South Dakota
Trio of South Dakota institutions claim college softball conference championships
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SIOUX FALLS — Saturday, Might 7, was day for a trio of South Dakota faculty softball packages.
Augustana College punched its ticket to the NCAA Division II nationwide match, and Mount Marty College secured its place within the NAIA bracket, as each packages received their respective postseason convention championships. In the meantime, South Dakota State claimed the Summit League regular-season title.
Right here’s a take a look at how the Vikings and Lancers reached their respective nationwide tournaments, with a further take a look at the Jackrabbits’ journey forward of their convention match going down this week.
Success within the wake of a 2019 NCAA Division II nationwide championship has been plentiful for the Augustana softball program.
Following the COVID-interrupted 2020 season, the Vikings discovered themselves again within the combine for a nationwide title in 2021, and so they’ve pressured themselves into the dialog as soon as once more this season.
On the 2022 NSIC Championships in Rochester, Minnesota, the No. 1-seeded Vikings defeated Southwest Minnesota State, 3-1, and St. Cloud State, 5-4, earlier than sweeping by Winona State, 3-0 and 13-0.
For the season, Augustana owns a 47-8 report with a 27-3 mark in NSIC play, however over the previous month, the Vikings have been almost untouchable. Since April 3, Augustana has 28 wins to only one loss, seemingly indicating the group is rounding into championship-level kind on the excellent level of the season.
The bottom particular person batting common among the many 9 gamers to start out 48 video games or extra for the Vikings in 2022 is .333, resulting in an eye-popping .372 group common on the plate. That manufacturing has helped Augustana outscore opponents 450-117.
Augustana was drawn into the Central Area because the No. 3 seed, becoming a member of a four-team pod that features first-round opponent Arkansas Tech, in addition to No. 2 seed Central Oklahoma and Southern Arkansas. Motion from Augustana’s part of the Central Area will start Thursday, Might 12, in Edmond, Oklahoma.
Not like their D-II counterparts, Mount Marty was not the favourite to win its convention title and automated qualification to a nationwide match. Nevertheless, that didn’t cease the Lancers from charging by the GPAC postseason and into the NAIA match area.
At 32-14 total and 15-7 within the convention, Mount Marty entered the convention match because the No. 3 seed. The Lancers’ run began with a 15-3 five-inning thrashing of the Faculty of Saint Mary, earlier than a pair of contests in opposition to No. 2 seed Northwestern Faculty.
Mount Marty received the primary assembly 5-3, and after NWC earned the precise to a second matchup, the Lancers repelled the Raiders once more, 9-5, to succeed in the championship sequence in opposition to top-seeded Midland.
In Sport 1 of the best-of-three sequence, Midland received 4-3. The Lancers mixed to attain simply three runs within the last two contests, however that was sufficient, as Mount Marty pitcher Maureena Vornhagen and the protection behind her stepped as much as clean the Warriors in Video games 2 (1-0) and three (2-0) to win the convention crown.
Vornhagen, who improved to 12-2 within the circle for the Lancers this season, pitched all 14 innings throughout the second and third video games, hanging out 12 batters whereas permitting simply 5 whole hits and surrendering a single stroll on 183 pitches.
Mount Marty enters the NAIA match having received 20 of 26 video games since March 26, together with separate win streaks of 5 and 7 video games throughout that stretch. The Lancers, seeded fourth of their pod will play No. 1-seeded College of Science and Arts of Oklahoma within the first spherical, with the sport to happen on Monday, Might 16, in Chickasha, Oklahoma.
An 18-2 convention report allowed South Dakota State to assert its second-straight Summit League regular-season title. Now the Jackrabbits will look to repeat what they did in 2021 by successful the convention match title, too, and the NCAA match berth that comes with it.
Led by a dominant pitching employees, SDSU has rolled to a 37-10 total report, with a mark of 16-1 since April 2.
