The pundits on the D3 Quick Hits have the Johnnies winning by at least two, and BU squeaking one out. I sure hope they are wrong on both accounts. I would love to see both squads win by at least three scores, or more, just to accentuate how good the two teams really are. Now, if the pundits are right in their assessment, I don't see the Royals getting out of this quadrant. I think it would be a hoot to see the Johnnies and the Royals in the Stagg Bowl this year. Lots of football left to play to realize that dream, eh?

Arden Hills weather via Weatherunderground has light snow throughout the day on Saturday, accumulating to a little over 2 inches, with winds under 11 mph out of the N-NE. Might be using those new lights in the middle of the day.

As I've thought about it, the more I've come to realize how thankful I am to have found this board so many years ago. You all have a Happy Thanksgiving. We'll be enjoying ours off of my Big Green Egg later today.

I think there are at least two possibilities concerning how the MIAC does this year in the playoffs. Both the Johnnies and the Royals literally rip through their opponents this weekend showcasing how good they are as teams, (and how good the MIAC is), or they squeak out wins and/or are defeated and everyone will jump on the bandwagon of how weak the MIAC is/was this year. Obviously, the supporters of our teams are hoping for the former.

I don't do ESPN+ so I am not able to put eyes on opposing teams to get a gander at how they might fare against BU, but I don't think the Kohawks will have the answer for the Royals multi-faceted offense. Further, I have come around throughout the year on the defensive line play. While anything can happen in a football game, it is my opinion that Bethel and St. John's will both be playing WIAC teams next weekend.

Some pointless trivia - looking at the brackets again this morning I remembered that Crown College used to have as their "mascot" the Storm. They changed it back in 22. And now they get to play the Wheaton Thunder in their first playoff game. Hopefully, they have some lightening in a bottle.

In other news, if the Mules lose their first round game, they set us up for a Mount Union - Union game. (Not original to me, saw it posted elsewhere.)

Bracket capsules are out - I didn't see any real surprises. It looks to be a real good tourney with a lot of really good teams. To be the best, you have to beat the rest, right?

Just finished listening to the podcast - had to work today. I started listening this morning before work and my wife pokes her head into my "den" and asks out loud, "What are you listening to?" I told her it was a parody song the the guys at D3 made up - they've done it before. She asks me if I know that the tune is from Wicked - I confess that I did not. We both laugh.

This playoff bracket is not too bad compared to some we've had in the past. BU has a tough draw, that's for sure. Old history is that BU has both lost and won playing North Central in the playoffs, so if it comes to that, it'll be a pretty good game - shoot, it might even be the "Stagg Bowl" game, depending on how things go from there.

Won't be able to get to any of the playoff games BU has at home because of work - kind of bummed by that. The last BU playoff game I was at was when they beat the Tommies at St. Thomas, like 8 to 10 years ago...

Quote from: USee on November 16, 2025, 09:50:57 PMArt-RE: history between Wheaton and Wartburg....I am not aware of this, do tell?

USee - My bad, I just went through the last 20 years and I misremembered - it was UW Whitewater, not Wheaton. As far as I went back, they have never met.

I am not a statistician, nor do I play one on TV...

Just sharing some casual comments about "how tough each of the brackets are". Using NPI numbers only there are at least two ways of defining how each bracket fares in comparison to the other three. You can take the seeding numbers in each bracket and add them up. The highest total is the "easiest bracket". Going one step further, use the actual ranking found in NPI and then add those up, and then "determine" the softest region. I'll now share those sums with you all. The first number is the seeding, the second number is the ranking.

Drum roll please.

Mount Union Bracket: 189/234

North Central Bracket: 207

Wartburg Bracket: 218/270

Christopher Newport Bracket: 206/212

So either Mount Union has the toughest or a middling bracket, depending on which figure you want to glom on to, while the North Central bracket is the "truest" bracket because all of the teams in their bracket are not seeded or ranked below #35. And using both metrics, the Wartburg bracket is the softest/easiest.

My "eye test" when looking at the pairings of those teams in the first round - the only team there that I think has a decent chance in the second round would be Wheaton against Wartburg. We all know there is some history between these two. The next best chance in my mind would be the Mules kicking the Purple Raiders out of the tourney, but we will see what will be.

Final MIAC Standings

1. Bethel
2. St. John's
3. Concordia
4. Carleton
5. Gustavus
6. Augsburg
7. St. Olaf
8. St. Scholastica
9. Macalester
10. Hamline

The front page on the MIAC website has them listed alphabetically, which is misleading because of head to head results.

Quote from: Mister36 on November 10, 2025, 06:01:41 PM

Quote from: art76 on November 10, 2025, 05:54:36 PM

Quote from: sjujohnnie on November 10, 2025, 12:26:38 PMLogan Hansen's latest bracket projection ...

Where is this posted? I cannot find it using Google on the interwebs.

https://x.com/LogHanRatings/status/1987923142203912224?s=20

So, has Hansen posted a mock bracket after week 11?

Quote from: RoyalsFan on November 14, 2025, 01:29:14 AMI may be mistaken, but I didn't think CSS had lights, and the reason MIAC games were moved up an hour was because of going back to standard time as an hour of daylight was lost in the afternoon. So if that is the case, anyone know why the game is starting at 1 instead of 12?

So they have time to stop at Toby's for a caramel bun on the way...

Both Drews and Rundell made the D3 Team of the Week: https://www.d3football.com/awards/tow/2025/week10

Rundell also got MIAC Offensive player of the week: https://miacathletics.com/news/2025/11/10/miac-athletes-of-the-week-november-10-2025.aspx

Quote from: Mister36 on November 10, 2025, 06:01:41 PM

Quote from: art76 on November 10, 2025, 05:54:36 PM

Quote from: sjujohnnie on November 10, 2025, 12:26:38 PMLogan Hansen's latest bracket projection ...

Where is this posted? I cannot find it using Google on the interwebs.

https://x.com/LogHanRatings/status/1987923142203912224?s=20

Thanx!

Quote from: sjujohnnie on November 10, 2025, 12:26:38 PMLogan Hansen's latest bracket projection ...

Where is this posted? I cannot find it using Google on the interwebs.

MIAC notes for the final week of the 2025 season...

If Carleton's QB had a season ending injury in the BU game yesterday, then the Cobbers stand a good chance of becoming the third best team this year by winning down in Northfield this coming week. The remaining games should go chalk, even with the twist added recently of Hamline visiting Augsburg on Friday night.

Quote from: hazzben on November 09, 2025, 08:43:41 PMIt's gonna be wild. Frank and ITH currently project 9 of the  at large bids will go to "Midwest" teams. Tons will still change in the course of a week. But that's gonna make for some very interesting bracketing.
SJU
Central
3 WIAC
Wheaton
Wabash
Hope
ONU

Using today's NPI figures, of the 40 teams in the tourney, 12 are from MN, WI, IA, or Chicago land - with four in the top eight. It's going to be a butt ugly bracket for the juggernaut that the Upper Midwest has become in terms of D3 talent.