FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Patrick Coleman]

Thanks -- we will have a list of all the bowl games on our site later today once the last ones are announced, but here's the list:

Opendorse Bowl Series
at Canton, Ohio
ForeverLawn Bowl: Hanover vs. Wabash, 1 p.m.
Extra Points Bowl: Marietta vs. Westminster (Pa.), 6 p.m.

Chesapeake Challenge Bowl Series
at Salem, Virginia
Cape Henry Bowl: Wilkes vs. Washington & Lee, 1 p.m.
Cape Charles Bowl: Moravian vs. Shenandoah, 5 p.m.

Centennial-MAC Bowl Series
Widener at Muhlenberg, 12 p.m.
Franklin & Marshall at Delaware Valley, 12 p.m.
Dickinson at FDU-Florham, 12 p.m.

Fusion Bowl
Husson at SUNY-Maritime, 1 p.m

Culver's Isthmus Bowl
at Madison, Wisconsin
UW-Stout vs. Wheaton, 2 p.m. CT

Cousin's Subs Lakefront Bowl
at Wisconsin Lutheran College
Monmouth vs. St. Norbert, 11 a.m. CT

ECAC Bowl Series
Asa S. Bushnell Bowl:
Clayton Chapman Bowl:
Scotty Whitelaw Bowl:

I think we will spend some small amount of attention on these games, yes, since there are only eight playoff games on Saturday.

[USee]

Thanks Pat. Wow. I had no idea there were that many bowls. Though I am sad I am now focused on bowl games instead of playoff games, I am thankful you guys have a handle on it! Hopefully with Wally's alma mater also playing and a couple of top 25 teams participating it will garner some attention from the D3 faithful.

[CarollFan]

Wasn't there a rule that a conference had to have a certain number of teams to get an AQ? Northwestern of the UMAC won 7 games but only beat 5 teams. They played and beat two of those teams twice. WIAC (and some CCIW) teams are always going to struggle with finding out of conference games. Seems like allowing teams to beat the same team more than once isn't a great use of the data either.

The ASC has 4 teams.  UMHB made it in with 5 wins against 3 teams.  I know they have a problem scheduling other opponents. UMHB also has a loss to Bethel (Tenn), a NAIA team not included in their NPI calculation.

[SpartanHouse4]

The one thing I found odd on the bracketing is some better ranked teams can't host because of some limitation to their stadium?

Lake Forest hosting in mind boggling to me. They won the worst conference in D3 and played a brutal team in non-conference. Why do they get rewarded with a bye and host a round 2 game?

NPI needs some tweaking - this bracket makes zero sense.

[Patrick Coleman]

Lake Forest won't actually host, but that doesn't take away from your point that they were seeded to host.

[wally_wabash]

Wasn't there a rule that a conference had to have a certain number of teams to get an AQ? Northwestern of the UMAC won 7 games but only beat 5 teams. They played and beat two of those teams twice. WIAC (and some CCIW) teams are always going to struggle with finding out of conference games. Seems like allowing teams to beat the same team more than once isn't a great use of the data either.

The ASC has 4 teams.  UMHB made it in with 5 wins against 3 teams.  I know they have a problem scheduling other opponents. UMHB also has a loss to Bethel (Tenn), a NAIA team not included in their NPI calculation.

This probably won't help, but also new to the way they're measuring teams this year is a home/away multiplier.  If UMHB beats UWW by the same score in Belton rather than in Whitewater, UMHB misses the cut. 

The one thing I found odd on the bracketing is some better ranked teams can't host because of some limitation to their stadium?

Lake Forest hosting in mind boggling to me. They won the worst conference in D3 and played a brutal team in non-conference. Why do they get rewarded with a bye and host a round 2 game?

NPI needs some tweaking - this bracket makes zero sense.

The MWC is definitely not the worst conference in D3.  It's not strong, for sure, but not the worst. 

[CarollFan]

Do you guys know what the specific reason is Lake Forest can't host?

[Patrick Coleman]

Do you guys know what the specific reason is Lake Forest can't host?

They didn't file in time.

They chose not to file because of a mistaken impression by the administration that they needed lights.

However, even if they did file, their press box is not adequate to the task -- there are no separated booths for coaches, and that's a requirement. That could be fixed on the fly, but they would have had to file in time.

[wally_wabash]

Thanks Pat. Wow. I had no idea there were that many bowls. Though I am sad I am now focused on bowl games instead of playoff games, I am thankful you guys have a handle on it! Hopefully with Wally's alma mater also playing and a couple of top 25 teams participating it will garner some attention from the D3 faithful.

I'll be paying some attention to these games this weekend.  The proliferation of bowl games means we have some really good stories that haven't quite ended yet.  Wisconsin Lutheran is going for an 8th win in a single season which would be a new program high.  Moravian's strong season gets one more lap.  Stout vs. Wheaton is just a bloody good football game.  Westminster vs Marietta is a fun measuring stick for how deep the PAC really might be.  Lots of good stuff in these games. 

[Patrick Coleman]

WLC is just the host of the game, not a participant -- but that program is getting closer to being a participant!

[wally_wabash]

WLC is just the host of the game, not a participant -- but that program is getting closer to being a participant!

Of course they are and I knew better.  I'm going to take a timeout and regroup.   

[CarollFan]

Wheaton gets UW-Stout in Isthmus Bowl.

Isthmus Bowl

Regarding Stout, Carroll beat them in the non conference game 28-16. We were able to stop some of their drives on 5 sacks and a pick. They finished 3rd in the WIAC in scoring averaging 33.8/game.
On defense they were 2nd against the run and last (8th) against the pass.

A common opponent with Wheaton is UWO and UW-Stout's QB #6 Adam Moen went 27 for 39 (69.2%) for 352 yards and 3 TD's against UWO. Stout looks like they started passing more in the second half of the season.  They didn't have a 300 yard passing game until game 6 and then the last 5 games were all over 300 yards.

[Jbothe]

North Central people on the board.  How are you feeling about your team this year. I only saw them Saturday against IWU.

Healthy?

As strong as the last couple of years.  I would love to see a CCIW champion.

[SpartanHouse4]

Lake Forest won't actually host, but that doesn't take away from your point that they were seeded to host.

Can you explain why Lake Forest was seeded ahead of Platteville, Hope, Aurora, and Wartburg?

[Patrick Coleman]

Lake Forest won't actually host, but that doesn't take away from your point that they were seeded to host.

Can you explain why Lake Forest was seeded ahead of Platteville, Hope, Aurora, and Wartburg?

We've been talking about this all season, but the algorithm is set up by the football committee to heavily skew toward winning percentage, first off. Of those teams, only Hope is unbeaten and Lake Forest's schedule scored out better in the algorithm.

In our podcast this week we go into a little more depth on this with Logan Hansen than I have time to retype here.