All Things 2024 College Football D2 and D3 Thread

how else can they afford to pay their 6th year QB? and a 47 year old air force vet?
gotta pay to play....you and tommy boy should attend the game together!


interestingly enough the Bethel QB was a Johnnie last season. He would have been the heir to the position next year. but he has been playing lights out since the 1st johnnies game
He was 4th string, SJU's back up left school for a year to go to Central in Iowa, Cooper Downs, he was the gang leader for the scandal with the girls at the sister school, he returned after leaving one year to allow the smoke to go over and returned after his shenanigan's were highlighted on Fox news. Fasching, brought him back to be the back up QB.
 

He was 4th string, SJU's back up left school for a year to go to Central in Iowa, Cooper Downs, he was the gang leader for the scandal with the girls at the sister school, he returned after leaving one year to allow the smoke to go over and returned after his shenanigan's were highlighted on Fox news. Fasching, brought him back to be the back up QB.
We were talking about the Bethel QB. Is that who you are referring to? Your incoherent ramblings are hard to decipher.

After all your posts you are not the only one on Gopherhole who wished your kid would have been good at football….it could have spared us this nonsense.
 

We were talking about the Bethel QB. Is that who you are referring to? Your incoherent ramblings are hard to decipher.

After all your posts you are not the only one on Gopherhole who wished your kid would have been good at football….it could have spared us this nonsense.
I can only imagine how many tirades he's gone on in an ADs office.
 

I can only imagine how many tirades he's gone on in an ADs office.
His kid shows up on the first day of tryouts at SJU, puts his jockstrap on backwards and we end up getting post after post about how much he hates St, John’s. Doesn’t seem fair.
 

MIAC Football - Championship Week games (all games kick off at Noon)
(results of regular season game in ))

Championship game:
Bethel 8-1/6-1 at St. John's 9-0/7-0 (St. John's 45-20)

Concordia 6-3/5-2 at Gustavus 5-4/4-3 (did not play)
Augsburg 4-5/3-4 at St. Olaf 6-3/4-3 (Augsburg 35-34/ot)
Hamline 3-6/1-6 at Carleton 4-5/3-4 (Carleton 24-14)
Macalester 0-9/0-7 at St. Scholastica 3-6/2-5 (Scholastica 30-28)

-------------------------------
WIAC - last regular-season game

UW-Platteville 8-1/5-1 at UW-Stout 6-3/4-2
UW-Stevens Point 1-8/0-6 at UW-La Crosse 6-3/4-2
UW-Oshkosh 6-3/4-2 at UW-River Falls 6-3/3-3
UW-Whitewater 5-4/3-3 at UW-Eau Claire 2-7/1-5

---------------------------
the D3 Football Playoffs Selection Show - Sunday, 11/17 at 4:00pm CST on NCAA.com.
1st round games - Sat, 11/23
2nd round - Sat, 11/30
3rd round - Sat, 12/7
Quarterfinals - Sat, 12/14
Semifinals - Sat, 12/21 on ESPN+
Championship - Sat, 1/5 on ESPN
 


MIAC Football - Championship Week games (all games kick off at Noon)
(results of regular season game in ))

Championship game:
St. John's 41, Bethel 33

Concordia 17, Gustavus 13
St. Olaf 41, Augsburg 26
Carleton 21, Hamline 9
St. Scholastica 44, Macalester 41

final regular season records
St. John's 10-0/8-0
Bethel 8-2/6-2
Concordia 7-3/6-2
St. Olaf 7-3/5-3
Gustavus 5-5/4-4
Carleton 5-5/4-4
Augsburg 4-6/3-5
St. Scholastica 4-6/3-5
Hamline 3-7/1-7
Macalester 0-10/0-8

(in the Championship game - Aaron Syverson (SJ) 419 yds passing, 5 TD. Cooper Drews (B) 274 yds passing, 4 TD.

