A not-so-quick look at strength of schedule numbers and playoff possibilities

On Saturday Hillsdale rolled past Findlay 31-3 but dropped from 5. to 6. in Monday's regional poll. How could that happen?

Well, strength of schedule is so heavily weighted that playing a bad team like the 1 win Oilers can do that to you. Up until last week Hillsdale had played the 20th toughest schedule in the country. That dropped to 36 after Saturday. Michigan Tech hopped all of the way up to 11 with a win over Ferris. The big worry is that with Hillsdale playing winless Tiffin and Tech playing .500 NMU that the Huskies can vault the Chargers. Luckily Wayne State behind us takes on Findlay and the subsequent blow to its numbers like we suffered last week.

We could sit here and come up with one scenario after the next as to what will help Hillsdale get in and what will hurt the Chargers' chances.

The real unknown is what human thought factors will be used by the regional and national committees. Numbers guide human decisions, even numbers not officially included in the selection process..numbers committee members can't ignore even if they try. National polls don't count, but can the number 13 team be excluded? We'll see.

Every Hillsdale player from the last 30 years has been taught to focus only on the things he can control. The Chargers can only control one factor and that is increasing the win total. Everything else will have to take a backseat. Let's still enjoy this final regular season week and hope there are more weeks to come.

Here is the latest regional poll with national schedule rank in parenthesis.
1. UMD 10-0 (114)
2. Augustana 9-1 (43)
3. GVSU 9-1 (91)
4. Neb Kearney 9-1 (115)
5. St Cloud St. 8-2 (24)
6. Hillsdale 8-2 (36)
7. MTU 7-2 (11)
8. Wayne State (MI) 8-2 (78)
9. Colorado Mines 8-2 (121)
10. CSU-Pueblo 7-3 (84)

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