Sophomore pitchers Grace Glanzer and Tori Kniesche have taken turns chewing up opponents’ lineups within the circle, because the pair has mixed to pitch 286 2/3 of a doable 312 2/3 innings in 2022. Each have sub-1.80 earned run averages, serving to the Jackrabbits to a group ERA of 1.90 with an opponent batting common of .197 whereas proudly owning a mixed win-loss mark of 35-9.
South Dakota State will host the Summit League postseason match, which will get underway Wednesday in Brookings. The highest-seeded Jackrabbits start their postseason on Thursday, Might 12, after they face the winner of a Wednesday contest between No. 4 seed South Dakota and No. 5 seed Kansas Metropolis.
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South Dakota
Videos: Gundy, Players Recap Win against South Dakota State
![Videos: Gundy, Players Recap Win against South Dakota State Videos: Gundy, Players Recap Win against South Dakota State](https://pistolsfiringblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/53962121679_afc402ad55_k-1000x600.jpg)
STILLWATER — The Oklahoma State football team beat South Dakota State 44-20 on Saturday to start the season 1-0. After the game, Mike Gundy, Ollie Gordon, Alan Bowman, De’Zhaun Stribling, Collin Oliver, Korie Black and Trey Rucker met with reporters to recap the game.
South Dakota
South Dakota State vs. No. 17 Oklahoma State live stream (8/31/24): Watch college football, Week 1 online
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The South Dakota State Jackrabbits face the No. 17 Oklahoma State Cowboys on Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024 (8/31/24) at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
Fans can watch the game with a subscription to ESPN+.
Here’s what you need to know:
What: NCAA Football, Week 1
Who: South Dakota State vs. Oklahoma State
When: Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024 (8/31/24)
Where: Boone Pickens Stadium
Time: 2 p.m. ET
TV: N/A
Channel finder: Verizon Fios, AT&T U-verse, Comcast Xfinity, Spectrum/Charter, Optimum/Altice,Cox,DIRECTV, Dish, Hulu, fuboTV, Sling.
Live stream: ESPN+
***
Here’s a college football story from the Associated Press:
Y’all ain’t played nobody!
It might as well be college football’s slogan. Debates about strength of schedule are part of the fabric of the sport, like marching bands, cheerleaders and tailgating.
With the size of the College Football Playoff tripling in size from four teams to 12 this season — including seven at-large bids — expect the arguments over the relative difficulty of teams’ schedules to increase exponentially.
The posturing and politicking has already begun.
“This is the NFL of college football in my mind,” Nebraska coach Matt Rhule said during Big Ten media days. At Southeastern Conference media days, the NFL was also invoked when the topic steered to schedules.
“As coaches we want to play the best. People forget that when you’ve spent time in the NFL, every week was like that,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “So when Texas and Oklahoma came into the conference, every schedule was going to get harder.”
The debates aren’t just about which conferences are the best. With super-sized conferences of 16-18 teams, the differences in strength of schedule within leagues can be significant.
The CFP selection committee uses a strength-of-schedule rating provided by SportSource Analytics that includes components such as wins and losses, scoring differential and game location.
Balancing who you played with how you played will be harder than ever.
“There’s a weight on the committee that’s new. I want to see how the committee processes that,” SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said during spring meetings. “And my encouragement is that this, ‘Well, we have an undefeated team so they’re in’ is not the standard. It never was the standard. Obviously, that stirred up controversy last year.”
Toughest schedules in the Power Four
There are dozens of data-based rating systems to measure the relative strength of college football teams, and all have some type of schedule-rating component.
The AP took three systems — ESPN’s SP+, FEI and KFord Ratings — and averaged their strength of schedule rankings for all 134 Bowl Subdivision teams to determine where each Power Four team’s schedule ranks nationally (all games, not just conference games, are factored in).
Using those projections, SEC teams on average will be facing the toughest schedules this season.
The average strength-of-schedule ranking among the 16 SEC teams is 11.2, from Florida (a unanimous No. 1 among all three systems) to Missouri at 36.7.
