Paying the price
The football team at Washington & Jefferson College found out the price they had to pay for its only loss of the season: a three-hour bus ride to Springfield, Ohio, to play Wittenberg Saturday.
The Presidents gained the automatic bid from the Presidents’ Athletic Conference two weeks ago, but lost a chance for a first-round home game in the NCAA Division III playoffs because of Saturday’s 31-28 overtime loss to Waynesburg at Wiley Stadium.
“If we would have won (at Waynesburg), the only thing I think would have been different is that they might have switched the home site,” said W&J head coach Mike Sirianni. “We weren’t surprised looking at the brackets.”
Kickoff for the game is noon at Edwards-Maurer Field, a 3,000-seat stadium.
The first-round games, released by the NCAA during Sunday’s selection show, can be found in the Scoreboard section on Page C-2.
Wittenberg won the North Coast Athletic Conference with a 9-0 record. The only loss by the Tigers came against Butler, 22-16, in the non-conference season-opener.
The Tigers are making their 17th appearance in the Division III playoffs and the Presidents their 24th and third straight. The schools rank No. 2 and 3 on the list of victories by Division III programs. Wittenberg has 736 victories and Washington & Jefferson 706.
“They are just like us,” said Sirianni. “They were a senior-laden team last year and were picked second in their league this year. They had to replace a lot of seniors and starters from last year. Everyone thought they were a year away. They start more seniors than we do, but not many, something like seven to our four.”
The leader in victories is Mount Union with 738. The winner of the Wittenberg-Washington & Jefferson games plays Mount Union in the second round.
Mount Union has an 82-14 record in NCAA playoff games and hadvanced to the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl 17 times since 1993 with a record 11 national championships.
Last year, W&J lost a first-round game against national power Mount Union, 34-20, on a windy, snow-filled day. Johns Hopkins eliminated the Presidents in the 2012 first round 42-10.
Wittenberg, ranked 13th by the American Football Coaches Association and 12th by D3football.com, won the first NCAA Division III Tournament in 1973 and a second in 1975. The Tigers were runners-up in 1978 and ’79. Their record in tournament games is 21-14.
Before the formation of Division III and its playoff format, Wittenberg won the national titles in 1962, 1964 and 1969 based on voting in the polls.
“Our players are excited to be in the playoffs,,” said Sirianni. “We want to play who we have to play. There are 243 teams in Division III football and we’re one of the 32 left in the playoffs.”