SWC75
Bored Historian
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...is an old love of mine. My brother went to Hamilton and we'd see games there back in the 1960's. I also always had a fascination with the scores in the Sunday paper, (which they don't have any more), wondering about the schools that always seemed to win and what would happen if they had a tournament of such teams. Finally, they did and a local school, Ithaca, played for the DIII championship 7 times in 18 years and won three of them. For years I posted extensive summaries of the teams and games in these tournaments to this board. Last year they had no championships. FCS played one in the spring, but it didn't garner much attention. DII and DIII didn't play any games. This year I was too busy to pay my normal attention to them. But hey are having their championships now and I watched a couple of key games tonight.
DIII - Mount Union and Wisconsin Whitewater, who once owned this division, (they played for the title seven times in a row from 2015-2011) both lost in the semis, to North Central, the 2019 champs and Mary Hardin-Baylor, who won the title in 2016-18. MHB was once the women's college for Baylor University. they went co-ed themselves in 1971 and have used Texas talent to build a DIII powerhouse. The broadcasters said that they have 100 players on their roster and even field a JV team. This illustrates by schools like Ithaca never make it to championship games anymore: certain schools have built programs that are DIII on steroids and they now dominate the tournament. The Crusaders certainly dominated North Central; a school that thought it had risen to that level with 24 straight wins. they were, in effect, the defending champions, having won in 2019, being Whitewater, 41-14 in that year's title game. This one was close at the half, the "Cru" kicking a field goal to take a 19-17 halftime lead. but three second half interceptions ruined North central's chance as MBH scored the first 24 points of the second half to take a commanding lead. The Cardinals, (they are from Naperville, a suburb of Chicago), finally answered with a touchdown to make it 24-43, but couldn't get an on-sides kick. One item of controversy was that MHB didn't jsut run the clock out- they kept passing to add to the score. They scored on a 34 yard TD pass with 6:01 left and again on a 17 yarder with 42 seconds left to win 57-24. Anyway they were clearly the best team and won their third national title, (the first has been vacated by the NCAA but we know what we think about that.)
FCS: The Godzilla of FCS, North Dakota State, took on the one FCS team that has looked them in the face and not bene intimidated in recent years James Madison, who beat them in the semis 27-17 to win the 2016 championship, then lost to them in the 2017 and 2019 title games, 13-17 and 20-28. it was another great battle as the Dukes overcame a 0-13 deficit to take a 14-13 lead. State then put on one of their famous grinding drives in the fourth quarter to make it 20-14. JMU drove down the field to answer but an Odel Beckham type "up the invisible ladder" one-handed pick in the end zone by a 5-11 Bison D-back over the 6-1 Duke receiver ended that threat. James Madison got one more shot but that ended when their quarterback was sacked and lost the ball on the last play from the Bison 45 and the game ended. This was a semi-final. South Dakota State will play Montana State tomorrow at 2PM on ESPN2 to determine the other finalist but I suspect that NDS-JMU might have determined the eventual winner as it usually does. the rivalry will end next year and JMU will move to the Sun belt a 'Group of 5' conference to join all the ex-FCS champions at that level.
Also tomorrow: the DII finals between Valdosta State of Georgia and Ferris State on Michigan on ESPNU at 9PM and Deon Sanders' Jackson State team playing for what amounts to the traditionally black school's national championship against South Carolina State in the 'Celebration' Bowl on ABC at Noon.
DIII - Mount Union and Wisconsin Whitewater, who once owned this division, (they played for the title seven times in a row from 2015-2011) both lost in the semis, to North Central, the 2019 champs and Mary Hardin-Baylor, who won the title in 2016-18. MHB was once the women's college for Baylor University. they went co-ed themselves in 1971 and have used Texas talent to build a DIII powerhouse. The broadcasters said that they have 100 players on their roster and even field a JV team. This illustrates by schools like Ithaca never make it to championship games anymore: certain schools have built programs that are DIII on steroids and they now dominate the tournament. The Crusaders certainly dominated North Central; a school that thought it had risen to that level with 24 straight wins. they were, in effect, the defending champions, having won in 2019, being Whitewater, 41-14 in that year's title game. This one was close at the half, the "Cru" kicking a field goal to take a 19-17 halftime lead. but three second half interceptions ruined North central's chance as MBH scored the first 24 points of the second half to take a commanding lead. The Cardinals, (they are from Naperville, a suburb of Chicago), finally answered with a touchdown to make it 24-43, but couldn't get an on-sides kick. One item of controversy was that MHB didn't jsut run the clock out- they kept passing to add to the score. They scored on a 34 yard TD pass with 6:01 left and again on a 17 yarder with 42 seconds left to win 57-24. Anyway they were clearly the best team and won their third national title, (the first has been vacated by the NCAA but we know what we think about that.)
FCS: The Godzilla of FCS, North Dakota State, took on the one FCS team that has looked them in the face and not bene intimidated in recent years James Madison, who beat them in the semis 27-17 to win the 2016 championship, then lost to them in the 2017 and 2019 title games, 13-17 and 20-28. it was another great battle as the Dukes overcame a 0-13 deficit to take a 14-13 lead. State then put on one of their famous grinding drives in the fourth quarter to make it 20-14. JMU drove down the field to answer but an Odel Beckham type "up the invisible ladder" one-handed pick in the end zone by a 5-11 Bison D-back over the 6-1 Duke receiver ended that threat. James Madison got one more shot but that ended when their quarterback was sacked and lost the ball on the last play from the Bison 45 and the game ended. This was a semi-final. South Dakota State will play Montana State tomorrow at 2PM on ESPN2 to determine the other finalist but I suspect that NDS-JMU might have determined the eventual winner as it usually does. the rivalry will end next year and JMU will move to the Sun belt a 'Group of 5' conference to join all the ex-FCS champions at that level.
Also tomorrow: the DII finals between Valdosta State of Georgia and Ferris State on Michigan on ESPNU at 9PM and Deon Sanders' Jackson State team playing for what amounts to the traditionally black school's national championship against South Carolina State in the 'Celebration' Bowl on ABC at Noon.
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