D3football.com » D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast

If it seemed like all the good games were clustered in one time zone on Saturday, well, yeah, you’re right. The 1 p.m. ET games featured some great finishes, with onside kicks coming minutes apart and a double overtime game coming down to the wire. Hear the end of the Illinois Wesleyan-Wabash game (thanks to Wabash’s broadcast), as well as the Coe player who returned two turnovers for touchdowns and get a report from the Thomas More-DePauw game. Plus, Keith McMillan and Pat Coleman report on the games they covered and break down the rest of the brackets. What did Case Western Reserve and Monmouth have in common? Who had the biggest letdown of the first round? Where is the success concentrated in the playoffs? And looking further down the road, is there a team that can prevent a fifth Mount Union/UW-Whitewater matchup? There’s that and more in this week’s Around the Nation Podcast. Click the play button below to listen. You can load the podcast page in iTunes or can also get this and any of our future Around the Nation podcasts automatically by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://www.d3football.com/dailydose/?feed=podcast

Thirty-two teams, 16 games and one fairly controversial Pool C decision. What does the selection of Washington and Jefferson mean for future NCAA playoffs? What message does it send to coaches who want to schedule to help their teams get into the tournament? I think it’s fair to say Keith McMillan and Pat Coleman are more than a little concerned. Plus, Keith and Pat break down the entire bracket and talk about all 16 first-round games, including the fact that one bracket has the No. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10 teams in the country in it? If only it had No. 1 and No. 2, it would be a men’s basketball bracket. Yes, truth be told, it could be worse. That’s why we’re not calling it a Bracket of Death. But it’s a great bracket, with four games between teams that all have a legitimate chance of winning first-round games. That makes this a long podcast, but hopefully worth it. At least if you’re a fan of a playoff team. Or the playoffs in general. Click the play button below to listen. You can load the podcast page in iTunes or can also get this and any of our future Around the Nation podcasts automatically by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://www.d3football.com/dailydose/?feed=podcast

Joy Solomen sat down with In the HuddLLe (two L’s for Liberty League, don’t ask) to talk about the Division III playoff bracket, how it was put together, and ask some of the tough questions from Frank Rossi, Pat Coleman and James Baker about the selections. It’s an interesting conversation that any Division III fan who wants to understand the NCAA’s thought process should really listen to. Click the play button below to listen. You can load the podcast page in iTunes or can also get this and any of our future Around the Nation podcasts automatically by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://www.d3football.com/dailydose/?feed=podcast

Thirty-two playoff spots. Twelve are secure. How will the other 20 shake out? That’s the focus of this week’s Around the Nation podcast. Some conferences are easy to figure, with head-to-head games lined up to decide who takes home the automatic bid. Some are a little complicated, including the potential four-way tie in the Centennial and the Northern Athletics Conference. And then there’s the at-large bids. We identified up to 14 teams that could get consideration for Pool C bids. Problem is, there’s just six spots to go around. Who? When? And where can you get the selection show? Yeah, that’s important. And that’s why we lead off this most important week of the Division III football season with this Around the Nation podcast. Click the play button below to listen. You can load the podcast page in iTunes or can also get this and any of our future Around the Nation podcasts automatically by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://www.d3football.com/dailydose/?feed=podcast

Four teams clinched. A couple teams played their way out of at-large bids. A few new quarterbacks took the field and the PAC had a … wait, a not-so-new champion. Suddenly, it seems Washington and Jefferson has lost more PAC championships than it’s won over the past five years. What happened? That’s one of many topics Keith McMillan and Pat Coleman take on in this week’s Around the Nation podcast. In addition, get their take on the first regional rankings and a look at how they might change. Find out how a backup quarterback prepares and gets prepared for being thrust into the lineup, and how it makes a difference for everyone else on the offense. We pick up on a handful of teams that are flying below the radar but still having surprisingly strong seasons. Plus, a look back at Dome Day and Maine Maritime’s record rushing day. Click the play button below to listen. You can load the podcast page in iTunes or can also get this and any of our future Around the Nation podcasts automatically by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://www.d3football.com/dailydose/?feed=podcast

