Quote from: Pat Coleman on September 16, 2010, 01:35:24 AM

Quote from: Pallos on September 15, 2010, 09:50:24 AM

Really, you just do this for "fun"? At 37 yrs old, a D3 football groupie? That's really... weird. It just seems that for all the time you seem to have checking for spelling errors and driving around northern Wisconsin, there wouldn't be any meaningful time for much else  . In the past, I've driven to a few games to see my sons play, or family friend,s but ..... These days I'm retired, but I don't even seem to have enough time to play much golf. OK, fare  enough.  Good on you for doing your thing.
     

Yep. Hey, you're the one who started ragging on people's education but couldn't spell correctly. And then proceeded to call people names. Not sure you add anything to the board.

LOL, Pat. Naaaaaaaah, I, the proud messenger, was just posting some good NESCAC news: that Williams had won yet another Directors Cup, been selected  the # 1 college in the country, and to celebrate all the other NESCAC schools that were commended recently as well. This is a NESCAC thread, and we should all be NSCAC fans here, right? Just fun news for a NESCAC thread during this slow NESCAC pre-season. Other folks here shouldn't feel threatened or envious of this stuff, and if they do then that's their problem ...and it's really pathetic.

We're all fans here-- not touchy feely schoolmarms-- so let's celebrate success when good news comes, and if people razz each other about how lousy their school is or how bad their football is than it's all just part of the college game. Check out how civil some Big Ten football sites are sometime. I don't know, maybe these sad D3 glory day folks, need to be coddled. So when Jonny called me clueless ( and believe me, my family could not agree with her more ) I was just having some fun back at her and, I think Lewis whore adults ( oops, should that be "who're" ), who seem to enjoy a laugh as much as anybody.



My spelling sucks, I know, but here's something from you, Pat ( regrets that I could not enlist the quote function for this ):

You: "  Knightstalker, there was a note in the atory (sic) on the front page of both sites regarding what you should do about post counts.

..............but here's my favorite from you:

You: " ....... but yeah, nitpicking and obfuscation will easily get you a minus-K from me."

Yes, Pat, we must not nitpick.



Anyway, I have a son playing his last year of NESCAC ball and I check in here to see if anyone has anything to say about upcoming games, etc. I think NESCAC ball is a hoot and my son has a blast playing. He's a good kid and I'm very proud that he's getting a good education. Me, I came to this country from Albania when I was 14 without knowing three words of "American". English, as you can see, is still a work in progress for me. It will always be my fourth language. No worries, I worked hard and eventually landed on my feet. I went to Michigan State... and played football there. ( No, I was not a kicker! ) I got an excellent education and went straight to med school. I've had four kids in NESCAC ( two football players ) so I'm a big NESCAC fan.

I don't think that NESCAC  Fri. ( or Sat.) night games would work because, as Frank U stated, alums/parents would be forced to travel at inconvenient times--mostly too late or just after work. Years ago NESN tried to get Amherst and Williams ( "The Biggest Little Game" ) to agree to a Thursday night game and it was quickly rejected.  I doubt much has changed on this front. NESCAC athletic depts used to ( still do? ) schedule sports like field hockey, soccer, cross country events earlier in the day if they coincided with home football game dates so that alums could make a day of it. At Amherst, most morning games were finished in time so that athletes could see the second half of the football game. But as for Friday or Saturday football games, they wouldn't be well received by most alums, especially rivalry games. The Little Three, for example, would never go for this. It's too bad in a way. My oldest son used to play in front of 9K people on certain Friday nights in high school. Nothing like that would ever happen in NESCAC unless it was Williams-Amherst. I agree with the poster who noted that there's something uniquely "high school" about night games.

Now what I'm looking to see on this thread are game predictions from the cognoscenti for the opening weekend . So, what have they got to say?

Quote from: LewDoth Stonehammer on September 15, 2010, 10:10:12 AM
Pallos went to Douchebag U.  What a clown.

Lewis, I don't know what makes me more ashamed: the fact that I was only wait-listed at Douchebag U.... or the fact that you are my son.

Maybe it's the latter, you ass clown.

                                                                 Regards,

                                                                 Dad

Quote from: Jonny Utah on September 15, 2010, 10:02:05 AM

Quote from: Pallos on September 15, 2010, 09:50:24 AM

Quote from: Pat Coleman on September 14, 2010, 01:30:09 AM

Quote from: Pallos on September 14, 2010, 01:06:39 AM

Quote from: Pat Coleman on August 22, 2010, 06:45:58 PM
I have no idea how they would fair. I wonder, though, how they would fare.

LOL, I know how crucial spelling is to a site like this, Pat.  I also know that you won't find many 37 yr old NESCAC grads driving around northern Wisconsin in November for a living     
         

Nope. You think I make a living at this? You severely underestimate the ad revenue from a free site.

