FB: Southern Athletic Association

[Cedricb313]

BER-BSC looking very interesting. BCS up by 9 at the 12:51 mark of 2nd qtr. Shufford Power. 👃🏽
#d3fb #SAA

[Ron Boerger]

BER-BSC looking very interesting. BCS up by 9 at the 12:51 mark of 2nd qtr. Shufford Power. 👃🏽
#d3fb #SAA

21-9 B-SC going to 4th.  Berry had it on the B-SC 1 but threw a pick on 3rd down.

[Cedricb313]

Shock Alert! BSC up by 19 over BER w/ 10:57 left in the 4th.
#d3fb #SAA #Colonels #NCAAD3FB

[Cedricb313]

BER 15 BSC 28 F 🤔
#d3fb #SAA #ncaad3fb

[awadelewis]

The league just got interesting again.

[Ron Boerger]

The league just got interesting again.

Four one-loss teams at the top of the SAA!

Berry (4-1) holds h2h tiebreaker vs Trinity, loss to B-SC

• Rhodes
• bye
• at Centre
• Austin

*win out, needs help (someone beats B-SC) for SAA's Pool A; Pool C candidate if wins out*

Birmingham-Southern (3-1) holds h2h tiebreaker vs Berry

• at Centre
• Austin
• at Trinity
• Millsaps

*win out for Pool A bid on h2h tiebreaker*

Trinity (3-1) holds h2h tiebreaker vs Austin, loss to Berry

• Sewanee
• at Hendrix
• B-SC
• at Rhodes

*Must win out, needs help (like Austin or someone else beating Berry)*

Austin (3-1) loss to Trinity

• Hendrix
• at B-SC
• Rhodes
• at Berry

*Must win out, needs Trinity to lose*

And then there are two-loss scenarios ....

[Ron Boerger]

This week's D3football podcast features B-SC vs. Berry and has a nice interview with Panthers coach Tony Joe White.

Not sure I'd agree with his assessment of the SAA 4th place team being strong enough to win "a lot of conferences" tho 

[Ralph Turner]

This week's D3football podcast features B-SC vs. Berry and has a nice interview with Panthers coach Tony Joe White.

Not sure I'd agree with his assessment of the SAA 4th place team being strong enough to win "a lot of conferences" tho 

There are 27 conferences.


Is a lot 9, 1/3 of the conferences.  In the past, rate the conferences would put you in the range of MASCAC, MIAA, Midwest and USA South (alphabetical order).
Is a lot 13 (half)?

That would put you in the range of American Rivers (old IIAC), MAC, NCAC, Pres AC.

(Buy Kickoff and find out how they rate the conferences.)

[MRMIKESMITH]

The league just got interesting again.

Four one-loss teams at the top of the SAA!

Berry (4-1) holds h2h tiebreaker vs Trinity, loss to B-SC

• Rhodes
• bye
• at Centre
• Austin

*win out, needs help (someone beats B-SC) for SAA's Pool A; Pool C candidate if wins out*

Birmingham-Southern (3-1) holds h2h tiebreaker vs Berry

• at Centre
• Austin
• at Trinity
• Millsaps

*win out for Pool A bid on h2h tiebreaker*

Trinity (3-1) holds h2h tiebreaker vs Austin, loss to Berry

• Sewanee
• at Hendrix
• B-SC
• at Rhodes

*Must win out, needs help (like Austin or someone else beating Berry)*

Austin (3-1) loss to Trinity

• Hendrix
• at B-SC
• Rhodes
• at Berry

*Must win out, needs Trinity to lose*

And then there are two-loss scenarios ....

All this makes for some interesting games down the stretch. I'm looking forward to following it as the season continues.

[BerryCollegeFan]

Birmingham Southern certainly has a good offense.  Running game is outstanding.  The Berry D made some good plays, but gave up 2-3 long ones that really hurt.

But Berry really helped them out with their offensive performance.  They played sloppy and just couldn't make the plays.  Had several untimely penalties that stalled the drives.  That turnover on the 3 was a bad throw that never should have been made.

You can tell the short yardage run game isn't the same without their big HB in there.  He was on crutches last game after getting hurt against Sewanee but I didn't see him on the sidelines Sat night.  Also not having #10 WR is making it easier to cover #12 and #13.  I think that makes 4 knee injuries on offense this season.  those things happen, they need to overcome.

Coaches need to figure out how to spur the offense again.   Let's see how they bounce back against Rhodes.


Also kind of surprised to see Berry fall out of the top 20, considering that other SAA teams have been ranked and received votes, I thought maybe there was more national respect for SAA.  but that drop says a lot.

[Ron Boerger]

Also kind of surprised to see Berry fall out of the top 20, considering that other SAA teams have been ranked and received votes, I thought maybe there was more national respect for SAA.  but that drop says a lot.

The SAA's reputation has been built on the strength of Berry over the last few years, to the point that nobody had B-SC on their radar.   Losing to an unranked and unknown team, and by such a large margin, resulted in the large drop.   On the podcast Pat (I think) said that a number of voters dropped Berry totally off their ballots. 

I'm sure y'all will be cheering on Trinity on in three weeks.   

[Pat Coleman]

I think also that it is as much about the fact that Berry doesn't currently have a win against anyone who is on anyone's ballot. Berry started the season at 16 and beat the preseason 20, so that moves them up a little bit based on their own performance, but the rest of it was based on other teams' attrition. You know what I mean?

[BerryCollegeFan]

Did the other top 10 teams drop off those same ballets when they lost?  I know some did, but I don't think it ended with 15 spots.  I will need to go back and look.  SAA with 4 1 loss teams is not typical for the last few seasons.

[wally_wabash]

I think also that it is as much about the fact that Berry doesn't currently have a win against anyone who is on anyone's ballot. Berry started the season at 16 and beat the preseason 20, so that moves them up a little bit based on their own performance, but the rest of it was based on other teams' attrition. You know what I mean?

Berry's win vs. Centre also loses luster when Centre loses twice more (so far). 

Did the other top 10 teams drop off those same ballets when they lost?  I know some did, but I don't think it ended with 15 spots.  I will need to go back and look.  SAA with 4 1 loss teams is not typical for the last few seasons.

I think important context would be knowing where Berry was ranked on the ballots that they fell off of.  They weren't 7 on every ballot and then just off.  I'd venture to guess that Berry fell off of ballots that were already not that high (above, say, 12 or so) on the Vikings. 

[Ron Boerger]

Did the other top 10 teams drop off those same ballets when they lost?  I know some did, but I don't think it ended with 15 spots.  I will need to go back and look.  SAA with 4 1 loss teams is not typical for the last few seasons.

In addition to Wally's comments above, you would have to also ask if the other top ten teams in question suffered a 13-point loss (even including a TD as time ran out) and had so few other "good" wins. 

The one-loss situation indicates a balanced conference, not necessarily a strong one, and is also an artifact of who's played who so far.   The good news is that Berry still IMO has a decent chance of a Pool C bid if they win out, which they should, and rankings don't mean a thing when you're in the playoffs.