Rod's Monday Thoughts

Congratulations to Brian Oakland and his Pittsburgh Steelers pajama pants. Interesting game to say the least yesterday in the win over the Vikings. There were three things I wished I did not do over the weekend. 1) Watch the Huskers game. (I think I would have rather just wondered, how in the world did they lose). 2) Watch the Bears game. (I think I would have rather just wondered, how in the world did they lose it like that) and 3) rake leaves and clean up the yard on Saturday. At 5:15 p.m on Saturday when I finished it didn't look bad. When I woke up yesterday morning and looked out, it was like there was double the leaves on the ground there were Saturday when I started. It's about enough to drive to me to QUIT Drinking! The Bengals are for real my friends. The Vikings are fortunate they have them in the Metrodome. Cincy did beat the Steelers in their first game.

Sturgis has their starting quarterback in the lineup. He was a major factor in their 54-0 win over Spearfish last Thursday. He had a high ankle sprain and missed several games prior to that so he will be ready to go against Pierre tomorrow night. Stugis is run first team and then use the play action pass much like Pierre does. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.

They are getting a fan bus together at Stanley County for tomorrow night's game at Platte. Platte-Geddes/Dakota Christian beat Stanley County 28-0 during the season but as the playoff scenario played out for the Buffalos, P-G/DC is probably the best hope the Buffs had in the first round.

Pierre could get the third seed yet in the District 3AA volleyball tournament. They are 1 game ahead of Mitchell. While Mitchell holds the tiebreaker over Pierre with 2 wins in the regular season, Mitchell has to play 2nd ranked S.F. Roosevelt in their lone game left. Pierre hosts top ranked Aberdeen Central. If they both lose, Pierre is third seed and would host a 3rd place game if they would play Mitchell. If Pierre is the third seed they would open at Huron next week. If Pierre is 4th they would open at Aberdeen Central.

Lady Govs lose in 3

Yankton beats the Lady Govs in volleyball. A 3 game sweep but close scores. 25-23, 25-19, 26-24. Lady Govs are 6-13 and host Aberdeen Central Thursday in their final regular season games. No individual results on last night's match were made available. Check tomorrow's sports on KGFX and River 92.7 as well as on My Daily News.

Pierre Results from State Cross Country Meet

10th Place 244 Pierre T.F. Riggs Boys

Place Name Grade Time
19 Kris Monroe 12 17:16.12
39 Aaron Propst 11 17:53.57
45 Steve Gordon 9 18:04.62
69 Steven Nielson 11 18:35.47
72 Tyler Sarringar 12 18:38.47
( 77) Sean Snyder 12 18:52.82
( 92) Tyler Propst 10 19:48.228.


8th Place 226 Pierre T.F. Riggs Girls

13 Bridget Simmons 10 15:554.4
18 Courtney Ziebart 11 16:05.1
58 Allison Mientsma 8 17:21.2
63 Libby Gortmaker 9 17:29.0
82 Courtney Brandt 9 18:06.8
83 Jenna Schweiss 9 18:07.6
98 Brooklyn Voeltz 9 18:39.4

Yankton won both the boys and girls team titles again

Rod's Saturday thoughts

Go SDSU. Coach John Stiglemier deserves a huge win for that program today over Northern Iowa. No one seems to be questioning SDSU's move up to Division 1 these days. Stiglemier has shown the right way to do things. Recruiting has never been better and you don't seem to hear anyting about off the field problems like other schools are going through. Well in the football programs anyway.

Don't forget the State High School Cross Country meet is today in Rapid City. The Lady Govs play volleyball at Yankton although a 6-12 season have fans fondly remembering what Lady Gov volleyball accomplished the last 3 years. And this team is not that far off from being thorn in the side of some teams when we get to the post season. Pierre will make some noise before the season is over.

