I don't know how I did it, but the 3rd Division youtube channel had a thing you could click on that adds all d3 football teams to Google maps and seeing the different conference logos on the map was astounding...basically below the Mason-Dixon line there doesn't seem to be much geographic continuity amongst conferences.  Theyre all spread out and intermixed. 

Could be because there are NAIA schools mixed in and every school wasnt looking to make a new conference at the same time when they transitioned. But i cant imagine that egos and "i dont want to play those people" is worth adding a few zeros to your travel budgets to drive past 3 schools to play another school for conference play.

Taking a 8+ hour road trip for football is one thing, where you can miss a few classes after noon on Friday, stay overnight and play on Saturday, but what do these schools do for a volleyball game on a Tuesday, or a tennis/golf meet on a Thursday...thats who I feel sorry for.  I appreciate there are some more schools to fill schedules in non-football sports, but having multiple long roadtrips would be a burden on recruiting for me.

Well I went down a rabbit hole a bit after I saw Central's schedule and checked Google maps to see some of the crazy long roadtrips teams make, I have a few questions for the D3 nerds out there with more free time...

Not counting the Pacific Northwest and California teams, what are the longest roadtrips for teams coming up next year?

What is the longest conference road trip each year?

P.S. I'm never complaining about driving 3.5 hours to Nebraska Wesleyan after seeing 3 10+ hour drives IN CONFERENCE for Belhaven.

Quote from: DriftlessDuhawk on March 24, 2026, 09:49:29 AMWhile I totally agree with you on the front that the Wartburg/Coe "rivalry" is rather forced wouldn't most Central fans say that the team they need to beat is Simpson? Not a Central/Simpson fan or alum but that is the sentiment that had received when talking to fans/alums from those schools.

Now I have heard some stories from some older Luther alums about their distaste for "that orange school". I'm not sure how alive that rivalry is in most sports due to the one sided nature and the new conference realignment move.

I kind of depends on what time frame you are sampling...I've been a Wartburg/IIAC/ARC fan since the mid 90s and for Wartburg Fans the rivalries were 1. Luther 2. Central 3. Upper Iowa 4. Dubuque (mostly just hate for the former HC Stan)

Most of the Central folks in my generation would usually say 1. William Penn 2. Wartburg 3. Simpson

The Simpson/Central game was kind of elevated to replace the William Penn rivalry but has yet to really get the passion from Central fans (at least that's how I've been told)

PS because college kids are college kids, one of the best rivalries in all of college sports used to be Upper Iowa/BVU...because of the cheers and chants coming from both student sections it was affectionately known as the "Porn Bowl"...a play on the school nicknames, Iowa location, and double entendre cheers from the student sections...it was peak mid 90s pop culture.

Quote from: DriftlessDuhawk on March 23, 2026, 04:56:40 PMCouple more conference team's schedules have been released.

https://duhawks.com/sports/football/schedule

Loras starts with St Olaf which is a new opponent for the Duhawks but should be familiar to our new coach coming from St Johns. Loras fills its noncon with NW (MN) as discussed previously (11 AM kick off??). They follow that up with another game against Benedictine which has developed into a decent little noncon rivalry. And I enjoy that the key game will be the last game of the year. The ARC appears to be doing "rivalry week" to end the year.

https://simpsonathletics.com/sports/fball/2026-27/schedule

Simpson as mentioned will play Howard Payne in Frisco Texas which should be a fun cross regional game and a good experience for the student athletes. Simpson the will return home and homes with Crown and Augustana. Simpson will finish the year with conference rival Central for rivalry week. 

https://bvuathletics.com/sports/football/schedule

BV starts the season returning a home and home with Benedictine (lost 35-0 last season). They then have two new teams on their schedule with Lawrence and Minnesota-Morris. I would imagine the Beavers would be favorites in both of these games as Lawrence went winless last year and had to forfeit a game due to low numbers. Minnesota Morris went 3-7 in the UMAC last year. They will end the season with rival (?) Nebraska Wesleyan. I'm not sure if NWU and BV actually consider each other rivals or if they are just the last two single kids who didn't get asked to the dance and chose to go together.

