Around the Mid-Atlantic board

Started by Ryan Tipps, May 05, 2009, 09:32:23 PM

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hasanova

Quote from: HSC85 on September 27, 2009, 07:12:03 PM
Hasa,

I was at that game and I think there were 15 combined touchdowns scored. 
Correct, HSC85.  It was 56-49.

HSC85

Ryan,

Thanks for the article about Gettysburg and Coach Streeter.  In a bit of irony,  I played at HSC against Gettysburg in the early 80's and now my son is playing at HSC and he has played against a Gettysburg team coached by Coach Streeter the past 3 years.  Division III has many good stories of lifetime committments to schools, teaching and coaching.  Thank you for bringing us some of these stories. 

Ryan Tipps

It's almost the end of September, and this is the year's first post in this thread. For that, I apologize. But now that I have the opportunity, I want to use this thread for the primary purpose it was intended -- to supplement elements and points raised in my Around the Mid-Atlantic column.

This week, I wrote about the Division III players who were nominated to one of the two Allstate ACFC Good Works Teams. The voting panel says that the purpose of the teams is to tell the stories of college football players who do good in their communities.

But I question whether they mean the stories of the most marketable players.

Division I-FBS is the smallest college division there is -- both in terms of number of teams and number of athletes competing. Of the 50,000 football players in the NCAA, most are in Divisions I-FCS, II and III.

So why then are the Good Works Teams divided into two final teams, one for those major FBS schools and one for everyone else?

Of the 112 players nominated this year, slightly less than half came from Division I-FBS. But they get their own team all to themselves. Has this been the way it was for the whole 19 years of the Good Works Team? If so, it sounds like a money/marketing-driven decision.

And, I haven't done the proper research on this next point, but I would wager a guess that students at the "lower" divisions are a lot more focused on community affairs than are the scholarship athletes whose "football lives" pretty much make up their entire lives. So, the typical Division III player who does good in his community has to compete not only against the other athletes in the largest division in college football, but he also has to go up against players from two other divisions.

Fairness, please show yourself if you're out there.

In a perfect world, there would be a separate team for athletes at each division. At the very least, though, I would like to see a team for the Division I-FBS and FCS athletes and then another for the Division II and III athletes.

This year, only one Division III athlete made the final team. In the past, we usually land four or five of the spots -- a disproportionately good showing by the high-caliber of students we have at this level.

Perhaps I'm reading too much into how the teams are divided. I do appreciate that there is an entity out there that honors players' off-field achievements. That is a great thing, so thank you Allstate and ACFC. I want to be absolutely sincere on that point.

But would it be so bad to tweak the system just a little?
D3football.com Senior Editor and Around the Nation columnist. On Twitter: @NewsTipps

2.7 seconds. An average football player may need more time to score; a great one finds a way. I've seen greatness happen.

Pat Coleman

Todd Bell, longtime PR director at the AFCA, was a Division III grad and it seemed that D-III was always pretty well taken care of at the AFCA offices (poll accuracy issues aside). However, he left the job this past season. I fear that Division III doesn't have a good advocate on the AFCA staff anymore.
Publisher. Questions? Check our FAQ for D3f, D3h.
Quote from: old 40 on September 25, 2007, 08:23:57 PMLet's discuss (sports) in a positive way, sometimes kidding each other with no disrespect.

Ryan Tipps

That's unfortunate to hear, Pat. You'd think we'd get some love in part because of Kehres' role at the ACFC. (though I'll admit that I don't know how hands-on vs. ceremonial the ACFC presidency is)

I had actually contacted the Allstate rep for the Good Works Team to run my questions by him, but he never returned my call or email.

D3football.com Senior Editor and Around the Nation columnist. On Twitter: @NewsTipps

2.7 seconds. An average football player may need more time to score; a great one finds a way. I've seen greatness happen.

Pat Coleman

AFCA, remember, not ACFC. :)

I don't know how hands-on the role is but he's obviously not in the AFCA offices in Waco when those decisions are being made.
Publisher. Questions? Check our FAQ for D3f, D3h.
Quote from: old 40 on September 25, 2007, 08:23:57 PMLet's discuss (sports) in a positive way, sometimes kidding each other with no disrespect.

Ryan Tipps

Quote from: Pat Coleman on September 23, 2010, 09:09:12 PM
AFCA, remember, not ACFC. :)

Dang, screwed that up in my original post, too. This may not bode well for my night's editing at the newspaper....  :-[
D3football.com Senior Editor and Around the Nation columnist. On Twitter: @NewsTipps

2.7 seconds. An average football player may need more time to score; a great one finds a way. I've seen greatness happen.

PantherFan

It was a great article, Ryan, and nice that the two boys were at least recognized in your column.

Ryan Tipps

Quote from: PantherFan on September 24, 2010, 09:58:19 PM
It was a great article, Ryan, and nice that the two boys were at least recognized in your column.

Thanks, PF. :)
D3football.com Senior Editor and Around the Nation columnist. On Twitter: @NewsTipps

2.7 seconds. An average football player may need more time to score; a great one finds a way. I've seen greatness happen.

