FB: Region 4 fan poll

[wesleydad]

I wouldn't say is fatally flawed, but I don't think its a great measure of a team A vs team B.  I don't have another way to measure strength of schedule, but I don't think it's "fair" for non-D3 to be worthless.  I understand that a team shouldn't be punished for playing up a level (D2), but (imo) teams should be punished for scheduling College of Faith or Virginia-Lynchburg.  For those games to not count for anything is almost a benefit to D3 teams.

Look at UWO this year, JCU is a great OOC game and should be rewarded in SOS.  But VA-Lynchburg would be a 1-9 or 0-10 type D3 team and bring down UWO's SOS tremendously, but instead it counts for nothing.  Plus in terms of the playoffs;  instead of filling a tenth game with a sub-par D3 team (record-wise) UWO is better off taking a bye.

I understand the travel and budget issues of D3 athletics, and there is no easy way to "fix" this.  But SOS is a strange thing in D3.

Punished seems harsh.  I don't think Oshkosh wanted to schedule those games (and they basically got shamed out of the CoF engagement).  How many calls do you think got made before they landed on VA-Lynchburg?  They're definitely not going to repeat 2014 and stack up a bunch of Ls against scholarship schools- that decision cost them a place in the tournament.  I don't know what the "fix" is, but I don't think you can do anything punitive with Oshkosh if nobody inside the division will agree to play them.

I'd love to see who paid to have VA-Lynchburg fly(?) to Wisconsin.  There has to be some D3 teams around instead of playing some joke school from NAIA (are they even NAIA?).  Maybe University of Phoenix or Southern New Hampshire can fill out the UWO schedule next year

Who?  Serious question- who are the D3 teams around, and do you think they weren't approached at all?

Agree with Wally here.  It takes 2 to tango and I am sure Oshkosh reached out to many schools to fill holes in the schedule and got no takers.  Wesley had this problem for years when they were an independent and filled their schedule with anyone who would play them. 

[merlecanlas]

I wouldn't say is fatally flawed, but I don't think its a great measure of a team A vs team B.  I don't have another way to measure strength of schedule, but I don't think it's "fair" for non-D3 to be worthless.  I understand that a team shouldn't be punished for playing up a level (D2), but (imo) teams should be punished for scheduling College of Faith or Virginia-Lynchburg.  For those games to not count for anything is almost a benefit to D3 teams.

Look at UWO this year, JCU is a great OOC game and should be rewarded in SOS.  But VA-Lynchburg would be a 1-9 or 0-10 type D3 team and bring down UWO's SOS tremendously, but instead it counts for nothing.  Plus in terms of the playoffs;  instead of filling a tenth game with a sub-par D3 team (record-wise) UWO is better off taking a bye.

I understand the travel and budget issues of D3 athletics, and there is no easy way to "fix" this.  But SOS is a strange thing in D3.

Punished seems harsh.  I don't think Oshkosh wanted to schedule those games (and they basically got shamed out of the CoF engagement).  How many calls do you think got made before they landed on VA-Lynchburg?  They're definitely not going to repeat 2014 and stack up a bunch of Ls against scholarship schools- that decision cost them a place in the tournament.  I don't know what the "fix" is, but I don't think you can do anything punitive with Oshkosh if nobody inside the division will agree to play them.

I'd love to see who paid to have VA-Lynchburg fly(?) to Wisconsin.  There has to be some D3 teams around instead of playing some joke school from NAIA (are they even NAIA?).  Maybe University of Phoenix or Southern New Hampshire can fill out the UWO schedule next year

Who?  Serious question- who are the D3 teams around, and do you think they weren't approached at all?

VA-Lynchburg is 900 miles from UWO.  If they contacted every school within 900 miles, I would be shocked to find out that there were no takers for a game.