This leaves Coe/Wartburg as the last set of "rivals". Both of them have more traditional rivals who have both left the league in pursuit of "more academic peer institutions". I do think that Coe and Wartburg have started to develop a nice rivalry as the two schools are not far from each other and both have been fairly competitive across most sports so I think it works.

Calling Coe/Wartburg a rivalry might be a bit of a stretch...I define a "Rival" as someone you want to beat no matter the season records...and it helps when both sides of the rivalry have the same passion about the game...nothing against Coe, but i think if you asked 100 Wartburg and Central grads, all 100 would say that if they could only beat 1 team every year, it would be Wartburg or Central.

Quote from: Patrick Coleman on February 16, 2026, 12:18:56 PM

Quote from: MediaGuy on February 16, 2026, 12:04:46 PMhttps://go-knights.net/news/2026/2/16/knights-2026-football-schedule-revealed.aspx

I've known about this for a while, but now hopefully Wartburg can boast the toughest schedule in D3 Football next year.  Monmouth, North Central and River Falls, plus Central and Coe in conference play...gonna be a wild ride...and im gonna be pretty sick of seeing red and white on the other sideline.

Thanks. We've known about those three for a bit as well -- do you have any insight on game times? I don't usually add a schedule to the website where all the times are TBA.

https://d3football.com/teams/Wartburg/2026/index

I know the Wartburg coaches aren't big fans of night games, and I can't imagine either North Central or River Falls wants to get home on Sunday so I would assume theyre both Noon local kickoffs

https://go-knights.net/news/2026/2/16/knights-2026-football-schedule-revealed.aspx

I've known about this for a while, but now hopefully Wartburg can boast the toughest schedule in D3 Football next year.  Monmouth, North Central and River Falls, plus Central and Coe in conference play...gonna be a wild ride...and im gonna be pretty sick of seeing red and white on the other sideline.

Quote from: NCC2010 on February 05, 2026, 04:32:49 PMUSee beat me to it...what a great schedule for NCC.  2 years in a row homecoming against Wheaton sure is something.  Bethel and Wartburg to start the season also is great, wish they had the opportunity for 2 OOC games every year...

Let your radio kids know that since ESPN isnt taking up 3 booths in the pressbox, they should have a nice spot to do the game this trip...unlike last time NC came to Waverly.

Quote from: CarollFan on February 06, 2026, 07:22:09 PMMWC 2026 composite schedule. Change the date range to 2026 looks like Illinois College @ Elmhurst.

Wartburg vs. Monmouth looks like Monmouth embracing the stronger competition. Although I see they played last year too.


https://midwestconference.org/calendar.aspx?path=football

Wartburg and Monmouth have played each other in the first game of the season almost every year since the mid 2010's...its grown to a nice test for both teams and gives a good barometer for what to expect

I just learned that in the year 2000, Wartburg Mens Basketball beat UCF in what seems to have been an exhibition game in Florida and feel bad since i was on campus at the time and dont even remember.  Anyway, since its the off-season and I love stories like this I thought I'd ask the group...what is your schools best "beating a bigger school" moment from any sport?

(And im not counting a win over Iowa Teachers College in 1949)

This is more of a question for Pat, but i'd also like some input from you guys as well...What is stopping the ARC from putting in a bid to host the National Championship game at the UNI-Dome?  I have heard a few objections, but I think that the venue is honestly better than the places we've played the game recently (Texas and Maryland)

Here are reasons why I think its a great place to host...
1.  Indoor facility that isn't too big.  Let's be honest, this year's game could draw the biggest crowd in Championship history and Hall of Fame Stadium (seats 22,000) would still be half full.  It's so hard to play with energy in a 1/3 full stadium, and it's not the best look on TV.  UNI-Dome seats a little over 16,000 and if you watch the Iowa High School Playoffs, even a crowd of 5000-6000 can look pretty full and get really loud in the stadium.  One of the best parts of playing at D3 is the intimate stadiums, with crowds that are loud and a part of the game.  When you play in an over-sized stadium, you lose the crowd involvement and also it looks bad to see a (relatively) small number of fans surrounded by a sea of empty seats.

2. Waterloo/Cedar Falls has a local airport which can handle large aircraft and is also only 45 minutes from the Cedar Rapids Airport and metro area.  Fans and teams should be able to get affordable flights and plenty of hotels and food/entertainment within an 15-60 min drive of the UNI-Dome. 