-------------------------------
WIAC - last regular-season game

UW-Platteville 46, UW-Stout 38
UW-La Crosse 56, UW-Stevens Point 14
UW-River Falls 28, UW-Oshkosh 14
UW-Whitewater 48, UW-Eau Claire 7

final regular-season records
UW-Platteville 9-1/6-1
UW-La Crosse 7-3/5-2
UW-River Falls 7-3/4-3
UW-Whitewater 6-4/4-3
UW-Oshkosh 6-4/4-3
UW-Stout 6-4/4-3
UW-Eau Claire 2-8/1-6
UW-Stevens Point 1-9/0-7
-------------------------------

the D3 Football Playoffs Selection Show - Sunday, 11/17 at 4:00pm CST on NCAA.com.
1st round games - Sat, 11/23
2nd round - Sat, 11/30
3rd round - Sat, 12/7
Quarterfinals - Sat, 12/14
Semifinals - Sat, 12/21 on ESPN+
Championship - Sat, 1/5 on ESPN
 

Final week of the NSIC season. Augustana lost Saturday, but still won the NSIC title as the Mavericks lost, too. It was a nice Saturday for me as well, the Dragons tore up the Marauders to clinch a winning record. Here are the full results, Minnesota teams in bold.

Results:
  • Minnesota State-Moorhead crushed Mary, 52-3
  • Minnesota Duluth defeated Minnesota State-Mankato, 30-16
  • Wayne State shutout Concordia-St. Paul, 21-0
  • Minot State ran past Winona State, 56-23
  • Sioux Falls routed Southwest Minnesota State, 41-14
  • Bemidji State edged Augustana, 17-10
Final Standings:
  • Augustana, 8-3 (8-2)*
  • Minnesota State-Mankato, 8-3 (7-3)
  • Bemidji State, 8-3 (7-3)
  • Sioux Falls, 8-3 (7-3)
  • Wayne State, 7-4 (6-4)
  • Minnesota Duluth, 7-4 (6-4)
  • Minnesota State-Moorhead, 6-5 (6-4)
  • Northern State, 6–5 (6-4)
  • Winona State, 5-6 (5-5)
  • Minot State, 5-6 (4-6)
  • Concordia-St. Paul, 2-9 (2-8)
  • University of Mary, 2-9 (1-9)
  • Southwest Minnesota State, 0-11 (0-10)
 

D3 Football - final regular-season top-25

1. North Central (ill) - 22 1st-place votes
2. Cortland (NY) - 3 1st-place votes
3. St. John's MN
4. Hardin-Simmons
5. Mount Union

7. UW-Platteville (8th last week)

11. Wartburg (n/c)

18. UW-La Crosse (20th last week)

21. Bethel (24th last week)

25. Coe (not rated last week)

dropping out - UW-Oshkosh (19th last week).
others receiving votes: UW-River Falls, UW-Stout, UW-Oshkosh, UW-Whitewater.
 




and the Bracket is out - D3 Football Playoff bracket

new format - 28 Automatic bids, 12 at-large bids = 40 teams.
8 games in the 1st round on Nov 23 - essentially a pig-tail round. the other 24 teams begin play in the 2nd round on Nov. 30.

in the Midwest - Bethel and UW-La Crosse received at-large bids.

you can see the entire bracket at D3Football.com -- the highlights:

in a 1st-round game: Northwestern-St. Paul at UW-La Crosse. the winner will play at St. John's MN in the 2nd round.

in another 1st-round game: Bethel is at Coe College. the winner will play at Lake Forest in the 2nd round.

and in a 2nd-round game on Nov. 30 - UW-Platteville at Wartburg.

all of those games are in the same quarter of the bracket - so only one of the Midwest teams (if any) will advance to the Semi-Finals.
 

UW La Crosse vs St John's will be a battle. Homefield will be huge in that matchup for the Johnnies (yes, La Crosse is going to beat Northwestern)
 

The D2 bracket has been set and three NSIC teams made the Super Region 4 section. The games set for next week are:
  • Augustana (S.D.), 8-3 Vs. Minnesota St.-Mankato, 8-3
  • Western Colorado, 10-1 Vs. Central Washington, 8-3
  • Angelo State (Tex.), 9-2 Vs. Bemidji St. (MN), 8-3
The winner of Augustana Vs. MSU-Mankato will play the No. 1 seed for the region, Colorado State-Pueblo, 10-1.