Wesley is different, as an independent they were trying to fill an entire schedule not just early week OOC games

[emma17]

Merle,
Do you honestly think UWO wanted to/went out of their way to play Lynchburg?
If you stop and think about it, forget all the playoff stuff, do you think the players want to use up one of their 10 game opportunities to play such a weak opponent? Do you think the coaching staff would intentionally scheduled such a disappointing game if they had options?
If it was so easy to find someone else, why did UWO only get 9 games this year?
I get the feeling you are so fixated on the idea that UWO may take one of the two top seeds away from Mt that you can't think objectively.

[merlecanlas]

Merle,
Do you honestly think UWO wanted to/went out of their way to play Lynchburg?
If you stop and think about it, forget all the playoff stuff, do you think the players want to use up one of their 10 game opportunities to play such a weak opponent? Do you think the coaching staff would intentionally scheduled such a disappointing game if they had options?
If it was so easy to find someone else, why did UWO only get 9 games this year?
I get the feeling you are so fixated on the idea that UWO may take one of the two top seeds away from Mt that you can't think objectively.

I dont think UWO will make the semi-finals, so I am not concerned with seeding.  Maybe I'm crazy, but there are a million D3 teams and to think that there is not a match anywhere is odd to me.  If it was a financial decision, I would understand but if you are flying a team from VA then why couldn't you fly a D3 team from anywhere else?

Sept 9, Sept 16 or Sept 23 open and all you came up with was VA-Lynchburg and a bye.  I'd be disappointed with that as a UWO fan/coach/player/donor

[wally_wabash]

Merle,
Do you honestly think UWO wanted to/went out of their way to play Lynchburg?
If you stop and think about it, forget all the playoff stuff, do you think the players want to use up one of their 10 game opportunities to play such a weak opponent? Do you think the coaching staff would intentionally scheduled such a disappointing game if they had options?
If it was so easy to find someone else, why did UWO only get 9 games this year?
I get the feeling you are so fixated on the idea that UWO may take one of the two top seeds away from Mt that you can't think objectively.

I dont think UWO will make the semi-finals, so I am not concerned with seeding.  Maybe I'm crazy, but there are a million D3 teams and to think that there is not a match anywhere is odd to me.  If it was a financial decision, I would understand but if you are flying a team from VA then why couldn't you fly a D3 team from anywhere else?

Sept 9, Sept 16 or Sept 23 open and all you came up with was VA-Lynchburg and a bye.  I'd be disappointed with that as a UWO fan/coach/player/donor

Your assumption that every D3 team has unlimited availability on an unlimited number of open dates without any reservation at all (for any one of 500 valid reasons) to take a trip to Oshkosh is totally unhooked from reality.  That's just not how any of it works. 

[merlecanlas]

Merle,
Do you honestly think UWO wanted to/went out of their way to play Lynchburg?
If you stop and think about it, forget all the playoff stuff, do you think the players want to use up one of their 10 game opportunities to play such a weak opponent? Do you think the coaching staff would intentionally scheduled such a disappointing game if they had options?
If it was so easy to find someone else, why did UWO only get 9 games this year?
I get the feeling you are so fixated on the idea that UWO may take one of the two top seeds away from Mt that you can't think objectively.

I dont think UWO will make the semi-finals, so I am not concerned with seeding.  Maybe I'm crazy, but there are a million D3 teams and to think that there is not a match anywhere is odd to me.  If it was a financial decision, I would understand but if you are flying a team from VA then why couldn't you fly a D3 team from anywhere else?

Sept 9, Sept 16 or Sept 23 open and all you came up with was VA-Lynchburg and a bye.  I'd be disappointed with that as a UWO fan/coach/player/donor

Your assumption that every D3 team has unlimited availability on an unlimited number of open dates without any reservation at all (for any one of 500 valid reasons) to take a trip to Oshkosh is totally unhooked from reality.  That's just not how any of it works.

I'm sure the Mount Union JV team would have been available for a September game or any of the local high schools.  I don't have a problem with UWO playing my sister's all-girls college in September, but that game should count against their SOS.  Just as Wilmington or Muskingum hurt Mount or the majority of the ASC hurts UMHB.  That's my gripe.

we can all agree to disagree and wait for the regional rankings come out.

[wally_wabash]

High schools and a junior varsity team?  You're not even trying to be realistic at this point. 

