Every year I hear people at all levels of college football complain about Top 25 rankings.  Spring rankings mean nothing, who cares where you are rated after week one and the only one that matters is the last one of the season. 

Those all seem to be the popular arguments when it comes time to talk about the Top 25. For 10 years with the Victory Sports Network I published my own Top 25 ranking on Sunday, the day before the NAIA coaches’ released their rating. Depending on who you were, I was either an idiot or a genius and that opinion changed from week to week.

My frustration with the rankings stems back to the very start of the Victory Sports Network when I was trying to figure out the rubix cube that was the NAIA postseason qualification plan. Conference champs in the Top 20, top rated Independent team in the Top 20, who actually is the conference champion in case of a tie, what about a three way tie; you get the idea.

So a few years ago, I came up with the idea of the NAIA “Power 16 Ranking.”  The “Power 16 Ranking” would represent the 16 teams that because of all the criteria and a few predictions on my part would make the NAIA Championship Series. Sure, some teams like the idea of being rated. It’s good publicity and all plus it gives us a gauge of who is moving up the rankings and who is moving out.

This season, I will publish a weekly ranking of the 16 teams I feel are most likely headed to the postseason after the NAIA coaches release their weekly Top 25. This ranking will officially be called VSN’s NAIA Championship Series 16.  I would do it before their ranking but frankly I have to consider what they are doing with some spots in the rankings. For instance early in the season I will likely rank Langston in the VSN’s NAIA Championship Series 16 because they are the best returning team in the Central States Football League, who will potentially have a post season berth.

However, if the league leader of the CSFL fails to win key games and get into the Top 20 I’ll have to drop them off the ranking. So early in the season, you will likely see some teams that aren’t rated that I am still predicting to be in the postseason.

No ranking is without its faults but I will try to do my very best at putting together the ranking each week so that it displays an accurate picture as possible to the NAIA postseason. I’m sure I’ll ruffle a few feathers along the way but if anything this opens up discussion and debate about the postseason and the process in which teams qualify for the NAIA Championship Series. I chatted with a few of my small college media friends the concept last week and overwhelmingly they all said “YES, do it.”

They remarked their biggest frustration was at the end of the season trying to decipher what teams were all qualified from what conference, who were the automatic bids and if some conference champion was actually going to end up below the #16 rating and “steal” a bid from a higher ranked team.

Each year a lot of people complain about the NAIA Championship Series selection, IE those rated 17-20 or those just missing out. But regardless of whom the final selections for the postseason were the NAIA always ends up with the correct team hoisting the trophy. The same is true for DI-FCS, DII and DIII because of our postseason system. If you are the best team, just win. That silences all critics and shows what teams deserve the trophy.

Here’s a quick look at the preseason “VSN’s NAIA Championship Series 16.”

1. Marian (Ind.) – (MSFA) Preseason No. 1 team in the Coaches’ Poll. They have lost a lot and early in the season we will find out if they have what it takes to repeat.

2. Morningside (Iowa) – (GPAC) They have to replace some key positions but look to be the best team returning in their conference.

3. Missouri Valley (Mo.) – (HAAC) Seconds away from the NAIA Championship game. Great staff and a lot of talent.

4. Saint Xavier (Ill.) – (MSFA) Wasn’t far from making a return trip to the NAIA Championship game. SXU is one of the NAIA’s elite programs and will find a way to make it to the postseason.

5. Southern Oregon – (Frontier) – Every coach I talked with last winter about Southern Oregon called them the most talented and most dangerous team in the NAIA.

6. Saint Francis (Ind.) – (MSFA) A lot of talent returns in Fort Wayne. While they start at the No. 6 spot its highly possible they will end up as the MSFA-East champion.

7. Cumberlands (Ky.) – (MSC) Probably the best rushing offense in the country. Cumberlands has not gotten themselves into the category of the NAIA’s elite but a solid season this year will go a long ways toward putting them in that category.

8. Georgetown (Ky.) – (MSC) Seconds away from advancing in last year’s NAIA Championship Series only to experience one of the most heartbreaking losses of recent memory in the postseason. GT will be determined this year and looking toward the postseason.

9. Bethel (Tenn.) – (MSC) Right now they look to be the best team in their half of the MSC West giving them the early lead for the postseason. However, this half of the conference has been one of the toughest to predict since its inception.

10. St. Ambrose (Iowa) – (MSFA) SAU is one school in the NAIA that is on the verge of turning the corner and becoming a contender for an NAIA championship. The issue is they play in the highly competition MSFA West division which will now include SXU. With William Penn and Grand View already nipping at their heals, SAU will have to work hard to stay in this year’s “VSN’s NAIA Championship Series 16.”

11. Montana Tech – (Frontier) Montana Tech was young and dangerous last season. This year, they will be a little more experienced and carry a chip on their shoulder after their first round postseason loss to Morningside.

12. MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.) – (HAAC) Talented team that could challenge MoValley for a conference title this fall. The HAAC can be wacky from time to time but there is no doubt that MNU is an odds on favorite to be in the postseason again this year

13.Northwestern (Iowa) – (GPAC) Second best team in the GPAC coming into the season. They will challenge Morningside for the title this fall. The one thing Northwestern cannot do is lose a game they shouldn’t lose this fall or else they will be on the bubble again.

14. Ottawa University (Kan.) – (KCAC) Right now I’ll go with Ottawa to be the representative of the KCAC in the NAIA Championship Series. The run for the conference title will be highly competitive this year in the KCAC, so don’t be surprised to see Tabor, Friends or someone else pop into the “VSN’s NAIA Championship Series 16.”

15. Carroll College (Mont.) – (Frontier) While the current rating doesn’t reflect the Saints in the postseason it would be tough to count them out. Between SOU, Montana Tech and Carroll the race for the Frontier title will be an interesting one.

16. Langston University (Okla.) – Surprised? You shouldn’t be. The Central States Football League is back in commission and will receive and automatic bid to the postseason if their champion is ranked in the Top 20 of the final regular season NAIA Coaches’ Poll. Right now, Langston looks like the best team from the CSFL but Bacone will contend as well.

A few things to keep in mind on this ranking before people go all crazy with the “Dannelly hates us” message board and twitter rants that will likely ensue. A major contributor to this ranking is the current coaches’ ranking. Despite my opinion on who will win what conference the major logic behind this ranking is where the coaches currently have people positioned.

For instance, it’s my personal opinion that No. 1 Marian is going to have their hands full this fall with winning their conference or even making it to the postseason. Their schedule is really tough and the MSFA East is a solid league which could see the defending champion’s end the season with three losses and on the outside looking in. But even with that said, the coaches have them ranked at the top of the NAIA to start the season. So given that logic and the fact no games have been played they automatically are going to take up a spot in “VSN’s NAIA Championship Series 16.” However once the season gets started and a few teams either win or lose we will have a better idea of who is in a good position to make the NAIA Championship Series.

Until then, it makes for a great summer debate.

Frosty Westering is the type of coach that could have cared less if he or his program made national headlines. After all, it was he who coined the phrase “Make the Big Time Where You Are.”  He won national championships, wrote books and changed the lives of the people around him day after day.

But it’s unfortunate that the passing of one of the country’s most beloved football coaches wasn’t bigger news last month. He influenced thousands of coaches and every college football program uses his teachings and sayings across the country. After decades of changing lives and being a loving and caring family person Frosty left this world and joined the true “Big Time.”

When he passed away on Friday, April 12th there were no cameras on the scene, there was no breaking news nor was there a scroll on the bottom of SportsCenter.  Instead we heard about a two-stroke penalty at the Masters and a busted Achilles tendon in the NBA. 

Admittedly I was late to the Frosty Westering party.  But once I got to it, I enjoyed every second of it. When I started covering NAIA football in 2002, I kept running into coaches who talked about this “Frosty” guy and how his mantra helped them to love where they were coaching.  Many of the NAIA schools I visited had subpar facilities and you often wondered how the heck they got kids to go there and why as coaches they stuck around as long as they did.

But after getting to know them and the power of “making the big time where you are” it was easy to see why student-athletes would gravitate toward that style of coaching.

Through the years I met coaches who were direct disciples of Frosty by either coaching with him or playing for him. When asked about it, every single one of them talked about him as being one of the most important and influential people in their lives.

After reading his first book, I was on a mission.  I wanted to talk to Frosty. I wanted to learn more about him.  I wanted to absorb some of his teachings and try to apply them in my life.  The opportunity finally came when Frosty was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

I reached out to the staff at Pacific Lutheran to see if anyone there could get ahold of Frosty for me so I could finally get the interview I had wanted to do for years. I left messages on about six phones and sent emails to everyone who might have had a connection with Frosty.

The next day my phone rang with a number from the 253 area code.  It was his son, Scott. Scott went onto tell me that I might have problems tracking down Frosty and my heart sank. But my mood quickly changed when he explained that it was because Frosty and his wife Donna were in Hawaii and they didn’t have a cell phone.

Scott told me the time of day to try to call them and I might be able to track them down.  I thanked him and waited a few hours hoping I would catch the coaching legend at his Pacific getaway. I remember calling at what would have been 8.am. local time in Hawaii. Donna picked up the phone.  I spent a few seconds talking with Donna explaining who I was and what I was calling for.  Donna said I had just missed him because Frosty was already out in the water. She took down my number and would give my info to Frosty.

