Keegan Lawrence

@SOURaiders @SOU_Football @k_law21 ‏

Posted on January 16th, 2020 under only in ashland, people. Tags: football, keegan lawrence, Raider Athletics. Comments: None

Dane Skriloff

@SOURaiders @SOU_Football @Skriloff77

Posted on January 6th, 2020 under only in ashland, people. Tags: dane skriloff, football, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II, Nikon D500, Raider Athletics. Comments Off on Happy birthday, Dane Skriloff!

Charlie Hall

@SOURaiders @SOU_Football @CoachHall_SOU

Posted on January 4th, 2020 under only in ashland, people. Tags: coach charlie hall, football, Nikon D500, Raider Athletics. Comments Off on Happy birthday, Charlie Hall!

Aldrick Rosas with the PAT for SOU

@SOURaiders @SOU_Football @Giants #NAIAFootball #PlayNAIA @NAIA #ProNAIA @aldrick_rosas

Posted on December 30th, 2019 under only in ashland, people. Tags: Aldrick Rosas, football, Raider Athletics. Comments Off on Happy birthday, Aldrick Rosas!

#72 Will Hutson

@HutsonWill72 @SOURaiders @SOU_Football

Posted on December 29th, 2019 under only in ashland, people. Tags: football, gerald greene, Raider Athletics, will hutson. Comments Off on Happy birthday, Will Hutson!

Trevon Bradford

@BeaverFootball ‏#GoBeavs @trevon_bradford

Trevon’s siblings include Toria, Tiani, and Teron.

I did not realize the relationship when I shot Beaver football last year or I would have tried to get more photos of him.

Posted on December 18th, 2019 under outside of ashland, people. Tags: football. Comments Off on Happy birthday, Trevon Bradford!

#4 Darius-James Peterson was the 2019 Frontier Conference Player of the Year

@YotesFootball #NAIAFootball @FConference #PlayNAIA @NAIA @7dpeterson7 @DevvonGage

Guess which NAIA football team won by the most points this past weekend in the first round of the playoffs? Was it the coaches’ #1? #2? #3? #4? No. It was Massey’s #1 and the coaches’ #5. Now Massey’s #1 team has to travel for a playoff game because of the screwed up NAIA football ranking system.

Massey predicted a 32-point victory, and the Yotes beat the spread by 15 points. College of Idaho didn’t beat any Frontier Conference teams by 47 points, and yet they were able to beat one of the coaches’ playoff teams by that much. Hmmmm….

The Yotes will now have to travel to Grand View (Iowa) for a chance to make it to the semifinals. The coaches, of course, think Grand View will win. Massey has College of Idaho as the favorite by 24 points. Anyone agree with coaches and want to put some money on this game? Anyone? Anyone?

Posted on November 27th, 2019 under only in ashland, people. Tags: devvon gage, football. Comments Off on NAIA football playoffs

@YotesFootball @BakerU_Football #NAIAFootball @FConference #PlayNAIA @NAIA #MasseyRatings @AddisonWhitham @MonTechFootball @UMWFootball

The NAIA operates the football postseason in a messed up way, as I’ve pointed out many times. This is the time of year when one can very objectively test whether the system (of having coaches do the rankings which determine the postseason) is flawed or whether a better system could be put in place (such as an objective, computer ranking, based on actual results, strength of schedule, etc. like Massey Ratings).

I’ve shown, in prior years, that Massey does a much better job of predicting which team is better and how the coaches have caused superior teams from being either excluded from the playoffs altogether or having to travel to an inferior opponent’s location.

So let’s see a couple predictions before tomorrow’s games even begin.

The coaches are sending their #16 (Ottawa) to play at their #5 (College of Idaho). A #16 at a #5 in football sounds like a 3-10 point victory for the home team, correct? Not according to Massey who sees it not as #16 at #5 but as #30 at #1. Big difference as Massey has the Yotes winning by 32 points!

The coaches are sending their #15 (Baker) to play at their #3 (Kansas Wesleyan). Sounds like another 3-10 point victory for the home team, correct? Not according to Massey (who actually has Baker even lower than the coaches at #17) who predicts a Baker victory by 3.

Massey also predicts that Montana Tech and Montana Western could beat 14 of the coaches’ playoff teams at home and 11 of them on the road. However, neither team is even in the NAIA football playoffs thanks to the way the playoff teams are selected…

Posted on November 22nd, 2019 under people. Tags: addison whitham, football. Comments Off on Massey or Coaches?

@maloneyconnor95 @SOURaiders @SOU_Football #NAIAFootball @FConference #PlayNAIA @NAIA #MasseyRatings #collegefootball

Only 16 teams make the NAIA football postseason. Sadly, it’s not the best 16 teams. Instead it’s the conference winners and the coaches’ favorites. The coaches decide the rankings, and not all of the coaches get a vote. Instead the deck is stacked against stronger conferences and in favor of those with weaker teams. Schedule strength does not seem to be looked at in any way, shape, or form.

A couple of examples:
– Rocky Mountain beat Dickinson State on the road. Dickinson State is going to the playoffs after winning the North Star Conference. Rocky Mountain went 3-7 in the Frontier Conference. Massey Ratings considers strength of schedule, unlike the coaches, and has Rocky at #22 in the NAIA and Dickinson State at #27.
– Montana State University – Northern beat Arizona Christian University on the road. MSU-Northern went 0-10 in the Frontier Conference. Massey Ratings has MSU-Northern at #48 and ACU at #61. ACU came in third place in their 9-team conference after going 6-2 in conference play.

For the third year in a row, the strongest football conference in the NAIA, the Frontier Conference, gets only one team in the playoffs.

Other teams, not in Massey’s top 16, that “earned” a playoff birth include:
Kansas Wesleyan–#21 on Massey gets home games in the first two rounds!
Saint Xavier–#20 on Massey
Reinhardt–#19 on Massey
Baker–#18 on Massey
Ottawa–#30 on Massey
Northwestern–#17 on Massey

Posted on November 17th, 2019 under only in ashland. Tags: connor maloney, football, Nikon D500, Raider Athletics. Comments Off on Frontier Conference snubbed by NAIA again