Some of these *men* you're competing with for travel spots have been focusing on football and putting in year-round work for 3-1/2 or 4-1/2 years to get to where they are. You've been there for 2 weeks. Keep putting in the work, and you'll get there, too.

If you're a freshman #d3fb player feeling frustrated because you didn't get to travel for the team's scrimmage this weekend, take a step back and remember where you were after 2 weeks of practice as a HS freshman. And you're going to improve more in college than you did in HS.

Which #d3fb games in 2025 are most likely to impact the final playoff picture?

Bill has spoken. You should watch more small school football. In addition to the WIAC, some other #d3fb conference races that I expect to be down to the wire: SAA - just added best team from neighboring conference, four playoff-caliber teams

In one way, this is good (don't overvalue one game just because it was against a team close to you in the rankings), but also, NPI doesn't actually look at all 10 results - ~half of most Pool A/Pool C teams' games will be ignored (that's bad, but lauded disguised as a "feature").

In a very literal sense, H2H results (win/loss) are the ONLY input in the model. It's just a giant matrix of H2H results, trying to rank teams ahead of teams they beat, and below teams they lost to. What's different is that NPI doesn't allow ONE H2H result overpower the other 9.