For West Virginia State and Concord, the nonconference season is over. For everyone else, there's one nonconference game left somewhere between now and November 12.

Most teams can't wait to be done with it this season.

6-12. Six wins, 12 losses (or call it 5-11 if you're willing to ignore the loss to Elon and the win at West Virginia Tech, which I'm happy to do). It's a complete flip-flop of the conference's 12-6 record at this point last season (okay, really 10-6 since even West Virginia State could have beaten Southern Virginia, and again, there was WVIAC-wannabe West Virginia Tech).

Is the competition this year better? Somewhat. There are still losses to North Alabama and Edinboro, both of whom look better than last year. Slippery Rock really looks like they're for real. Losing to Carson-Newman isn't a game I'm going to complain about this year. The two CIAA losses this year both involved West Virginia State, and one of those really could have been a (somewhat surprising) win.

Still, going 1-2 against the Northeast-10 when 3-0 was very well within reach is frustrating. Going 0-3 against the SAC stings after beating Mars Hill last year, though it may not be so bad (especially since none of the teams are sad-SAC Brevard or Catawba). The PSAC wins this year (Shippensburg, Clarion, Millersville) probably won't amount to much. Pounding Saint Joseph's again is meaningless. Losing to Urbana, though, is a problem.

I hope I'm wrong, but come playoff time, unless there's somebody at 11-0 and somebody else at 10-1 (and there are only three contenders for those spots), there's going to be at most one WVIAC team in the playoffs. The Northeast-10 looks better this year, the PSAC has what already looks like five very real playoff contenders (Cal, Bloomsburg, Slippery Rock, IUP, and Kutztown, not necessarily in that order), and you know there's going to be somebody from the CIAA in the playoffs.

There was some margin for error at the beginning of the season. That margin is gone. It's time to show that the WVIAC is ready to fight back.


Power Rankings

1. Shepherd (2-0) - I know they've played weak opponents so far. But they've done the two things you're supposed to do against them: win big, and play even better in the second half than the first half.

2. West Virginia Wesleyan (2-0) - Paging Adam Neugebauer to the Harlon Hill Trophy early candidates booth? If the running game continues not to materialize, he may have to be that good.

3. Fairmont State (2-0) - Daniel Monroe is the real deal. Tim Orange still has some work to do. Logan Moore still looks like he's slumping compared to the end of last season.

4. Concord (0-2) - Brian Kennedy got the running game going against a pretty good Division I-FCS team. The offensive stats were better than against Lenoir-Rhyne. It's still too early to tell on this team, though.

5. Glenville State (0-2) - Haven't I seen this script against North Alabama before? Regardless, Darold Hughes looked much sharper, even if this UNA team is better than last year's and looks to me like a top five team in the country. Given the schedule, it's still too early to tell where this team really ranks.

6. West Liberty (0-2) - Zach Amedro would've loved having this defense last year. They really deserve better, but the offense still doesn't have an identity yet. I'm not sure what kind of quarterback (other than inconsistent) that L.D. Crow is yet.

7. Charleston (0-2) - If the offense couldn't get things going against Urbana's depleted defense, then there are some big problems in the capital city. Changing systems is always hard, and a painfully rough first year is the norm.

8. Seton Hill (0-2) - I watched the second half of the Assumption game. The defense on the field for the final few drives was not the same one that had been on the field the rest of the game. This team doesn't look like it's ready to play a full sixty minutes and still needs to learn how to finish games.

9. West Virginia State (0-2) - You can tell that this team hasn't been in a game where the fourth quarter has been meaningful in over a year. There will be more losses like this one before the Yellow Jackets finally break out with a win.