Platteville has been doing a wonderful job on social media.  Interviews with the head coach and over 300 photos of team activities.
Whitewater has been AWFUL.  ZERO videos, ZERO photos.  Only thing in two weeks was an announcement about an upcoming change in the beer garden at the game.  I'm sure it's not a price break.
Still no reports about the starting QB for either Oshkosh or Stout Poly.

Does anybody here have any influence on the MIAC website? I ask, because they have the BU game listed against North Central on September 5th as being a home game.

https://miacathletics.com/index.aspx - then select Events, then Football in the upper right hand corner to see what I am talking about.

If you go to the composite schedule of all the football teams - there they have it right.

And now BU has 3 night games this season, the first two home games against Gustavus and Hamline, and then the away game at Macalester.

After watching Pat's interview last week with the UMHB coach, who reported they bring 230 guys into camp this year, it occurred to me that AI could answer a question I always wonder about - what do D3 football programs' retention rates actually look like?  I'm pretty old fashioned, and a big believer that you can tell an awful lot about whether a program is doing right by kids by looking at whether the kids they bring in as freshman stay on the roster over the years.

Not all the 2026 rosters are up yet, but the LL appears to do a pretty good job.  RPI retained 83% of its 2025 freshman on this year's roster, and 88.5% of its total 2025 non-senior cohort (so, 2025 freshman through juniors). Rochester retained 81% of its 2015 freshman, and 81% of the rest of its eligible 2025 roster.  Ithaca retained 75% of its freshman and 81% of its overall roster; Hobart brought back 66% of its freshman and 78% of its overall roster.  Union has not posted its 2026 roster yet, but they will be over 90% both for freshman and overall.

If you're looking for a gold standard, Hopkins has a 100% retention rate for 2025 freshman, and 94% overall.

On the opposite side of the ledger, Utica's numbers are ugly - just 60% of last year's freshman/sophomores/juniors are on their 2026 roster, and only 41% of last year's freshman return.

Mt. Union is worse - they retained only 51% of last year's freshman/sophomores/juniors, and just 44% of last year's freshman.

St. John was also surprisingly bad. Their 2026 roster is not up, but I ran 2024 to 2025, and their freshman retention rate was 54%, and overall retention rate was just 61%. So, basically the same roster turnover as Utica, which is not what I expected.

And finally, how about UMHB?  Well, there roster also is not up, so I ran there 2024 to 2025 numbers and... woof. Last year, they brought back 24% of their 2024 freshman, and just 28% of their eligible 2024 roster.  I know Pat's got to keep his interviews friendly, but the question I'd be really interested in hearing Coach Harmon answer is "What happened to the 75% of your roster that didn't come back?"  Maybe those are all still good student-athlete outcomes but... I doubt it.

If there were two numbers I wish D3 programs had to publish, it would be retention rates and 4/6-year graduation rates.  At least the former is doable with AI.
 

Quote from: Patrick Coleman on Yesterday at 08:01:53 PMA number of FCS programs have been discontinued in that time as well. And I will say, even though the Patriot League teams didn't offer scholarships 25 years ago, they still pulled a number of scholarship-type athletes regardless. They didn't reach the I-AA title game without I-AA level talent.

In the Northeast, not particularly.  There were 7 in 2000; they lost three, added 20.

And sure, the Patriot League has always been hard for D3 to recruit against.  But they're certainly harder to recruit against with scholarships.

A number of FCS programs have been discontinued in that time as well. And I will say, even though the Patriot League teams didn't offer scholarships 25 years ago, they still pulled a number of scholarship-type athletes regardless. They didn't reach the I-AA title game without I-AA level talent.

Quote from: ADL70 on August 22, 2026, 03:02:56 PM

Quote from: unionpalooza on August 21, 2026, 06:20:23 PM

Quote from: unionpalooza on August 21, 2026, 06:08:11 PMI've often wondered to what extent the proliferation of D1AA/FCS and D2 programs in the Northeast is part of the reason that NY/PA/NJ went from regularly producing D3 title contenders to producing almost none. Prior to 2000, a team from one of those states played in the Stagg Bowl 23 out of 28 years.  Some of that is explained by regional brackets, but certainly not all. A lot of the difference-maker kids who would have have been playing at Ithaca, Union, Rowan, W&J, etc. once upon a time are, these days, playing at UAlbany,Stony Brook, Wagner, Fordham, etc. (all former D3), Monmouth/Robert Morris type schools (new programs) or Lafayette/Lehigh-type schools (which used to be non-scholarship).  There was a little bit of this elsewhere - for example, the Pioneer League teams that moved up in the Midwest, but they're all non-scholarship.

As a data point, consider that three of the best QBs to play D3 in NY since 2000 - Jason Boltus, Joe Germinero, and Shane Sweeney - were all transfers from just one of those schools: UAlbany. (There's also Tyler Szalkowski, another UAlbany transfer currently tearing it up at Utica).

