Around the Nation board

[Mr. Ypsi]

With their fourth consecutive winless season, Earlham has now lost 43 games in a row.  Is that beginning to approach the record for overall futility?

If I'm not mistaken, North Park holds the record for consecutive conference losses (don't recall the number), but they usually beat at least one non-con team.

[Pat Coleman]

With their fourth consecutive winless season, Earlham has now lost 43 games in a row.  Is that beginning to approach the record for overall futility?

Yes. Macalester lost 50 consecutive games from 1974-79.

[justafan12]

I am very familiar with the D3 process in most sports except football.  My daughters both attended a D3 school without football so I am unsure of how their spring operates.  Do they have a week or two in the spring to practice with pads, etc.  Or are they not allowed contact in the spring? 

Can someone help me with some info on this?

PS I have a son transferring to play football at a D3 this spring so that is why I am wondering.

[Pat Coleman]

Some conferences impose additional restrictions but here's the base spring practice:
15 or 16 (I forget which) practice sessions. Football allowed but no pads.

If a school is making a trip out of the country over summer break, a team gets 10 padded practices to prepare for that. You can make a trip like that once every three years.

[justafan12]

Yea I found after I posted this where it came up for vote in 2015 about allowing pads in the spring.  It was voted down something like 51% to 49%.

[Ralph Turner]

http://www.d3blogs.com/d3football/

Great podcast (#233)

I believe that JHU becomes the new "Beast of the East". 

JHU has gone undefeated in Centennial Conference play 6 of the last 8 years. Coach Margraff really seemed to make this team better each week after the loss to Susquehanna.  Literally every game became a playoff game. A 2-loss JHU was not going to get an NCAA bid.

With the balance in the East making an undefeated season tough,

with JHU's geographic proximity on the east coast and within driving distance of a large portion of the AQ's around which to build a bracket,

with UMHB likely being the #1 team in the South Region rankings every season for the foreseeable future (The last time an ASC team played a Centennial Conference team in the playoffs was a 32-10 loss by Western Maryland (McDaniel) to Hardin-Simmons in the second round in 2000.)

with JHU finally getting past the second round (which they had not done since 2009)

with the questions of the difficulty in the transition of the program at Wesley that occurred with the death of Coach Drass. (I am not being insensitive. Ask me offline what happened at McMurry with the death of one of McMurry Head Coach Steve Keenum's, Case's dad, assistants. May Wesley fare much better.)

Now JHU fans can see that they have made it to the Semifinals and have a whiff of how close they are to the Stagg, even against UMU. JHU is now an even more ideal place for a student-athlete to go for football and a desirable education.

I look for JHU to become one of the perennial Top 8 powers to go very deep into the playoffs.  It will be the Blue Jays 3rd round game to lose.

[doodlesdad]

I don’t have the numbers right now but I’m guessing that would be Caltech before they gave up football.

[Gray Fox]

I don’t have the numbers right now but I’m guessing that would be Caltech before they gave up football.

Caltech "Retired" Sports - Caltech
www.gocaltech.com › information › RetiredSports
Beginning in 1969, the football team competed against a variety of junior varsity, club and recreation teams until the program was officially retired in 1993. Caltech ...

https://www.gocaltech.com/information/RetiredSports/YearByYearResults.pdf
They had occasional wins, but I'm not sure they were against varsity teams.

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

Keystone truly are Giants today as they get their first win after starting football last year and had lost their first 16 games. They hold on for a 41-39 win over Anna Maria.

[wally_wabash]

I was really happy to see them get that win.  Coach Higgins and Kevin Lewis were great to talk to last September.  They've got a good chance in at least two of their final three games as well so they may not be done winning in 2022. 

[Ralph Turner]

...SUNY-Maritime at Keystone game, ... taking the opportunity to see two teams I've never seen before and get back to making progress toward seeing all Division III football programs at least once in person. I've seen 174 programs in person, although 13 of them are no longer open or at least no longer in Division III.

Major League ballplayers get to count the stadia in which they played even tho' the club may have built a new one.

In your 25 seasons of D3football.com, whom did you miss that you will not ever see?

Thanks

[Pat Coleman]

I never saw Becker and Mount Ida, which have since closed. Have not seen Colorado College or Earlham, which are currently defunct football programs.

The 13 programs: Louisiana College, St. Thomas, Wesley, Blackburn, Mississippi College, Maranatha Baptist, Presentation, Principia, Frostburg State, Thomas More, Occidental, MacMurray, Swarthmore.

[Cowboy2]

Sports-Center top 10 plays this morning had a couple of D3 shout outs!

#8 - Cortland Ithaca
#3 - Mount Union

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

Didn't know where else to put this. Rex Ryan saying LA Chargers head coach Brandon Staley should "go back to division 3 football where he belongs". Staley was defensive line coach & special teams coach in 2009 at St Thomas and spent 2013 and 2015-16 at John Carroll as defensive coordinator & secondary coach

https://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=38943711