SWC75
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Here is the field for the 2012 NAIA football playoffs. I’ve included the school name, what state it is in, (if that’s not in the title), with won-loss record, points for and against, who they lost to, if anyone, by what score and when, their ranking, their record in post season tournaments and bowls, what championships, if any, they have won previously.
BAKER of Kansas, (8-2, 319-201) Lost to Missouri Valley 17-31 on 9/22 and Mid-America Nazarine, 20-49 on 9/29. Rank: #11. All-time: 11-12. No titles.
At
SAINT FRANCIS of Indiana, (8-2, 362-161) Lost to St. Ambrose of Iowa 14-15 on 9/8 and Marian 38-45 on 10/13. Rank: #6. All-time: 19-12. No titles.
MID-AMERICAN NAZARINE of Kansas (8-2, 396-165) Lost to Missouri Valley, 7-41 on 9/8 and Gardner-Webb 28-30 on 10/13. Rank: #9. All-time: 6-9. No Titles.
At
CUMBERLANDS of Kentucky (9-1, 477-202) Lost to Georgetown of Kentucky 35-41 on 10/13. Rank: #7 All-Time: 1-5. No titles (Note: this is not Cumberland College of Tennessee who famously lost to Georgia Tech 0-222 in 1917. The name is pluralized.)
NORTHWESTERN IOWA (9-2, 417-157) Lost to Morningside 7-34 on 9/8 and Concordia of Nebraska 16-17 on 10/13. Rank: #12 All-time: 20-13 Won NAIA DII in 1973 and 1983.
At
MARIAN of Indiana (8-1, 321-126) Lost to St. Xavier of Illinois 6-23 on 11/3. Rank: #5. All-Time: 3-2. No titles.
MONTANA TECH (8-2, 320-213) Lost to Eastern Oregon 23-26 on 9/1 and to Southern Oregon 28-46 on 11/10. Rank: #14. All-Time: 3-6. No Titles.
At
MORNINGSIDE OF IOWA (10-0, 457-57) No loses. Rank: #3. All Time: 7-8. No titles.
WILLIAM PENN of Iowa (9-2, 360-147) Lost to St. Francis of Indiana 19-28 on 10/20 and St. Ambrose of Iowa 17-20 on 11/3. Rank: #13. All-Time: 1-1-1. No titles.
At
ST. XAVIER of Illinois (9-1, 363-146) Lost to St. Francis of Indiana 13-25 on 9/29. Rank: #4. All-Time: 11-6. Won 2011 NAIA championship.
SOUTHERN OREGON (8-2, 544-325) Lost to Rocky Mountain 30-52 on 9/8 and Montana Tech 45-48 on 9/29. Rank: #10. All-Time: 4-5. No titles.
At
ST. AMBROSE of Iowa (9-1, 331-163) Lost to Grand View 26-29 (2OT) 9/29. Rank: #8. All-time: 4-10. No titles.
OTTAWA OF KANSAS (8-2, 381-206) Lost to Baker 20-27 on 8/25 and Kansas Wesleyan 28-31 on 9/8, (their first two games). Rank: #15. All-time: 1-6. No titles. All-Time 1-0.
At
MISSOURI VALLEY (10-0, 409-123) No loses. Rank: #2. All-time: 10-13-3. No titles.
BETHEL OF TENNESSEE (8-3, 374-320) Lost to Virginia at Wise 21-24 on 8/25, Marian 7-31 on 9/1 and Georgetown of Kentucky 21-63 on 9/29. Rank: #18. All-time: 2-3. No titles.
At
GEORGETOWN OF KENTUCKY (10-0, 478-148) No losses. Ranking: #1. All-Time: 24-14. Won NAIA DII 1991, NAIA 2000-2001
Comment: The NAIA is down to 79 teams for football and so many of their former champions have jumped to the NCAA, (only three of these 16 teams have won a title), that the top teams have seek out each other for competition. All but 7 of the 23 losses of this field were against each other. The organization is also centered in the Midwest: 4 teams in Iowa, 3 in Kansas, 2 each in Kentucky and Indiana, one in Missouri and Illinois. The only two not in this area are Montana Tech and Southern Oregon. Does anyone really want to see a rematch of a 63-21 game? I still wish the organization, which was formed before the NCAA organized small college playoffs to give the little guys a title to fight for, would just disband and send it’s teams into the NCAA so we could get a true championship at this level.
