FB: Region 3 fan poll

[HSC85]

Thanks for the discussion guys.  All of the posts make good points.  The good thing about the season is that each team gets a chance to sink or swim on their own merits.  And the great thing about D3 is that this division gets to crown a champion based on performance on the field. 

One point of clarification, CNU would have been a playoff team last year regardless of the Wesley game because they won the USA South with a 7-0 record. 

[PA_wesleyfan]

Wow

Lots happening early today.... And still  a few games later . Could be a big shift in the poll this week

[Ralph Turner]

Week #1 South Region Fan Poll

Rank	Team	Points	Votes	Saturday 9/12
1	UMHB	50	1,1,1,1,1	at Southern Nazarene
2	HSU	43	2,2,2,3,3	at Linfield
3	Wesley	42	2,2,3,3,3	at North Greenville
4	W&J	34	4,4,4,4,5	at Frostburg St
5	Salisbury	27	4,5,6,6,7	Lost to NCWC 17-24
6	DePauw	26	5,5,5,6,8	Anderson
7	Miss Coll	16	6,7,8,9,9	vs. U Cumberlands KY
8	Trinity	12	7,7,9,10,10	at TLU
9	CNU	8	6,8,*,*,*	Open date
10	Hampden-Sydney	6	8,9,10,*,*	Beat Gettysburg 46-43 OT
*	*	*	*	*	*
RV	Millsaps	4	7,*,*,*,*	Plays Belahven
RV	Bridgewater	4	8,10,*,*,*	at Shenandoah
RV	Dickinson	2	9,*,*,*,*	Beat Hobart 26-3
RV	Thomas More	1	10,*,*,*,*	Open Date

[Ralph Turner]

I will post the poll this pm.

Fifteen teams received votes.

[Ralph Turner]

Week #2 South Region Fan Poll

Rank/Team..............	Record	Votes	Ballots.........	Next Foe
1 UMHB	1-0	50	1,1,1,1,1	at Texas Lutheran
2 Wesley	2-0	45	2,2,2,2,2	at Del Valley
3 W&J	2-0	40	3,3,3,3,3	Thiel
4 Depauw	1-0	33	4,4,4,5,5	Centre
5 HSU	1-1	29	4,4,5,6,7	Louisiana Coll
6 Dickinson	2-0	14	5,5,9,x,x	at F&M
7 Hampden-Sydney	2-0	13	7,7,8,9,x	at Sewanee
8 Trinity TX	2-0	12	6,6,9,x,x	at Rhodes
9T Bridgewater	2-0	9	6,8,10,x,x	at Ferrum
9T CNU	0-1	9	6,7,x,x,x	Salisbury
*	*	*	*	*
RV Salisbury	1-1	7	8,8,10,x,x	at CNU
RV Huntingdon	2-0	5	8,9,x,x,x	UW-Oshkosh
RV Mississippi Coll	1-1	5	7,10,x,x,x	at McMurry
RV Millsaps	1-1	2	9,x,x,x,x	at Austin Coll
RV Thomas More	2-0	2	10,10,x,x,x	Waynesburg

Waynesburg is on one voter's watch list.  Waynesburg plays at TMC.


Corrections appreciated...

[DPU3619]

Really wasn't too pleased with the bottom of my ballot this week.  Put teams 8-10 about 9 times before I settled.  I'm THAT GUY that still doesn't have Hampden-Sydney in.  The way I reckon, somebody's going to lose that CNU/Salibury game and I'll put HSC in their place.

[Ralph Turner]

Really wasn't too pleased with the bottom of my ballot this week.  Put teams 8-10 about 9 times before I settled.  I'm THAT GUY that still doesn't have Hampden-Sydney in.  The way I reckon, somebody's going to lose that CNU/Salibury game and I'll put HSC in their place.

I have my outliers, too.

HSU has QB Feaster and RB Zavious Robbins in the injured list.

Which is the best team in the USA South?  CNU?  NCWC?

How good is the ODAC this year? 

I listened to Dickinson beat Hobart last weekend.  They are my favorite to earn the CC's AQ.  That ought to be good for a slot in the Top 10.

Did we sort out the Millsaps/MissColl mess?

Trinity has struggled against ASC bottom division teams, McMurry and TLU.

Salisbury has a must-win game on its hands.  (I think that there will only be 3 Pool B bids this year.)

