NAIA – The Other Division of Football

Catching Up with Jason

June 17, 2020 by jasondannelly 1 Comment

Some of you reading this are new here.

Some of you have been around for a while reading my bullshit.

Regardless, it has been a while since I really dug into the world of NAIA football on this level so I thought it would be prudent to catch you up on why the hell am I doing this again.

Over the last ten years, I never really stopped doing it. But I’m a psychopath when it comes to being up to date on the latest information on NAIA football. From 2002 to 2012, there wasn’t a thing going on in NAIA football that I wasn’t aware of. Coaches leaving, coming, players transferring etc etc. I was THE GUY, guru if you will, for NAIA football.

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Filed Under: NAIA, News

The Top 25 NAIA Football Programs of All-Time

May 1, 2020 by jasondannelly 2 Comments

texasai While I can appreciate the “Big J” journalists doing their best to understand small college football, I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out they are doing a terrible job.

Recently ESPN published their attempt at “The 50 best college football programs over the last 150 years.” They characterized the list as being put together as “college football’s greatest programs across all divisions” while in the same breath leaving out the NAIA. Ahh, the “Big J” journalists doing their finest work.

I’m sure they will make the argument, “Well we counted the NAIA championships for teams in DII and DIII.” But nevertheless, there isn’t one current NAIA program on the list.

Not one. Zero. Zilch. [Read more…]

Filed Under: College, Column, NAIA, News

15 Stories for 15 Years of the Victory Sports Network by Jason Dannelly.

April 30, 2020 by jasondannelly Leave a Comment

Early last summer I was approached by Rob Brandt of the Victory Sports Network. You see, Rob is the guy I sold VSN to (the second time) and he is the guy responsible for the site’s contents. He and Barry Fouts asked me to write something for the 15 year anniversary of VSN.

I said, “Sure.”

Admittedly I forgot about writing that piece until one night last month when I posted a few photos for nostalgia sake and said, “Crap, forgot to write that.”

But as nostalgia goes. . .it got me thinking. Why not write 15 brief stories that no one knows about the behind the scenes stuff that happened at VSN? There has probably been enough time and distance from these stories to not incriminate anyone, so why not.

So without a big long drawn out explanation, here are the 15 stories from the VSN years you never knew about, sorry mom and dad (again). [Read more…]

Filed Under: Column, NAIA, News

2017 Rimington Award Winners for the Nation’s Top Center for FCS, DII, DIII and NAIA Announced.

December 13, 2017 by jasondannelly Leave a Comment

South Dakota State’s Jacob Ohnesorge Wins First Rimington Award in School History

New York, NY – Jacob Ohnesorge of South Dakota State University headlines the 2017 Rimington Award winners for the FCS, DII, DIII and NAIA divisions. This year’s selections mark the 15th time the top center of each respective level has received the award.

Ohnesorge, a senior from Waunakee, Wis. is a three-time All-Missouri Valley Football Conference honoree, earning first team honors in both his junior and senior seasons. Additionally, Ohnesorge excelled in the classroom being named to the MVFC Academic Honor Roll in 2013, 2014 and 2016. Jacob has started 53 consecutive games which ties a record for the South Dakota State University Jackrabbits and has already graduated with his degree in Mechanical Engineering. After starting all four seasons, Ohnesorge was part of one of the best offenses in SDSU school history this year averaging 38.8 points per game. Ohnesorge is the first Jackrabbit to ever receive the Rimington Award. [Read more…]

Filed Under: College, NAIA, News Tagged With: dave rimington, football, football awards, Rimington Award, rimington trophy, Sports

The Athletic Trainer: An Unsung Hero

August 14, 2016 by jasondannelly Leave a Comment

Mark Kwikkel at the VSN All Star Classic.

Anyone who has talked to me this summer understands I’ve had a lot of windshield time. During a recent long drive and because college football season is about to start I went down my annual spiral of thinking about different teams in the NAIA and reminiscing about my friends and I when I played at Dana College.

Sure we lost a lot of games but I made a lot of friends and memories back in those days. Some people have come and gone over the years but there was one guy who I am eternally grateful for the chance to be around him and his profession.

Mark Kwikkel, former head athletic trainer at Dana College, saved my life and I want to thank him for it. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Column, NAIA, News