The two remaining east region teams were eliminated in the quarterfinal round of the NCAA Division 3 football tournament. St. Thomas pounded St. John Fisher 45-10, while two time defending national champion Wisconsin-Whitewater stopped Salisbury 34-14.
Whitewater built a 17-0 half-time lead in cruising past Salisbury. The Salisbury Gulls had some success running the football, but the option heavy run attack appeared too predictable for the athletic defending national champions. Wisconsin-Whitewater put extra defenders in the box and dared Salisbury to switch to a passing attack, which it did not do while the game was still within reach.
Salisbury's option running game is a ton of fun to watch, especially for old school football fans like me. But you cannot physically overwhelm every football team in the nation. Salisbury's option running game basically states, "We know you know it's coming. You just cannot stop it." That holds true when you are facing a team which is physically slower and smaller. But it back fires against a top tier team. Whitewater prepared to stop the option, and it did.
St. John Fisher's Cinderella playoff run ended in Minnesota to the #4 nationally ranked Tommies of St. Thomas. Ryan Francis had an 85-yard kickoff return for a touchdown for Fisher to pull the Cardinals to within 14-10 late in the first quarter. That was the last time Fisher would score.
St. Thomas looked like a legitimate national championship contender running their record to 13-0. The Tommies have outscored its opponents 131-22 in the 2011 NCAA playoffs. Fisher ran into a buzz saw and did not have enough depth to compete with St. Thomas.
It was a solid run for east teams in the 2011 tournament. Fisher's big win over Johns Hopkins, Kean's destruction of Christopher Newport, and Hobart's near upset of Wesley likely changed a lot of perceptions about the strength of eastern football.
Showing posts with label region. Show all posts
Showing posts with label region. Show all posts
How Does Eastern Region Football Rank?
Eastern Region is looked upon as the weakest of the Division 3 football regions. No Eastern Region team has played for the NCAA championship this century. The last team to make it to Salem was Rowan University, which was pounded by Pacific Lutheran 42-13. The past few seasons, the NCAA has chosen to import Mount Union from the Northern Region to give the Eastern bracket a legitimate #1 seed.
Delaware Valley is undefeated through eight games in 2011, but its two toughest games are yet to be played. However, many believe that if Delaware Valley runs the table, they will be given the top spot in the East while Mount Union stays home in the North. Few believe Hobart would be afforded the #1 seed however, due to the perceived weakness of the Liberty League in 2011, and the short 8-game schedule played by the Statesmen.
Cross region games are rare due to the travel costs incurred. How much can we draw from a winless Husson team from Eastern Region losing 77-7 to a 7-1 Adrian team from Northern Region? Not much. But we do have one important data point: Kean 31-28 over Wesley, potentially the best team in Southern Region.
Let me get one thing straight. If Kean and Wesley played on a neutral field tomorrow, I would pick Wesley as the favorite. But that is just an opinion. The fact is, Kean beat Wesley in Union, New Jersey.
I don't think who won the game or where it was played is the most important thing to draw from this data point. Rather, I feel the most important point is that the two teams were pretty closely matched on both sides of the ball. Wesley is undefeated in Southern Region play, while Kean lost to TCNJ and may not even win the NJAC.
A common argument against Eastern Region is its (lack of) performance against Mount Union in the playoffs. Mount Union destroyed Eastern Region teams St Lawrence 49-0, Delaware Valley 31-3, and Alfred 37-7 last season.
If we are going to judge Eastern Region teams by their playoff losses to Mount Union, then shouldn't we judge the Ohio Athletic Conference just as harshly? Mount Union has won 19 consecutive OAC championships. Nineteen consecutive! Who in Northern Region can say they have recently knocked Mount Union out of the playoffs? Indeed, Mount Union has won an astounding 85.2% of its NCAA playoff games.
Judging how strong Eastern Region is by its performance against Mount Union just isn't logical, when there aren't any Northern teams showing the ability to beat them either. What we need are some regional cross over games between teams like Wesley, North Central, Wittenberg, Cortland, and Lycoming so we can draw better conclusions.
I for one would love to see Rowan play Heidelberg, or St John Fisher play Baldwin-Wallace. Wouldn't it have been much more interesting if Adrian had played Widener, instead of a winless team from the weakest conference in Eastern Region?
There are reasons why the East tends to see more parity than the other regions do, and I will touch on these in later blog posts. Recall that two decades ago, the East was considered rather beastly on the national scene with Ithaca winning multiple national championships.
In the meantime, I don't believe we can definitively say Eastern Region is the weakest of the four regions. We don't have many data points to utilize, and the most important data point we have in 2011 has Kean beating Wesley. Because cross over games are so rare among regions, computer power ratings aren't likely to help us either. Again, not enough data points.
