Sean Rogers applying the heat in SOU’s 52-8 victory

@SOURaiders @SOU_Football @MontanaWestern @racetodaytona @Play_NAIA @FConference

Will the NAIA “powers that be” finally realize after today’s results what people have been saying for a couple years? As I mentioned a week ago, today’s #10 at #7 (according to the NAIA coaches) was really #46 at #3 (according to Massey Ratings). Not to disrespect Kansas Wesleyan, and their 10-2 season, but they couldn’t have beaten anyone in the Frontier Conference other than Montana Northern. That’s what I said, and Massey Ratings agreed, and yet the voting coaches thought KWU was more worthy of a post season birth than Montana Western. Ridiculous.

SOU shouldn’t be playing Montana Tech next week as the top four teams (according to the coaches) won. If the system is at all fair, things will play out so that SOU ends up playing Montana Tech in Daytona this year. SOU should have played Carroll College in Daytona last year. Carroll College should have ended up with the #2 ranking last year.

Things need to be fixed in the NAIA football ranking system soon. SOU and Montana Tech should be at home next weekend. Neither will be since they had to run the Frontier Conference gauntlet just to get to the postseason.

Posted on November 21st, 2015 under only in ashland, people. Tags: football, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II, Nikon D750, Raider Athletics, sports photography. Comments Off on Frontier Conference domination

@SOURaiders @SOU_Football @racetodaytona @Play_NAIA

Here are the games:
Game 1 – Saint Xavier (Ill.) (7-3) at Morningside (Iowa) (10-1)
Game 2 – Point (Ga.) (8-2) at Baker (Kan.) (10-1)
Game 3 – Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) (8-2) at Grand View (Iowa) (10-1)
Game 4 – Reinhardt (Ga.) (9-1) at Saint Francis (Ind.) (9-0)
Game 5 – Dickinson State (N.D.) (8-2) at Montana Tech (9-1)
Game 6 – Campbellsville (Ky.) (8-2) at Marian (Ind.) (8-2)
Game 7 – Kansas Wesleyan (10-1) at Southern Oregon (8-2)
Game 8 – Doane (Neb.) (9-1) at Tabor (Kan.) (10-1)

Here were my predictions:
Game 1 – Morningside (Iowa) by 20+
Game 2 – Slight edge to Baker (Kan.)
Game 3 – Slight edge to Grand View (Iowa)
Game 4 – Slight edge to Saint Francis (Ind.)
Game 5 – Montana Tech by 20+
Game 6 – Slight edge to Marian (Ind.)
Game 7 – Southern Oregon by 20+
Game 8 – Doane (Neb.) by 7+

Here are the results:
Game 1 – Morningside won
Game 2 – Baker (Kan.) won
Game 3 – Grand View (Iowa) won
Game 4 – Saint Francis (Ind.) won
Game 5 – Montana Tech won by 34
Game 6 – Marian (Ind.) won
Game 7 – Southern Oregon won by 44
Game 8 – Tabor won

Posted on November 21st, 2015 under people. Tags: football, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II, Nikon D750, Raider Athletics, sports photography. Comments Off on 2015 NAIA FCS update

Melvin Mason

@SOURaiders @SOU_Football @RaiderVB @Sectionchamp2 @Niki_721

Football at 4.

Volleyball at 9.

Winners continue deeper into the NAIA playoffs. Losers are done. In Ashland. Be there.

Posted on November 21st, 2015 under only in ashland, people. Tags: football, niki small, Nikon D750, Raider Athletics, Southern Oregon University, sports photography, volleyball. Comments Off on Gameday!

Map to Kepler @ Club 66 (11/16/15)

Posted on November 20th, 2015 under only in ashland, people. Tags: club 66, concert photography, map to kepler, Nikon 85mm f/1.8 g lens, Nikon D750. Comments Off on Map to Kepler @ Club 66

#7 Tanner Trosin will lead #7 SOU this Saturday in the first round of the NAIA FCS

@UMW_Bulldogs @racetodaytona @Play_NAIA @CCSaints

In a mere 30 days the 2015 NAIA FCS National Championship will take place in Daytona, Florida. The defending champions are the #7 seed, and won’t likely get another home game after this Saturday.

I’ve been criticizing the NAIA’s system of ranking for over a year now, but the voting coaches don’t seem to be paying me any attention. Instead, they continue to focus on number of losses and proximity to NAIA headquarters in determining the rankings.

Carroll College is trying to help fix things in basketball by providing computerized rankings weekly to the voting coaches. Will the coaches consider the more objective rankings in their polling? That remains to be seen.