You had to get here pretty early in the morning to follow what might well end up being the most exciting game of the week. In the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference’s annual Dome Day, MacMurray and Crown led off with a track meet. MacMurray defeated Crown 68-62 in overtime. The game came one score from tying the Division III record for most points in regulation, which was 131, set when Earlham defeated Manchester 69-62 on Sept. 10, 2005. Once the game got to overtime, the overall scoring record was in danger as well, which was set two years ago, when Hartwick beat Utica 72-70 in quadruple overtime on Nov. 10, 2007. In the end, though, MacMurray came up with one stop in overtime. I spoke with MacMurray coach Jake Box after the game and the recording is below: The UMAC has four more games here today, and then we have a hundred more on Saturday, so we’re already set to go. There’s a big game in Washington, Pa., one in Dover, Del., one in Union, N.J., one in Bloomington, Ill., and others elsewhere. The PAC automatic bid could be wrapped up on Saturday, as can the HCAC, IIAC and the MWC, while others could be clinched with a combination of a win and a loss. The ever-traveling Craig Burroughs is here at Dome Day, who writes for Don Hansen and travels to more games than the entire D3football.com braintrust put together. (Well, close anyway. Between me, Keith, Gordon and Ryan Tipps I think we do out-do Craig, but not by much. We don’t usually see JV games and we don’t go to non-Division III games either.) I’ll put more MacMurray-Crown observations in the comments.

It’s the time of year where playoff implications abound. Where conference races begin to make sense. Where it’s no time for a letdown, but occasionally it’s time for a wake-up call. The wake-up call? That was for Centre, which got shut out by Millsaps. No letdown? That’s Wittenberg and Mississippi College. Playoff implications, all over the place, for sure. Also, we haven’t talked about Pool B very much this year, and Keith McMillan and I explain why in this week’s Around the Nation podcast. Click the play button below to listen. You can load the podcast page in iTunes or can also get this and any of our future Around the Nation podcasts automatically by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://www.d3football.com/dailydose/?feed=podcast Also, check out Otterbein’s video of their final touchdown.

A few conference races came into focus. A few big plays decided a few big games. And we march ever closer to Selection Sunday. Keith McMillan and Pat Coleman break down the games and look at the big numbers, from 297 to 12,903. Click the play button below to listen. You can load the podcast page in iTunes or can also get this and any of our future Around the Nation podcasts automatically by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://www.d3football.com/dailydose/?feed=podcast

A handful of voters switched their No. 1 vote this week, giving UW-Whitewater six nods for the top spot compared to Mount Union’s 19. But what do we make of Mount Union’s close win at Capital? What does history tell us about past Purple Raider teams? Keith McMillan and Pat Coleman discuss that and more in this week’s Around the Nation podcast. Click the play button below to listen. You can load the podcast page in iTunes or can also get this and any of our future Around the Nation podcasts automatically by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://www.d3football.com/dailydose/?feed=podcast

Sure, the D3football.com Top 25 teams went 25-0 on Saturday. We’re happy about that, don’t get me wrong. But that doesn’t mean the Top 25 is perfect, or that the right 25 teams are ranked, at least not in my mind and Keith’s mind. We’re five weeks into the 2009 season. But are some teams still getting votes from some voters based on what they did in 2008? In a sense, that’s unavoidable — I mean, we all put Mount Union and UW-Whitewater up high on our ballot because of what they did in 2008 … and 2007 … and 2006 … well, anyway, you get the idea. See, that’s the paradox of voting in a Top 25 ranking. Some things make sense in some cases, but no single rule works for all teams and all comparisons. So why is Willamette ranked ahead of Concordia-Moorhead despite the Week 1 loss? Or, more extreme, why is Ohio Northern behind North Central? Keith and I will try to make some sense of it all in this week’s Around the Nation Podcast. Oh, plus, one of the two podcasters changed his No. 1 vote this week. Who and why? You’ll have to listen. Click the play button below to listen. You can load the podcast page in iTunes or can also get this and any of our future Around the Nation podcasts automatically by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://www.d3football.com/dailydose/?feed=podcast