Where do you think Eastern Region football ranks nationally outside of Whitewater and Mount Union?
Delaware Valley is undefeated through eight games in 2011, but its two toughest games are yet to be played. However, many believe that if Delaware Valley runs the table, they will be given the top spot in the East while Mount Union stays home in the North. Few believe Hobart would be afforded the #1 seed however, due to the perceived weakness of the Liberty League in 2011, and the short 8-game schedule played by the Statesmen.
Cross region games are rare due to the travel costs incurred. How much can we draw from a winless Husson team from Eastern Region losing 77-7 to a 7-1 Adrian team from Northern Region? Not much. But we do have one important data point: Kean 31-28 over Wesley, potentially the best team in Southern Region.
Let me get one thing straight. If Kean and Wesley played on a neutral field tomorrow, I would pick Wesley as the favorite. But that is just an opinion. The fact is, Kean beat Wesley in Union, New Jersey.
I don't think who won the game or where it was played is the most important thing to draw from this data point. Rather, I feel the most important point is that the two teams were pretty closely matched on both sides of the ball. Wesley is undefeated in Southern Region play, while Kean lost to TCNJ and may not even win the NJAC.
A common argument against Eastern Region is its (lack of) performance against Mount Union in the playoffs. Mount Union destroyed Eastern Region teams St Lawrence 49-0, Delaware Valley 31-3, and Alfred 37-7 last season.
If we are going to judge Eastern Region teams by their playoff losses to Mount Union, then shouldn't we judge the Ohio Athletic Conference just as harshly? Mount Union has won 19 consecutive OAC championships. Nineteen consecutive! Who in Northern Region can say they have recently knocked Mount Union out of the playoffs? Indeed, Mount Union has won an astounding 85.2% of its NCAA playoff games.
Judging how strong Eastern Region is by its performance against Mount Union just isn't logical, when there aren't any Northern teams showing the ability to beat them either. What we need are some regional cross over games between teams like Wesley, North Central, Wittenberg, Cortland, and Lycoming so we can draw better conclusions.
I for one would love to see Rowan play Heidelberg, or St John Fisher play Baldwin-Wallace. Wouldn't it have been much more interesting if Adrian had played Widener, instead of a winless team from the weakest conference in Eastern Region?
There are reasons why the East tends to see more parity than the other regions do, and I will touch on these in later blog posts. Recall that two decades ago, the East was considered rather beastly on the national scene with Ithaca winning multiple national championships.
In the meantime, I don't believe we can definitively say Eastern Region is the weakest of the four regions. We don't have many data points to utilize, and the most important data point we have in 2011 has Kean beating Wesley. Because cross over games are so rare among regions, computer power ratings aren't likely to help us either. Again, not enough data points.
Where do you think Eastern Region football ranks nationally outside of Whitewater and Mount Union?
Division 3 Eastern Football is Born
Welcome!
My name is Dan Padavona and I have been following Division 3 football for over 30 years. For nearly eight years, I ran the highly successful website Cortlandfootball.com, which as you may guess, covered the Cortland State Red Dragons football program.
I live for NCAA Eastern Region small college football. I have a lot of opinions about it. Some you will agree with, and some you will not. Regardless there will be an open forum for you to express your own opinion.
I will give you my weekly rankings of east region D3 teams, which no doubt will often clash with the rankings of the NCAA. And I will tell you how I feel these teams compare to national powers, such as Mount Union and Wisconsin-Whitewater.
Whether you are a fan of Rowan, Ithaca, Cortland, Hobart, Widener, or any other Eastern Region team, you will find unbiased stories and viewpoints about your teams at d3east-football.blogspot.com.
It's almost playoff time. Are you ready for our kickoff?
My name is Dan Padavona and I have been following Division 3 football for over 30 years. For nearly eight years, I ran the highly successful website Cortlandfootball.com, which as you may guess, covered the Cortland State Red Dragons football program.
I live for NCAA Eastern Region small college football. I have a lot of opinions about it. Some you will agree with, and some you will not. Regardless there will be an open forum for you to express your own opinion.
I will give you my weekly rankings of east region D3 teams, which no doubt will often clash with the rankings of the NCAA. And I will tell you how I feel these teams compare to national powers, such as Mount Union and Wisconsin-Whitewater.
Whether you are a fan of Rowan, Ithaca, Cortland, Hobart, Widener, or any other Eastern Region team, you will find unbiased stories and viewpoints about your teams at d3east-football.blogspot.com.
It's almost playoff time. Are you ready for our kickoff?