Hours later, the phone rang and Frosty’s voice boomed through the receiver.  It’s like the guy was a power plant sending electricity through the line.  I can remember just smiling on the other end as Frosty apologized for missing me earlier and that he really wanted to talk to me. His energy was contagious through thousands of miles. We set up a time for later that night after they got back from the beach festivities they were attending.

The result of that interview is below. Looking back, I was young and still trying to be a “radio host” and “media guy”.  I hadn’t learned the art of “shut up and listen” when talking to a legend.

Frosty Westering Interview

After the interview I wished Frosty luck and he promised to send me a copy of his new book.  I gave him my mailing address and promised I’d send him a copy of “NAIA Preview” every year to keep him updated on the NAIA.

My magazine was already out so I sent him a few copies along with a thank you note. I would continue to send him every magazine I published until I no longer wrote “NAIA Preview.” About two weeks later I had a padded envelope delivered to my house and inside it was Frosty’s new book, “The Strange Secret of the Big Time”. 

On the title page Frosty wrote:

Enjoy the challenge of the strange secret.

Coach Frosty

Prov 27:17 WOW!

The passage is one that I later learned was one of Frosty’s favorites and in its brevity described the man’s life and coaching style.

 “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”

 Every article that talked of Frosty’s passing mentioned the national championship teams he coached, the number of All-Americans and even a few players that went onto the pros. But the real stat that couldn’t be reflected would be the number of people whose lives were changed or positively affected by Frosty. How many people did he “sharpen” and how many people did those people touch?

A few years after my interview with Frosty, I got the opportunity to meet him in person at the AFCA Coaches Convention. For me, it was like meeting the Beatles: Legendary NAIA football coach, one of the winningest coaches in the history of college football and one of the greatest human beings to walk the face of the Earth.

As corny as it sounds, I was almost too uncomfortable to go talk to the guy. You know how you hear stories of people who meet their idols or legends and they have a bad experience? I didn’t want to taint my view of Frosty if something went wrong in the conversation. As I stood there after the NAIA Hall of Fame banquet contemplating what I would even say, Pat Ross the head coach of Lindenwood University walked up to me and said, “Hey, that’s Frosty Westering. Let’s go talk to him!”

The experience couldn’t have gone better. We talked about everything from football to the state of Nebraska to his hometown of Missouri Valley, Iowa where I had a college roommate from. I don’t remember every detail of the conversation but I do remember walking away keyed up. You couldn’t talk to Frosty and not walk away more energized about life. Coach Ross and I looked at one another only to be able to utter the words, “Wow.”

A few years later at another NAIA Hall of Fame Banquet during the convention, Bob Young of the University of Sioux Falls was being inducted into the Hall of Fame. Frosty and his wife Donna were in attendance. I told several people a few years ago I wanted to write a book called “The Greatest Coaches You’ve Never Heard Of”. Coach Young and Frosty would be two of my targets for that book.

The banquet went as planned. Coach Young gave his speech and the crowd loved it. It was affectionate and funny, just as I expected from Coach Young. But the highlight of the banquet came after the festivities were over. After the final words were said and the crowd was basically told they were adjourned.

Out of nowhere, Frosty pops up out of his seat and summons the crowd. Like an old coach, he got the room quiet and pointed out the great accomplishments of Coach Young and the others going into the Hall of Fame.

Before we left, Frosty had a group of a few hundred people giving “ATTAWAY” cheers to the Hall of Fame inductees.

“ATTAWAY COACH YOUNG,” He yelled to the crowd and we answered back in unison.

Afterward, he and Bob Young stood near the front of the room and talked for 15 minutes or so. Everyone in the room wanted to be a fly on the wall in that conversation. On his way out, I tracked him down to say hello again and before I could introduce myself he said, “JASON! How are things in Nebraska! Hey those magazines you’ve been sending me are really GREAT!”

I’m not too sentimental and there are times that I question if anyone out there was paying attention to anything I was writing about NAIA football. But to have Frosty remember me after only meeting me once in person years prior to that was truly a compliment. There are far greater people in this world who he has influenced and to have him talking to me with such enthusiasm and passion about my work was inspiring.

There are certain coaches in the NAIA and in small college football that I consider to be legends. Many of them I have gotten the chance to talk to or meet with over the past 10 years and it’s not lost on me how lucky I have been.

But talking with Frosty was different. He was cut from a different mold and had an energy and zeal for life that was unmatched by anyone else. He’ll never be a household name in the world of college football and that’s perfectly fine because Frosty certainly lived up to his mantra. He made the big time where he was and we were all lucky to be a part of it.

Just reposting for those who missed it. This is the NAIA football documentary I did a few years ago.

If there is one thing that I can say I am particularly happy with myself about in my career as a sports journalist, it’s that I know my place.  I’m not a guy whose going to write analysis on the BCS Championship or Super Bowl and expect anyone to really care about what I have to say.  Most subjects in the world of sports I think actually fall into that category.  There are very few things in my professional life that I have focused on and claimed to be any sort of expert on and most of those revolve around things associated with the NAIA.

