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Long after the sun had set, however, Rose-Hulman and Illinois College were still playing, attracting the attention of college football fans across the country and ending up on a little program called SportsCenter.

Is it better to schedule down or schedule up in non-conference games? Pat and Keith give their opening week opinions. Plus, please let us know how you feel about the new podcast format, as we continue to tweak it for the 2014 season.

In addition to wrapping up the game, Keith McMillan and Pat Coleman talked about which players might have played themselves into All-America status, discussed how they would rank the teams at the top of their ballots and decided who would be the 2013 D3football.com Offensive and Defensive Player of the Year as well as Coach of the Year, and why.

With Mount Union and UW-Whitewater needing two one-point games to reach their eighth Stagg Bowl meeting, it should be clear that the two are very close to the pack.

An epic shootout, a sacktastic comeback, a quarterback change and a blowout are what we got in our four quarterfinal games on Saturday.

Crazy comeback on the west coast, a Midwest game with more subplots than a [insert your cliche here] and in all, a good second round of action. Pat and Keith were on-site at Wesley, calling their game with Ithaca, but all eight games get a good run of time on this week's podcast.

There were some great games in the first round. Some of them were supposed to be great games between evenly matched teams, and in most cases, we got them.

Duey Naatz, the athletic director and former head football coach at UW-Stout, gave more than a half-hour of his time to our friends at In the HuddLLe, the weekly show covering the Liberty League and East Region football.

Johns Hopkins either got a fine matchup or the shaft, depending on whom you ask.

Hardin-Simmons wasn’t a threat to Linfield, Willamette or UMHB but crushed Texas Lutheran. Hardin-Simmons athletics photo Subscribe to the Around the Nation Podcast in iTunes. So let’s see, John Carroll beat Heidelberg, handily, and Wittenberg handled Wabash. Meanwhile, Hardin-Simmons delivered a reality check to Texas Lutheran and Wesley beat a D-I FCS team. (You know, the level known as Division I-AA.) Did John Carroll play its way into the playoffs? Or perhaps we should give them more than just lip service next week vs. Mount Union. Keith talks about what he saw when he watched the John Carroll-Heidelberg game. Keith and Pat look at the remaining 10 automatic bids and what it will take to win them. Plus a long look at Pool B and another long look at Pool C. That and more in this week’s podcast. Hit play, or subscribe to get this podcast on your phone or portable device. You can subscribe to the Around the Nation Podcast in iTunes. You can also get this and any of our future Around the Nation podcasts automatically by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://www.d3blogs.com/d3football/?feed=podcast The tags below include the schools we talked about. Also, here’s your first look at the Postgame Show, with your D3reports and team interviews and highlight packages:

Mount Union answered a big challenge on Saturday but that was not the only question we had this week, nor was it the only question you had this week either.

If you are a regular listener to the Around the Nation podcast, you already knew who Western Connecticut running back Octavias McKoy is. We also started to find out a little about the pecking order in the CCIW, the WIAC and the Northwest Conference.

Pat Coleman and Keith McMillan both went out on the road this week, with Pat taking one of D3football.com's Best road trips and Keith taking in his 15th class reunion.

In addition to the way the NJAC, MAC, PAC and SCIAC races turned on Saturday, we also now have enough information to talk playoffs, at least for Pool B. More in the ATN podcast.

That's teams such as Hartwick, Gallaudet, Olivet, Greenville, Millsaps, Lake Forest, Pacific and others listed in the tags at the bottom of the page. None of those are in the Top 25, and most fans understand why, but if you don't, we'll discuss why, whether those teams have a shot to do so and what it would take for voters to do so.