Second time in a week? The playoffs must be near!

The playoff picture became clearer for several area high school football teams last Friday.  Then on Saturday, Texas Lutheran continued its season-long slide.  Oh well, time for this week’s update.

Texas Lutheran

Though football has struggled this fall, the news is not all bad at TLU.  Bulldog volleyball is on its way to the American Southwest Conference Tournament.  The Bulldogs can secure second place in the ASC West Division with a victory over Concordia on Tuesday night.  The match starts at 6 p.m. at the Tostengard Center.

TLU volleyball is still in the running for a share of the division championship.  The Bulldogs would have to defeat Concordia and also have Hardin-Simmons lose its final two matches.  That is unlikely, as the Cowgirls meet Schreiner and division cellar dweller Sul Ross State this coming weekend.

Now to the bad news.  TLU football matched a program record with its 10th consecutive loss on Saturday.  The Bulldogs are now 0-7 this season and 0-5 in the ASC after the 36-23 loss to McMurry.  TLU defensive end Chris Kyle did have a big day.  He tied an ASC record with four sacks in the ballgame.  Kyle has been named the conference’s defensive player of the week.

Elswhere around the conference, Mississippi College and Mary Hardin-Baylor both won as they continue their race for the ASC title.  MC remains unbeaten in league play, while UMHB is a game back with one loss.

Seguin, District 27-4A

Once again we start with good news, which means volleyball.  Seguin is headed to the Class 4A playoffs as the second place team from District 27-4A.  The only losses the Matadors suffered in district came against champion Steele.  Seguin closes the regular season on Tuesday with a home match against Kerrville-Tivy.  The match starts at 7 p.m. at Harris Gym.

On the football field, Seguin was on the short end of a 52-41 shoot-out with Boerne-Champion.  The team’s losing streak is now at five games.

Marion, District 27-3A

Though Marion football is just 1-7, the team was not officially eliminated from Class 3A playoff contention until this past Friday night.  The Bulldogs fell to Luling, 44-0.  This week a tough game against LaVernia awaits.  Both the Bulldogs and Bears come in off losses, as LaVernia was upset by S.A.-Sam Houston this past Friday night.  Luling, LaVernia, Somerset, and Sam Houston are all still alive in the playoff race.

On the volleyball court, Marion can finish its district schedule two games above .500 with a win on Tuesday.  The Bulldogs host Poteet at 6:15 p.m.

Navarro, District 28-2A

Panther football and volleyball both now know that they are headed to the playoffs.  On the volleyball court, Navarro rolled to a three-game win over Kenedy this past Friday.  The Panthers final regular season match is Tuesday against Karnes City.  The match starts at 6 p.m. in Geronimo.

On the football field, Navarro routed Kenedy 69-0 on Friday.  The Panthers and Karnes City are both 3-0 in district and headed to the playoffs.  Poth also is likely a playoff team after a win over Stockdale moved the Pirates to 2-1.

Lifegate, TAPPS

The Lifegate football team has a chance to win its first outright TAPPS 6-man, Division II, District 5 championship this Friday.  The Falcons visit Fredericksburg-Heritage to close the season.   Both teams have a 2-0 district record.

Lifegate volleyball is headed to its TAPPS Class 1A Regional Tournament in Plano this weekend.  The Falcons moved through the area round this past Saturday with a three-game win over Houston-Texas Christian.

About time for an update!

So I must admit, once the football season started I forgot all about my blog.  My last post was a run-down of the first preseason scrimmages for the area teams in mid-August.  Now in mid-October the district races for the area high school teams are coming into focus and at the collegiate level the ASC race is starting to sort out.

Since this blog has missed so much of the season, I’ll start with a few thoughts on each of our area teams.  Then, we’ll take a look at playoff hopes.

Texas Lutheran

TLU first played a schedule made up of opponents who were predominately collegiate teams in 1929.  In the 61 season since, the Bulldogs have had just two winless campaigns.  Only one of those seasons was truly futile, with no victories or ties.

The, shall we say, poor seasons were 1955 and 1958.  The ‘55 Bulldogs went 0-7-1 while the ‘58 team was winless and untied at 0-8.  Both teams were coached by John J. Kramer, who was apparently spending more time honing son Tommy’s quarterbacking skills than drilling his TLC teams on the practice field.  The winless and untied season in ‘58 marked Kramer’s final year at TLC.

These two forgettable season come up because the 2009 version of the Bulldogs is in danger of becoming the third in school history to not win a game.  TLU is through the midpoint of its season without a victory.  The Bulldogs are 0-6 and have played only two close games.  Both were early season losses to Trinity and East Texas Baptist.  Outside of those two near misses, the Bulldogs have been outscored by a 48-17 average in the other four losses.