Congratulations (not really) to the Sioux Falls schools which have worked the system beautifully so all 4 teams will have to spend a minimum of dollars in transportation cost for the upcoming football playoffs. All 4 will have home games once again come Tuesday with 3 of the games at Howard Wood Field. Brookings (48 miles)has a 2 p.m. game against Roosevelt. Douglas (who shouldn't be in the 11AA playoffs because they do not play an 11AA schedule) plays at 5 p.m. against Washington and at 8 p.m. Rapid City Stevens plays Sioux Falls Lincoln. If all 4 win, 2 might have to travel the second round, one maybe would have go to Aberdeen the other cross town. And in the semi's 1 might have to travel within the city or maybe 8 miles! So tell me why do two schools have to travel 5 hours one way have to play at 5 and 8 p.m.? For an organization that is concerned about missed school times, the SDHSAA remains silent! Unbelievable! And it is at all levels, not just 11AA. Both schools have to agree officially. Right! But you know what I think how that could be remedied (Check yesterday's blog). Oh yea, I forgot. If we don't have those first round games because not as many teams make the playoffs we don't have that revenue. Sorry my bad. And if we put the games on a Saturday for two straight weeks, that's two less days of pheasant hunting for some cause they would have to go to a football game. Wow, what was I thinking. Missed school time, and giving the players a full 6days between games to heal up from minor injuries and be alert in school versus 4days between, playoff revenue and keeping schools coaches and AD's and the Sioux Falls Argus Leader from complaining what is wrong with the system. Man, I have got to get a life. It's not 1984 anymore. Or 74or 54 (pick a year). Hey the BCS has nothing on our high school playoffs.

But as the system stands today, there will be 7 games on the Dakota Radio Group stations on Tuesday. Sturgis at Pierre at 7 p.m. on River 92.7. Stanley County at Platte-Geddes/Dakota Christian at 7 p.m. on KGFX. Jones County at Sunshine Bible Academy at 2 p.m. and Lemmon-McIntosh at 6:30 p.m. on KPLO 94.5-FM. On KMLO-FM 100.7 it will be Philip at Herreid-Selby Area at 3 p.m. and Eureka-Bowdle at Canistota-Bridgewater at 6:30 p.m. And on Star 99-FM it will be Mobridge-Pollock at Bennett County at 7 p.m. And of course all of our games are heard on our website www.dakotaradiogroup.com

Rod's Friday Thoughts

To the South Dakota High School Activities Association and their high school football playoff system: KISS. It is a good rule to follow. The system now is getting more complicated it seems. The official pairings are supposedly out at noon today. Why do coaches, schools, parents, fans and players have to wait that long to find out where they are playing on Tuesday? The Class 11AA playoffs are laughable at best. Why Douglas is allowed to play an entire 11A schedule and then play in the 11AA playoffs is absurd at best. Why would they want to. Why would they want to go to Sioux Falls, play Roosevelt, get beat by 50 and then drive home? Roosevelt would be better served just having a practice. They would probably get a better game from the reserves than they will against a power out of the BLACK HILLS CONFERENCE. If Douglas is going to play in the 11AA playoffs then Douglas needs to get told to pull up their big boy pants and play an 11AA schedule! Or more appropriatly, given an 11AA schedule like everybody else gets. And why are the 11AA playoffs set up to make sure that Sioux Falls schools don't have to travel? And what about The High School Activities Association says and their concern about travel on school nights? Tell that to Rapid City Stevens who has to go to Yankton on Tuesday. Or Mobridge that goes to Bennett County or Stanley County who might have to go to Wagner! Of course that is no different than having Watertown or Brookings to come to Pierre on a Thursday night to play a regular season volleyball match. Shorten the playoffs up to 3 weeks like they are now but play quarterfinals on Friday or Saturday, Semi's the following Friday or Saturday and then go to your 3 days of finals and forget about making sure that everybody has a chance to make the playoffs for that "experience". They have that experience now. It is called 8 or 9 games called the regular season. And at 11AA, go back to the regions. If the Sioux Falls schools feel it is unfair, let em go to Iowa or Minnesota.