By this point in the season, it’s hard to call teams flukes, and teams that have gone above and beyond what we expected of them have to be dubbed something else, perhaps surprise teams. If you’ve played three or four games and are undefeated, that’s one thing. If you’ve knocked off a team that was believed to be better than you are, that’s what makes you a surprise. But can we believe in you? That’s another question. Most of these teams have yet to play the best team on their schedule. How will they hold up as the road gets tougher? That’s what Keith McMillan and I tackle in this week’s Around the Nation podcast. We look at more than a dozen teams with the goal of answering one simple question: sold or not sold? One team we didn’t touch on in the podcast is St. Norbert. I would have to go with not sold, for the moment, waiting for the Monmouth game on the road to find out more. Hopefully Keith will weigh in in the comments section. Click the play button below to listen. You can load the podcast page in iTunes or can also get this and any of our future Around the Nation podcasts automatically by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://www.d3football.com/dailydose/?feed=podcast

Keith McMillan and Pat Coleman each picked up some frequent flyer miles and logged hundreds of miles behind the wheel in search of new Division III football frontiers, with Keith finding his in Western New York and Pat bumming around Southern California. Not that either had time to breathe, taking in about 18 total quarters of football between the two of them this weekend. The gurus evaluate their trip, talk about where they saw good game-day atmospheres and more (you know, on the rest of the games) in this week’s Around the Nation podcast. Click the play button below to listen. You can load the podcast page in iTunes or can also get this and any of our future Around the Nation podcasts automatically by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://www.d3football.com/dailydose/?feed=podcast

One of the things for us about traveling a long distance for a game is that it’s like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates. We get on an airplane for a highly touted matchup and sometimes it becomes a rout pretty early on. And that’s not just in Alliance, Ohio. But Keith McMillan’s trip to Boston got him a thriller, and a chance to see the NEFC in action for the first time, as Widener traveled to Curry. The game came down to the final play, and you can hear more about it, plus hear from the winning coach in this week’s podcast. Pat Coleman’s much shorter trip resulted in a thrilling finish as well, as UW-Eau Claire gave up an intentional touchdown to get the ball back and nearly made St. John’s pay for it before falling 35-27. Hear St. John’s quarterback Joe Boyle’s reaction as he realized the Blugolds were letting his teammate head into the end zone without opposition. Of course, those weren’t the only games which happened this weekend. Keith and Pat talk about scheduling with some chutzpah, a sleeper team that’s getting its offense together and how all the upsets this week affect Top 25 considerations and beyond. Click the play button below to listen. You can load the podcast page in iTunes or can also get this and any of our future Around the Nation podcasts automatically by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://www.d3football.com/dailydose/?feed=podcast

Sometimes things get clearer, sometimes they get more muddy. Saturday’s two big upsets gave us one of each. Readers of the Triple Take might have suspected Willamette would lose — they were picked as one of the most likely Top 25 upsets — but nobody even bothered to raise the possibility Ohio Northern might beat North Central. Is that what happens when a coach gets all offseason to game plan for one game? Or has the personnel and talent shifted so much between the programs in question? Keith McMillan and Pat Coleman discuss that, and much, much more in this week’s first Around the Nation podcast. Click the play button below to listen. You can load the podcast page in iTunes or can also get this and any of our future Around the Nation podcasts automatically by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://www.d3football.com/dailydose/?feed=podcast  

No, this isn’t a listing of the 238 teams in order — only Kickoff subscribers get that. But Keith McMillan and I thought it might be interesting to take you guys through the process of how we rank teams, discuss why we do so, and the like. Why do some teams make big jumps from where they ended last year to where they start this year? How do you rank a brand-new team anywhere but last? Why do you guys like Panera Bread so much? We answer those questions and more in the 2009 season’s first Around the Nation podcast. For those of you who are new, Keith and I sit down, usually by phone, every week and wrap up the week that was, spotlighting the interesting trends and giving you our first analysis of the past week’s games. On Saturday and Sunday we report the news; on Monday we analyze it in the Around the Nation Podcast. You can load the podcast page in iTunes or can also get this and any of our future Around the Nation podcasts automatically by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://www.d3football.com/dailydose/?feed=podcast Or you can click the play button below to listen.