But enough editorializing. Georgetown seems a very strong favorite here, although you’ve got to be impressed with the way Morningside dominated it’s opposition. St. Xavier is the defending champs and they could be strong enough to repeat. Missouri Valley is also strong.
FIRST ROUND
Saint Francis defeated Baker 22-17, converting 2 of 3 turnovers into 10 points but lost their quarterback Josh Miller, in the third quarter. Antoin Campbell ran for 95 tough yards for the winners.
Cumberlands handled Mid-America Nazarene, 42-24, bolting out to a 21-3 lead, seeing it narrow to 21-17 but dominating after that. They rolled up 506 yards, 428 on the ground, 177 of them on runs by Terrance Cobb, who scored 4 times.
Marian topped Northwestern Iowa 42-32, losing a 21-7 to fall behind 21-24 in the third quarter before storming back to win and five different players scored. Tevin Lake caught a TD pass and ran for one. Adam Wiese threw for 479 yards and four scores as Marian passed for a total of 528 yards and out-gained Northwestern 627-361.
Morningside used a 34 point second quarter to turn a 0-13 first quarter deficit into a 34-20 halftime lead and held on to win 40-35 over Montana Tech. who outgained them 517-377. Included in the outburst was a 25 yard pick 6 and a 90 yard kickoff return TD. Joel Nixon threw for two other scores.
Defending NAIA champion St. Xavier had no problem with William Penn, shutting them out 31-0 and out-gaining them 496-233. They overcame slow start, coming away with just 3 points in two drives inside the WP five yard line. It didn’t matter. Quarterback Jimmy Coy threw for 336 yards.
Southern Oregon erased a 17-28 halftime deficit to St. Ambrose with four unanswered touchdowns in a 45-28 win. They gained 547 yards, which is actually below their average. Quarterback Austin Dodge passed for 307 yards and 3 scores and Manny Barragan rushed for 192 more and a score.
Missouri Valley blew out Ottawa, 56-21. They scored a safety early in the first quarter and LaQuentin Black returned the kick-off for a touchdown. LaNorris Dukes scored four more times. MVC outgained Ottawa 487-228, who was out of it by halftime, (30-7).
Bethel of Tennessee pulled off a huge upset by beating #1 ranked and three time national champion Georgetown of Kentucky, a team that had walloped them 63-21 on 9/29, 45-44. Georgetown had just scored to take a 44-39 lead when Jahron Reynolds, whose birthday this was, returned the subsequent kickoff 92 yards for a score with 13 seconds left in the game. Georgetown won the yardage battle, 500-364 but lost the war thanks to that return and 6 Tiger turnovers. I looked for a video of the final play but was unable to find one.
SECOND ROUND
The Marian-St. Francis rematch lived up to it’s billing as the Knights won by almost an identical score as their regular season meeting, 45-34. The Cougars scored first but Marian came back with 24 straight point to take a lead they never relinquished. St. Francis attempted a comeback but it was interrupted by a 98 yard kickoff return from Clifford Brown to make it 30-14. Another Cougar scoring drive was followed by an interception that set up a Marian score and 2 point conversion that made it 38-21. Then Austin Coleman of St. Francis took the kick-off back 100 yards, the 8th kickoff return for a touchdown of his career, setting an NAIA record. There was 7:27 left but Marian put on a nearly 6 minute scoring drive to clinch it, Tevin Lake scoring on an 8 yard run with 1:36 left. St. Francis scored with 12 seconds left to close out the scoring. Lake had 141 yards and three touchdowns running the ball. Quarterback Adam Wiese was 26 for 34 for 212 yards and 2 scores for the winners.
