ATN Podcast 393: A chat with the chair, 2025 style

We have just three weeks left in the regular season, with Selection Sunday and the bracket announcement coming on Nov. 16. With the NCAA Division III football national committee no longer responsible for selecting teams to play in the playoffs, what does the committee chair do? It’s a little more than just handing the trophy off to the team that wins the Stagg Bowl, like John Snell is doing in this photo, but sure, it’s a little less than it used to be. Instead, the role is different, and includes more about bracketing, more about game management, more about how to enhance the entire playoff experience than the general fan ever probably knew. John Snell, the associate athletic directory at Baldwin Wallace University and the chair of the Division III football committee, sits down with us to answer our questions. Some of these questions are: Will there be more replay review in this year’s playoffs? How high in the NPI does a team have to be to avoid playing in the first round? (Just being in the top 24 doesn’t guarantee it.) Will the committee shuffle the seeds to make sure that Mount Union and North Central are on opposite sides of the bracket? Are we getting the right teams in the field under the NPI system? Since Baldwin Wallace might make the playoffs, does the chair have to recuse himself from conference calls? Why are we still bothering with regional rankings? Is the committee doing any mock bracketing to prepare for Selection Sunday? All of these are asked! Many of them are answered, plus you get the reaction from Patrick Coleman and Greg Thomas. Find out more by listening to the podcast. Mentioned in the show: Christopher Newport’s fraught relationship with the NCAA’s mileage calculator We also take your mailbag questions — yes, including the one involving alien space laser beams from Mars — and much more in this edition of the D3football.com Around the Nation podcast. Hit play, or subscribe to get this podcast on your mobile device. You can subscribe to the Around the Nation Podcast in Apple Podcasts, and many other places. You can also get this and any of our future Around the Nation podcasts automatically by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://www.d3blogs.com/d3football/?feed=podcast Here’s how to find us on some of the major podcasting apps: Apple Podcasts: D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast iHeart Radio: D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast Spotify: D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast   Theme music: Power 2 by DJmentos. d3photography.com photo