September 12th, 2000 12:00am
I sure hope the guarantee from North Dakota State was worth the humiliation that Minnesota State-Moorhead endured last weekend. 80-0? And it could have been a lot worse had NDSU’s coach not told his troops to take it easy. But thankfully these opening scrimmages or budget enhancing games are now out of the way for the most part. In many areas of the country conference play begins this week.
In the MIAA it begins with a bang – Pitt State goes to Northwest Missouri State. The only thing anyone could ask of this matchup that it does not already provide is that it should be played at the end of the season. But the computer used by the MIAA decided this was the anointed weekend and so it shall be. Although some Division II faithful might wonder how strong the defending national champs are, winning their first two by a cumulative total of only 13 points, this overlooks the fact the neither Nebraska-Omaha nor Minnesota State-Mankato are chopped liver. They came to both games ready to play. And so will Pitt State. It has to. This is the MIAA title game. Calling this the MIAA title game might seem to be a stretch this early in the season, but considering the rest of the MIAA schedule for either team, it’s not a big one. This game defies anyone making a prediction (at least not with a straight face). Either team could win it. Breaks, penalties and mistakes generally will determine the outcome.
What at one point preseason looked like an interesting contest is turning out to be nothing more than a travel nuisance for UC Davis. The Davis Aggies travel to West Chester on Saturday following a UC Davis stomping of Eastern Oregon while West Chester lost to East Stroudsburg. Losses of key offensive personnel obviously have taken a toll on the West Chester Rams who have managed only six points in two games. The Aggies comfortably should be 3-0 by late Saturday afternoon.
A more interesting contest finds New Haven visiting IUP Saturday evening. New Haven shutout West Chester two weeks ago and then sent Clarion packing 37-7 in a game where Clarion’s only points came with about two minutes left in the contest. New Haven won they way you expect it to win - in the air. It was mostly Barnett to Ketric Barnes. One hookup between them traveled 52 yards. New Haven’s aggressive defense took care of the rest of the game. IUP enters the game following an opening defeat Ferris State and an open date last weekend. This game will be an interesting struggle between two capable defenses. If IUP corrals Barnett the only question becomes whether IUP can score enough to win. IUP’s opening offensive effort against Ferris State left something to be desired, but then Ferris had a respectable defense of its own, not, however, to be confused with New Haven's. Although this game does not quite have the significance of the Pitt State-NWMS matchup, the loser leaves itself an uphill fight for the playoffs. New Haven must contend with numerous I-AA teams this season while IUP has Slippery Rock in two weeks plus other reasonable conference competition. New Haven holds the series edge 3-2 over IUP including a 1995 defeat of the Indians on their own turf. IUP has twice ruined a New Haven season by defeating the Chargers on their soil. This game will not be a love-fest so expect this one to be tight and tough throughout the game.
Also important in the east will be the Shippensburg visit to Millersville. This one should go to Millersville. After mauling West Virginia Wesleyan last Saturday, Slippery Rock gets to beat up another West Virginia Conference team when it hosts Fairmont this weekend. Grand Valley hosts Northwood this weekend also. A Grand Valley win would go a long way toward easing some of the pressure on both IUP and New Haven.
It will not be 80-0, but North Dakota State should be 3-0 after its visit to St. Cloud on Saturday. North Dakota will not be far behind the Bison since they should be able to defeat South Dakota.
In the South nothing this weekend comes close to matching the Southern Arkansas - Valdosta battle; one that might end up deciding the Gulf South Conference title despite being the opening conference game for both teams. With notoriety comes pressure. And pressure there will be on Valdosta’s transplant from Kentucky, Dusty Bonner who has piloted Valdosta to a great start to this season. A seasoned and effective Southern Arkansas defense will put added pressure on Bonner to see if it can trim his nearly 77% passing ratio down to a less frightening level.
Results this weekend will have more impact than in the first two weeks of the season since they will be reflected in the first official regional polls that will be released next Monday, September 18.
Off the topic of games and on the topic of game reporting, it is amazing how many Division II schools, screaming for attention, still make it virtually impossible to get game results after a game – even two days later.
Monday morning I wanted to get game summaries of some games. So where would be a good place to look but at the websites of the schools in question? But to my surprise (not too much surprise, however, given the history of these things) some schools not only did not have game summaries or stats posted, some still did not have the game score posted. The Associated Press often receives the blame when game scores are not reported in local papers. D-II fans have long decried the lack of information about their teams or the Division overall. No wonder there’s little information. How tough is it for a school to update its own game score? Not very is the only answer. But some persist on assuming all their alums and fans either went to the game, don’t care what the score was or will find them elsewhere.
In reality, of the three possibilities, the one that irks me most is the last one.
Failure to update a site leaves a bad impression, but it also misses the point that the more visitors a site gets the more potential it has. All kinds of potential, not the least which are items like selling them things or soliciting contributions. But obviously the coffers of some schools must be so full they don’t need either of these.
How tough is it to post the updates? Ask our own score and stat poster who has to post scores and game summaries for every D-II game played in the nation and usually has it done relatively early Saturday evening. If he can do it for 155 (?) teams, can’t the individual teams do it for one – their own?
Thankfully, kicking and screaming in some cases, increasing numbers of D-II schools are buying into the use of the Web for disseminating information. But, sadly, many still have not. For the alumni of those schools we have but one suggestion – email them and express your displeasure. Of course this assumes they will or can open the email.
But you gotta try.
This brings to mind something we have wanted to do for several years but have not. We have wanted to list an SID’s honor roll. We will do it sometime in the future, but some of the sports information directors around the country deserve extra credit for their work. They will get it later this season.
And then there is this week's D2football.com media poll.
I must have missed something this weekend. Northwest Missouri won against a reasonably good Minnesota State team. Northwest also won its opener against what in our poll is now a ranked team, Nebraska-Omaha. But Northwest Missouri dropped to second in the poll behind North Dakota State. Not to take anything away from the Bison, a team I personally think is top notch this year, but beating Moorhead 80 to zip hardly qualifies as a tough game. The only game more meaningless would have been scheduling the boys (or maybe even girls) choir from your favorite institution of higher learning.
The Bison defeat of Texas A&M-Kingsville likewise hardly qualifies as a win that can push a team into the top slot in Division II especially when compared to the two contests Northwest played. Forgetting the argument about which team should have been ranked higher to start the season, since when does beating up on two less-than-awesome
opponents stand as grounds for leap frogging a team in the polls when the team that was leaped won against two respectable teams?
Seems to me something is a tad awry here.
But then (to borrow from Dennis Miller again this week) that's just our opinion. We could be wrong.