St. Xavier had more success than St. Francis, rolling up 508 yards in a 35-21 win over Cumberlands. Terrence Cobb, the NAIA’s leading rusher, rushed for 174 yards, including a 60 yard TD for Cumberlands. Nick Pesek countered with 111 yards and a score for SXU while quarterback Jimmy Coy passed for 307 yards. The first half was back and forth until just before halftime, the Cougars drove the length of the field in the final 1:25 and scored on a fake field goal from the 5 to make it 23-14. They added 9 more points on a field goal and a touchdown in the third quarter to extend the lead to 32-14. Then came Cobb’s big burst but it was as much as the Patriots could achieve.
Morningside had a dominant regular season, outscoring it’s foes 457-57, (nobody got within 25 points of them and their last three games were shut-outs), but has had a wild time in the playoffs, beating Montana Tech 40-35 in the first round and winning an even wilder game, 47-44 in overtime over Southern Oregon in overtime. Often teams that have had an easy time in every game don’t do well when things suddenly get competitive but Hoosick Falls won the NYS Class C title after that kind of regular season and the Morningside Mustangs are so far showing the same gumption. They got out-gained 505-587. The Mustangs led 35-21 at the half only to have the Raider score 17 in a row to take the lead. Morningside then marched 80 yards to take the lead back at 41-38 with 7:44 left. Southern Oregon responded with a 83 yard drive to the Morningside 1 where they were stuffed on a third down play and settled for a field goal with five seconds left to send it into overtime. They were again forced to settle for a 37 yard field goal on their overtime possession. Morningside then won it when Joel Nixon hit Joel McCabe for a 4 yard score.
The seven Morningside touchdowns were scored by seven different players. Nixon passed for 346 yards and rushed for 106 more and accounted for 5 of the touchdowns.
In a throwback to another era, Missouri Valley won a defensive duel over Bethel of Tennessee, 10-7. Bruce Reyes passed to Seth Martinko from 15 yards out in the first quarter to put the Vikings in front 7-0. Bethel responded by driving to the MVC four yard line but three rushes produced nothing and they missed a chip-shot 19 yard field goal. They also had a 29 yarder blocked to open the second half. Fabian Miramontes made it 10-0 with a 23 yard fourth quarter field goal. Will Masoud passed to Michael Newburn form 19 yards out with 1:17 left to get Bethel on the board but they failed to recover an on-side kick and the game was over. The winners only had 259 total yards, their lowest output of the season. But it was enough. It may sound boring but I’ll bet it wasn’t.
THIRD ROUND
(I listed the wrong match-ups last week, thinking Marian would play St. Xavier and Morningside would play Missouri Valley. Wrong.)
Marian of Indiana beat Missouri Valley in a 20-17 thriller as Michael Josifovski kicked field goals of 47, 54, 31 and 51 yards, the last coming on the last play of the game to win it. He also missed a 54 yarder but I don’t think anyone minded. Nathan Toon intercepted a pass and Tevin Lake broke a 27 yard run to set up the winner. Lake ran for 142 yards on 26 carries.
Morningside’s Joel Nixon threw for 335 yards and 4 touchdowns as Morningside eliminated the defending NAIA champs, St. Xavier, 47-19. The game was 27-19 at halftime but the Mustangs galloped away from the Cougars. Morningside rolled up 476 yards and had no turnovers.
The match-up, (the only one possible, so I must have it right) in the championship game:
MARIAN of Indiana (11-1, 428-209) Lost to St. Xavier of Illinois 6-23 on 11/3. Rank: #5. All-Time: 6-2. No titles.
Vs.
MORNINGSIDE OF IOWA (13-0, 591-155) No loses. Rank: #3. All Time: 10-8. No titles.
Someone will win their first every title. Morningside seems to be the more dominant team but that doesn’t mean they will win the title. Marian is the bigger surprise but that makes the hardest to figure. I can remember when Morningside was in the same conference, (the North Central) with NCAA small-college powerhouses North Dakota State and North Dakota and they were a bottom-feeder in that conference. They have re-invented themselves as an NAIA power.
