Top predictions true; the rest ...
|
|
D3football.com
Well, here we are again at the end of another football season. This is the time people in our business don't exactly look forward to.
Now we are held accountable for all those brash predictions we made at the beginning of the year, when everything was fresh and new, and past performances made everything look cut and dried.
But as far as we are concerned, every copy of our 2000 preview could have fallen victim to some nasty computer virus and disappeared from the face of the Internet. But we are not so stupid as to believe that such a thing can even possibly happen. To us at least.
Anyway, now is the time to reflect on the prognostications made what seems like an eternity ago, and see how close to the mark we actually were. At the top, things don't look too bad, as Trinity University and Hardin-Simmons University were our selections for taking home the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference and American Southwest Conference crowns, respectively.
Neither team failed. Hardin-Simmons, in fact, came through like a champ, churning out an unblemished 10-0 record and moving to No. 2 in the American Football Coaches Association national poll.
Thanks to this tremendous effort, the Cowboys received the No. 1 seed in the South region of the NCAA Division III playoffs, which includes a first-round bye and home-field advantage all the way up to the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl. Way to save our hide, Cowboys.
While Trinity also fulfilled most preseason expectations, it wasn't in the dominating fashion we expected. The Tigers went 10-0 last year and advanced to the national semifinals before losing to Pacific Lutheran. This year, Trinity remained unbeaten as far into the season as Week 7, where the Tigers slipped up to Centre, 25-21.
Then Trinity faltered again, this time to Millsaps last Saturday. That dropped the Tigers to a decidedly subpar -- at least by their standards -- 8-2 record.
But have no fear, Trinity is still a postseason contender, as it garnered a No. 7-seed in the South region, where it will face Wesley in the first round. And of all the luck, thanks to less-than-desirable facilities, Trinity will host its initial game.
Now for the bad news: Our crystal ball was indeed broken back in August, and that must be the reason we were so far off on some of our other predictions. McMurry did not finish second in the ASC, nor did it compete for an at-large bid. Thanks to a three-game skid early in the season, the Indians were out of the picture almost from the get-go.
The same can be said for Howard Payne, which also dropped three straight during the year to wreck any hopes of an ASC title.
But on the positive side, we predicted that the Sewanee would be a major player in the SCAC this year, and only a season-ending loss to Trinity stood between Sewanee and the championship.
And how about this one, if we may quote directly from our preseason preview -- "Another potential surprise in 2000 could be Centre College." If you check back six paragraphs, you'll see that the Colonels were the first team to knock of Trinity this year. Go ahead and check, we'll wait.
...
And try this one on for size -- "Third-year program Mary Hardin-Baylor has the potential to beat just about any school in the conference, despite its 4-6 record last season." Well, the Crusaders did beat just about every other school in the American Southwest Conference. All of them, to be exact, except for Hardin-Simmons.
But even we aren't obnoxious enough to claim that we predicted the third-year program would fall just a few minutes short of a conference title. But we can pretend, can't we?
Considering all that has happened, we think we will play it safe now and not make any predictions about the upcoming playoffs that feature both Hardin-Simmons and Trinity. But we will say this: Tigers vs. Cowboys, Saturday, Dec. 2 at Shelton Stadium in Abilene. It will be a shootout. Sorry, we couldn't help ourselves.