FB: Region 3 fan poll

[jknezek]

My ballot was this.

1)  UMHB
2)  JHU
3)  Wesley
4)  W&J
5)  Thomas More

6)  Wash U
7)  TLU
8)  Millsaps
9)  H-SC
10) Murvul

For what it is worth, here is mine:

1) UMHB -- home Redlands (rematch...blah)
2) JHU -- home Wesley (fascinating)
3) Wesley --at JHU (fascinating)
4) Washington U -- at Franklin (interesting)
5) W&J -- at UMU (uggh)
6) HSC -- home Maryville (neighboring conference battle)
7) Rhodes -- Done. Two losses, 4 pts total. Ouch
8) TMC -- Done. Unlucky
9) Millsaps -- Done. Bad Time to Lose
10) Maryville -- at HSC

Notables
Muhlenberg -- home Salisbury (ECAC)

[Scots13]

Was that the last time the ODAC won a playoff game in any one season the '01 Bridgewater trip to the Stagg?

No. In 2005 Bridgewater won at Thiel before losing at Wesley in the NCAA playoffs. That 2005 win was the last ODAC playoff victory. Of course, this will be only the third home game for the ODAC since 2003 in the playoffs, so those teams weren't really expected to win.

In 2006, W&L was an 8 seed at Wilkes. 2007 HSC went to Wesley. 2008 RMC went to Mount as an 8 seed. 2009 JHU beat HSC during the Jays run to the Elite 8. 2010 HSC lost at home to Montclair as a 4 seed while W&L lost at TMC as a 7 or 8 seed (can't remember, don't care to look it up). 2011 HSC  lost at Centre as a 5 or 6 seed, 2012 W&L lost at Hobart as a 7 seed.

Bad seeds, a little unlucky (drawing a hot JHU in 2009), and one unfortunate loss (HSC losing to Montclair St at home) and you have a long string of futility.

The USAC last playoff win (and only 1 of 2) was in 2007 with NCWC. Hopefully we end the streak at 6 and push the ODAC's to 8 

[Swish3]

Make that 1 of 3....CNU has beaten Muhlenberg and Salisbury in the playoffs.

[Scots13]

Make that 1 of 3....CNU has beaten Muhlenberg and Salisbury in the playoffs.

My apologies. +1

[Bob.Gregg]

My ballot was this.

1)  UMHB  2)  JHU  3)  Wesley  4)  W&J  5)  Thomas More
6)  Wash U  7)  TLU  8)  Millsaps  9)  H-SC  10) Murvul

Only in NCAA D-III can #2 play #3 while #9 plays #10, not to mention #5 & #7 are not invited to the ball!  lol

[Scots13]

You can thank Indianapoli$ for that. Jknezek probably agrees with me.

[jknezek]

You can thank Indianapoli$ for that. Jknezek probably agrees with me.

I certainly thank them for a 32 team tournament that includes AQs from all qualifying conferences. I thank the D1 NCAA basketball tournament for providing the money. While some of the matchups aren't equitable, I'm thankful they happen at all. The 90s, when I was in college, was a whole different story.

As for 2vs3 and 9vs10, I doubt the committee looked at the D3boards South Region Fan Poll when drawing up the tournament, let alone asked for individual voter ballots. Heck, we couldn't even agree on the top 10 teams, they not only agreed but got everyone seeded in a way that actually makes the tournament happen.

In other words, count your blessings...

[ExTartanPlayer]

You can thank Indianapoli$ for that. Jknezek probably agrees with me.

I certainly thank them for a 32 team tournament that includes AQs from all qualifying conferences. I thank the D1 NCAA basketball tournament for providing the money. While some of the matchups aren't equitable, I'm thankful they happen at all. The 90s, when I was in college, was a whole different story.

As for 2vs3 and 9vs10, I doubt the committee looked at the D3boards South Region Fan Poll when drawing up the tournament, let alone asked for individual voter ballots. Heck, we couldn't even agree on the top 10 teams, they not only agreed but got everyone seeded in a way that actually makes the tournament happen.

In other words, count your blessings...

+K

Guys, the D3 tournament is never going to be perfect.  Complaints about good (at large) teams left out of the field or odd first-round matchups are kind of old hat.  As jknezek said, getting a 32-team tournament with AQ access (and thus a "chance" at the title for any team when the first ball is kicked off, however unrealistic that is for 200+ teams) is pretty darned good as it is.  The odd pairings I can live with as long as the consensus top 4-8 teams in the country get #1 and #2 seeds and don't face one another until we're a few rounds deep, and we generally seem to get that.

[tigerfanalso]

A sign of my age, but when I played only eight teams qualified. The top two from each region. D3 had fewer teams at the time but I'm not sure an 8 team field isn't best for what D3 represents. Playing football well into December can become an academic issue with final exams, papers, etc. and football should not interfer with that workload. Academics first, football second. I'm certain most of the posters disagree and I understand that as well.

[jknezek]

A sign of my age, but when I played only eight teams qualified. The top two from each region. D3 had fewer teams at the time but I'm not sure an 8 team field isn't best for what D3 represents. Playing football well into December can become an academic issue with final exams, papers, etc. and football should not interfer with that workload. Academics first, football second. I'm certain most of the posters disagree and I understand that as well.