BAKER of Kansas, (8-2, 319-201) Lost to Missouri Valley 17-31 on 9/22 and Mid-America Nazarine, 20-49 on 9/29. Rank: #11. All-time: 11-12. No titles.
At
SAINT FRANCIS of Indiana, (8-2, 362-161) Lost to St. Ambrose of Iowa 14-15 on 9/8 and Marian 38-45 on 10/13. Rank: #6. All-time: 19-12. No titles.
MID-AMERICAN NAZARINE of Kansas (8-2, 396-165) Lost to Missouri Valley, 7-41 on 9/8 and Gardner-Webb 28-30 on 10/13. Rank: #9. All-time: 6-9. No Titles.
At
CUMBERLANDS of Kentucky (9-1, 477-202) Lost to Georgetown of Kentucky 35-41 on 10/13. Rank: #7 All-Time: 1-5. No titles (Note: this is not Cumberland College of Tennessee who famously lost to Georgia Tech 0-222 in 1917. The name is pluralized.)
NORTHWESTERN IOWA (9-2, 417-157) Lost to Morningside 7-34 on 9/8 and Concordia of Nebraska 16-17 on 10/13. Rank: #12 All-time: 20-13 Won NAIA DII in 1973 and 1983.
At
MARIAN of Indiana (8-1, 321-126) Lost to St. Xavier of Illinois 6-23 on 11/3. Rank: #5. All-Time: 3-2. No titles.
MONTANA TECH (8-2, 320-213) Lost to Eastern Oregon 23-26 on 9/1 and to Southern Oregon 28-46 on 11/10. Rank: #14. All-Time: 3-6. No Titles.
At
MORNINGSIDE OF IOWA (10-0, 457-57) No loses. Rank: #3. All Time: 7-8. No titles.
WILLIAM PENN of Iowa (9-2, 360-147) Lost to St. Francis of Indiana 19-28 on 10/20 and St. Ambrose of Iowa 17-20 on 11/3. Rank: #13. All-Time: 1-1-1. No titles.
At
ST. XAVIER of Illinois (9-1, 363-146) Lost to St. Francis of Indiana 13-25 on 9/29. Rank: #4. All-Time: 11-6. Won 2011 NAIA championship.
SOUTHERN OREGON (8-2, 544-325) Lost to Rocky Mountain 30-52 on 9/8 and Montana Tech 45-48 on 9/29. Rank: #10. All-Time: 4-5. No titles.
At
ST. AMBROSE of Iowa (9-1, 331-163) Lost to Grand View 26-29 (2OT) 9/29. Rank: #8. All-time: 4-10. No titles.
OTTAWA OF KANSAS (8-2, 381-206) Lost to Baker 20-27 on 8/25 and Kansas Wesleyan 28-31 on 9/8, (their first two games). Rank: #15. All-time: 1-6. No titles. All-Time 1-0.
At
MISSOURI VALLEY (10-0, 409-123) No loses. Rank: #2. All-time: 10-13-3. No titles.
BETHEL OF TENNESSEE (8-3, 374-320) Lost to Virginia at Wise 21-24 on 8/25, Marian 7-31 on 9/1 and Georgetown of Kentucky 21-63 on 9/29. Rank: #18. All-time: 2-3. No titles.
At
GEORGETOWN OF KENTUCKY (10-0, 478-148) No losses. Ranking: #1. All-Time: 24-14. Won NAIA DII 1991, NAIA 2000-2001
Comment: The NAIA is down to 79 teams for football and so many of their former champions have jumped to the NCAA, (only three of these 16 teams have won a title), that the top teams have seek out each other for competition. All but 7 of the 23 losses of this field were against each other. The organization is also centered in the Midwest: 4 teams in Iowa, 3 in Kansas, 2 each in Kentucky and Indiana, one in Missouri and Illinois. The only two not in this area are Montana Tech and Southern Oregon. Does anyone really want to see a rematch of a 63-21 game? I still wish the organization, which was formed before the NCAA organized small college playoffs to give the little guys a title to fight for, would just disband and send it’s teams into the NCAA so we could get a true championship at this level.