What proliferation of D1AA/FCS and D2? What programs have been added since 2000? The one-time d3 teams you mentioned left about three decades ago.

Mt Union started its championship run in 1993. They eliminated most teams from the East Region. UMHB started its playoff run in 2001. The WIAC moved from NAIA to NCAA and began winning championships in 1992. NWC (Linfield) moved to NCAA in 1996. The relevant proliferation of programs was in D3.

Just doing FCS, there are 20 programs that have become FCS scholarship programs in the Northeast since 2000:  Albany (2006), Central Connecticut (2006), Monmouth (2006), Robert Morris (2006), Sacred Heart (2006), Stony Brook (2006), Wagner (2006), Duquesne (2008), Bryant (2008), Fordham (2010), Bucknell (2013), Colgate (2013), Holy Cross (2013), Lafayette (2013), Lehigh (2013), LIU (2019), Merrimack (2019), Stonehill (2022), Mercyhurst (2024), and New Haven (2025).  There are now 24 in total.

By contrast, there is a total of one FCS scholarship programs in each of Ohio, Indiana, and Iowa; 5 in Illinois; and none at all in Michigan, Minnesota, or Wisconsin.

To put that in context, those two geographic regions have about identical populations - there are about 1500 total FCS scholarships available in the Northeast, and about 500 across those 7 Midwestern rates.

As for D3 programs, WI is flat since 2000; OH and IN are each -1; IL and IA are each -1; MN is +2; MI is +4.  So those Midwest states combined are up one D3 program. 

The Northeast has added 19 new D3 programs since 2000; excluding the Northeast, total D3 programs nationwide are actually down since 2000.

The regular AFL home-and-away season is complete, and the Hawks have finished fourth in the standings.  It's hard to believe that I feel disappointed about finishing fourth, given Hawthorn's progression under Sam Mitchell, but there are no rules about the demands fans make on their teams.

2022: 8 wins 14 losses, finished 13th
2023: 7-16, 16th
2024: 14-9, 7th (lost in the second round of Finals)
2025: 15-8, 8th (lost in the third round, one short of the Grand Final)
2026: 15-2 draws-6, 4th (earned a bye and a double chance in Finals, let's see how far they go)

There's an odd structure to the finals pairings that is too hard to explain.  Hawthorn earned a bye this week and plays top finishers Fremantle in Perth next week.

And as a treat, here's Nick "The Wizard" Watson taking a high-flying mark in horrible weather against West Coast last night in Perth.

https://x.com/HawthornFC/status/2091483750886691276

EDIT:  Heh.  And another treat by Hawthorn-hating media commentator (and past St Kilda player who got pumped so many times by Sam Mitchell and the four Premierships Hawks team of the 2010's), Leigh Montagna.  I love seeing his quote on Mitchell's appointment as senior Hawks coach in 2022:

Quote from: Crubacker on Yesterday at 01:00:38 PMWell, the offense looked terrible in 1st half in last nights scrimmage against the Mexican team, defense looked as bad.  2nd half was a different story but I also believe the Mexican team had sat their starters after the first half.  First half score 23-8, final score was 28-23 UMHB.  Got to stop this slow starting crap and put the pedal down to start the game. 

Positives--------UMHB has some good running backs and they only played 2 of them.  QB's had some flashes but mixed reviews on them and they have some good receivers.

Negatives--------Defense needs to put more pressure on QB---they did in 2nd half but I think that was against backups.  Secondary seemed lost at times.  Gave up too many completions deep and across the middle.  Gave up too many yards against the run.

Standout players-----jersey they were wearing in the scrimmage........on offense(0,1,3,11)QB's--- showed some positive at times.  Defense........#40---dude was all over the place, #24(2 picks) #47, #99, #91.

Joey Johnson got hurt during scrimmage but seemed to be ok on sideline, they were icing his elbow.

0: BJ Stewart - Dude's still an all american
1: Isaiah Nesmith - Returning WR.  Good size
3: Jordan "Jet" Hayes - Blinn transfer 78 carries for 458 yards and 8 TD's last year.  Looked to be a smart and relentless runner.
11: Maurice Moore - Only person I can find with that name was at Navy in 2022.

40: Colin Craig - Sophomore who played in 3 games for us last year
24: Cody Chapman - WTAMU Transfer? 
47: Gaige Sanders - Junior returning DE
99: Alyric Brown - Junior

91: Never got his name, he was getting manhandled in the first half.  Big guy but slow.

Saw on X Belhaven scrimmaged Rhodes in Jackson. Just photos, no report.

Not sure who Maryville is scrimmaging. BSC was the traditional partner back in the day, Berry a few times when not on the schedule. I think the last few years some NAIA schools have been the target. Lindsey Wilson maybe?

Quote from: Kira & Jaxon's Dad on August 22, 2026, 03:43:35 PMBased on the socials, Mount Union had their picture day today. Hopefully we'll get an updated roster soon.

Building on that, based on today's X post, looks like the scrimmage against W&J has taken place too - or some other red and black team.