RMC 21, Shenandoah 7. Solid running by RB Mitchell Johnson (126 yds) and accurate passing (9 for 9) by QB Jake Mulhern highlight the Jackets' win.

Whatever offensive woes that have plagued Bridgewater this season didn't manifest today. The Eagles get a 51-48 win on a 36 yard FG with two seconds left.

Unsurprising results in the other two games: H-SC 73/Averett 21; W&L 47/Guilford 3.

Conference pre-season poll: https://sliac.org/news/2026/10/19/mens-basketball-gorloks-picked-as-favorites.aspx

1. Webster
2. Spalding
3. MUW
4. Lyon
5. Greenville
6. Blackburn
7. Eureka
8. Westminster
9. Principia

MUW, Lyon, and Westminster all have new coaches. Lyon, in particular, lost a bunch of players. MUW lost PoY Tray Huguley.

SLIAC https://sliac.org/news/2026/10/19/mens-basketball-gorloks-picked-as-favorites.aspx

Quote from: Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan) on October 27, 2026, 11:36:26 AMAs far as D3 schools go, if there is a five year eligibility window for athletes in the future, I wonder if this will supercharge Masters in five programs?  There's already a small push to concentrate bachelors degrees and get people out in three years to make it more affordable for students.

See bolded text above. I know nothing about trends in higher education and whether or not it's possible to do this in all disciplines. I have a neighbor whose daughter (not an athelete) is a freshman in college who chose the school she is attending because she can get a masters in accounting in five years. Perhaps this is already an emerging trend and a D3 five year eligibility rule will accelerate it, as you suggest.

Opinion piece in Inside Higher Ed,  written by the president of Misericordia, opposing the proposed five-year eligibility rule in D3: https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/views/2026/10/26/division-iii-should-reject-5-year-eligibility-opinion

RMC defense gets five interceptions and returns two for TDs in a 62-3 win over Guilford. Yellow Jacket backup players played most of the 2nd half.

H-SC, leading W&L 31-28, gets a crucial first down on 4th and 12 on the first play after the two-minute timeout, and ran out the clock for the win.

Bridgewater offense appears to have struggled again, getting shut out 17-0 at home by Shenandoah.

Roanoke had no trouble at home with Averett, winning 45-3.

^^^ No doubt I watch more RMC than you do. But also no doubt that you watch a lot more of the other top teams than I do. I have no quarrell with wherever you rank teams at any time. I was just initially curious about your reasoning re RMC and Roanoke coming into this season, given that both were in the Top 25, but not on your ballot. So, thanks for your thoughts. I do think, though, that you overestimate Robinson's impact on the team last season. For sure he was their one player with name recognition, and they don't have anyone that is a household name this season. I'm just as curious as you are to see how they stack up this season. The first four games are vs CNU, at Mary Washington, vs H-SC, and at Hood. That has the potential to be an 0-4 start.

Here's another article on the lawsuit: https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/division-iii-athletes-antitrust-case-131250732.html

This is the part that is interesting to me:

Quote
If successful, the lawsuit could expose the NCAA to billions of dollars in damages, depending on the size of the class certified, the damages period and the court's assessment of any antitrust injury. Approximately 210,000 athletes compete in D-III each year, according to the NCAA, and the plaintiffs are seeking treble damages under Section 4 of the Clayton Antitrust Act.

I have to wonder how many actual plaintiffs there are joining the class. If I'm not mistaken, every class action lawsuit needs at least one "named plaintiff". This one has three. It also makes me wonder who is really behind the suit. Were a lot of former and current D3 players sought out by someone with an axe to grind against the NCAA to join the suit and these three guys stepped up to put their names on the lawsuit? Was the possibility of money from a settlement dangled in front of them as an inducement to get them to sign on?

^^^ I certainly agree with you about pre-season polls. Interesting thought process about giving attention to lesser known programs that look to be strong. Makes sense to me. I would disagree, however, about dependence on Jabril Robinson for scoring. He averaged 12.4 ppg on a team that averaged 79.2 ppg last season. You might be right that there were few obvious second options, which is what I think made it possible for RMC to still put up nearly 80 ppg -- any one of a number of players could (and did) score. RMC is never likely to be a team with a 20+ ppg scorer with Merkle as head coach.

^^^ Yes, RMC doesn't seem to have any well-known players on the roster this season. As I was watching your video I noticed that as you were talking about each team the vast majority of them had at least one player you were high on, or a core group of returners you seemed to know something about. One team you included high on your list where you didn't really do that was Wash U, who you put at #8, I believe. This isn't the place to discuss Wash U, and I'm well aware that they are always good because I watch some of their games since I live in Saint Louis, but I view Wash U and RMC as being in similar situations this season.

D3hoops.com Top 25 has been released. RMC slots in at #7, Roanoke at #15, and H-SC gets a small number of votes, which puts them around #49 if I counted correctly. https://d3hoops.com/top25/men/2026-27/preseason

I also watched a YouTube video where Ryan Scott goes through his ballot. Interestingly, neither RMC nor Roanoke was included. Ryan, if you read this would you give us your thinking about RMC and Roanoke heading into the season. Here's a link to the video for anyone interested. https://youtu.be/izAMI3Hp6Mg?is=QLrn-XuShVavIioc

^^^ After watching Averett for an entire game on Saturday, I'm coming around to your way of viewing them. They really need to clean up the penalties and turnovers. Their conference schedule has them playing all of the better teams before getting to Guilford and Bridgewater in the final two weeks. Those last two games will more definitively reveal if they have improved over last season. They didn't even play Bridgewater last year, forfeiting that game, which was the last on their schedule.

Quote from: jknezek on October 18, 2026, 12:33:53 PM

Quote from: The Third Division on October 17, 2026, 10:18:59 PMI thought bridgewater sucked. what happened?

Have to play the game in front of you, not the one the next week. Penalties and turnovers....

With a big win over RMC and HSC looming, it was a classic trap and W&L faceplanted into it

This is sort of a twist on the conversation we were having about Averett a few weeks ago and taking every opponent seriously.

RMC with a solid 42-7 win at Averett. The Cougars did some good things, but hurt themselves with turnovers and untimely penalties.

Shenandoah holds on to down Roanoke 30-24. It was 30-17, then RC drove for a TD and subsequently got SU's offense off the field. The Maroons were putting together what looked like another TD drive but a holding penalty at around the 10 yard line with less than a minute left on second down put a damper on things and they were unable to get a 1st down or TD on the next three downs, giving SU the ball with 26 seconds left.

H-SC easily handles Guilford 64-3.

With BC's win over W&L the ODAC race just got more interesting. RMC should be okay against Guilford next week, but finishes with three tough games: at Shenandoah, home vs Roanoke, then The Game in Farmville.