Linfield becomes road warriors when NCAA D-III football playoffs open Saturday
Story by Nick Daschel, Oregonian Thur
11/17/2016
Photos from 2016 season by Wildcatville/Mac News
Linfield won its
eighth consecutive Northwest Conference football title this season, and claimed
nearly two dozen berths on the all-league team.
But that's where
the similarities end for the 2016 Wildcats and their teams of recent seasons.
Linfield (8-1)
starts the NCAA Division III playoffs on the road for the first time in school
history when the Wildcats face Hardin-Simmons (9-1) at 10 a.m. Saturday in
Abilene, Tex. In 12 previous D-III playoff appearances – including the past
seven years – Linfield has opened the playoffs at home.
But a
combination of the NCAA's thriftiness in assembling the Division III bracket –
it tries to minimize the number of plane trips during the opening rounds,
rather than build a bracket through power rankings – and Linfield's
early-season loss at No. 1 Mary Hardin-Baylor (Tex.) has put the Wildcats in an
unprecedented predicament.
If Linfield
wants to win the NCAA title – something it did in 2004, and threatened to do
the past two years with semifinal appearances – the Wildcats will likely have
to play five road games in five weeks, all at least two time zones from
McMinnville.
Linfield coach Joseph Smith says he often brings up
the inequities to NCAA officials, but rarely is there a resolution. Last year,
for example, Smith said Linfield ran a deficit of about $130,000 playing host
to three home games and traveling once.
"Nobody cares.
We're out here in Oregon. There are 340 (D-III teams) and there are only 15 on
the West coast. It's Linfield's problem. Nobody else's," Smith said.
"If we lose, it would save us money."
Winning the NWC
title has usually been rewarded with at least one home game, but as Linfield
found out Sunday when the bracket was unveiled, it's not a guarantee. The
Wildcats' 66-27 loss at Mary Hardin-Baylor – a game that was 24-20 at halftime
before the Crusaders outscored Linfield 28-0 in the fourth quarter – proved to
be their playoff undoing.
Hardin-Simmons
finished second to Mary Hardin-Baylor in the American Southwest Conference, but
played a much closer game (20-15 loss) to the Crusaders than Linfield.
"It's
certain disappointing for our conference," Smith said. "I would love
to see a bracket someday where it's a real bracket. The geographical
disadvantage of being in the West is real. Teams coming out of this region have
a great uphill battle compared to others. It comes down to attrition. How will
our depth hold out as we map out three or four games."
Not only is
Linfield looking at a lot of road games, but tough ones, too. Five of the top
13 ranked teams according to D3Football.com landed in Linfield's quarter
bracket: No. 1 Mary Hardin-Baylor, No. 5 North Central (Ill.), No. 8 Linfield,
No. 11 Hardin-Simmons, No. 13 Wheaton (Ill.).
Smith is also of
the mind that nothing can be done, saying "it is what it is," and he
long since moved on to figuring out how to beat Hardin-Simmons. It's not the
first difficult challenge Linfield has faced this season.
Mary
Hardin-Baylor's 39-point win over Linfield on Sept. 17 is Linfield's most
lopsided loss since Smith became coach in 2006. Smith has had to deal with a
few regular-season losses during his tenure, but none of this magnitude.
It was a perfect
storm, of sorts. Mary Hardin-Baylor had all offseason to stew over a 38-35
quarterfinal loss to Linfield, where the Crusaders blew a 21-0 first-quarter
lead. Played in front of a standing-room only crowd in Belton, Tex. on a steamy
September afternoon, Linfield battled Mary Hardin-Baylor well for three
quarters, but a bad punt snap, a fumble turnover, and an 87-yard touchdown run
late in the second half turned a close game into a rout.
"We
basically fell apart in the humidity. That was such a grueling factor and I
don't think it's something we'll experience again," Smith said.
But, in a
strange way, the one-sided loss was one of the best things to happen to
Linfield. The Crusaders exposed the Wildcats' flaws, and the team has had two
months to make repairs. In recent seasons, Linfield didn't find out where the
cracks were until the final playoff game. By then, it's too late.
"It's been
slow, steady progress in shoring up our technical skills and our habits. Our
guys have rose to the occasion. They've embraced it," Smith said.
If Linfield gets
past Hardin-Simmons, the Wildcats will likely get a rematch with Mary
Hardin-Baylor, which opens against Redlands (Calif.).
