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The big tilt in the first round this Saturday is Valley City State (ND) (9-1) @ Carroll (10-1).

Is Carroll going to roll? Is Bill Fette going to show up?



(I'm NOT happy that Evangel didn't make the cut. 3-7, closing with a 37-0 loss to #4 MidAmerica Naz, just won't do the job. Maybe the 4-home game schedule set that up, sort of like the 3-8 record the '95 UOP Tigers had with a dumb bodybag schedule that included a home win over Oregon State but huge losses on the road to Fresno State, Arizona, Nebraska, Oregon, and just about everyone else. )

Grand View (IA) (8-4) @ Marian (IN) (11-0) 31-0
Valley City State (ND) (9-2) @ Carroll (MT) (11-1) 47-0
Benedictine (KS) (9-3) @ Georgetown (KY) (11-0) 21-7
Southern Nazarene (OK) (9-3) @ Mid-American Nazarene (KS) (10-1) 40-28
Bethel (TN) (8-3) @ St. Xavier (IL) (11-1) 51-13
St. Francis (IL) (10-2) @ Morningside (IA) (9-2) 21-17
St. Francis (IN) (9-2) @ MO Valley (9-2) 28-14
Ottawa (KS) (9-3) @ Azusa Pacific (CA) (9-2) 49-26

NAIA doesn't have an actual bracket, per se, so I don't know if they're going to go straight down the list or just shuffle who's left. I think that in the past, they've shuffled the deck. St. Francis (IN) @ St. Francis (IL) sounds like an intriguing matchup based on name alone. LOL.

Come on Carroll.

Quarterfinal pairings have been announced. They're regionalizing it.

NAIA Football wrote:2011 NAIA Football Championship Series
Quarterfinals | Saturday, Nov. 26 | All Times Local and subject to change
Game 1:
• St. Francis (Ill.) (10-2) @ Marian (Ind.) (11-0), 1 p.m.
(All-time series in FCS: 0-0)
Game 2:
• Azusa Pacific (Calif.) (9-2) @ Carroll (Mont.) (11-1)&, 12:07 p.m.
(All-time series in FCS: Carroll leads 2-0)
Game 3:
• Saint Francis (Ind.) (9-2)$ @ Georgetown (Ky.) (11-0), 1:30 p.m.
(All-time series in FCS: tied at 3-3)
Game 4:
• Saint Xavier (Ill.) (11-1) @ MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.) (10-1)&, 1 p.m.
(All-time series in FCS: 0-0)

& hosted a 2010 FCS Quarterfinal game
$ played on the road in the 2010 FCS Quarterfinal

grizzaholic wrote:Come on Carroll.

Time for them to move up. The "competition" in NAIA is a joke.

Was a two team division, now just a one team division.

Boring...

Wedgebuster wrote:


Was a two team division, now just a one team division.

Boring...

Bingo. I'm a Helena native, worked at the school for a summer, etc, and even I can't get myself excited about their playoff runs anymore. Just too easy.

The lack of parity in NAIA and DIII is such a joke

Silenoz wrote:The lack of parity in NAIA and DIII is such a joke

Yeah, D-III is better. My school was 4-0 against NAIA while I was there. Both of our National Championships in football were from NAIA, and when they moved to D-III the competition jumped drastically.

Willie wrote:Yeah, D-III is better. My school was 4-0 against NAIA while I was there. Both of our National Championships in football were from NAIA, and when they moved to D-III the competition jumped drastically.

The level of competition is better, but the parity is still a total joke. Mount Union or Wisconsin-Whitewater have won 12 of the last 15 national championships (and the last 5 championship games have been those two teams playing each other).

Yeah and it's nice to say one of the other teams that won was from my conference in 2003. In fact, that same team beat Towson in '76

Carroll staged a fierce comeback, scoring with less than two minutes left to beat Azusa Pacific in the Elite 8 today. The other games were not so close. Surprisingly, recent NAIA powerhouse MidAmerica Nazarene got bit by the upset bug.

St. Xavier (IL) @ MidAmerica Nazarene (KS) 29-14
St. Francis (IN) @ Georgetown (KY) 26-14
St. Francis (IL) @ Marion (IN) 49-7
Azusa Pacific (CA) @ Carroll (MT) 17-14

Next Week's Final Four:

The pairings will be announced sometime tonight. I suspect that they'll look something like this (the numbers are final poll rankings vice seeds, which NAIA does not use):

3 Georgetown (KY) (12-0) @ 2 Carroll (MT) (12-1)
5 St. Xavier (IL) (12-1) @ 1 Marion (IN) (12-0)

If there is any tweaking to this, it will likely preserve the matchups, sending Carroll to Georgetown due to the records.

AAAAANND the next Carroll game will be on TV too.

My guess on the pairings has been confirmed. Carroll is at HOME.

Today's Final Four:

St. Xavier (IL) 30, Marion (IN) (12-1) 27
Carroll (MT) 35, Georgetown (KY) (12-1) 3

Upsets (at least in terms of record) were the order of the day. #5 SXU took out the #1 team in the land, handing Marion their first loss. #3 Georgetown also experienced defeat for the first time this season.

The 56th Annual Russell Athletic NAIA Football National Championship:

#2 Carroll (MT) (13-1) vs. #5 St. Xavier (IL) (13-1)
17 DEC 2011 4:30 Local
Barron Stadium, Rome, GA