This week, things don’t look up as a resurgent McMurry team comes to Seguin.  After going 0-10 last season The Nation, as McMurry has come to be known in the post-Indian era, is in third place in the ASC behind only Mississippi College and Mary Hardin-Baylor. 

Also, TLU will start its fourth quarterback of the season this Saturday.  Luke Davis, a sophomore out of Baytown Christian who has never been in uniform for a varsity game, will get the call.  Davis joins Rocky Huff (Fr., Houston-Jersey Village), Jarret Buchholtz (Jr.-TR, NAIA Texas College), and David Jones (R-Fr., Bruni) as players who have started a game at quarterback for the Bulldogs this season. 

TLU, of course, has no playoff aspirations, but two teams in the ASC still do.  Thanks to Mississippi College’s upset of Mary Hardin-Baylor this past weekend, the Choctaws are in the driver’s seat for the conference title.  Even if MC drops a game over the final month of the regular season, the team will still earn the conference’s automatic bid into the NCAA Division III Tournament thanks to the win over UMHB.  The Crusaders are also very much in playoff contention.  As long as the Cru wins out, they will get an at-large bid. 

As an aside, should MC win the ASC outright it would mark the first time since the 1997 season neither UMHB or Hardin-Simmons has at least shared the conference championship.  In ‘97 MC was the champion.  Since the conference’s founding in 1996, the only seasons a team other than UMHB or HSU earned even a share of the title were MC’s outright championship in ‘97 and ETBU’s tri-championship with the Cru and Cowboys in 2003. 

 

Seguin

Injuries and illness derailed Seguin’s run through District 27-4A early.  The first week of the district season Seguin was upset by New Braunfels-Canyon, and the Matadors have not recovered in three ensuing district losses.  Seguin, technicaly, is still alive for the Class 4A payoffs.  The Matadors have to win out and need more help than I have room to explain so, in reality, Seguin has been eliminated from post-season contention.

Still, the chance to close the year strong exists.  Two of the team’s final three games are against district foes who are below .500.  The first of those games is this Friday at Matadors Stadium.  Seguin hosts Boerne-Champion at 7:30 p.m.

Marion

It was known coming into this year that this would be a rebuilding season for Marion.  The Bulldogs are now 0-2 in District 27-3A and, like Seguin, they are not mathematically eliminated.  Marion, however, would have to pull off upsets of Luling, LaVernia, and Poteet to earn a playoff spot.  That gauntlet begins Friday as the Bulldogs host Luling at 7:30 p.m.

Navarro

Unlike Seguin and Marion, the Navarro Panthers are in control of their playoff destiny.  A 29-28 victory over Poth this past Friday has the Panthers at 2-0 in district, in a first place tie with Karnes City.   Navarro can move that district record to 3-0 and all but secure a playoff berth this weekend with a win over Kenedy.  The also game marks the return of former Panther head coach Lin Havron to Geronimo.  Kick in Geronimo is at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

Lifegate

TAPPS 6-man, Division II, District 4 play began just this past weekend and Lifegate rolled to a 68-0 victory over San Antonio-Believers.  That win all but puts Lifegate in the playoffs, as three of the four teams from the district advance to the postseason.  The Falcons, who are 8-0 overall, can set themselves up for a district title shot with a win this weekend.  Lifegate hosts San Antonio-Town East at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.

Football scrimmages this weekend

My last update was just before the start of the high school volleybal preseason.  With the area UIL volleyball teams now in the non-district portion of their regular seasons, it’s time to look at the football exhibitions coming up.

This coming weekend Seguin, Marion, Navarro, and Lifegate all host their scrimmages on Saturday morning.  Seguin meets San Antonio-Clark at 11 a.m. at Matador Stadium.  Marion takes on Hondo at 11 a.m. at Veterans Stadium.  Navarro hosts Jourdanton at 10 a.m. at Erwin-Lee Field.  At the six-man level, Lifegate hosting four different teams at Lifegate Field at 9:30 a.m.

Next weekend (Aug. 21-22) the preseason comes to a close for the football programs.  On Friday, Aug. 21 the three Seguin-area UIL teams have road scrimmages.  Seguin travels to Bastrop at 7:30 p.m.  Marion is at San Antonio-St. Anthony.  Navarro visits Devine at 7 p.m.  Lifegate hosts a morning scrimmage on Saturday, Aug. 22.  the Falcons again play host to four other teams at 9:30 a.m.

