Welcome to week two of the NAIA football season. I’m late with these picks but still technically early since the games aren’t played until tomorrow. Home team listed first. . .I’ll update my season stats sometime next week.

Culver-Stockton (Mo.) vs. Evangel (Mo.) 12:00 PM
St. Thomas (Fla.) vs. Southeastern (Fla.) 12:00 PM
Northwestern (Iowa) vs. Dakota Wesleyan (S.D.) 1:00 PM
Midland (Neb.) vs. Morningside (Iowa) 1:00 PM
Graceland (Iowa) vs. Central Methodist (Mo.) 1:00 PM
Clarke (Iowa) vs. Benedictine (Kan.) 1:00 PM
Valley City State (N.D.) vs. Waldorf (Iowa) 1:00 PM
Doane (Neb.) vs. Briar Cliff (Iowa) 1:00 PM
Dickinson State (N.D.) vs. Mayville State (N.D.)
Keiser University vs. Webber International (Fla.) 5:00 PM
Concordia (Neb.) vs. Hastings (Neb.) 6:00 PM
Ave Maria (Fla.) vs. Florida Memorial 7:00 PM
Presentation (S.D.) vs. Dakota State (S.D.) 7:00 PM
Bethany (Kan.) vs. Kansas Wesleyan 7:00 PM
Tabor (Kan.) vs. Friends (Kan.) 7:00 PM
West Texas A&M vs. Oklahoma Panhandle State 7:00 PM
McPherson (Kan.) vs. Bethel (Kan.) 7:00 PM

Ahh yes, Chip’s Picks. The most polarizing weekly feature in the history of NAIA football returns after a (no idea how many) year hiatus. Before I unveil the picks. . .a few house keeping items.

1. I (Jason Dannelly) am Chip. I always have been. There has never been an effort to conceal my identity. My nickname for a very long time has been, Chip. When I created this feature back in 2002 more of my friends from the college football world knew me as Chip than Jason. Chip’s Picks just had a good sound to it.
2. The games I am picking below are being pulled from NAIA DakStats schedule. If your team has a game missing, then it wasn’t on the official DakStats NAIA Football Schedule. Given the whole COVID 19 state of games being postponed and cancelled I have found this will be the easiest way to track who is actually playing week to week.
3. Don’t yell at me if your game isn’t on this list. Call your school and tell them to get their schedule on DakStats updated. It’s not that hard.

Sure, I kinda say “the most polarizing weekly feature in the history of NAIA football” a bit tongue and cheek, but there is also some validity to that statement. Back in the day (which was a Wednesday) I would put out my picks and the old site would blow up with comments. I’ve been called a dip shit more times than I care to admit over these picks. I’ve literally had coaches thank me for picking against them because they used it as motivation for their team.

BUT I’ve also been called a lot nicer things than that over the years.

Craig Mattick is the man and is one of the reasons why the Victory Sports Network and my career of covering NAIA sports was able to exist. It’s sad to see him walk away from radio, but after COVID related cuts took away his job with KWSN I hate to say it’s not surprising.

Craig announced today on his personal Facebook that after 45 years he would be stepping away “from a great life in radio.” While I don’t know all the details, it sounds like he will still be be in the world of broadcasting through South Dakota Public Television.

So imagine starting a sports media business in 2002 covering NAIA football. I was still working in radio myself and trying to grow what was NAIAFootball.net. I started gathering the names of every radio show and sports editor that I could find and then blasting countless emails to them.

I thought I’d make this real simple. This is an updated list of who has said they are playing and who is not this fall in the NAIA. If I am missing one. . . let me know. (Last update 7-21-20)

NOT PLAYING FALL 2020:
College of Idaho
Eastern Oregon
Langston University
Southern Oregon
Texas College

Who has declared (publicly) they will play or through their conference declaration:

Baker (Kan.)
Benedictine (Kan.)
Briar Cliff (Iowa)
Carroll (Mont.)
Central Methodist (Mo.)
Clarke (Iowa)
Concordia (Neb.)
Culver-Stockton (Mo.)
Dakota Wesleyan (S.D.)
Doane (Neb.)
Dordt (Iowa)
Evangel (Mo.)
Graceland (Iowa)
Grand View (Iowa)
Hastings (Neb.)
Jamestown (N.D.)
MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.)
Midland University (Neb.)
Missouri Valley (Mo.)
Morningside (Iowa)
Montana State-Northern (Mont.)
Montana Tech (Mont.)
Montana-Western (Mont.)
Northwestern (Iowa)
Peru State (Neb.)
Rocky Mountain (Mont.)
William Penn (Iowa)

Make a smartass joke about needing a logo. . .someone makes you a logo.

Is it crazy fancy? No.

Is it really wordy? Absolutely.

Does it fill the void of not having a logo? Probably not but I prefer to put minimal effort into this department at this time.

Thanks again to all those who make this happen. Just a monumental day. Just. . .wow.

AnYwaYz. . . .are we playing football yet?

Well. . .I’m back? But I didn’t really go anywhere. Well, I mean, I moved. I live in Fargo, ND now. But in the grand sense of the world, life and the cosmos. . .I’m still here.

The only way that I can put it is that I’m like that one friend of yours that tried to sell you multilevel marketing stuff. The first time around, they fooled you. You liked them, so you said, “hey I’ll give it a shot.”

And then for the next 10 years they bothered you to buy more and more. They inundated your Facebook timeline with bullshit posts about how great things were and how they kept achieving new goals.

Then all of a sudden they stopped? Why? Maybe whatever they were schlepping went belly up or some CEO got arrested for fraud. Life caught up with them. They got a real job. They had to grind again. They just kinda disappeared.