Huntingdon's game against UW-O is non-region.

TMore and Waynesburg play this week.

There are lots of questions in that poll!

[HSC85]

Mr. Anderson,

I appreciate your honesty about the struggles that you have with teams 8-10.  It is still early in the season and after more games things will be easier to sort out.  My only question is how do you consider the fact that HSC has beaten NCW 55-23 and NCW beats Salisbury loses to NCW?  There are not many areas of common opponents this early in the season but when you have one and ignore it that is really hard to understand.  Thank you for participating in the poll.   It gives us something to discuss between Saturdays.  I am just trying to understand some of  the logic in the poll.  It seems that some teams are penalized much more for a loss than others in this poll.

[DPU3619]

Honestly, because I don't believe the transitive property applies to the game of football.  If Team A beats Team B on Day X, then Team B beats Team C on Day Y, in my mind, that doesn't necessarily mean that Team A beats Team C on Day Z.  There are a lot of other factors involved. 

EDIT: Not to say that I ignore that completely, but I'm not changing my opinion on Salisbury because of the HSC/NCW result.  The loss to NCW is just that, a loss to NCW.

Yes, HSC beat NCW, and did so pretty soundly to boot.  But, look at that result compared with the NCW/Salisbury result.  What that tells me is that either A) NCW was flatter than flat when they played Hampden-Sydney, or B) we're all wrong and HSC is light years ahead of any other team in the Northern part of this region exluding Wesley.  Maybe it is B, but I'm not sold on that yet.  Because I'm not sold on that, they aren't in my poll right now.

I understand you're a HSC fan, and you just want to see your team promoted around these parts, but to me, beating a team that beat somebody else and beating a team that is 16-15 the last three years team in overtime on your home field doesn't get you IN the poll if you're not in.  Here's the thing, flat out - right now, I still think Bridgewater is going win the ODAC.  If they lose to HSC on 10/3, then I've been wrong all along and I'll be willing to accept that and put them in the poll.  I also still think Salisbury is a better team than HSC regardless of the common opponent.  If Salisbury loses to CNU this Saturday, I probably won't think that anymore.  I already said HSC going in my poll next week as it is.

[golden_dome]

Couple questions on DePauw and Trinity this year.

Not questioning whether DePauw should be that high or not because honestly I just don't know that much about them, but what is different this year that puts them in elite status in the South? I noticed they have never beaten Trinity (0-9) and are 0-3 against Millsaps since Mike Dubose took over with the average score about 40-12.

Also, Trinity seems to be down. They've eeked out two wins against ASC teams who combined to go 4-16 a year ago.

Until somebody beats them, I have to think that Millsaps is the team to beat in the SCAC again.

[HSC85]

Thank you for your response.  I really don't think HSC is one of the top 10 teams in the South Region.  I would not put them in a top 10 poll. They have much more to prove before they earn any recognition.  The result last week really raised some questions about how consistent they will play from week to week.  I was just questioning how other teams that have lost are treated.  It seems that "some" teams lose and it does not affect their standing much and other teams lose and they drop off the face of the earth.  Some of the regard comes from pre-season position and I understand that.  I just think that pre-season polls and rankings are nice but once the season starts we only have the results from the games played not what we "think" a team should or should not do.  I was more surprised that Salisbury is still getting votes and NCW is not getting any votes after they just beat them last Saturday.  By the way, I am not worried about who is ranked higher between HSC and Salisbury because they play on November 7.  The great thing about Division III football is that every team has a chance to take care of their own business on the field.   As I said in my previous post, thank you for participating in this poll.  

[Jeremybozz]

Thank you for your response.  I really don't think HSC is one of the top 10 teams in the South Region.  I would not put them in a top 10 poll. They have much more to prove before they earn any recognition.  The result last week really raised some questions about how consistent they will play from week to week.  I was just questioning how other teams that have lost are treated.  It seems that "some" teams lose and it does not affect their standing much and other teams lose and they drop off the face of the earth.  Some of the regard comes from pre-season position and I understand that.  I just think that pre-season polls and rankings are nice but once the season starts we only have the results from the games played not what we "think" a team should or should not do.  I was more surprised that Salisbury is still getting votes and NCW is not getting any votes after they just beat them last Saturday.  By the way, I am not worried about who is ranked higher between HSC and Salisbury because they play on November 7.  The great thing about Division III football is that every team has a chance to take care of their own business on the field.   As I said in my previous post, thank you for participating in this poll.  

