The first round of the NAIA Championship Series is Saturday. While there are four games to be played, that doesn’t mean people haven’t began to wonder, “who will the teams with byes this week, play next week?”
Below are my scenarios. Keep in mind, I’m a blogger that has covered NAIA football for 20 years but have no official capacity for anything, ever. Nothing I put out there is official, it’s just an educated guess or gut feeling.
Again, this is what I’ve come up with, it is NOT from the NAIA and NOT official.
Scenario No. 1
I call this my “as close to chalk and seedings while avoiding flights” scenario.
Saint Francis (Ind.)/Evangel (Mo.) at #1 Grand View (Iowa) 10-0
Southeastern (Fla.)/Reinhardt (Ga.) at #2 Keiser (Fla.) 10-0
Carroll (Mont.)/St. Thomas (Fla.) at #3 Montana Tech 11-0
William Penn (Iowa)/Texas Wesleyan at #4 Friends (Kan.) 11-0
#12 Campbellsville (Ky.) 8-2 at #5 Benedictine (Kan.) 10-1
#11 Indiana Wesleyan 9-2 at #6 Marian (Ind.) 10-1
#10 Dordt (Iowa) 9-1 at #7 Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) 9-1
#9 Morningside (Iowa) 9-2 at #8 College of Idaho 9-1
A St. Thomas win over Carroll would trigger a flight, but the NAIA has one charter reserved each week. The trip from Morningside to College of Idaho is 1300 miles and while it would qualify for a flight, what’s 1300 miles with your teammates? Memories. . .that’s what it is. If Carroll wins, that might also open up the option to charter a flight from Sioux City to Caldwell.
Scenario No. 2
I call this my “rematch” scenario where it would avoid possible regular season rematches in the quarterfinal round. Keep in mind, the Top 8 seeds host. So a Morningside/Dordt rematch would only be likely if one of the Top 8 seeds decided not to put up the money to host.
Saint Francis (Ind.)/Evangel (Mo.) at #1 Grand View (Iowa) 10-0
Southeastern (Fla.)/Reinhardt (Ga.) at #2 Keiser (Fla.) 10-0
Carroll (Mont.)/St. Thomas (Fla.) at #3 Montana Tech 11-0
William Penn (Iowa)/Texas Wesleyan at #4 Friends (Kan.) 11-0
#10 Dordt (Iowa) 9-1 at #5 Benedictine (Kan.) 10-1
#11 Indiana Wesleyan 9-2 at #6 Marian (Ind.) 10-1
#12 Campbellsville (Ky.) 8-2 at #7 Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) 9-1
#9 Morningside (Iowa) 9-2 at #8 College of Idaho 9-1
Typically the NAIA will release the round two pairings on Saturday following the conclusion of the games but there have been instances where upsets caused a delay because of travel arrangements. We will post the information as soon as we have it.
Morningside flew to Dillon last year.
Let the record know, I screwed that up and edited the article at 9:50AM after posting!
Doesn’t scenario #2 still have a regular season rematch between IWU and Marian? I’d send Dordt to Marian and IWU to Lindsey Wilson. That still leaves everyone driveable except Mside at COI, right?
It does, but #2 scenario is trying to have all the rematches happen in the same round that we can. I don’t think your suggestion is off the wall, it would also make sense.