Hobart defies NCAA, claims they won't play Wesley

The 2011 Liberty League co-Champion Hobart Statesmen (7-1) filed a petition with the NCAA today that stated they refused to play the Wesley Wolverines (9-1) on grounds that "according to D3football.com we received the worst draw of the entire tournament."

St. John Fisher fans applauded this move, confirming the Cardinals received a better seeding than the Statesmen (who happened to win their head-to-head match up by five TDs on 9/24/11, but who's counting?) and felt it was just desserts for those "ducking pumpkins".

In an interview with "In The HuddLLe" on Sunday night, NCAA Chairperson Joy Solomen was interpreted to have said that "we thought it was ironic Hobart turned down a game with Wesley back in February so we decided to send the Statesmen to Dover to prove a point that it was Hobart's fault Widener cancelled on them in January".  Another NCAA spokesperson indicated on the condition of anonymity that "the irony clause is specifically cited in section 12, sub-section 11, part 22.3 of the NCAA handbook, i.e., if you don't play a team in the regular season you WILL have to play them in the first round of the playoffs"

At the time (in February of this year) Hobart Athletics Director Mike Hanna indicated that the Statesmen were merely looking for an "eastern region opponent".  Although Wesley is based in Delaware (as are many Fortune 500 corporate and legal entities), they are technically a "South Region" team and a program that struggles to schedule opponents on an annual basis due to their lack of conference.  While indignant  Wolverine fans chided Hobart for being put under NCAA sanctions and only playing eight regular season games, they were equally relieved (as was nearby Penn State) that the NCAA's jurisdiction apparently doesn't apply to criminal activity when it comes to championship caliber football programs (http://www.whetstone.wesley.edu/2010/12/02/four-football-players-arrested-for-dorm-burglaries/).

A normally expletive free Coach Cragg commented that although he would play any team, any where, he was surprised at the seeding, especially in lieu of the SJF-JHU match up and basically stated "I don't know what the #$%^ the Committee was thinking."

In all seriousness, I'll have a preview of the game later this week.

Go 'Bart!