I do it for fun. Not the driving, but the D3 stuff. Hopefully it stays fun, because it ain't paying my mortgage.

Really, you just do this for "fun"? At 37 yrs old, a D3 football groupie? That's really... weird. It just seems that for all the time you seem to have checking for spelling errors and driving around northern Wisconsin, there wouldn't be any meaningful time for much else  . In the past, I've driven to a few games to see my sons play, or family friend,s but ..... These days I'm retired, but I don't even seem to have enough time to play much golf. OK, fare  enough.  Good on you for doing your thing.
     
     There seems to be a big disconnect with guys who ~ complain here about the NESCAC position on # of games, no play-offs, length of season, etc., and what the league is really concerned with. ( Sure, I guess even some NESCAC guys want playoffs, but they are in a distinct minority.) Some posters just don't understand that NESCAC isn't that interested in football playoffs, and wouldn't be ready to seriously contend for a national title even if they could.

Pallos what Nescac school did you play for?

Why is that even relevant, Jonny Podunk?

Quote from: Pat Coleman on September 14, 2010, 01:30:09 AM

Quote from: Pallos on September 14, 2010, 01:06:39 AM

Quote from: Pat Coleman on August 22, 2010, 06:45:58 PM
I have no idea how they would fair. I wonder, though, how they would fare.

LOL, I know how crucial spelling is to a site like this, Pat.  I also know that you won't find many 37 yr old NESCAC grads driving around northern Wisconsin in November for a living     
         

Nope. You think I make a living at this? You severely underestimate the ad revenue from a free site.

I do it for fun. Not the driving, but the D3 stuff. Hopefully it stays fun, because it ain't paying my mortgage.

Really, you just do this for "fun"? At 37 yrs old, a D3 football groupie? That's really... weird. It just seems that for all the time you seem to have checking for spelling errors and driving around northern Wisconsin, there wouldn't be any meaningful time for much else  . In the past, I've driven to a few games to see my sons play, or family friend,s but ..... These days I'm retired, but I don't even seem to have enough time to play much golf. OK, fare  enough.  Good on you for doing your thing.
     
     There seems to be a big disconnect with guys who ~ complain here about the NESCAC position on # of games, no play-offs, length of season, etc., and what the league is really concerned with. ( Sure, I guess even some NESCAC guys want playoffs, but they are in a distinct minority.) Some posters just don't understand that NESCAC isn't that interested in football playoffs, and wouldn't be ready to seriously contend for a national title even if they could.

Quote from: Pat Coleman on August 22, 2010, 06:45:58 PM
I have no idea how they would fair. I wonder, though, how they would fare.

LOL, I know how crucial spelling is to a site like this, Pat.  I also know that you won't find many 37 yr old NESCAC grads driving around northern Wisconsin in November for a living     
         

Williams was listed by Forbes fairly recently as the top college in the country and US World News Report lists them as the top liberal arts and Forbes simply has Williams listed as the top undergrad institution in the nation, categories be damned. Outstanding! Amherst is # 3  , just behind Princeton. Many other NESCAC schools are right up there as well.

In terms of academics, all NESCAC schools are powerhouses and dwarf the D3 pack. For NESCAC fans that's something we take no small measure of pride in. And while NESCAC may not be a powerhouse football conference-- it's probably the conference's weakest sport on a national scale, but it's still highly entertaining-- you won't find a more powerful D3 sports conference - - for both men and women sports.

Good luck to all teams this season!

Congrats are in order for Williams, the powerhouse of D3 sports which was just awarded its 12th consecutive NACDA/Learfield Sports Directors' Cup earlier this summer--and 14th out of the 15 awarded in NCAA Division III history. Unbelievable! And Williams was joined by other NESCAC brethren in the Top 10, showing that NESCAC dominates wherever we choose. As for proving our prowess in it yet another NCAA sport, we have decided that it's simply not prudent to join the herd of academic flunky factories chasing some hollow title long past Thanksgiving. No thanks. For NESCAC schools all the games that matter are played in our own league. We simply don't need or want anything more.
   

It should be another great season in our storied league. No matters who wins out on the field all the kids in this league are winners because they are winners in the only place that truly matters in this day of 50K annual tuition: the classroom. These kids will graduate with sheepskins that will put then far ahead of all the other Podunk U's in D3, and in the meantime, they'll have a chance to play football on their terms. That's as it should be. Congrats to all NESCAC student athletes

   

Below is John Murphy's Yahoo article on this upcoming college draft. He does a position by position assessment and has Steven Hauschka ( Middlebury '07 ) of NC State as the # 2 kicker! Pretty good for our little league.


  http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/news;_ylt=AlnNwHOm0Ik7eZHKXOxhgMYcvrYF?slug=jm-prospects121807&;

      I think we need to keep the schedule in perspective and take a very cautious approach to any changes in it.  As it is now, the schedule is long enough, in fact, too long for some players. At Amherst and Williams ( and I'm sure all the other schools ) players drop out every year because they find the demands of football eating into their education-- and at 40K a year, the vast majority of kids aren't at NESCAC schools to see that happen. Football eats up a lot of time and most players are students first, players second ( or third).

