Sep 11, 2014 5 min read

At this point in past seasons, a football game between Westminster and Washington & Jefferson or Saint Vincent and Waynesburg would signify the start of the Presidents’ Athletic Conference matchups.

When the Presidents travel to New Wilmington for a 7 p.m. kickoff and Waynesburg hosts Saint Vincent in a 1:30 start Saturday, they will count as non-conference games.

The reason?

When Case Western Reserve and Carnegie Mellon became full members in the PAC this year, many thought a 10-game conference schedule made sense. But the commitment by the those two schools to continue scheduling opponents from their old conference, the University Athletic Association, made that impossible. So the 11-team PAC developed an eight-game conference schedule. Each team will have two Saturdays to fill with non-conference opponents.

“The schools said they wanted a ninth conference game,” said Joe Onderko, commissioner of the PAC. “There was no way we could have a balanced nine-game schedule … so schools were permitted to schedule a PAC opponent but not have it count as a conference game.”

Two advantages are schools can continue a series with familiar opponents and these non-conference games can be used as head-to-head tiebreakers, if needed. It also helps keep travel costs down.

“It’s possible that two teams can go 8-0 now,” said Onderko. “But we have a tiebreaking process for that.”

In order, the top three are, head-to-head result, record against the highest-ranked team in the conference not involved in the tie and strength of schedule for all games using the NCAA playoff selection strength of schedule formula.

That should be enough to break the ties for the automatic qualifier into the NCAA Division III playoffs.

“I’m indifferent about it,” said Waynesburg head coach Rick Shepas. “I think it’s the best possible scenario under the circumstances. We have a good relationship with Carnegie Mellon, but they aren’t on our schedule for the first four years. We’ll continue to scrimmage them.”

Last year, W&J and Thomas More tied for the conference title with 7-1 records but the Presidents received the automatic by because of a regular-season win over the Saints.

“It’s hard to schedule (non-conference) games for us,” said W&J Mike Sirianni. “In the past, we’ve had to travel a long way. When they added Carnegie Mellon and Case, I thought our schedule might be all league games. It’s as good as it’s going to get, and Joe did as good a job as you could do.”

The PSAC adopted a rule for this season that counts league-mandated crossover games, played in Weeks 2 and 3, in conference records.

Previously, only games against division opponents were counted in the league standings.

Onderko used the Center for Athletic Scheduling, located at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, to work out this year’s PAC schedule.

“We send them our priorities and they make up the schedules,” Onderko said. “We asked each school to submit two dates (for Homecoming) to be worked into the scheduling process and scheduled home dates on one of those two dates. We haven’t gone through something like this, so we’ll see what happens.”

Wash & Jeff at Westminster, 7 p.m.

Last week: W&J 51, Wooster 14; Hiram 30, Westminster 27

W&J scored 51 points against a good Wooster team by rushing for 321 yards and passing. Ryan Ruffing ran for 150 yards and scored five touchdowns, one away from tying the record of six set by Roy Hupp in 1905.

“I scored five once in high school against Elizabeth Forward when I was a senior,” said Ruffing, a Thomas Jefferson graduate. “I didn’t think about doing it (in college). It’s always nice to get off to a good start like that.”

Quarterback Pete Coughlin rushed for 106 yards, which is believed to be the modern day record for rushing yards for a quarterback.

Westminster opened a 27-3 last week against Hiram – sound familiar? – only to lose the game, 30-27.

Saint Vincent at Waynesburg, 1:30 p.m.

Last week: Waynesburg 33, Muskingum 0; John Carroll 44, Saint Vincent 0

Saint Vincent totaled just 105 yards against John Carroll, averaging just 1.9 yards per play. The Bearcats completed 11 passes for 62 yards (5.6 average).

The Yellow Jackets will look for their first back-to-back shutouts since 1980 when they defeated Grove City, 40-0, and California, 21-0. They haven’t opened the season with back-to-back shutouts since 1966: 31-0 against Slippery Rock and 6-0 against Susquehanna.

Cal at Bloomsburg, 2 p.m.

Last week: California 33, Virginia State 24; Bloomsburg 24, Stonehill 7

Bloomsburg won the PSAC title last season and returns 13 starters, including eight on defense. The Huskies are ranked 19th by d2football.com and 21st by the American Football Coaches Association.

Bloomsburg QB Tim Kelly sat out last week because of a disciplinary suspension.

Cody Nuzzo’s four field goals last week set a school record for Cal. Defensive end Kenny Wilkins, a Trinity graduate, had nine tackles, three for losses and forced a fumble. Terrell Roberson rushed for 71 yards after making his first appearance at tailback. Roberson played cornerback last season.