Current State of MIAA Football?

[Gridiron Bobby]

Probably the most complained about officiating crew in the MiAA.

Crews get to ref in the playoffs and championship games if they're the most complained about? That's weird.

[GorillaTeacher]

Weird, I thought the best moved on to higher paying officiating conferences?
I think whenever you hear someone complaining about specific officials, Neibling is probably mentioned more than any other.

[huntnfish]

I think as the dust is begging to settle on what the transfer portal era in D2 football is going to look like you will start to see the MIAA again ascending to the top of the NCAA DII summit. I think things are starting to trend that way once again.

[Predatory Primates]

the short man syndrome itt is strong.

uncertainty is making this league race fun.

i think it’s either a 10 car pile up or co emerges and is capable of competing nationally and rn i don’t really have a lean.

Someone will get better each week and be a threat come playoff time. UCO being the heavy favorite at this point.

[Wallst]

What are your thoughts on the current state of MIAA football? Are there any elite teams who who will be a threat to win the region? If so, who? UCO is the only unbeaten team. Are they for real, or will they fall off when they play NW, Pitt, and Emporia? Is this the deepest the league has ever been (with MOSO being the only automatic win)? How many MIAA teams will make the playoffs, and who will it be?

In my opinion how many teams will be dependent on what happens in the GAC. If Henderson loses to Ouachita and Ouachita gets blown out by Harding and then loses another game it might be tough for the GAC to get 2 teams in. That is best case scenario for MIAA. That would leave Harding, GLVC winner, Ferris, Grand Valley. I don't see GLIAC getting 3 in since UCM beat Davenport. Saginaw Valley has a nice win over Indy and throttled Truman. The 11/2 game between Saginaw and Davenport could affect the rankings. I would think we would be Davenport fans. In this scenario if and when the cream of the MIAA rises to the top and there are 3 teams with 2 losses or less I can see it being a 3 bid league. If OBU only has 1 GAC loss then the MIAA is probably a 2 bid league.

Now the who:
Until proven otherwise UCO. The 10/12 game is a playoff eliminator for NW. If UCO wins that game they have a huge advantage. They can drop a game to either Pitt or ESU and still be guaranteed no worse than a tie for the MIAA title.

Next 3 up: Pitt, UCM, ESU. Pitt has a solid OOC win that will help their SOS. ESU has a solid win over Pitt. UCM beat Davenport.
UCM: sooner or later when you play one score games against inferior opponents it will catch up to you. If they can't fix their D they will drop at least 1 to NW, Pitt or ESU who they play from 10/19 - 11/9. Due to their win vs a potential 3 loss team in Davenport a 2 loss UCM team probably gets in.
Pitt: I have no idea. O is inconsistent and the D has regressed from last year. We need to get past our growing pains on O quickly. the 10/12 game at UNK could be a sneaky game and UNK's super bowl and playoff eliminator. Pitt's last 3 games are brutal. If we go into those with 1 loss and take 2 out of 3 we are probably in.due to SOS. Go into that stretch with 2 losses and we have to run the table which is a tall task.
ESU: Nice win at Pitt, the Angelo State win is TBD. Will know more about that after this weekend when Angelo plays UTPB. How banged up is Gundy? NW played great D last week even when Gundy was in the game, but without Gundy that O looked pretty blah. Luckily for ESU they have a fairly easy schedule to get everyone healthy heading into the last 2 weeks vs UCM and UCO.

Honorable Mention/Spoilers: UNK and NW.
Is NW back? looks like it on D. They turn the ball over too much on O but Sturdy much to the consternation of the NW faithful found another playbook, dusted it off and they have looked much better. Nice win vs ESU. If they can run the table it will make a mess of everything. with games still left vs UCM, Pitt and UCO i just don't see that happening. I don't see a path for a 3 loss team to make the playoffs unless we really cannibalize each other and then we are only a 1 or 2 bid league.
UNK: I was way off on my preseason UNK prediction. Congrats to them on their season so far. The Chadron win to start the season won't help them too much. Quick glance at Chadron's schedule and they are a 5 or 6 loss team. Probably 6. The schedule sets up well for UNK. On paper the only games they won't be favored in will be vs Pitt and ESU. Win those and UNK probably makes the playoffs. Win one and create chaos and play spoiler.

