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Every preseason we rank the conferences for Kickoff, and while the rankings are based mostly on last season and a little on projections, as games get played things tend to change. It’s clear the MAC is moving back up the conference pecking order. Delaware Valley has forced its way into the lead story twice in three weeks, something which we would rarely do in September. But who is falling based on the first four weeks? Delaware Valley posed an interesting conundrum, too, in a week without many upsets, in forcing its way into the Top 25. So Keith and I discuss that, some other teams that could get in, games that are getting onto the radar and falling below them, and more in this week’s Around the Nation podcast. Happy Monday morning, everyone. Listen in while you’re doing your TPS reports and try not to think about the economy.

There are plenty of teams we can point to in the early going this season who are playing poorly. Three of them got upset on Saturday. So while we talk about what happened in the West Region this weekend, there are also some teams who are looking good, even better than expected, through this past week’s games. Keith McMillan and Pat Coleman take a look at those storylines and more in this week’s Around the Nation podcast. Click the play button below to listen. The player requires Flash.

There were surprise games and surprise teams in Week 2, from Delaware Valley to the Mississippi and points west. Keith McMillan and Pat Coleman attempt to cover them all in this week’s Around the Nation podcast. Click the play button below to listen. The player requires Flash.

The Around the Nation podcast is back for a second season and this year, with Keith McMillan and I on opposite ends of the Division III landscape, it’s presented us some new challenges. Before, Keith and I always recorded together, in the same place, but now he’s in Washington, D.C., and I’m in Minneapolis. So it takes some technological stitching together and timing and such we haven’t completely gotten down yet. But we’ll work on that more next week. Hopefully the analysis of Week 1 is the important thing, since that’s what we do with our weekly podcast discussion on Monday mornign. Such as, what do you do if you’re a good team and you lost to a better team this week? Or lost to a bad team? Where does a team go from here after its first game? What did we learn about St. John Fisher? What can we expect from UW-Whitewater? What’s it like getting a long losing streak off your back? All that and more in this week’s Around the Nation podcast. Click the play button below to listen. The player requires Flash.

Although there were 5,099 in paid attendance at the Stagg Bowl this past weekend, and many who traveled a long way despite not having their team there to root for, it’s highly unlikely anyone drove further in pursuit of college football in 2007 than Andrew Reed. Reed, who writes for SI On Campus, put more than 20,000 miles on his odometer this season in pursuit of the ultimate road trip. Reed had 17 games on his itinerary, 15 of them between Division I teams (including Princeton/Harvard). The focus? Fans and tailgating. That’s why it’s not overly surprising that the other two games involved Bridgewater, in a sense. He was at the Bridgewater/Guilford game on Oct. 13 and, of course, the Stagg Bowl. He’ll be writing a book about his odyssey. As someone who spends a fair amount of time on the road in pursuit of football (though not Ohioo State/Michigan or Florida/Georgia), I know it can make for a long season. But I didn’t drive nearly 20,000 miles this season. Racked up some frequent flyer miles, but Mount Union was my longest drive. I look forward to the book. Gordon Mann interviewed Reed on our pregame show on Saturday about his journey, see the player below. It’s a good listen. And be sure to visit his blog, too.

Gordon Mann joins Keith McMillan and Pat Coleman to help wrap up the 2007 Division III football season. Hear a lively debate on who should be No. 2 when the final poll is released, as well as their takes on what the 2007 season will mean upon reflection. This is the last ATN podcast of the season — thanks for listening and thanks for the hundreds of you who subscribed to it. We’ll also have some more audio from the weekend to share as well.

Although more then 2,500 of you listened to our broadcast of Stagg Bowl XXXV, we thought others might want to tune in. Given the podcast capabilities, I thought we’d post it here.

