Hey, Bearcat Fans! This Saturday, Nov. 1, the final regular season home game against Emporia State will be Senior Day. Northwest has just 13 seniors on the roster but the accomplishments of this group are monumental.
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Northwest has been ranked in the Top 25 for 64 consecutive weeks going back to 2004. Every time our 2008 Seniors have taken the field, they been recognized with a Top 25 ranking — and nearly all of that time they enjoyed a Top 10 ranking. With a victory Saturday they can clinch a tie for the MIAA championship which would give them all of the conference championships available during their time in college football. Of course, they have been to three consecutive national championships games and have an opportunity to stretch that record to four with victories in their next five games. The Bearcat Seniors who have participated in this run are:
Chris LeFlore, Kendall Wright, Brandon Clayton, Joel Osborn, Brant Gregg, Cody Lanus, Tommy Frevert, Jeremy Davis, Matt Nelson, Reid Kirby, Tom Pestock, Tyler Northway, Josh Ganaan.
Each of these has been a significant contributor to the success that we have enjoyed as fans and supporters of the University. Be in your seats ready to cheer them Saturday when these 13 are introduced for the last time, get their handshake from Coach Tjeerdsma and run onto Tjeerdsma Field for this final home regular season game. Game time is 1:00.
Emporia State is 4-5 but beat Truman State last Saturday 35-24 after trailing 14-24 at half. Before that victory they had lost 3 consecutive games to Central, Washburn and Mowest but the last games were by only a single touchdown. ESU has outgained and outscored their opponents in 2008. Junior QB Andre ElSloan from New Jersey is not only their leading passer but also their leading rusher and scorer. The only remarkable stat I could find was that in spite of being outscored year to date in the first 3 quarters, ESU has outscored opponents in the 4th quarter 71-29. ESU is a DII program in a great conference fighting to finish above .500 and on a high note. With a chance to clinch the MIAA championship and keep their national and regional rankings, the Bearcats will undoubtedly view this as a challenging game — and would appreciate help from their fans.
Not to look beyond either Emporia State or Missouri Southern on Nov. 8, I have gathered some information to help Bearcat fans in their planning for what might come after the final regular season game. The NCAA site has many pages of details about regional rankings and the playoffs including mandates for kick off times (noon), determination of home team (higher seed if they have adequate facilities, attendance history and will make the required financial guarantee), cheerleaders (4 paragraphs), game programs (content from NCAA), squad size (54), minimum ticket prices, number and location of tickets offered to opponents, sideline heaters (provide visitors with same that home team has), half time show, video exchanges, pre-game warm ups and dozens of other topics.
The 4 regions (numbered in 2008 after years of being described geographically) have a total of 155 teams. Region 4 (Northwest’s region) is the smallest with only 31 teams.
Looking at the information that the regional committee uses each week in preparing the weekly regional rankings, you begin to understand why UNO jumped to #6 in the regional rankings for October 27 (victory over a team with a good record who had opponents with a cumulative winning record). And also learn why Northwest could drop in the next two weeks even if they win (playing opponents with losing records whose 4 non-conference victories came against teams with poor records). Northwest is helped in the regional rankings (and hopefully in the determination of a location for a potential semi-final game like happened in 2006 and 2007) by the strong record of the other 9 MIAA teams who went 13-2 in their non-conference games. Also those 9 teams will be a cumulative 9 games above .500 for their MIAA games (after subtracting out hopefully their 9 losses to Northwest). All of this gives the Bearcats not only a good record but their opponents (including 9-0 ACU and Southwest Baptist who is 4-3 outside of their losses to Northwest and DI-AA SEMO) have a very strong record. But as you can see on the rankings worksheet, not only is the winning percentage of opponents considered but also the opponents’ opponents’ winning percentage.
Northwest is hurt if MIAA schools play non-conference opponents who end the season with with poor records and even if ACU or Southwest Baptist play bad teams. Not on the worksheet but mentioned among the 4 selection criteria is “availability of student-athletes for NCAA championships” which means that injuries, suspensions or players leaving the team could also hurt chances of making the play offs or hosting games.
Remember that regional rankings are in no way related to the Top 25 rankings.
I’ve also looked ahead at the 2008 football DII championship bracket. If the regional rankings were to be unchanged over the final two games of the season then, Region 4 would look like this.
Nov. 15:
#5 Central Washington @ #4 West Texas A&M
#4 UNO @ #3 Pitt State
#1 Abilene Christian — bye
#2 Northwest — bye
Nov. 22:
Winner of Central Washington @ West Texas A&M plays @ Abilene Christian;
Winner of UNO @ Pitt State plays @ Northwest
Nov. 29:
Winners play on campus of highest remaining seed. If Northwest wins its game, it would be home if the opponent were Central Washington or West Texas A&M and on the road if the opponent were Abilene Christian
Dec.7 or 8:
Region 4 winner plays region 2 (former southeast region which now has Delta State, Wingate, Northern Alabama and Valdosta State as its top
4 teams). As has been the case the past two years, the date could either Saturday or Sunday and the information says that the semi-final games will be televises on the “ESPN family of
networks”.
Dec. 13:
National championship game in Florence, AL.
None of the above are predictions but shown just as examples of what would happen if the regional rankings do not change over the final two weeks. But they will (ask Mowest who needed only to defeat Truman in their final 2007 game but lost and played in Excelsior Springs instead). The Bearcats still need to continue to play well. — Chuck Place, Albany