Spoiler: Hays no way they win out. Whenever they step up in competition this year they've lost. But they will sneak up on someone and create chaos and add a second or 3rd loss to one of the teams listed above and end someone's playoff dreams or put it on life support.

3 bid league: UCO, ESU, Pitt/UCM
2 bid league: UCO and who knows?!?!? ESU are probably bigger Angelo State fans then most of their fans are. Angelo on paper loses to Central Washington. But beyond that the LSC is a mess. Angelo vs UTPB and Angelo vs A&M Kingsville are the big games. If Angelo loses to CW but wins the other 2 they are a 3 loss team same as potentially Davenport. If Angelo loses to CW and then one of the other 2 games thats 4 losses and ESU is probably on the outside looking in. If Angelo runs the table and Ferris loses to GV and Pitt beats UCM then its probably UCO and ESU.

Nationally: I know the transitive property is flawed. BUT. Grand Valley just got done smoking West Florida. The only team east of the Mississippi that I can see hanging with anyone out of SR3 is Valdosta. The MIAA did well in their OOC games sans MOSO which surprised many at the time but now we know why. Yea Minn State beat NW but if they play that game now I'm not sure who wins. Watching some of these other OOC teams the thing that really sticks out to me is their lack of speed at the skill positions. The speed difference between Pitt and Ferris was evident. ESU was much faster than Angelo. We have 5 really good teams I think any of them could compete and probably win almost any other conference. I think the best 5 teams will be MIAA champ, GV, Harding, Minn State and Valdosta. Central Washington is a strong 6.

[visionpipe]

Fair enough and good point about the playoffs.

And of course you've jumped to the conclusion I was being defensive. Because how else would you respond right? You mention it several times a season.

My statement was made that way because 2 of the 3 MIAA games werent even as close as the final score showed. You guys were punking on uco because we played an NAIA team to open the season. I was thinking in my head "if we get this team experience and depth, maybe NEXT year we are gonna be a force to deal with"

well, I went back and looked at participation in all 4 games, we have 4 true freshman that have 10 or more snaps this season on defense. We may not see them again this season but they have gained valuable experience. The 2s and 3s have played a bunch too (didn't look that far into it).
Last year AD mentioned several times that there was a huge drop from starters to backups. I Don't think that's the case this year.

Hays scored the last 2 tds on the 3rd rotation. The core of the 1s and 2s on defense didn't see the field past the 8 minute mark of the 4th quarter. 1st team O didn't play the 4th quarter at all.

it was a little later than that (probably last 4 or 5 mintes) vs ucm and unk but many of the 1s and 2s didn't play the entire second half of the langston game.

not claiming that's the only reason the last 4 opponents scored points in the second half. What I am saying is, every game we play, the depth gets more and more experience. If We get the 2s and 3s CLOSE to where the starters are...were gonna be tough to run out of gas regardless of the competition.

long season. We'll see. Like I said at the beginning of the year. Color me cautiously optimistic.

give them hell jimbo uco wins the miaa this year

[D2Rover]

Crews get to ref in the playoffs and championship games if they're the most complained about? That's weird.

Football isn't my first sport, but D2 tournament games in basketball and soccer are pretty consistently the worst officiated of the year. Not sure what process the NCAA uses to find officials, but they do a terrible job.

[northwest missouri state]

Football isn't my first sport, but D2 tournament games in basketball and soccer are pretty consistently the worst officiated of the year. Not sure what process the NCAA uses to find officials, but they do a terrible job.

you get what you pay for

[codeblack]

Henderson and OBU is always a pretty competitive game but I don’t see Henderson winning that one this year. We will know more once OBU plays Harding in a few weeks.

[Humble Hornet]

Really appreciate your analysis Wallst! You really did some research. Unless they really stumble UCO looks to be in the driver’s. Going to be a very interesting second half of the season!

[UniBison]

In my opinion how many teams will be dependent on what happens in the GAC. If Henderson loses to Ouachita and Ouachita gets blown out by Harding and then loses another game it might be tough for the GAC to get 2 teams in. That is best case scenario for MIAA. That would leave Harding, GLVC winner, Ferris, Grand Valley. I don't see GLIAC getting 3 in since UCM beat Davenport. Saginaw Valley has a nice win over Indy and throttled Truman. The 11/2 game between Saginaw and Davenport could affect the rankings. I would think we would be Davenport fans. In this scenario if and when the cream of the MIAA rises to the top and there are 3 teams with 2 losses or less I can see it being a 3 bid league. If OBU only has 1 GAC loss then the MIAA is probably a 2 bid league.