In the meantime, I started poking around at some stats after looking at game-by-game stats for Dickinson State on Massey Ratings. My first question was, why is Dickinson State in the playoffs instead of Montana Western? Dickinson State barely beat 0-10 Montana Northern, and they lost to Rocky Mountain (who Montana Western beat twice by a combined 44 points). Montana Western’s three losses were all by less than a single score to teams in the top ten. Dickinson State’s two losses were to unranked teams. Voting coaches obviously aren’t looking past the number of losses.

Then I read today here that “KWU is 0-2 all-time in the NAIA FCS, losing 48-0 to Evangel (Mo.) in 2001 and 45-7 to Sioux Falls in ’02”. So I got to thinking that maybe I should delve into the history of how Frontier Conference teams do in the FCS vs teams from the Kansas College Athletic Conference (home of Kansas Wesleyan and Tabor) or the North Star Athletic Association (home of Dickinson State).

Last year Frontier Conference teams, who weren’t playing each other, went 4-0 in the FCS, winning by a combined score of 210-94 (none of the games were decided by less than two touchdowns). For some reason, the coaches felt like the Frontier Conference deserved no more than two teams in the FCS following that performance.

Over the past few years, teams from the Kansas College Athletic Conference and North Star Athletic Association have gone 0-5 in the FCS, losing by a combined score of 62-195. Four of those games were decided by two touchdowns or more. For that performance, the coaches included three teams from these two conferences instead of more deserving teams like Montana Western.

Posted on November 19th, 2015 under people. Tags: football, Nikon D750, Raider Athletics, sports photography, tanner trosin. Comments: 1

Posted on November 19th, 2015 under nature. Tags: clouds, hike, hobart bluff, Nikon 24-120mm f/4G ED AF-S VR, Nikon D750, panorama, photoshop photomerge, skywatch. Comments Off on Hobart Bluff on a snowy spring morning

SOU in autumn

@SOUAshland @SOUGrounds @SOUadmissions

Those SOU landscaping people are so on top of the leaf “problem” on campus during the week that in order to get a photo like this, you need to wait until Sunday. Early on Monday works too.

Posted on November 18th, 2015 under only in ashland, places. Tags: AF-S Nikkor 20mm f/1.8G ED lens, autumn, campus, leaves, Nikon D750, Southern Oregon University. Comments Off on Southern Oregon University in November

@SOURaiders @RaiderVB

Southern Oregon will host a first round match this weekend in the 2015 NAIA volleyball tournament. Their opponent will be La Sierra from Riverside, California.

Basketball and wrestling have already seen their last events in Riehm Arena in McNeal Pavilion. This Saturday’s contest will be the last event ever in McNeal. The building is coming down to make way for a new facility which will be ready in 2017.

Today’s photo comes not from Riehm Arena but from the gym at Eastern Oregon University.

Posted on November 16th, 2015 under people. Tags: Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II, Nikon D750, Raider Athletics, sports photography, volleyball. Comments Off on Raider volleyball advances to postseason

Isiah Carter, David Weider, and Sam Woods before yesterday’s victory over Eastern Oregon University

@SOURaiders @SOU_Football @CarterTheGr8_

Here are the games:
Game 1 – Saint Xavier (Ill.) (7-3) at Morningside (Iowa) (10-1)
Game 2 – Point (Ga.) (8-2) at Baker (Kan.) (10-1)
Game 3 – Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) (8-2) at Grand View (Iowa) (10-1)
Game 4 – Reinhardt (Ga.) (9-1) at Saint Francis (Ind.) (9-0)
Game 5 – Dickinson State (N.D.) (8-2) at Montana Tech (9-1)
Game 6 – Campbellsville (Ky.) (8-2) at Marian (Ind.) (8-2)
Game 7 – Kansas Wesleyan (10-1) at Southern Oregon (8-2)
Game 8 – Doane (Neb.) (9-1) at Tabor (Kan.) (10-1)

Here are the predictions:
Game 1 – Morningside (Iowa) by 20+
Game 2 – Slight edge to Baker (Kan.)
Game 3 – Slight edge to Grand View (Iowa)
Game 4 – Slight edge to Saint Francis (Ind.)
Game 5 – Montana Tech by 20+
Game 6 – Slight edge to Marian (Ind.)
Game 7 – Southern Oregon by 20+
Game 8 – Doane (Neb.) by 7+

For SOU to host a second round game they will likely need three of the top six teams to lose in the first round. Morningside and Montana Tech will probably be victorious, but three of the other four games could go to the visiting team. If that doesn’t happen, SOU may be traveling to Montana Tech for the second round.

Posted on November 15th, 2015 under only in ashland, people. Tags: football, isiah carter, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II, Nikon D750, Raider Athletics, sam woods, Southern Oregon University, sports photography. Comments Off on NAIA FCS first round predictions