And the best game of the NFL weekend will not be Minnesota at Pittsburgh. Bears at Bengals baby. That's the game of the weekend.

Brian: as for me, I love speculation....

My esteemed colleague, Mr. Fisher, has said that he would rather not speculate as to who will end up playing where and against whom in the first round of the football playoffs, and maybe some coaches would just as soon rather wait until Friday morning's power point tallies are released as well. But as for me, since I have the means to crunch numbers by creating possible scenarios based on my predictions, then speculating on potential playoff matches becomes one of my favorite hobbies at this time of the year. So that's what this post is about. If you're wondering who your team will end up playing on Tuesday night, then keep reading, ***but with the understanding that what you read is based solely on my own personal speculation. Some of it may come true, some of it may end up being a little off, and in some cases, I might accidentally overlook something and send a team on a road trip when in reality they end up staying home and gearing up for the winter sports season a few weeks early. So with that in mind, what could it hurt? (Just don't start developing game plans just yet.) ;-)

First of all, in Class 11AA, obviously our main concern is the Pierre Governors, who carry a 5th overall seed out of the top 16 into Thursday night's clash with Aberdeen. Now, if you have read my 11AA picks from below, and if all of those picks come true (I did go 8-0 in my 11AA picks last week), then I see Pierre dropping one spot to #6 overall and possibly hosting the #11 seed in the first round, and I predict that team to be Brookings, a team the Govs beat, 36-14, back on Sept. 18, in the Bobcats' Homecoming game. I predict the top 5 seeds to be Aberdeen, Washington, Brandon Valley, O'Gorman, and Roosevelt, ahead of Pierre. That would set up a possible rematch for Pierre with #3 Brandon Valley in the second round, but at Brandon, assuming both teams win in the first round. Now, if Pierre beats Aberdeen, which certainly could happen, then the Govs probably will still get no higher than a #5 seed and probably face RC Central in the first round. One swing possibility in the higher seedings could occur if O'Gorman beats Washington in SooFoo, but that looks like they will only swap seeding possibilities if that happens. Further down in the standings, these predictions could really get messy if RC Central happens to beat Stevens, or some bigger upsets take place tonight as well. It looks like Spearfish will be the odd team out this year, unless they beat Sturgis tonight.

In 11A, there shouldn't be too many surprises. It looks like all the region playoff brackets will have teams playing within their own region. The most important game in the area might be in Chamberlain, where if the Cubs beat Todd Co. (on KPLO tonight), they will be in the playoffs, despite having what would only be one win. If the Cubs can beat Todd Co., who sits at the top of the Region 3 seedings, then it's conceivable they could actually win their way through the region and make it all the way to the semifinals! That semifinal matchup for the Cubs wouldn't be very favorable, but that would definitely be something to play for.

For 11B, there are plenty of possibilities, but my prediction for Stanley Co. is that they will be in the playoffs, whether they win or lose tonight at home against Miller (on KGFX). The Buffs get a lot of help with opponent wins on the season, thanks to the win totals of teams like Winner, Mobridge, Bennett Co., Platte, but they should also get added help tonight with possible wins from Custer and Chamberlain. The question is, where will the Buffs be playing? In their own Region 4, Winner, Bennett, Mobridge, and Red Cloud should have a solid clamp on the top 4 seeds, so Stanley Co. will end up as an at-large team in another region. Their power point average will likely be high enough to bump out a 4-seed from any of the other regions, but it looks like Region 3 will have the lowest power average of their 4-seed. There are two huge games tonight in Region 3 pairing their top 4 seeds against each other that will help answer this question. Platte plays at Wagner, with the winner gaining the top seed, while Elk Point-Jefferson plays at Bon Homme tonight, and the winner of that game should get the 3-seed, but the loser will likely be left out of the playoffs, with Stanley Co. moving in to the region as the at-large team. Now, if the Buffs win tonight, I predict they will have a high enough power average to become the 3-seed, so they would travel to the #2 seed, which again will be the loser of that Platte-Wagner game. If the Buffs lose to Miller tonight, I still see the Buffs going to Region 3 as the 4-seed, which would send them to the top seed - the winner of that Platte-Wagner game. Not only that, but a Miller win tonight will actually put them in the playoffs, probably as a 3-seed in Region 2, which would set them up for a first round game at Flandreau.