But enough editorializing. Georgetown seems a very strong favorite here, although you’ve got to be impressed with the way Morningside dominated it’s opposition. St. Xavier is the defending champs and they could be strong enough to repeat. Missouri Valley is also strong.
FIRST ROUND
Saint Francis defeated Baker 22-17, converting 2 of 3 turnovers into 10 points but lost their quarterback Josh Miller, in the third quarter. Antoin Campbell ran for 95 tough yards for the winners.
Cumberlands handled Mid-America Nazarene, 42-24, bolting out to a 21-3 lead, seeing it narrow to 21-17 but dominating after that. They rolled up 506 yards, 428 on the ground, 177 of them on runs by Terrance Cobb, who scored 4 times.
Marian topped Northwestern Iowa 42-32, losing a 21-7 to fall behind 21-24 in the third quarter before storming back to win and five different players scored. Tevin Lake caught a TD pass and ran for one. Adam Wiese threw for 479 yards and four scores as Marian passed for a total of 528 yards and out-gained Northwestern 627-361.
Morningside used a 34 point second quarter to turn a 0-13 first quarter deficit into a 34-20 halftime lead and held on to win 40-35 over Montana Tech. who outgained them 517-377. Included in the outburst was a 25 yard pick 6 and a 90 yard kickoff return TD. Joel Nixon threw for two other scores.
Defending NAIA champion St. Xavier had no problem with William Penn, shutting them out 31-0 and out-gaining them 496-233. They overcame slow start, coming away with just 3 points in two drives inside the WP five yard line. It didn’t matter. Quarterback Jimmy Coy threw for 336 yards.
Southern Oregon erased a 17-28 halftime deficit to St. Ambrose with four unanswered touchdowns in a 45-28 win. They gained 547 yards, which is actually below their average. Quarterback Austin Dodge passed for 307 yards and 3 scores and Manny Barragan rushed for 192 more and a score.
Missouri Valley blew out Ottawa, 56-21. They scored a safety early in the first quarter and LaQuentin Black returned the kick-off for a touchdown. LaNorris Dukes scored four more times. MVC outgained Ottawa 487-228, who was out of it by halftime, (30-7).
Bethel of Tennessee pulled off a huge upset by beating #1 ranked and three time national champion Georgetown of Kentucky, a team that had walloped them 63-21 on 9/29, 45-44. Georgetown had just scored to take a 44-39 lead when Jahron Reynolds, whose birthday this was, returned the subsequent kickoff 92 yards for a score with 13 seconds left in the game. Georgetown won the yardage battle, 500-364 but lost the war thanks to that return and 6 Tiger turnovers. I looked for a video of the final play but was unable to find one.
SECOND ROUND
The Marian-St. Francis rematch lived up to it’s billing as the Knights won by almost an identical score as their regular season meeting, 45-34. The Cougars scored first but Marian came back with 24 straight point to take a lead they never relinquished. St. Francis attempted a comeback but it was interrupted by a 98 yard kickoff return from Clifford Brown to make it 30-14. Another Cougar scoring drive was followed by an interception that set up a Marian score and 2 point conversion that made it 38-21. Then Austin Coleman of St. Francis took the kick-off back 100 yards, the 8th kickoff return for a touchdown of his career, setting an NAIA record. There was 7:27 left but Marian put on a nearly 6 minute scoring drive to clinch it, Tevin Lake scoring on an 8 yard run with 1:36 left. St. Francis scored with 12 seconds left to close out the scoring. Lake had 141 yards and three touchdowns running the ball. Quarterback Adam Wiese was 26 for 34 for 212 yards and 2 scores for the winners.