Little League winds down, high schools start up

Over the course of the last week the summer athletic season came to a close for Seguin-area teams and the fall season got under way for area high schools. First up, a wrap-up of summer baseball and softball.

Zaragoza League

The Seguin CMC Steelers had a disappointing season in the Zaragoza League.  The Steelers were unable to win either the first or second half regular season title.  The San Antonio Titans took both of those championships and earned the league’s automatic bid to the National Baseball Congress World Series.

Seguin had a chance to qualify for NBC World Series play two weekends ago at the NBC Southwest Texas Regional Tournament in Bastrop.  The Steelers won their first game but then dropped two straight to fall short of the championship round.  The early elimination kept Seguin from an at-large bid to the NBC World Series.  This is the first summer since 1993 that Seguin has not made the trip to Wichita.

Seguin Little League – Big League Softball

The Seguin Big League Softball All-Stars ended up playing only two games this summer.  The team did not face another team until the Southwestern Regional Tournament which was held this past weekend at Starcke Park.  Seguin lost to Laredo-Bel Air to open the tournament and then dropped an elimination bracket game to Pine Bluff, Ark.  2009 was the second straight season Seguin’s Big League softball team advanced to the regional tournament.

Seguin Little League – 10-11 Year Old Softball

This update goes back two weekends, but congratulations are in order for Seguin’s 10-11 Year Old Softball All-Stars.  Seguin won the Texas East State Championship thanks to a series sweep of Channelview at the Texas East State Tournament at Starcke Park.  Seguin won the best-of-three series two-games-to-none.  The 10-11 Year Old age group does not advance beyond the state level, so Seguin ended the season with a win.

Seniors Baseball Southwestern Regional Tournament

The only are little league event still on the schedule is the Seniors Baseball Southwestern Regional which begins this weekend at Williams Field.  No Seguin team is in the field, but New Braunfels does have an entry.  All in all, there will be seven teams in Seguin playing for the right to advance to the Seniors Baseball World Series.

High School football

This week marked the begining of fall practice for every area high school team.  Seguin, Marion, Navarro, and Lifegate all took to their practice fields for the first time on Monday morning.  Every team has two scrimmages.  The first of which are all on Saturday, Aug. 15.  The second scrimmages will either be Friday, Aug. 21 or Saturday, Aug. 22.

High School volleyball

Volleyball practices also began this week.  Seguin, Marion, and Navarro all have a pair of scrimmages this weekend.  Friday both Seguin and Navarro are at the Steele scrimmage in Cibolo.  Marion travels to Luling for a scrimmage.  On Saturday Seguin scrimmages at San Antono-Southwest, Marion hosts three teams, and Navarro heads to Fischer Canyon Lake.

The regular season for the UIL teams begins early next week.  Seguin visits San Antonio-McCollum at 7 p.m. on Monday.  Marion and Navarro each open the regular season on Tuesday.  The Bulldogs host Comfort at noon and the Panthers visit Floresville at 3 p.m.  Lifegate does not begin the regular season until Thursday, Aug. 20.

My title plan

With the FBS/D-IA college football regular season over, I have taken it upon myself to solve that national championship problem.  As the only NCAA division without a playoff and also a tradition-laden system of bowls that isn’t going away, below is my ‘hybrid’ plan for a new D-IA post-season.

The Regular Season

Before writing about altering the post-season, I believe the regular season needs some standardization.  Since, under my plan, all conference title games would be abolished I propose a standard 13-game regular season that would span 15 weeks.  That would provide for two ‘open dates’ over the course of the season.  Also, should 12-team leagues desire, they could play a full 11-game conference schedule and still have two non-conference games.  Also, I would not allow games against FCS/D-IAA teams to count toward bowl eligibility.

For 2008 the regular season would run from Saturday, Aug. 23 to Sat, Nov. 29.  Those dates are determined by…….

The Tournament

I propose a 16-team post-season tournament that would span four weekends.  The championship game would be played the first Saturday after Jan. 1.  If Jan. 1 falls on a Saturday, then that would be the day of the title game.  For the 2008 season, the title game would be played on Jan. 3, 2009. 

After a national bye week Sat., Dec. 6, the tournament would begin with a round of 16 on Sat., Dec. 13.  The round of eight would be played Sat., Dec. 20, the round of four on Sat., Dec. 27.

All FBS/D-IA conferences would be represented in the tournament with an automatic bid for the champion.  For 2008 those would be:

ACC – Virginia Tech                                    Big East – Cinicinnati

Big 10 – Penn State                                      Big 12 – Oklahoma

CUSA – East Carolina                                  MWC – Utah

MAC – Buffalo                                                Pac 10 – USC

SEC – Florida                                                  Sun Belt – Troy

WAC – Boise State

 

With 11 automatic bids, that leaves five at-large spots.  Those would be selected using the current BCS standings.  So the at-large spots go to:

Texas, Alabama, Texas Tech, Ohio State, and TCU.