Indeed. I realize HSC is coming off an OT win but the win over NC Wesleyan is much more impressive now. I don't see how Hampden Sydney stayed at 11 voting points in the D3Football.com Top 25 poll.
We won't know if Bridgewater is truly back until after the next 2 games with Ferrum and Lycoming, although the Lycoming loss to Rowan at home hurt them a bit.

[DPU3619]

I'll answer you about DePauw, Chris.  I like that offensive system a lot.  Spud Dick is the most prolific passer in school history and just might have the best set of recievers in the South region.  I don't know if Alex Koors is the best reciever in the region, but from 1-4 + TE, I think DePauw is deeper than anybody. 

Plus, I think a lot of people are drinking the Kool-Aid after what DePauw did to the #3 team in the country in the Monon Bell game last year.  That was a complete dismantling of one of the best defenses in the country, and they made the nation's 3rd most efficient passer look completely lost.  This week they took care of Anderson the way they were supposed to, and set a heap of school records in the process. 

We may know more after they play Centre this week.  We may not.  We may not figure anything out Millsaps comes in on 10/3.  They haven't had a lot of success against Millsaps, but I think a lot of that was due to Juan Joseph more than anything.  Also, 2 out of the last 3 years DPU has played that game without the #1 RB on their depth chart.  That's not an excuse, but it certainly doesn't help anything, either.

[golden_dome]

I'll answer you about DePauw, Chris.  I like that offensive system a lot.  Spud Dick is the most prolific passer in school history and just might have the best set of recievers in the South region.  I don't know if Alex Koors is the best reciever in the region, but from 1-4 + TE, I think DePauw is deeper than anybody. 

Plus, I think a lot of people are drinking the Kool-Aid after what DePauw did to the #3 team in the country in the Monon Bell game last year.  That was a complete dismantling of one of the best defenses in the country, and they made the nation's 3rd most efficient passer look completely lost.  This week they took care of Anderson the way they were supposed to, and set a heap of school records in the process. 

We may know more after they play Centre this week.  We may not.  We may not figure anything out Millsaps comes in on 10/3.  They haven't had a lot of success against Millsaps, but I think a lot of that was due to Juan Joseph more than anything.  Also, 2 out of the last 3 years DPU has played that game without the #1 RB on their depth chart.  That's not an excuse, but it certainly doesn't help anything, either.

Thanks for the info. That explains a lot, I've just been a bit surprised to see so many people put them over Trinity and Millsaps considering how little success they've had the last few years. Maybe this is their year.

I think Millsaps is still very good from what I saw, but there's no question they miss Juan Joseph. I know we had a hard time just getting him on the ground. The new quarterbacks throw the ball well, but they aren't mobile and don't have the awareness that Joseph had.

[Ralph Turner]

Week #3 Fan Poll

Team....................	Votes	Record	Ballots	Next foe
1) UMHB	50	2-0	1,1,1,1,1	McMurry
2) Wesley	45	3-0	2,2,2,2,2	at LaGrange
3) W&J	40	3-0	3,3,3,3,3	at Grove City
4) HSC	28	3-0	4,4,5,7,7	at Guilford
5)  Dickinson	20	3-0	4,5,7,8,x	McDaniel
6)  Trinity	19	3-0	4,5,6,10,x	at Millsaps
7)   Mississippi Coll.	17	2-1	5,6,7,9,x	Hardin-Simmons
8 )  CNU	15	1-1	5,6,9,9,x	at Wilkes
9)   TMC	12	3-0	6,8,8,10,x	at Westminster PA
10)  La Coll	7	2-0	4,x,x,x,x	at Huntingdon
*	*	*	*	*
RV)  DPU	5	1-1	8,10,10,x,x	at Sewanee
RV)  Millsaps	5	2-1	6,x,x,x,x	Trinity
RV)  Centre	4	3-0	7,x,x,x,x	Austin
RV)  E&H	3	3-0	9,10,x,x,x	at Methodist
RV)  Huntingdon	3	2-1	8,x,x,x,x	Wesley
RV)  HSU	2	2-1	9,x,x,x,x	at Miss Coll

Corrections appreciated