St. Xavier had more success than St. Francis, rolling up 508 yards in a 35-21 win over Cumberlands. Terrence Cobb, the NAIA’s leading rusher, rushed for 174 yards, including a 60 yard TD for Cumberlands. Nick Pesek countered with 111 yards and a score for SXU while quarterback Jimmy Coy passed for 307 yards. The first half was back and forth until just before halftime, the Cougars drove the length of the field in the final 1:25 and scored on a fake field goal from the 5 to make it 23-14. They added 9 more points on a field goal and a touchdown in the third quarter to extend the lead to 32-14. Then came Cobb’s big burst but it was as much as the Patriots could achieve.
Morningside had a dominant regular season, outscoring it’s foes 457-57, (nobody got within 25 points of them and their last three games were shut-outs), but has had a wild time in the playoffs, beating Montana Tech 40-35 in the first round and winning an even wilder game, 47-44 in overtime over Southern Oregon in overtime. Often teams that have had an easy time in every game don’t do well when things suddenly get competitive but Hoosick Falls won the NYS Class C title after that kind of regular season and the Morningside Mustangs are so far showing the same gumption. They got out-gained 505-587. The Mustangs led 35-21 at the half only to have the Raider score 17 in a row to take the lead. Morningside then marched 80 yards to take the lead back at 41-38 with 7:44 left. Southern Oregon responded with a 83 yard drive to the Morningside 1 where they were stuffed on a third down play and settled for a field goal with five seconds left to send it into overtime. They were again forced to settle for a 37 yard field goal on their overtime possession. Morningside then won it when Joel Nixon hit Joel McCabe for a 4 yard score.
The seven Morningside touchdowns were scored by seven different players. Nixon passed for 346 yards and rushed for 106 more and accounted for 5 of the touchdowns.
In a throwback to another era, Missouri Valley won a defensive duel over Bethel of Tennessee, 10-7. Bruce Reyes passed to Seth Martinko from 15 yards out in the first quarter to put the Vikings in front 7-0. Bethel responded by driving to the MVC four yard line but three rushes produced nothing and they missed a chip-shot 19 yard field goal. They also had a 29 yarder blocked to open the second half. Fabian Miramontes made it 10-0 with a 23 yard fourth quarter field goal. Will Masoud passed to Michael Newburn form 19 yards out with 1:17 left to get Bethel on the board but they failed to recover an on-side kick and the game was over. The winners only had 259 total yards, their lowest output of the season. But it was enough. It may sound boring but I’ll bet it wasn’t.
THIRD ROUND
(I listed the wrong match-ups last week, thinking Marian would play St. Xavier and Morningside would play Missouri Valley. Wrong.)
Marian of Indiana beat Missouri Valley in a 20-17 thriller as Michael Josifovski kicked field goals of 47, 54, 31 and 51 yards, the last coming on the last play of the game to win it. He also missed a 54 yarder but I don’t think anyone minded. Nathan Toon intercepted a pass and Tevin Lake broke a 27 yard run to set up the winner. Lake ran for 142 yards on 26 carries.
Morningside’s Joel Nixon threw for 335 yards and 4 touchdowns as Morningside eliminated the defending NAIA champs, St. Xavier, 47-19. The game was 27-19 at halftime but the Mustangs galloped away from the Cougars. Morningside rolled up 476 yards and had no turnovers.
The match-up, (the only one possible, so I must have it right) in the championship game:
MARIAN of Indiana (11-1, 428-209) Lost to St. Xavier of Illinois 6-23 on 11/3. Rank: #5. All-Time: 6-2. No titles.
Vs.
MORNINGSIDE OF IOWA (13-0, 591-155) No loses. Rank: #3. All Time: 10-8. No titles.
Someone will win their first every title. Morningside seems to be the more dominant team but that doesn’t mean they will win the title. Marian is the bigger surprise but that makes the hardest to figure. I can remember when Morningside was in the same conference, (the North Central) with NCAA small-college powerhouses North Dakota State and North Dakota and they were a bottom-feeder in that conference. They have re-invented themselves as an NAIA power.