You know I've been thinking about this quite a bit. If the MIAA really is a neck and neck race this year and you have three solid bids I think its feasible to get those teams in over a 1 loss Ouachita. The biggest determining factor will be how badly Harding beats them (Obviously assuming a bison win here). If its a 3+ score game that Harding controls and never really feels close, that bodes well for Y'all as a conference. I know there are factors that "aren't considered" for playoff seeding but its hard to deny human nature. Recency Bias will prevent the powers that decide from just throwing in another GAC team in the name of fairness considering the whipping that Henderson took in the playoffs last year. And that was a Henderson team that played Harding close (Granted early in the year). I just don't know how it will be viewed and I know the metrics that are used don't really include margin of victory/loss or "the eye test" but those things can definitely cause some conflict in the eyes of seeders.

On another note please keep beating up on each other. Makes for some exciting D2 football!

[GorillaTeacher]

You know I've been thinking about this quite a bit. If the MIAA really is a neck and neck race this year and you have three solid bids I think its feasible to get those teams in over a 1 loss Ouachita. The biggest determining factor will be how badly Harding beats them (Obviously assuming a bison win here). If its a 3+ score game that Harding controls and never really feels close, that bodes well for Y'all as a conference. I know there are factors that "aren't considered" for playoff seeding but its hard to deny human nature. Recency Bias will prevent the powers that decide from just throwing in another GAC team in the name of fairness considering the whipping that Henderson took in the playoffs last year. And that was a Henderson team that played Harding close (Granted early in the year). I just don't know how it will be viewed and I know the metrics that are used don't really include margin of victory/loss or "the eye test" but those things can definitely cause some conflict in the eyes of seeders.

On another note please keep beating up on each other. Makes for some exciting D2 football!

I don't think margin of victory is one of the criteria. If OBU ends up with 1-loss, they're probably in for sure. I think if the GLVC champs ends up with 2 losses, they again only get 1, and then 2 for GLIAC, GAC and MIAA. Unless the MIAA is split with teams with 2-losses at the top, then its the wild wild west out here. I'm not convinced the MIAA gets two teams in if the second team has 2-losses.

[UniBison]

I don't think margin of victory is one of the criteria. If OBU ends up with 1-loss, they're probably in for sure. I think if the GLVC champs ends up with 2 losses, they again only get 1, and then 2 for GLIAC, GAC and MIAA. Unless the MIAA is split with teams with 2-losses at the top, then its the wild wild west out here. I'm not convinced the MIAA gets two teams in if the second team has 2-losses.

I agree with you and that is what will happen. Margin of victory is not a criteria that is judged for seeding. I’m just throwing around the idea that not all 1 loss teams are equal and if everyone in the GAC gets beat convincingly by Harding (including OBU) then it at least makes us as fans wonder. Personally as far as the competition in GAC is concerned Harding is pulling away from the other teams and the difference in ability is getting wider. But then when you look at Harding in terms of Region 3 it’s a coin toss in some games and it’s extremely competitive. I just don’t think teams like OBU or Henderson even with 1 loss deserve a bid because they have gotten killed in the region 3 gauntlet every time. I just want to see the most deserving despite whatever metrics are measured.

I’d love to see a wacky turn out in the MIAA! Let the chaos continue.

[Predatory Primates]

I think a big part of what makes it so close is that a lot of teams in the MIAA survive by playing good D, being super physical, and playing complimentary football.

It makes a rock fight possible at any time.

[washeduptiger]

I think a big part of what makes it so close is that a lot of teams in the MIAA survive by playing good D, being super physical, and playing complimentary football.

It makes a rock fight possible at any time.

Brown has made this point a few times on his weekly shows, no one -outside of maybe UCO - look head and shoulders above everyone else and it really comes down to matchups on a weekly basis.

We are going to have a tough time against athletic quick passing teams and teams that can run straight up the middle with athletic Guards and centers

whereas we stacked up decently against UCM who let that QB try and play off the cuff a little more.

fun rest of the season to come