Lack of Respect Hurts Local Division III Football Teams

A California football team hoping to make the NCAA Division III playoffs must have a spectacular season. Even that might not be good enough this year.

Despite a 6-0 record and a nation-leading 51-point scoring average, La Verne is only tied for sixth in the West Region rankings. Four teams from each of four regions are selected for the playoffs, leaving La Verne in a precarious position with three weeks left in the regular season.

Chapman is in an even worse spot. The Panthers (5-1), who lost to La Verne by one point in their season opener, didn’t receive one vote in the regional rankings.

“It is a little frustrating,” Chapman Coach Ken Visser said. “I think we deserve a little bit of recognition, although I’m not saying we should be in the top four.”

Visser says he and his staff have been telling Chapman players since the 35-34 loss to La Verne that making the playoffs was a longshot. “We understand it’s like buying a lottery ticket,” he said.

Even so, some held out hope that La Verne would stumble and Chapman might be considered. La Verne hasn’t faltered--the Leopards won their next five games by no fewer than 25 points--but still hasn’t been able to move up in the poll.

What’s going on here? In short, California Division III football has a bad reputation. In the 22 years, the NCAA has held a Division III football championship, only seven teams from the state have made the playoffs.

Only one won its first-round game--Occidental beat St. John’s (Minn.), 28-10, in 1985, but lost to Central (Iowa), 71-0, in the second round. Last season, La Verne lost to St. John’s, 51-12.

Because there are few Division III football programs in the West, the region includes teams from Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa, which traditionally are among the strongest programs in the division.

Some local coaches say there is a Midwestern bias against California teams.

“I think there is a real bias, and some of it’s founded in that none of us has ever been able to go back and be successful,” said Redlands Coach Mike Maynard, whose teams lost in the first round in 1990 and 1992. “You can’t talk yourself into respect. You have to play yourself into a respected position.”

Wayne Burrow, an assistant director of championships at the NCAA, says La Verne is being seriously considered by the selection committee this year and that previous history is not a factor.

“We are trying to gather as much information as possible, so that the committee can make an objective rather than subjective decision,” Burrow said. “It really is a very fair process.”

Barring the unexpected, however, Chapman is certain to be left out this year.

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Visser, of course, says his team won’t be thinking about its lack of playoff possibilities as it prepares for its final three games. The Panthers face perhaps their toughest remaining test Saturday at home against Redlands.

“We’ll end up a very sad and disappointed bunch of people Saturday if we think about anything else but Redlands,” Visser said.

Redlands (4-2) has won four in a row after losing its first two games of the season, including a 42-17 loss to La Verne. The Bulldogs beat San Diego, a non-scholarship Division I-AA team, 16-3, Saturday.

Coach Maynard thinks his team is better, but wonders whether that will be good enough. “I see Chapman being among the best football teams we have ever played,” Maynard said. “I’m talking about the playoffs and the regular season.”

Redlands runs a one-back passing offense led by quarterback Danny Green, who has passed for 1,456 yards and has a streak of 139 passes without an interception.

Notes

Kim Wyer, the leading scorer on the Chapman women’s soccer team, suffered a season-ending knee injury in the Panthers’ 6-1 victory over Concordia (Minn.) Sunday. Wyer sustained damage to her anterior cruciate ligament and is expected to require reconstructive surgery.