Half the teams in the SEC have schedules with an average national ranking of 10 or better, including No. 1 Georgia at 3.7. No. 11 Missouri is the only SEC team with an average schedule-strength ranking below 25.3.
Rating the rest
The Big Ten, now including Southern California, UCLA, Oregon and Washington, is next with an average strength-of-schedule ranking of 26.9 among its 18 teams.
Purdue’s 7.7 average ranking is the highest followed by No. 23 USC at 9. Big Ten favorite No. 2 Ohio State’s average is 34. No. 3 Oregon’s is 26.7.
The ACC and Big 12 are about the same. The 17-team ACC has an average strength of schedule ranking of 49.9. The 16-team Big 12′s average ranking is 47.3.
Assessing strength of schedule
Straight up rankings can be deceiving. How to quantify the difference between facing the sixth-ranked schedule and 26th?
Brian Fremeau, the creator of FEI, does it three ways, asking three questions: How many games would an elite team lose facing a particular schedule? How many would a good team lose? How many would an average team lose?
AP used FEI’s strength of schedule ratings based on good teams in its composite rankings, since good teams are going to be the ones in the CFP race.
Based on FEI projections, the difference between playing Georgia’s schedule (rated 3.4 among the hardest in the nation) and Ohio State (34) is about one more loss for a good team against the Bulldogs’ slate. The difference between Alabama’s schedule and Big 12 favorite Utah’s is about two losses for a good team against the Tide’s.
If these schedule strength projections held — they will change throughout the season — it would then be reasonable to compare an 11-1 Utah to a 9-3 Alabama.
Reasonable to compare doesn’t necessarily mean the one with the tougher schedule should automatically be ranked higher.
“I don’t judge a team on its schedule. I judge a team on how it performs against a schedule, or my system does. And that is a little more of a nuanced take then, ‘Well, we played a tougher set of opponents than you did, therefore, we’re better,’” Fremeau said. “There’s a bit of a balancing act between the two.”
Intraconference debates
The SEC and Big Ten are both bigger and division-less for the first time. That necessitated new tiebreaker procedures to determine which teams qualify for conference title games featuring the top two teams in the standings.
Within the guidelines is an acknowledgment that the rigor of conference schedules will vary when teams are playing barely half the league. After head-to-head and record vs. common opponents are used to break ties, both leagues go to results that favor the team that fared better against the better conference opponents they play.
The ACC, a year ahead of the the SEC and Big Ten in abandoning divisions, has a similar nod within its tiebreakers to strength of schedule.
ACC Associate Commissioner Michael Strickland said the conference used 10 years of data that measures the success of its football teams to help create a new schedule rotation that would be competitively balanced. But the ACC also to had weigh travel now that Stanford, California and SMU are members, as well as protecting some traditional annual rivalries.
The ACC’s fourth two-team tiebreaker is combined winning percentage of conference opponents.
“Our head football coaches suggested that we insert that during our review process,” Strickland said.
The CFP choices
The CFP field announced Dec. 8 will be comprised of the five highest-ranked conference champions, regardless of league, and seven at-large selections. There is no limit to the number of at-large bids a conference can receive.
The most interesting comparisons for the CFP selection committee might end up being between the many conference rivals that do not play each other in the regular season.
What to do with a 10-2 Missouri and a 9-3 Alabama (composite strength-of-schedule ranking, 9.3)? Or Iowa (37) at 10-2 and Michigan (16) at 9-3? Over in the ACC, what would happen while assessing a 10-2 Virginia Tech (68) and a 9-3 Florida State (30.3)?
“Especially when we’re picking (seven) teams now, we’re looking at the loss column with a bit more scrutiny,” Fremeau said. “They’re going to be debating teams like that with a one or possibly two-game difference in record, but a comparable difference in expected schedule rating and they’re going to have that debate about which one they value more.”
(The Associated Press contributed to this report)
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