      Many "recruits" are challenged enough by the rigorous academics at NESCAC schools with an eight game schedule. And injuries, tedium and time away from serious study  take their toll for many players over the course of the eight game season now. Another game only adds to that further.  If we were talking about gearing up for NCAA participation -- a big mistake, I think-- then the next logical step would be to include a ninth game to give our teams better preparation for that level of competition; but since we're probably not headed down that road, let's not run the risk of diluting the level play and the intensity of games we have now with yet another game simply to balance things out. Believe me, if adding a ninth game were a popular initiative, the clamor for it would be much louder than what we have here. Let's leave it at eight games and realize that football in NESCAC is fun and a little different, but it doesn't over-extend itself.

  I will be at Trin-Trin game vs Amherst on Saturday along with a buddy to watch his son play. He insists that Trin-Trin still has the most talent in the league but they have not lived up to their potential so far this year and met with some bad breaks as well.  He's predicting that they will win big in Amherst against "a talented but very young" Amherst team ( his assessment ).  Any predictions on this game?

   A few quick questions:

     Anybody know the neighborhood # for the budget for football at Williams and Amherst? Also, what is that # as a % of the overall athletic budgets there?

     How would the top NESCAC football teams fair vs the top Ivy league JV teams? One pundit assures me that although some NESCAC teams might have a few more highly skilled players than Ivy JV teams, overall, the Ivies have more depth and skill across the board. Anyone know?

   

Good point, Frank and while I couldn't agree more that self-aggrandizement on the part of coaches is abhorrent, I do think any self-aggrandizement on the part of Williams athletic coaches concerning USNWR rankings would  be grossly misplaced since those rankings have little or nothing to do with athletics... and certainly next to nothing to do with individual coaches accomplishments. In other words, what the hell did they have to do with roping in that distinction? Not that much. Now, if  Williams coaches start boasting about the college winning the Directors' Cup ( or whatever they call it these days ) consistently, I might consider that to be --marginally -- engaging in self-aggrandizement. That aside, I think the worst thing one could condemn Williams coaches crowing about USNWR rankings for would be a profound  sense of pride in their college's achievement: a different matter altogether, wouldn't you agree?

As noted recently here, NESCAC schools don't land a lot of recruits outside of the NE for whatever reasons ( NCAA limits, resources, a lack of name recognition outside of the NE ).  Because of this, I do think that widely-publicized distinctions such as USNWR  and, to a lesser extent,  Directors Cup rankings serve as excellent name recognition/ recruiting tools for the coaches of many schools in our league looking to gain exposure for their programs outside of the NE.

   Well. I'm not sure whether USNWR is overrated or not, but I think it's a little naive to say it's irrelevant to recruiting, and hence this website. I'll agree that the rankings seem far from a comprehensive and thorough measure of a school-- but the buzz the rankings create, for better or worse, can't be overestimated. )

   Anyway, some NESCAC football coaches think recruiting is an important part of building/maintaining a program. Williams as an institution has ostensibly been dismissive of the rankings; in the meantime, its coaches mention the rankings liberally in talks with recruits-- and who can blame them.

   Frank, how do the Ephs look to stack up vs the Lord Jeffs this season? Good to see that we've already edged them once again for the top spot in the USNWR rankings! 

By expanding the season to a 9th game, the league might actually be hurt in terms of recruiting-- or at least retaining existing players. Over the past year, my son and I visited five NESCAC schools and had the chance to talk with many players and coaches. Most players and coaches we spoke with felt that the season bordered on being too long already. If extended, the league would risk losing the casual players who make up the majority the league, guys who just want to extend their careers in order to have fun, but not seriously compromise their studies or summer internships. We spoke with one player who said he was glad the season didn't begin any earlier because it would cut his, and many of his teammates', summer internships. Other players felt that the season was, if any anything, too long and mentioned that a number of teammates had dropped out of football because the time demands were just too great and simply disadvantaged them too much academically. Most players that we talked with believed that football was part of an enjoyable college experience but, that if it were extended, it would diminish their enjoyment and might lead to them quit football. I think many players in the NESCAC are drawn to the unique, fun-first approach of a league that has never taken itself too seriously. Let's not spoil this with non-sense about expanding the season, playoffs, etc.