Since this is getting fairly long, I'll split the 11-man and 9-man playoff posts - read on below for the 9-man predictions.

Brian: as for me, I love speculation....Part 2

Now for the 9-man playoff picture, and where things get real interesting is in 9AA, where our own Region 4 is loaded, to say the least. Top-ranked Lyman should hold down the overall #1 seed in the entire class, with unbeaten Herreid/Selby a strong #2 seed in the region. Right now, Philip is the 4 seed, but once they beat Kadoka and Lemmon loses to Harding Co. tonight, Philip should move back up into the #3, with Lemmon falling back to #4 and going to Lyman in the first round (Philip goes to Herreid). However, two 5-3 teams could still be in line for at-large bids in other regions out of Region 4. I see Eureka/Bowdle percentage points ahead of White River for the 5- and 6-seeds in Region 4, but it looks to me like that will be enough for both to make the playoffs. Look for E/B to possibly be a 3-seed in Region 1 and go to Hamlin in the first round, while White River could actually be a 2-seed in Region 2 and go to Chester for a first round game (since at-large teams cannot host a first round game). Obviously a lot can still happen tonight, but again, these are just my own observations and speculations.

9A will see some at-large movement as well, as Region 2 is loaded much like 9AA Region 4. Region 4 in 9A, though, with some of our area teams looks to me like it will stay intact, with Sully Buttes, the 2-seed likely hosting Wall in the first round, and the top seed, Harding Co., will host Newell. Now, Highmore-Harrold could probably make the playoffs, but they would first have to beat Sunshine Bible tonight, and hope Newell loses to Edgemont (which is asking a lot). Even if that happens, then the Pirates probably would get bumped out of the region by an at-large team from Region 2, so it's not looking too good for H-H, unfortunately. Look for Arlington and Colman-Egan to venture out of Region 2 to fill the Regions 1 & 3 brackets in the first round.

Class 9B is pretty eastern-heavy, so our area regions, 3 & 4, could be shaken up a bit. Gettysburg is a solid top-seed in Region 3, with Jones Co. #2, and Sunshine Bible at #3. Kimball pulls in at a distant #4, but may need an upset over Mt. Vernon tonight to make the playoffs. Region 4 is not strong, but Faith, Dupree, and New Underwood should hold down the top 3 spots, with Timber Lake actually coming in at #4, and by golly, the Panthers could actually be safe in their own region. If so, look for Timber Lake to play at Faith Tuesday night, while New Underwood goes to Dupree. There will be at-large movement in 9B, though, probably with Warner, the 5-seed in Region 1, moving into Region 3 to take Kimball's spot and giving them a first-round date at Gettysburg, while Sunshine Bible goes to Jones Co. If Kimball should win tonight, Warner would instead replace Timber Lake as the 4-seed in Region 4. Meanwhile Faulkton, with a strong season, should be the 3-seed in Region 1, but behind two unbeaten teams, Grant-Deuel and Hitchcock-Tulare. I see Faulkton going to Hitchcock-Tulare, last year's State runner-up to Avon, and my odds-on favorite to win it all this year, in the first round.

Let me say again, this is all based on my own observations and predictions and in no way should be construed as what will definitely happen. For official first-round matchups, check the SDHSAA website Friday morning, but since everyone else will be doing that, you might want to expect some lag on that website. Have fun tonight and best of luck to all of those still in the hunt!