Alright, so here we are, at the culmination of more than 1,100 games and after 236 teams have been eliminated from contention for the 2007 Division III football national championship, with Mount Union and UW-Whitewater. The fans are already tailgating in the parking lot, getting ready for our 4 p.m. kickoff. We’ll keep you updated here throughout the day on all the goings-on and help you follow along. Don’t forget to turn down the audio on ESPN (Pam Ward on play by play) and turn up our audio broadcast. Those of you with a DVR may find the delay is manageable by pausing the television. We’ll pronounce names correctly, etc. Join Gordon Mann, Frank Rossi and Ryan Tipps on our game day show starting at 2 p.m. Keith McMillan and I will take over leading up to the 4 p.m. kickoff, with Frank on the sidelines. Some more audio to tide you over until we hit the air at 2 — I was interviewed on Western Wisconsin Sports Saturday this morning about the Stagg Bowl and recorded most of it for the audience here.

Keith McMillan and I broadcast the Mount Union/Bethel game Saturday from Alliance, Ohio, and although we had more than 4,000 people listening live at various points throughout the game, you may not have heard our halftime interview. We spoke to Dick Kaiser, the national chair of the Division III football committee, about the bracket, the new strength of schedule measurements, the final teams taken, etc. It’s a good look into the selection process.

Fifteen weeks and 1,100 games have led to this, Stagg Bowl XXXV, between Mount Union and UW-Whitewater. If you’re new to Division III, these teams have met in the Stagg Bowl each of the previous two years as well. How have things changed since? What can UW-Whitewater do differently in 2007 than it did in 2006 and 2005? What will the Stagg Bowl be like with a healthy Pierre Garcon and Justin Beaver? Get ready for the Stagg Bowl with Keith McMillan and Pat Coleman’s take in this week’s Around the Nation podcast.

Go grab your coffee and sit down with us on a Monday morning for this week’s ATN podcast. Four games last week, two games this week. Plus, hear what Keith thought of the Wesley/Mary Hardin-Baylor game and Pat’s take on the Central/Bethel game. What’s coming up this week? Are we really destined for a threepeat Stagg Bowl? Listen in.

So Keith McMillan and I were on the record as not being surprised at the eight teams which won in Saturday’s second round. The margins of victory? Definitely a difference. Does it matter that Bethel/UW-Eau Claire was so close? Which conferences made big leaps forward in Week 12 and 13? Who leaves the second round of the playoffs disappointed and who leaves them with an optimistic outlook? We’ve got two rematches and two new matchups. Now that we’re down to eight teams, who will benefit the most from the reshuffled bracket? And where will we find ourselves on Saturday? More in the ATN podcast.

We’re not sure what was more exciting, the games themselves in the first round or the rush of 16 games all underway at once. It seemed like you couldn’t hit refresh without getting some interesting new tidbit, whether it was Curry pulling away early or TCNJ winning late, Salisbury tying Muhlenberg in the fourth quarter or N.C. Wesleyan taking W&J to overtime. Plus, Keith and Pat, remember, both saw N.C. Wesleyan the first week of the season. Hear their hindsight on what each saw and how it colored their predictions from last week. And go through the rest of last week’s games and the ones coming up. It’s our Around the Nation podcast, which continues through the Stagg Bowl.

Well, we survived another Selection Sunday, though the day has barely ended as I write this portion of the site. Four hours of sleep, up at 7:15, off to ESPNU, analyze the bracket, check graphics and pronunciations, go over highlights, write a script, go through a dress rehearsal and do the show. Then tape a segment for ESPNews (did anyone ever see that?) and another for online. Thankfully, the podcast was pretty simple, too, only requiring one edit to piece two parts together. It’s our look at the bracket, the key points in each game, etc. How many points can Capital give up and still win? Do Keith McMillan and I both like the way this was put together? Why Eau Claire instead of Whitworth? It wasn’t quite a record day trafficwise but with the brackets being revealed so early in the morning, we didn’t expect it. But it was a great day in Division III football, both Saturday and Sunday. Hear the highlights in our ATN podcast.

Confused by tiebreakers? Oh yeah, definitely understandable. See, each conference sets its own rules for breaking ties for the automatic bid, and with the limited number of games played in any given football season, there’s not exactly a lot of data to work with. So this week, in the Around the Nation podcast, Keith McMillan and Pat Coleman not only run down how the remaining 10 conferences’ automatic bids will be handed out, they run through the tiebreakers in leagues where they’ll be needed, and debate the merit of such tiebreakers in the first place. So get your primer on how the E8 or LL or MIAA will be won.