 

The seeding would also be done using the current BCS standings with the caveat that teams from the same conference could not meet in the first round.  That would impact this season’s field because Utah and TCU would play in the first round if the seedings were strictly followed.  However, since that match-up would not be allowed TCU is dropped one seed (to #12) and Cincinnati is moved up one seed (to #11). 

 The top seeded team in each match-up would host.  That would be true of the first three rounds.  Only the championship game would be played at a neutral site.  So….

#1 Oklahoma vs. #16 Troy

#8 Penn State vs. #9 Boise State

#5 USC vs. #12 (really #11) TCU

#4 Alabama vs. #13 Virginia Tech

#3 Texas vs. #14 East Carolina

#6 Utah vs. #11 (really #12) Cincinnati

#7 Texas Tech vs. #10 Ohio State

#2 Florida vs. #15 Buffalo

 

As for the championship game, I propose it be rotated amongst the ’sudo-BCS’ sites below.  The title game would  rotate between the metro areas of Los Angeles (Rose Bowl), Phoenix (U. of P. Stadium), Dallas (Cowboys Stadium), New Orleans (Superdome), Jacksonville (Jacksonville Stadium), and Miami (Dolphin Stadium).

 

Let the playoff begin!  Don’t think, however, that this 16-team playoff would be the extent of the postseason.  Far from it.  There are still……..

The Bowls

While I believe that all conferences that play FBS/D-IA football should have the opportunity to play for a championship, I also believe that it is naive to think that the level of play of most non-BCS schools is anywhere near that of the majority of the BCS programs. 

With that bias in mind, I propose a ’sudo-BCS’ that would see quality match-ups from current BCS conference teams that DO NOT make the 16-team playoff.  The ’sudo-BCS’ games would be the Rose, Fiesta, Cotton, Sugar, Orange, and Gator Bowls.  The four current BCS games are kept and the Cotton and Gator area added because of their historical significance.  The match-ups for these games would not change from year to year.  Here are the match-ups I propose and the teams that would fill the slots this season:

Rose Bowl – Pac 10 #1 (Oregon) vs. Big 10 #1 (Michigan State)

Fiesta Bowl – Pac 10 #2 (Oregon State) vs. ACC #2 (Georgia Tech)

Cotton Bowl – Big 12 #2 (Missouri) vs. SEC #2 (Mississippi)

Sugar Bowl – SEC #1 (Georgia) vs. Big East #1 (Pittsburgh)

Orange Bowl – Big 12 #1 (Oklahoma State) vs. ACC #1 (Boston College)

Gator – Big 10 #2 (Northwestern) vs. Big East #2 (West Virginia)

 

After this first tier of bowl games, I propose a second tier of eight games that would select only half their participants prior to the start of the 16-team playoff.  The other half would be the teams that lost in the first round of the playoff.  This is done to ensure that the teams that lose in the first round still get to practice and play late into December, just as is the case for the rest of the playoff teams and the rest of the bowl teams. 

So, let’s say the seeds hold and Troy, Boise State, Cincinnati, Virginia Tech, East Carolina, TCU, Ohio State, and Buffalo lose.  They would then go to some combination of the below games (I have not selected these bowls for any particular reason.  They’re just eight that span the breadth of the country.)  Also, these bowls would rotate the first through eighth picks each year.  So, the bowl with the first pick this season would get the eighth pick next year, the seventh the year after, and so on and so forth.  I have made the selections based on the highest seeds in the playoff getting picked first (i.e. #9 Boise St. is the first pick while #16 Troy is the last pick).  I have also projected the preplayoff selection the bowl would make:

Holiday Bowl - Cal (top available Pac 10) vs. Boise State

Insight Bowl – Nebraska (top available Big 12) vs. Ohio State

Sun Bowl - Rutgers (top available Big East) vs. TCU 

Alamo Bowl - Iowa (top available Big 10) vs. Cincinnati

Independence Bowl - BYU (top available MWC) vs. Virginia Tech

Liberty Bowl - Louisiana Tech (top available WAC) vs. East Carolina

Chick-Fil-A Bowl - LSU (top available SEC) vs. Buffalo

Capital One Bowl - Florida State (top available ACC) vs. Troy

 

As for all the other bowls… keep them.   Let teams that are eligible experience the postseason even if they are not part of a playoff.