The winner of Super Region 4 will play the victor of Super Region 3. That side of the bracket has the following games:
  • Ouachita Baptist (Ark.), 10-1 Vs. Central Oklahoma, 10-1
  • Indianapolis, 10-1 Vs. Grand Valley State (Mich.) 10-1
  • Harding (Ark.), 10-1 Vs. Pittsburgh State (Kan.), 8-2
Ferris State (Mich.) is the No. 1 seed and will play the winner of Ouachita Baptist Vs. Central Oklahoma. Also, Harding is the defending National Champion.
 

and the Bracket is out - D3 Football Playoff bracket

new format - 28 Automatic bids, 12 at-large bids = 40 teams.
8 games in the 1st round on Nov 23 - essentially a pig-tail round. the other 24 teams begin play in the 2nd round on Nov. 30.

in the Midwest - Bethel and UW-La Crosse received at-large bids.

you can see the entire bracket at D3Football.com -- the highlights:

in a 1st-round game: Northwestern-St. Paul at UW-La Crosse. the winner will play at St. John's MN in the 2nd round.

in another 1st-round game: Bethel is at Coe College. the winner will play at Lake Forest in the 2nd round.

and in a 2nd-round game on Nov. 30 - UW-Platteville at Wartburg.

all of those games are in the same quarter of the bracket - so only one of the Midwest teams (if any) will advance to the Semi-Finals.
40 teams?
 



40 teams?

28 auto bid conference winners and 12 at-large picks. 24 teams get a first round bye. They expanded from a 32 team bracket previously with only 4 at-large because there's such a huge disparity in D3 conference quality. A lot of really good teams in good conferences were consistently getting locked out of the playoffs while a bunch of weak teams from weak conferences (like the UMAC) were routinely getting smoked by 40-50+ points in first round games. Most schools in good conferences hated the smaller 32-team bracket.

With the old smaller brackets, there was an incentive for conferences to break into smaller parts to allow more auto bid access (or have a conference kick out a team like St. Thomas). Hopefully the expanded brackets will stem that trend.
 

40 teams?

Yup. as I said, they play a 1st round with 8 games. it's like the "pig-tail" rounds that some larger sections use in HS basketball to narrow down the field.

so 1st round - 8 games involving 16 teams. this is mostly the at-large teams plus some of the lowest-seeded conference champs.

the 8 winners advance to the second round, joining the other 24 teams to make a 32-team bracket - and then it proceeds under a normal progression. 16 games in the 2nd round. 8 games in the 3rd round. 4 games in the Quarter-finals. and so forth.
 


If only we could do this at the FBS level...

FCS does a 24-team bracket with 10 auto bids. FBS could absolutely do it if they didn't mind watering down bowl games even more. At this point, the non-playoff bowls are already watered down so much I wouldn't be surprised if the playoffs get expanded beyond 12 if it ends up working out.
 

If only we could do this at the FBS level...
They start the playoff with 3 weeks to go in FBS season (including conference championship week)

9 Conferences with auto bids and 7 at-large would be 16. That seems doable. 24 would be max IMO.
 

They start the playoff with 3 weeks to go in FBS season (including conference championship week)

9 Conferences with auto bids and 7 at-large would be 16. That seems doable. 24 would be max IMO.
I was being a bit facetious on the 40 teams, but I think 24 like FCS does is completely reasonable.
 

I was being a bit facetious on the 40 teams, but I think 24 like FCS does is completely reasonable.
I personally don’t like it, really makes the regular season much less important, but it is coming. Maybe 3 to 5 years and we’ll have 20 or 24 team playoff
 

I personally don’t like it, really makes the regular season much less important, but it is coming. Maybe 3 to 5 years and we’ll have 20 or 24 team playoff
As a traditionalist, I'm not wild about the idea but time marches forward and not backward and so I've come around to the idea of an expanded playoff. I think a playoff correctly configured could help with parity across the CFB landscape, where it is sorely lacking now. But I'm not ready to say that each FBS conference should be an auto-bid. The reality is that FBS should consist of the Big 10, SEC, and a majority of the Big 12 and ACC. The rest belong in a separate tier. I think the Big 10, SEC and some portion of Big 12 and ACC will split off into a separate league before they'd agree to an auto-bid and required playoff games against G5 schools. All the extra games run counter to the idea of players taking fewer, rather than more, hits and the clock rules, for instance, that have been implemented. The games should therefor be meaningful and not a December or January money game.
 


