First time posting. Since there are no Generals fans I thought I would get on here.
This topic is interesting because I was thinking about quality of play from these two eras the last game I was at in the fall. I have to agree more with HSC 85. Yes the conference is more fun to follow now that every game is important in the conference until favorites seperate in the last two weeks. But the conference from a talent perspective is nowhere near what it was when Bridgewater was dominating. Even though it was a one team conference in '01-'05 that team raised the play of every other team. I only saw three or four conference games last year but the level of play was slightly down from an athlete's perspective. The Bridgewater teams were complete football teams. You had to play extremely hard every play (harder on special teams). To put in perspecitve you could take the all-ODAC teams from 2007 and that team would struggle to beat Bridgewater of 2003 and 2004. From top to bottom the conference just doesn't have the quality of players there once were, and I think its most evident in the interior line. The ODAC doesn't have the elite talent it once did and more importantly it lacks the quality second tier players that were once abundant on the second and third best teams. In 2004-2005 if you take a couple playmakers from Bridgewater and give them to HSC on defense or W and L on offense then the confernce, in my opinion, would have had two teams potentially good enough to win a playoff game or two.
Now there isn't one team in the conference I see winning in the playoffs in the near future. The schools having better overall records only supports that the talent is more evenly spread out (I would think because every school has something to offer now with the conferene wide renovation in facilities). But I think the conference as a whole would be better with a dominant team garnering national attention. Because in that case any team decent enough to win a playoff game can possibly string a couple wins together and then if you upset the dominant team you stand to get a decent seed in the playoffs, and the dominanat team would still potentially get in the playoffs with a legitimate chance to upset first round. Which was the upside playing in a conference with a national powerhouse. Now even if you win conference its a perceived weak conference and you will still be on the road first round of the post season.
To answer Muchacho's question, Bridgewater fell a lot (but still has the best chance to string a couple titles in a row together).
This topic is interesting because I was thinking about quality of play from these two eras the last game I was at in the fall. I have to agree more with HSC 85. Yes the conference is more fun to follow now that every game is important in the conference until favorites seperate in the last two weeks. But the conference from a talent perspective is nowhere near what it was when Bridgewater was dominating. Even though it was a one team conference in '01-'05 that team raised the play of every other team. I only saw three or four conference games last year but the level of play was slightly down from an athlete's perspective. The Bridgewater teams were complete football teams. You had to play extremely hard every play (harder on special teams). To put in perspecitve you could take the all-ODAC teams from 2007 and that team would struggle to beat Bridgewater of 2003 and 2004. From top to bottom the conference just doesn't have the quality of players there once were, and I think its most evident in the interior line. The ODAC doesn't have the elite talent it once did and more importantly it lacks the quality second tier players that were once abundant on the second and third best teams. In 2004-2005 if you take a couple playmakers from Bridgewater and give them to HSC on defense or W and L on offense then the confernce, in my opinion, would have had two teams potentially good enough to win a playoff game or two.
Now there isn't one team in the conference I see winning in the playoffs in the near future. The schools having better overall records only supports that the talent is more evenly spread out (I would think because every school has something to offer now with the conferene wide renovation in facilities). But I think the conference as a whole would be better with a dominant team garnering national attention. Because in that case any team decent enough to win a playoff game can possibly string a couple wins together and then if you upset the dominant team you stand to get a decent seed in the playoffs, and the dominanat team would still potentially get in the playoffs with a legitimate chance to upset first round. Which was the upside playing in a conference with a national powerhouse. Now even if you win conference its a perceived weak conference and you will still be on the road first round of the post season.
To answer Muchacho's question, Bridgewater fell a lot (but still has the best chance to string a couple titles in a row together).