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Nathan Torres-Walker
@SOURaiders @SOU_Football @Jrucker10 @Matt_Retzlaff
18 Raiders ended their SOU football careers today. I’ll get photos of all of them up within the next few days. For now, here are three.
Julius Rucker Jr.
Matt Retzlaff
OK. Maybe this won’t be my last rant on the NAIA football rankings, but here goes.
As demonstrated by last year’s playoffs, Massey Ratings (an unbiased, objective, computer-based ranking system) did a far superior job of predicting which NAIA football teams were better when compared to the coaches’ poll (which is, unfortunately, the main thing considered when it comes to determining who makes the postseason and where the games are played). Massey went 7-0 in games when the coaches’ rankings went 3-4. That’s especially significant because the coaches gave the inferior teams home-field advantage, and Massey saw right through that benefit and still predicted the lower-ranked (in the coaches’ eyes) teams to win. The current system is unfair not just because certain teams (Morningside, Baker, etc.) will receive home field advantage throughout much, if not all, of the playoffs again (even though they had weak schedules), but also because teams that Massey doesn’t have in their top 20 (or even top 40!) will make the playoffs.
Let’s look at some things:
1) If the Raiders beat Montana Tech this Saturday in Ashland and Eastern Oregon loses at Carroll College, the Frontier Conference won’t end up with a single team getting a home game in the playoffs. If Massey Ratings was being used, instead of the coaches, four Frontier Conference teams would receive home playoff games.
2) Even if SOU and Montana Western win this weekend, neither team will make the playoffs.
3) Neither Baker (ranked #2 by the coaches) or Reinhardt (ranked #3 by the coaches) have played a team in Massey’s top 13. Not even once. Southern Oregon has played teams in Massey’s top 12 nine times, and that doesn’t even count UC Davis, an NCAA DI team!
4) Some teams that will make the playoffs would not be able to beat MSN, a team SOU beat 56-14 (without scoring in the 4th quarter with the second string playing) last week. Those teams include Kansas Wesleyan (ranked #10 by the coaches, ranked #50 by Massey), Tabor (ranked #13 by the coaches, ranked #41 by Massey), and Sterling (ranked #15 by the coaches, ranked #42 by Massey).
5) Dickinson State will make the playoffs by virtue of winning the incredibly weak North Star Conference. Dickinson State lost to Montana Western by more than two touchdowns. It’s safe to say, and Massey agrees, that Dickinson State would come in 8th place if they were still in the Frontier Conference.
6) Why does the Frontier Conference only get a maximum of two schools in the playoffs? Because the Frontier Conference teams have to play each other, sometimes multiple times. With ten intra-conference games it’s virtually impossible for more than two Frontier Conference teams to come away with fewer than 3 losses, which is pretty much what the coaches require to make the postseason.
Sam Woods
@SOURaiders @SOU_Football
Noon start at Raider Stadium.
@SOURaiders @RaiderVB @LMcGowne @SOU_Football
Zack Davis
@SOURaiders @SOU_Football @Seantow17 @RaiderVB @Ben_Bachman23 @Matt_Retzlaff
Welcome to installment #29 in “The Whole Picture” in which I present the uncropped, higher resolution version of photos that SOURaiders.com have published. For prior editions click here. For higher resolution click on the photo before saving. As always, photos are best viewed on a big screen rather than a tiny phone screen.
Some of you may have found your way here through the link on souraiders.com. I have had several people email me asking questions about buying prints or about finding all of my photos for a certain sport.
The photos I post here are a small fraction of the photos I actually have. If you would like to print any of the photos on Ashland Daily Photo, you are welcome to do so at no charge. Be sure to click on the photo to get to the higher resolution size which will print with more quality. If you want to use them on the web (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), you are welcome to do so if you link back to traveljapanblog.com/ashland in the description of the photo. If you are using the photo in a newspaper or magazine, please credit “Al Case, Ashland Daily Photo”.