Can't wait to get those ballots in and change the subject. 

[smedindy]

It's excluded from playoff criteria, so it's excluded from SOS.

My goodness, you do realize that many conferences only have one or two non-conference games to throw around and several of these arrangements are made years in advance. The WIAC has three non-conference games, but that means week 3 or week 4, and by that time many conferences are solidly in league play. 

Last year they played Finlandia, who probably decided against such foolishness as trying to play Oshkosh and Wartburg. In 2014, they scheduled three games against tough NAIA or D-1AA teams, and lost them all - they then went 6-1 in the WIAC and missed the playoffs mainly because of those non-conference losses (if memory serves).

You're coming off here (and in other boards) as a barely transparent homer.

BTW - Virginia Lynchburg is a HBC and has games also against Mississippi Valley State and Tennessee State. They're wanting to move to Division 2 at some point, but were in the USCAA for a long time, and revived football in 2011. It's a struggle to start a football program anyway, but at an underfunded private HBC with a limited scholastic offering, it must be nutty.

[merlecanlas]

It's excluded from playoff criteria, so it's excluded from SOS.

My goodness, you do realize that many conferences only have one or two non-conference games to throw around and several of these arrangements are made years in advance. The WIAC has three non-conference games, but that means week 3 or week 4, and by that time many conferences are solidly in league play. 

Last year they played Finlandia, who probably decided against such foolishness as trying to play Oshkosh and Wartburg. In 2014, they scheduled three games against tough NAIA or D-1AA teams, and lost them all - they then went 6-1 in the WIAC and missed the playoffs mainly because of those non-conference losses (if memory serves).

You're coming off here (and in other boards) as a barely transparent homer.

BTW - Virginia Lynchburg is a HBC and has games also against Mississippi Valley State and Tennessee State. They're wanting to move to Division 2 at some point, but were in the USCAA for a long time, and revived football in 2011. It's a struggle to start a football program anyway, but at an underfunded private HBC with a limited scholastic offering, it must be nutty.

oh I'm a huge homer, I thought that was apparent with my gripe.  My gripe is non-d3 games get counted as a non-game.

I thought that non-D3 games didn't count for or against a D3 school?  Maybe UWO missed the playoffs that year because they didn't play/win enough D3 games to counter an .857 D3 winning percentage?  not that they lost 3 non-d3 games.

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

I'll have my ballot in shortly... still trying to figure out who should be 9 and 10.
Anyone want to bribe a voter? Might be slightly suspicious if I have Wilmington and Rockford on my ballot though

[merlecanlas]

UWW - 10 d3 games
UWP - 10 d3 games
UWL - 10 d3 games
UWS - 9 d3 games
UWSP - 10 d3 games
UWRF - 9 d3 games
UWEC - 10 d3 games

UWO - 8 d3 games

all of those other WIAC schools are probably just lucky to overcome the trials and tribulations of D3 scheduling to have a full schedule or nine games.....

take off Mount or UMHB's two worst opponents and watch that SOS soar up

[bluestreak66]

Did I miss the memo where Wisconsin Oshkosh joined the North Region??? 

[merlecanlas]

Did I miss the memo where Wisconsin Oshkosh joined the North Region??? 

You're right, I'm sorry....back to the north region

[emma17]

Sorry for asking this question (I should know answer, but can't think of it) on this board, but something Merle posted sparked it.

If the #2 overall seed lost in the first three rounds, does the team that beat them hold home-field for future games- or does it depend on what that team was seeded?

Or is it determined week by week, which as I recall we have to wait for the NCAA to announce the locations of the following week's games?

[emma17]

Sorry for asking this question (I should know answer, but can't think of it) on this board, but something Merle posted sparked it.

If the #2 overall seed lost in the first three rounds, does the team that beat them hold home-field for future games- or does it depend on what that team was seeded?

Or is it determined week by week, which as I recall we have to wait for the NCAA to announce the locations of the following week's games?

I see a Playoff thread was started in the General Board, I'll take move this question over there.