TFA it's not that I disagree, but the basketball players are out and about already and will play through exams. Most winter sports have started. There is nothing unusual about playing sports in December in D3. For the amount of teams that it actually affects, just a couple by the second or third weekend in Dec, there are way more student athletes active in other sports than football.

It's not a matter of academics first, football second. It's a matter of academics first, athletics second. And that should be up to the student athletes in football the same way it is in other sports.

[Ralph Turner]

Final South Region Fan Poll

Team	Conference	Points	Ballots	Season summary
1)  UMHB	ASC	50	1,1,1,1,1	Lost in the Semi-finals to Champion UW-Whitewater
2)  Wesley	Independent	45	2,2,2,2,2	Pool B; Lost in the quarterfinals at Mount Union
3)  JHU	Centennial	39	3,3,3,3,4	Lost to Wesley in Round 1
4)  Hampden-Sydney	ODAC	36	3,4,4,4,4	Lost at Linfield in Round 2
5)  Wash U	UAA	26	5,5,6,6,7	UAA champ; Pool B; Lost at Franklin in Round 1
.	.	.	.	.
6)  Wash & Jeff	Pres AC	21	5,5,6,7,x	Pres AC co-champs; Lost at Mount Union in Round 1
7)  Thomas More	Pres AC	15	5,8,8,8,x	Pres AC co-champs (9-1/7-1)
8)  Maryville TN	USA South	13	6,8,9,9,10	Lost at HS-C in Round 1
9)  Rhodes	SAA	11	6,7,10,10,x	SAA co-champs (8-2/5-1)
10) Millsaps	SAA	9	8,9,9,10,10	SAA co-champs (9-1/5-1)
.	.	.	.	.
RV  TLU	SCAC	8	7,7,x,x,x	SCAC champs (8-1/3-0)
RV  LaCollege	ASC	2	9,x,x,x,x	(7-3/5-1)

Thanks for jknezek, PA_Wesleyan, roocru and Toby Taff for their hard work and consistent support of the poll.

See you in late August.  Look for the 2014 edition of Kickoff.

Corrections are always appreciated!

[Bob.Gregg]

Here's the 2013 Pre-Season Poll....

Pre-season Poll:

Team	Record	Points	Votes
1)   UMHB	0-0	50	1,1,1,1,1
2)   Wesley	0-0	45	2,2,2,2,2
3)   JHU	0-0	38	3,3,3,4,4
4)   B-SC	0-0	28	4,4,6,6,7
5)   HSU	0-0	27	3,4,5,5,x
.	.	.	.	.
6)   LaCollege	0-0	23	3,5,5,8,x
7)   Wash & Jeff	0-0	14	5,7,8,10,x
8T)   Thomas More	0-0	13	6,7,8,10,x
8T)   Trinity TX	0-0	13	6,7,9,9,x
10)  H-SC	0-0	10	8,8,9,10,10
.	.	.	.	.
RV   Bridgewater	0-0	9	6,7,x,x,x
RV  F&M	0-0	2	9,x,x,x,x
RV  Millsaps	0-0	2	9,x,x,x,x
RV   Huntingdon	0-0	1	10,x,x,x,x
.	.	.	.	.

[Ralph Turner]

Here's the 2013 Pre-Season Poll....

Pre-season Poll:

Team	Record	Points	Votes
1)   UMHB	0-0	50	1,1,1,1,1
2)   Wesley	0-0	45	2,2,2,2,2
3)   JHU	0-0	38	3,3,3,4,4
4)   B-SC	0-0	28	4,4,6,6,7
5)   HSU	0-0	27	3,4,5,5,x
.	.	.	.	.
6)   LaCollege	0-0	23	3,5,5,8,x
7)   Wash & Jeff	0-0	14	5,7,8,10,x
8T)   Thomas More	0-0	13	6,7,8,10,x
8T)   Trinity TX	0-0	13	6,7,9,9,x
10)  H-SC	0-0	10	8,8,9,10,10
.	.	.	.	.
RV   Bridgewater	0-0	9	6,7,x,x,x
RV  F&M	0-0	2	9,x,x,x,x
RV  Millsaps	0-0	2	9,x,x,x,x
RV   Huntingdon	0-0	1	10,x,x,x,x
.	.	.	.	.

Top 10 in both are in bold.

[jknezek]

At least we did better than the big boys. Auburn wasn't even ranked. Still, 60% from the preseason in the final poll isn't great. No one saw Wash U, Rhodes, Maryville, and TLU and only one of us came up with how bad HSU was going to be or how good Millsaps was going to be. B-SC going 5-4 caught us all by surprise, but considering how good Millsaps and Rhodes ended up, plus the game vs Wesley, that's not surprising in hindsight. The 2 year losing streak to Sewanee is mildly interesting.

Always fun to look at "pre" and "post". Thanks Bob.Gregg for going back to get it. +K

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

We're currently looking for a few more folks who would like to be part of the Top 25 Fan Poll this season over on the General Football board.  There's currently 7 people participating but very little representation from the east and south regions. Our poll even was mentioned in an edition of Around the Nation a couple seasons ago comparing our results to that of the "major" polls. You've already done part of the work, why not go all the way and do a Top 25 ballot as well?

To participate all you have to do is submit your ballot by PM to me by Tuesdays. Votes for each team may be revealed but no one's ballot will be revealed unless the person announces it themselves.

Preseason ballots are due by Sunday August 31st, but if you're interested and need a couple extra days let me know.

Good luck to everyone in the South this season.