3. UNI-Dome is an FCS facility, so they already have the media/pressbox/power and multimedia set-up to accommodate the needs of D3 football.

4. UNI-Dome is easily drive-able for ARC, Midwest, WIAC, MIAA and CCIW fan bases.  I think there would be a great crowd of people who would attend an indoor game, within a 4-5 hr drive around xmas break from all those conferences, along with the fact that there would be a pretty good chance that a team from one or more of those conferences could be playing in the game.  I know that even if Johns Hopkins was playing UMU, or Cortland was playing Berry, fans from the midwest conferences listed above and the ARC in particular, would love to see a high level football game, and see how these teams "from out east" look compared to the teams around here.

The only reason I can think of for UNI to not want to host it would be if there would be a possible scheduling issue with an FCS playoff game, or if they don't want to cover-up/change the midfield logo (which runs from 35 yard line-35 yard line).

I just think it's a good sized field, indoors and has access to all the other outside things you need to host a big game like that and would draw a larger (local) crowd than the recent games in Texas and Maryland and make for a more impressive final game experience for players, fans and TV viewers.

PS...I still like the old Salem stadium for the historic aspect, but I also like that the UNI-Dome is indoors and weather would not be a factor.

Thoughts...?

Quote from: Pat Coleman on November 13, 2025, 09:17:43 AM

Quote from: MediaGuy on November 12, 2025, 10:07:50 PMThe NCAA just announced that home teams will have the discretion to implement video replay review in the playoffs up until the semi finals...I'd like to point out that  having the equipment to do replay doesn't mean anything if the camera operators aren't professional and disciplined.  I've watched hundreds of hours of d3 video feeds over the last few years and well over 90% of them have not had either cameras in position or operators disciplined enough to capture video that gives me any more insight to what happened on the field than the trusted real time view of an official who is in position.
Also officials call the game differently when they know there is replay because they dont want an inadvertent whistle to call a play dead when they shouldn't...and when the replay cameras aren't in position or dont capture the play correctly, there will be plays that are extended when they shouldn't be.
Long post short...the replays we see on ESPN in the semifinals and finals are captured by professional camera operators who do this for a living...and most d3 games, even at top schools are produced by student workers...In my opinion this will result in more inaccurate officiating unless professional camera crews are implemented...I'd rather the NCAA spend money on more flights and a true seeded bracket.

Why would it result in more inaccurate officiating? If the angle doesn't show anything, then it doesn't show anything -- it doesn't make officiating less accurate if the replay is unusable.

SJU fans should understand, if nothing else, the benefit of having immediate replay review of a targeting call. And that's something we talked about in our interview with the NCAA committee chair when we chatted about this very issue a couple of weeks ago.

https://www.d3blogs.com/d3football/2025/10/29/atn-podcast-393-a-chat-with-the-chair-2025-style/

First of all, I have no problem with using replay to review targeting, as that is something that can be game changing and unfairly punish a kid for a call where the official isn't in a great position to make the call in real time.  But that can be done already with the ipads on the sideline the coaches have to review gametape in real time.

My concern is that officials start to rely on replay when there isn't a reliable replay to see.  I hope I'm wrong, I hope that the games are continued to be officiated just like we have seen in the semi's and finals for the last 10 years.  But if the officiating starts to look more like the NFL or FBS football, where officials don't call a runner down on close plays...or don't whistle a questionable pass incomplete or don't call a touchdown or first down because they think they have a reliable replay to check then I'm skeptical that this is a good option.

I'd like to have seen the data from the conferences who have been using replay all year and see how they have been making it work, what problems there are, how they fix them before just announcing 10 days before playoff games that it is an option...It just feels rushed and not thought through.  Kind of like cancelling a game in the 3rd due to weather and then making up a score not thinking about how it will affect NPI or tiebreakers later.

Like I said, I hope I'm wrong.  I wish there was replay in the Alma/Hope game earlier this year, I hope there is the ability to review targeting in real time to make sure they get the call right, I hope there is a system in place to make sure there aren't egregious, obvious errors in playoff games. 

