Great Ariticle in the Spokesman-Review

From time-to-time, I'm going to start posting some great articles that are worthwhile reads. I'm going to try and do this once a week, where I'll usually post more than one article, but today I'm just going to post one: John Blanchette's article in Tuesday's Spokesman-Review.

Whitworth numb after D-III snub

Below is the article because the link costs money. Thanks to Mr. Blanchette for this article.



Whitworth numb after D-III snub
John Blanchette

True believers are anticipating with glee the college football head-on a few weeks hence when a half-dozen one-loss teams arrive at the intersection of B, C and S.

To say nothing of two potential unbeatens with pablum schedules.

The outrage from those left out of the national championship game will be measured in megatons, pointing out again the injustice of one-game matchmaking by man and computer and the purity of the tournament approach employed in college football's smaller subcultures.

Uh-huh. Good luck selling that to the Whitworth Pirates this morning.

The Pirates' exclusion from the 32-team NCAA Division III playoff bracket this week never reached the outrage stage because A) that's not exactly their style, and B) they're numb with disbelief.

But now they are certainly aware that the imperfections of casting tournament football are no less painful than a BCS snub. If anything, they're more so – there's still a bowl game somewhere to console the teams who don't make it into the title game in New Orleans.

Whitworth's season is over when it should be starting again.

"It's a kick in the stomach," admitted Whitworth athletic director Scott McQuilkin. "You start scrolling through on the computer looking at the selections and you think your eyes aren't working, that you still must be sleeping."

It would be easy to suggest that it's the Division III selectors who slept through this one, but in fact this was a careful, conscious decision – that the committee whiffed on, whatever dubious math might be invented to rationalize it.

McQuilkin attempted on Monday to retrieve just such an explanation from the committee, knowing that it will change nothing and that whatever criteria was used to pick Wisconsin-Eau Claire out of the West Region instead of Whitworth, it could just as easily not apply next year with a different group of selectors.

The Pirates and Eau Claire both finished 8-2. Whitworth was the undefeated champion of the Northwest Conference – which will not have an automatic bid to the playoffs until next year – while the Blugolds were two games behind WIAC winner Wisconsin-Whitewater.

The selections are based on the usual laundry list, of which two in particular apply: record against regional D-III opponents (Whitworth 8-1, Eau Claire 5-2) and strength of schedule, which favored the Blugolds by a few percentage points. Interestingly, while WIAC teams were 10-4 against outside D-III teams to the Northwest's 9-9, they were just 1-2 against the NWC.

Overlooked was the damaging loss: Eau Claire stumbled against 3-7 Wisconsin-River Falls, which alone should have bumped the Blugolds from the field.

In any event, Whitworth was ranked ahead of Eau Claire in the regional rankings released Nov. 4. But somehow, though both teams won last Saturday, that changed.

"That's what we're not clear about – by what criterion did they move ahead of us?" McQuilkin said.

Well, the only one that counts: the politics of the non-smoking room.

This is not meant to disparage the well-meaning committeemen – McQuilkin has done time on the baseball committee – but they're all human and susceptible to preconceptions, bloc voting or even just name familiarity. There is a regional balance to the committee but as McQuilkin himself said, "You can have a regional voice, but that doesn't mean they can hold the day."

Or perhaps even care to.

Strength of schedule is a popular flag to wave in the selection endeavor, but in fact in Division III it has limited relevance – especially regarding the remote Northwest schools where budget and travel are concerns. Non-conference games are mostly against California schools, and this year those three Wisconsin games. So the crossover is so small to be statistically insignificant.

That's why historical results almost have to be considered, contrary to policy – and two NWC teams have won national championships since 1999, while the league's playoff record since then is second among all D-III leagues except the one Mount Union bullies.

The underappreciated statistic, simply, is winning. The Pirates were undefeated in a league that is good, every year.

This is bad enough for 17 seniors who won't get another chance, but it's also enough to make a school paranoid. You may recall a 30-6 softball team shafted out of a tournament spot last spring, or the 22-3 women's basketball team of 2005 staying home.

"It's sobering for everyone," McQuilkin said. "We'd like to get some answers, but we also know there will be no satisfaction."

Only a reminder that mythical national championships aren't limited to the BCS.