If you would like me to search through all of my photos and send you photos of the particular athlete you are looking for I charge a reasonable fee for the time it takes me to find all of those photos and to process them for you. I do not normally sell prints. I email you the high quality electronic files in .jpg format, and you can do the printing and framing yourself through a local or online service. My email is on this page or you can comment (leave a reply) to a recent blog entry to communicate.
To find all of my photos for a particular sport, use the following links. Click on “Older Entries” near the bottom-left of each page to view more photos.
football
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Raider Stadium
Emma Gasman
Lisa Elledge
Matt Retzlaff
Lauren McGowne
AJ Cooper causes a special teams fumble against College of Idaho
SOU’s loss at College of Idaho this past Saturday seemed to end the Raiders’ post-season hopes. The coaches confirmed this in today’s poll by dropping the Raiders to #23 with just three weeks to go. Even if the Raiders win out (and upset #7 Montana Tech) they will likely finish no higher than #17 in the final poll. They would need no worse than a top 14 ranking to make the playoffs (as probably two or more teams not in the top 16 that are not in the Frontier Conference will make the playoffs).
Massey has the Raiders, with the hardest schedule in the country, @ #5 (and Montana Tech @ #2). The coaches don’t consider strength of schedule in their rankings. That’s why teams like Kansas Wesleyan, Tabor, Southeastern, Sterling, Arizona Christian, and Concordia (Nebraska) are ahead of the Raiders in the coaches rankings and will likely remain there as they don’t play any decent teams. Hence, they have little chance of dropping in the rankings. Never mind that Massey Ratings doesn’t have any of those teams in their top 40.
Devvon Gage leads the Frontier Conference with 71 tackles
@SOURaiders @SOU_Football #NAIAFootball @DevvonGage
I’m on the road to Idaho today. The Raiders take on College of Idaho in the first of many must-win games tomorrow. Details here.
@SOURaiders @SOU_Football #NAIAFootball
The NAIA football coaches, with their infinite wisdom of focusing nearly entirely on wins and losses and not strength of schedule or who beat who, have put the Raiders at #17 in the latest poll released today. I thought they’d put Southern Oregon at #12 or #13 even though Massey has them at #4. All the way down to #17 means no home playoff games, even if the Raiders win out. The Raiders may need to win out just to make the playoffs. If the season were to end today, a #17 ranking would fall short.
Let’s look at some of the teams the coaches think are better than the Raiders:
#9 Doane has played one team ranked higher than them. Doane lost 69-7. SOU beat the team Doane lost to (Morningside) last year on the road in the semifinals.
#10 Georgetown’s six wins have come against opponents with a combined record of 9-34. The only team with a winning record that they have faced beat them by 14 points.
#11 Missouri Valley is not a top twenty team according to Massey.
#12 Dickinson State lost to Montana Western by 26 points. SOU beat Montana Western. Dickinson State hasn’t played any ranked team, or even decent team since, en route to their 6-1 record.
#14 Kansas Wesleyan has the 82nd most difficult schedule in the NAIA. (SOU has the most difficult schedule according to Massey.) There are only 87 teams in the NAIA. That said, KW still has a loss, to a team that hasn’t been ranked, and SOU beat KW by 44 points last year in the playoffs! Massey doesn’t have Kansas Wesleyan in their top 50, yet the coaches have them at #14.
#15 Dakota Wesleyan lost to Doane (see above) by almost 30 points.
#16 Bethal has yet to play a team with a winning record. Not to worry, Massey predicts they will lose each of their last four games.
I’m not saying that SOU should be ranked higher than Montana Tech or Eastern Oregon at this point, but the coaches clearly are dinging the Raiders way too much for losing to an NCAA DI team and for two close loses to a very good Eastern Oregon team. They see the three loses but don’t consider enough who those loses were at the hands of or the fact that the Raiders have accumulated more yards than all of their opponents, even in the losses.