All I'm saying is that as long as the officials don't change the way they are currently officiating and we use replay to double check important, game changing plays, then great.  But if officials start relying on replay, i'm not convinced that the kid running a camera for class credit a few times every year can be counted on to get a better angle to see a play than an official in position and looking at what he is supposed to be looking at.

The NCAA just announced that home teams will have the discretion to implement video replay review in the playoffs up until the semi finals...I'd like to point out that  having the equipment to do replay doesn't mean anything if the camera operators aren't professional and disciplined.  I've watched hundreds of hours of d3 video feeds over the last few years and well over 90% of them have not had either cameras in position or operators disciplined enough to capture video that gives me any more insight to what happened on the field than the trusted real time view of an official who is in position.
Also officials call the game differently when they know there is replay because they dont want an inadvertent whistle to call a play dead when they shouldn't...and when the replay cameras aren't in position or dont capture the play correctly, there will be plays that are extended when they shouldn't be.
Long post short...the replays we see on ESPN in the semifinals and finals are captured by professional camera operators who do this for a living...and most d3 games, even at top schools are produced by student workers...In my opinion this will result in more inaccurate officiating unless professional camera crews are implemented...I'd rather the NCAA spend money on more flights and a true seeded bracket.

I was hoping the Coe/Central game would be a defacto play-in game for the playoffs...but if Frank Rossi's NPI simulator is correct...a Coe win on Saturday will leave both teams on the outside looking in...https://x.com/FrankRossi/status/1987572394035147049?s=19

Quote from: HansenRatings on November 05, 2025, 10:59:54 AM

Quote from: MediaGuy on November 04, 2025, 07:43:38 PMhttps://share.google/images/K3B1Wrrp0ZpePoIAE

This is the generally accepted chart that most coaches follow.

Man... I have some major issues with that chart. Other than the obvious ones - going for 2 if you're down by 5 or 2 (to either go down by a FG or to tie) or going for 2 if you're up by 1 or 5 (to go up by 3 or 7), going for 2 if you're down by 8 late is the clearest positive value decision you can make.

You don't need fancy math for this to make sense. Assume field goals are a 100% proposition, 2pt tries are 50-50, and winning in overtime is 50-50 (close enough to accurate for this to work, but it doesn't really matter). Assuming you score 2 TDs (otherwise none of this matters):

PAT + PAT = 50% to win, pending OT
PAT + 2PT = 50% to win, pending 2pt try
In either scenario, you have a 50% chance to win

2PT(convert) + PAT = 100% to win
2PT(fail) + 2PT(convert) = 50% to win, pending OT
2PT(fail) + 2PT(fail) = 0% to win
(50% convert x 100% win) + {50% fail x [(50% convert x 50% win) + (50% fail x 0% win)]} = 62.5% win

In the latter option, where you go for 2 first, you have the information advantage of knowing if you convert your 2 pt try earlier. If you only have time for 2 possessions, you want to get that information as soon as possible. You're playing with the goal of winning the game. Not with the goal of going to OT.

Here's a comparison of that chart from Tennessee and two charts made by fivethirtyeight and ESPN analytics. The latter two used different methodologies to come up with extremely similar results:



Here's the full chart and link to the 538 analysis:



Here's the chart and link for ESPN's analysis:

I didn't realize there were that many of these charts floating around, ive only seen charts from 2 teams in person and they were identical...I just grabbed the first one I saw on a Google search and assumed it was the same.

And anything you typed after "fancy math" was too fancy for me...I'm still mad at whoever started mixing letters into my math problems.

https://share.google/images/K3B1Wrrp0ZpePoIAE

This is the generally accepted chart that most coaches follow.  Most staffs will have a non-play calling assistant coach take a look at this once they cross midfield during a drive and let the OC & HC know what the chart suggests.  It allows for a quick decision and the math is already done to give you the best win probability.

Also to the point about special teams...im not sure any team in the ARC has a dedicated Special Teams Coach and one of the reasons Wartburg in particular has had success in special teams is that they put more emphasis on it in practice, keep it relatively simple and make it a priority.  I've never seen a Wartburg practice where they dont spend at least 20 minutes on special teams and if you're tired or a little banged up, Wartburg will take a starter out for a play or 2 on offense or defense but they will stay on special teams.  A lot of teams use 4th down reps to give an O/D starter a breather.