Ryan Tipps

#54
Toward the end of the regular season over the past two years, we start seeing Keith mention here and there in his Around the Nation column about the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year award.

What's interesting this season is that five of the top 15 vote-getters right now are Mid-Atlantic coaches. This group of 15 will be whittled down to five finalists that will be voted on by a committee, but kudos to the coaches (and the voters) who have lauded so many from this region for the national award.

So far, we're seeing:
John Troxell, Franklin and Marshall
Jim Sypult, Methodist
Mike Drass, Wesley
Mike Dunlevy, Averett
Marty Favret, Hampden-Sydney

Much like the Gagliardi Trophy, the Liberty Mutual award incorportates more than just on-field success. I applaud these coaches and all of those who go beyond the gridiron to improve their communities.
D3football.com Senior Editor and Around the Nation columnist. On Twitter: @NewsTipps

2.7 seconds. An average football player may need more time to score; a great one finds a way. I've seen greatness happen.

SafetyGuy

Thought I share the response of my local paper to my request for press coverage of DIII.


"We struggle to provide a level of coverage of D-I (FBS and FCS) that readers tell us they want. In the past month, I have had requests for more coverage of the following: the SEC, the ACC, ECU, Virginia, James Madison, William and Mary, Navy ... those are the ones that come to mind. Heck, I get requests for CIAA coverage (DII) as well.  If nos. of local kids playing at a school were a prime coverage criteria, we would be covering Longwood field hockey; they have something like 9 players from here on the team. (I kid, of course, but you get the point.) One big thing working against us with DIII: The wire services that provide routine coverage of all FBS and some FCS schools do not provide anything on DIII. We have to go chasing web sites on Sat. just to get enough info. to put 2-3 sentences on games into the paper.
We also use a college notebook that runs every other Wednesday to catch up with locals playing DIII sports. Some schools are good about sending us info.; some are not.
I wish I could promise a dramatic shift in our coverage of DIII, knowing it would satisfy your interest, but I'm afraid that's not realistic in an environment of shrinking staff and news space.
Keep an eye out for the notebook, though, and you may see schools/names you recognize there. It's the best I can offer."

Ryan Tipps

#56
Safetyguy, Thanks for sharing that. Being that my full-time job is in the newspaper business (and has been for more than a decade), I am all too familiar with that mentality.

A counterpoint you could send their way would be to note how many locally generated stories the paper you mentioned puts on its front page. These days of the Internet, more and more newspapers are becoming driven by local content because that's the stuff that's not widely available online. National and international news are always a click away on Yahoo News, CNN.com, etc. Local council news or anything like that has to be generated by local papers.

Obviously, you're in Virginia. Unless the paper you mentioned is The Virginian-Pilot out of Norfolk, the Times-Dispatch from Richmond, or The Roanoke Times, I'd bet you have a pretty heavy local front page. The question then is: Why doesn't that local push translate to the sports sections? Why put these big SEC stories in a paper in this region when that information is so easily found online? To stay viable, newspapers needs to embrace local sports at the collegiate level and put their resources toward them. Many -- nay, most -- do not.

I could speak to the benefit that that gives us at D3football.com, since it helps keep us as the No. 1 source in the small-college market. :) But there is always a lot of great news out there (more than we can likely cover) , and the efforts we put into this are largely for the students and the coaches and to give them their due support and respect. It would be nice to see them get that kind of support from their own area media.
D3football.com Senior Editor and Around the Nation columnist. On Twitter: @NewsTipps

2.7 seconds. An average football player may need more time to score; a great one finds a way. I've seen greatness happen.

Ryan Tipps

About a month ago, I noted that five Mid-Atlantic coaches are high in the running for the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Award. They were:

Quote from: Ryan Tipps on October 13, 2010, 06:59:47 PM
John Troxell, Franklin and Marshall
Jim Sypult, Methodist
Mike Drass, Wesley
Mike Dunlevy, Averett
Marty Favret, Hampden-Sydney

Well, now we're seeing those same names (in a slightly different order) in the Top 10 of vote-getters. And by the time next week rolls around, I will have interviewed everyone on this list in some fashion this season. Take a look back to see what they had to say about themselves and their teams.

There is a little more than three weeks left in the voting. And the Mid-Atlantic is represented well! Kudos to the coaches on this list!
D3football.com Senior Editor and Around the Nation columnist. On Twitter: @NewsTipps

2.7 seconds. An average football player may need more time to score; a great one finds a way. I've seen greatness happen.

Ryan Tipps

The new season is right around the corner, and that means weekly updates from the Mid-Atlantic and other areas. I wanted to take this opportunity to put out a request for any story ideas you might like to see this year. Send them my way!

You all know your home teams and know the stories behind some of these kids and coaches. I've got a handful of ideas in the cooker, but more are always better :)

Post them here or email me by clicking here.

Good luck to all teams for a healthy season!!
D3football.com Senior Editor and Around the Nation columnist. On Twitter: @NewsTipps

2.7 seconds. An average football player may need more time to score; a great one finds a way. I've seen greatness happen.

Ralph Turner

How NNA adjusted to the dissolution of the ACFC.