In other DIII "football" news, the defending nat'l champions St. Olaf lost their second-round soccer game in a shootout against Wisconsin Superior in a bit of a controversial finish. In overtime, the ref didn't call an obvious PK against Wisconsin, and it then ended up in the shootout with the Ole's losing.

Also, Gustavus lost their second-round game as well. So that's it for MN teams in the soccer playoffs.
 

Whoops - D3 made a mistake in its bracket - Bethel will be the home team for its opening playoff game. details below:


The Division III Football Committee announced Monday that Bethel will host Coe in a first-round game of the championship tournament on Saturday.

Originally, when the NCAA Division III championship bracket was released on Sunday, Coe was listed as the host school.

After the Division III Football Committee discovered that Bethel was the higher-seeded team, both athletics departments were contacted and told of the situation. The Division III Football Committee has a best practices policy that if the higher-seeded team has its’ facility available, it can host the game.
 

Whoops - D3 made a mistake in its bracket - Bethel will be the home team for its opening playoff game. details below:


The Division III Football Committee announced Monday that Bethel will host Coe in a first-round game of the championship tournament on Saturday.

Originally, when the NCAA Division III championship bracket was released on Sunday, Coe was listed as the host school.

After the Division III Football Committee discovered that Bethel was the higher-seeded team, both athletics departments were contacted and told of the situation. The Division III Football Committee has a best practices policy that if the higher-seeded team has its’ facility available, it can host the game.

Right after the brackets were released, I saw some bewilderment online on why Bethel would be traveling to Coe. Now we know. At least the NCAA fessed up right away and corrected it.
 

As a traditionalist, I'm not wild about the idea but time marches forward and not backward and so I've come around to the idea of an expanded playoff. I think a playoff correctly configured could help with parity across the CFB landscape, where it is sorely lacking now. But I'm not ready to say that each FBS conference should be an auto-bid. The reality is that FBS should consist of the Big 10, SEC, and a majority of the Big 12 and ACC. The rest belong in a separate tier. I think the Big 10, SEC and some portion of Big 12 and ACC will split off into a separate league before they'd agree to an auto-bid and required playoff games against G5 schools. All the extra games run counter to the idea of players taking fewer, rather than more, hits and the clock rules, for instance, that have been implemented. The games should therefor be meaningful and not a December or January money game.
I feel the opposite. I think all FBS conference champions should get an auto-bid, just like awful conferences like the UMAC and Pioneer do in lower divisions.

I don't disagree that some of the G5 should be their own division, but until that happens, all the conferences should be treated equally.
 

As a traditionalist, I'm not wild about the idea but time marches forward and not backward and so I've come around to the idea of an expanded playoff. I think a playoff correctly configured could help with parity across the CFB landscape, where it is sorely lacking now. But I'm not ready to say that each FBS conference should be an auto-bid. The reality is that FBS should consist of the Big 10, SEC, and a majority of the Big 12 and ACC. The rest belong in a separate tier. I think the Big 10, SEC and some portion of Big 12 and ACC will split off into a separate league before they'd agree to an auto-bid and required playoff games against G5 schools. All the extra games run counter to the idea of players taking fewer, rather than more, hits and the clock rules, for instance, that have been implemented. The games should therefor be meaningful and not a December or January money game.
It's true and it's basically how it was for decades. I said for a long time that we practically had five divisions of college football, P5, G5, FCS, DII and DIII. FBS was pretty much separate but equal.

With that in mind, I always thought the best solution was using the auto-bid systems for the Power 5/4 and then have the rest of the playoff slots be filled by a ranking system. That way one or even two G5 schools get a shot if ranked high enough, plus if a team is upset in one of the conference title games they also still have a window to get in.
 

I feel the opposite. I think all FBS conference champions should get an auto-bid, just like awful conferences like the UMAC and Pioneer do in lower divisions.

I don't disagree that some of the G5 should be their own division, but until that happens, all the conferences should be treated equally.

I don't think D2 gives auto bids to every conference....but I'm too lazy to look it up.

In the end, bitching about playoff selections is great entertainment.
 

Bethel had to update all the social media with the correction made the next day.
 




Top Bottom