, UMHB, UST) in the last decade, took a loss in Week 1 - admittedly against a quality opponent, a much less surprising loss than Stout vs. UST - but, similarly to UST, likely will play the season under "win the league or you might be home for the holidays" pressure

I know there have been some early surprises in other seasons, too, but this just feels like a season that's elicited a lot more "Whoa! That happened?" reactions in the first few weeks than seasons past.  Instead of the inevitable slog to the playoffs where it feels like we already know who lots of the players will be, several leagues feel more open top-to-bottom than usual and we're seeing some fun teams getting votes in the poll who may or may not deserve to be there, but are sitting there currently lacking any other evidence that someone else is definitively better.  Raise your hand if you thought UW-Stout would appear in a D3fb top 25 this season.  Or if you thought Frostburg State would be ranked 11th in the same week UW-Whitewater is barely holding onto a few votes. 

It could be a wild second half, folks, and we're not even out of September.  Yee-haw!  High times for Division III football, if you ask me.

[Ralph Turner]

Washington & Jefferson beat Thiel Monday night,  so the poll has been delayed. I will post the poll when all of the ballots have been submitted.



Gosh, these guys are good. Their ballots are in and I am still at work.   

I will post tonight.  No surprises but we have 2 weeks of really good matchups coming across the region!

[jknezek]

Just put mine in. 6 of my 10 play against each other this week. Including 1 vs 2, 3 vs 5, and 9 vs 10. That's pretty cool.

[roocru]

Mine are in now as well.

[Ralph Turner]

South Region Fan Poll Week #5

1)  UMHB	50	1,1,1,1,1	.	.
2)  HSU	45	2,2,2,2,2	.	.
3)  W&J	39	3,3,3,3,4	.	.
4)  CWRU	33	3,4,4,4,7	.	.
5   Berry	26	5,5,6,6,7	.	.
.	.	.	.	.
6)  Carnegie-Mellon	23	5,6,6,7,8	.	.
7)  Sul Ross State	20	4,5,8,9,9	.	.
8)  F&M	15	5,7,8,10,10	.	.
9)  Ursinus	13	6,8,8,9,x	.	.
10)  JHU	7	7,9,10,x,x	.	.
.	.	.	.	.
RV  ETBU	2	9,x,x,x,x	.	.
RV  Guilford	1	10,x,x,x,x	.	.
RV  Centre	1	10,x,x,x,x	.	.
.	.	.	.	.
.	.	.	.	.

Corrections are always appreciated.

[roocru]

I realize that Ursinus beat JHU but all other opponents are a combined 3 wins and 12 losses. Based on this I couldn't put them in my Top 10. I had ETBU at number 9.  I realize they were beat by a large margin but it was a loss to the 2nd ranked team in this poll and they scored 40 against HSU. They also beat Southwestern by 18 and scored 79 against Belhaven. My thoughts right now are they will outscore a lot of people they play. Other than that I am right in the mix on all the other teams ranked.

[jknezek]

I realize that Ursinus beat JHU but all other opponents are a combined 3 wins and 12 losses. Based on this I couldn't put them in my Top 10. I had ETBU at number 9.  I realize they were beat by a large margin but it was a loss to the 2nd ranked team in this poll and they scored 40 against HSU. They also beat Southwestern by 18 and scored 79 against Belhaven. My thoughts right now are they will outscore a lot of people they play. Other than that I am right in the mix on all the other teams ranked.

For me the difference is that Ursinus beat JHU. Winning is better than losing. And beating a top 10 regional team always trumps giving up 80 and losing to a top 10 regional team. Even 1 vs 10 kind of thing. ETBU's 2 other DIII opponents are 3-6. Not a whole lot better than 4 teams being 3-12. Scoring 79 on a Hal Mumme coached team really doesn't move the needle. I'm not sure Mumme has ever realized you can play 11 guys on defense. He's always been the sort to play 10 on defense and try and sneak the extra guy over to the offense. Belhaven has yet to give up less than 37 points in a game this season.

It doesn't really matter in those last few slots in the poll, but I really don't see anything impressive in ETBU so far. Fortunately F&M and JHU will sort themselves out this weekend, and despite their record, Muhlenberg is no slouch and will test Ursinus. Obviously one of those 3 will lose, it's possible 2 will.