Sports

Degrading? Get real

By Matthew Semisch

11/18/2014

If you’re a fan of the Dakota College at Bottineau (DCB) football team, you’re not short on things to be happy about.

In their first season in the Minnesota College Athletic Conference (MCAC) - their first in any league, in fact - the Lumberjacks finished 8-2. They were MCAC playoff semifinalists, too, and they were one overtime session away from a trip to the league playoff championship game.

What’s even better is that the season is not yet over. Early last week, DCB received an invitation to play in the Graphic Edge Bowl in Cedar Falls, Iowa on Dec. 7.

The game against Ellsworth Community College (Iowa) will be DCB’s second bowl game in as many years. 

It will also be the Jacks’ second bowl game ever, which speaks to the quick ascendancy to prominence that DCB’s football program has enjoyed in only seven years of existence.

Tim Pfeifer deserves plenty of credit, too. In his four seasons as DCB’s head coach, he has found his team a league to call home and has turned the Lumberjacks into one of the best junior college football teams in the nation.

It’s no easy task getting some of the best junior college players in the country to come to Bottineau. Juco football in North Dakota hasn’t always been the strongest, and - bit of breaking news, this - our climate takes a lot of getting used to for many DCB players from southern areas of the United States.

The fact of the matter is that Pfeifer has consistently been able to recruit high-quality talent to DCB. Partly because of that, the Jacks are once again going bowling next month.

Not everyone involved in juco football is so rosy on where the Lumberjacks are heading, though. One such person is Rion Rhoades, the head football coach at Hutchinson Community College (Kan.).

His Blue Dragons faced DCB last December in the Salt City Bowl in Hutchinson. The host school won in a rout, defeating the Lumberjacks 57-0.

Hutchinson is in the Salt City Bowl again this year, where the fourth-ranked Blue Dragons will face No. 19 Hudson Valley from New York.

Rhoades spoke to the Hutchinson News after learning of the bowl bid, and he used the opportunity to have a pop at the Graphic Edge Bowl.

The Graphic Edge Bowl is made up of two separate games, and both feature a team with a losing record. Rochester (Minn.), which has an 8-3 record, will face Iowa Central (4-7) in the second game in Cedar Falls.

There are only seven junior college bowl games for teams to take part in, and Rhoades feels that the Graphic Edge Bowl field should be much stronger top-to-bottom than it is.

“The Graphic Edge Bowl is a mystery bowl,” Rhoades said.“There’s no requirements.

“It really degrades the NJCAA bowl system, in my opinion.”

Careful, everyone. Clearly we’re dealing with someone who could charm the paint off of a wall.

I’m not really sure where Rhoades gets off with that. It’s a wholly unnecessary comment for him to make. 

Yes, many ranked teams - DCB is currently No. 17 - won’t make a bowl game this year. This is junior college football, though, and not every top team has it in their budget to travel to an extra game. That’s the reality.

Do the rest of us a favor, Rion, and mind your own business.