So I’m not going to claim to have any sort of new information or mesmerizing opinion on Mantai Te’o.  I’m not the sort of person that really has anything to say different than that of the experts whose stuff I’ve read and said, “Yeah! What he said!”

I will however claim that I am an expert on the subject of feel good stories.  For the last 10 years I have scoured the earth to find interesting stories in small college athletics that people outside of the school or person involved might have a fleeting interest in or at least read and go “oh hey, that’s a cool little story.”

The Te’o story got all of us and I mean EVERYBODY.  There wasn’t one person who questioned the integrity of the story he told, looked at sources or even made a phone call until Deadspin unveiled their report. I tweeted the story myself and shared the same guttural response as the rest of the country.

How can we ever look at a feel good story the same again?

This isn’t just on Te’o and those who perpetrated the hoax (and I have to believe Te’o knew) but this is also on those that for years have sensationalized stories that aren’t news to gain readers, viewers or followers.

By no means am I slamming those journalists who have done that or be asked to give a story a little more juice. After all, journalism is the art of telling a story to engage your audience. But I have to think that the American sports audience is going to be a little more leery of the next tearjerker they read online or see on E60.

How many other stories out there have been hoaxes or embellished a little bit here and there by the participants to gain national traction? Will we as journalists take a more cynical look at these stories in the future to ensure their accuracy?

My guess is yes …for a little while … until someone needs to put on a little spin to sexy things up.

I get enraged at stories like this because I’ve seen so many at the NAIA, DII and DIII level go unnoticed through the years.  Look at the play this story received when we could’ve been telling someone else’s story that deserved to have their story heard.

The stories of Te’o make the country more cynical toward real feel good stories and put doubt into our minds.  Is this guy really telling the truth? What’s the other side of the story? In five months will this still be true?

There is a side of me that wishes Deadspin would have held this, kept it from us or even extorted Te’o out of his signing bonus to prevent it from coming out (a very small side, mind you). There are people whose stories should be on the front page of USA Today or shown in a loop on Sportscenter.  The country will never fully trust the feel good story again.  There is always going to be doubt or skepticism and we will have the Mantai Te’o story to blame for the foreseeable future.

Ahh yes, the inevitable end of the year reflection done by so poorly by so many. And that list now includes myself.  It seems like 2012 opened us up even more pop cultural fads which will hopefully fade as quickly as they began. 

I’m as guilty as the next person for checking out the Gangnum Style video more than once and for initially thinking it was a catchy little tune.  But PSY and several other things need to go away quicker than

Phillip Phillips: Seriously, if you like the song “Home” go ahead and stop reading the rest of this post.  You aren’t going to like what’s next.  You know why I like Mumford and Sons? They have a pretty sweet original sound that is authentic.  You know why I hate Phillip Phillips, whose parents obviously hate him more for naming him Phillip? Because he/they try to sound like a band most people are cool with. 

Anyone over the age of 26 with a non traditional streak of color in their hair.  Oh look! You have a streak of purple! And you’re 46? The only exception is if you work in the music industry or are a REAL artist. Not some guy in his moms basement making naughty Photoshops of Kate Upton. I don’t get it? You have blond hair, but decided to put one long streak of blue in it? Why? Who the heck thinks that looks good?

Nontraditional Football Uniforms and Helmets: Put on the fricken jersey and play would ya? There is no reason I should flip on any college football game and have to look three times to see who the heck is actually on the field.  I’m fine with a few different colors of jerseys, but a completely different uniform makeup and layout is idiotic.  Maybe its the radio/tv broadcaster in me that hates them? There’s nothing worse than calling a game and staring at the players for 15 seconds trying to figure out the number.

UFC Fighter That Try To Get Into A Fight. .  . at the Weigh In: Seriously, stop that. Fight is tomorrow jacko.

Conference Realignments: San Diego State is in the Big East and located in the state of California? I don’t need to say much more.  Let’s just take the big conferences and create “Super DI Football” and let them play against one another.

Hipsters: Yeah, sometimes I like popular things. I don’t need you staring disapproval through your fake glasses while adjusting your scarf to tell me that “Ted” isn’t that good of a movie or that “the best avocado dip is actually at… . blah blah blah”. If I wanted someone to constantly tell me about all of the things that actually were much cooler than the mainstream stuff I like I’d just read “Rolling Stone” magazine.

Erin Andrews: You are not a studio host. You are not a studio host.  Get back to the field and report.  Everyone has strengths, for instance in baseball there are starters and closers. You are not a studio host. Do what you do best.

YOLO: Uh huh, you only live once eh? Riveting development there, Skippy. Plus, you are offending my Hindu friends.