FB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[Whitecarrera]

Yes it is 

[ExTartanPlayer]

...quite frankly, the NCAC needs all of the help it can get from an attention standpoint- this isn't a particularly interesting league right now for anybody who isn't acutely attached to one of the teams.

When was the NCAC a particularly interesting league for those not acutely attached to one of the teams?  23 years ago when Earlham went 6-4?  This league has had an overwhelming top and a bad bottom for as long as I can remember.  It seems much more interesting to me over the last few years when there have been 4 teams competing for 1st place.

"Interesting" of course is in the eye of the beholder.  It's fair to say that a league is more interesting (in a vacuum, ignoring the national picture) when there are more teams contending for that league title / when the gap between team #1A/1B in that league and the rest of the league is relatively smaller.  Heck, just this morning, I wrote a post on the PAC board where I said the bottom of the league is at least fun (if not particularly good) because there's real "anybody can win in any pairing between any of these two teams" feel to it. 

That said, from a national standpoint, such a league isn't particularly interesting for anyone not acutely attached to one of those teams.  Speaking as a Carnegie Mellon alum, other than the PAC, I have a passing interest in NCAC because of the period when the UAA had a scheduling arrangement to play a bunch of non-league games against the NCAC...but the leagues (outside the PAC) that interest me the most as a D3 fan are not necessarily the most competitive ones, they're the ones that produce nationally relevant teams.  To grab a couple of random leagues, I'm more interested in the American Rivers Conference than I am in the UMAC although the UMAC probably has more "teams that could win it" right now, because I know that Wartburg has been a big playoff force in recent history and if anyone from the ARC beats them, it's going to register on my radar.  Not that you have to be a national title contender to be "nationally relevant" but at least interesting enough to get talked about in the top 25 and as a team that might win a playoff game or two.

So to a fan that lives within the NCAC geographic footprint (or alum of a school), yes, the league is probably more interesting today than it was during years when Wabash/Wittenberg were just rolling everyone.  But D3 fans from around the nation probably were more interested in the NCAC (...the top teams only, yeah...) when Wabash and Wittenberg were winning a playoff game or two most years and occasionally burbling up into the top 10ish range of the rankings.  I mean...the UMAC is a fun example...different conference champ almost every year for the last decade...probably a more interesting league to follow if you're within the league footprint, but less interesting to an outside fan from afar since none of the teams are likely to be particularly nationally relevant.  Just kind of registers as a bunch of teams having fun playing each other, none of which I'll have to think much about come playoff time. 

For what it's worth, I personally believe there is a lot more to D3 football than just the playoffs and winning national titles and I absolutely think leagues with teams that can beat each other up and down the scale are fun leagues to follow when you're invested in them already...just explaining why people outside those leagues aren't necessarily going to be all that invested from afar.

[sigma one]

Tartan:  I agree that from a neutral standpoint the NCAC is more interesting than when the W's were dominant.  I've thought a
a lot about the conference lately and why the winners are not as successful in the playoffs as previously.  With only a couple of exceptions over the last 15-20 years, the NCAC has not been relevant in any conversation about the D3FB TOP 25 at season's end. This year, so far even DPU, undefeated, has not appeared in the Top 25.  They were just outside the rankings this week;  if they beat Wit on Saturday, they could jump up a few notches (depending on other results).
     Here's a breakdown of playoff results for the NCAC since 2014:

                DENISON:  They've really jumped up in the conference rankings over the last decade but have only one title. Since
                2012, they have not had a losing season.
               
                DEPAUW:  In 2018,  they were 4-6, their only losing season from 2014 until now.  Five years in the last decade they
                have won at least 8 games. 

               WABASH:  From 2014-2018, the LGs won at least 8 games every year.  Since 2019, they have won 7 games each
               year. 

              WITTENBERG:  They finished 5-5 last year.  Previous to that, the OLD TIGERS had no more than 2 losses in a season
               from 2009-2018.
PLAYOFF RESULTS over the last decade:
               2014  Both WABASH and WITTENBERG went to the post season.  W&J beat WiT in the first round, 41-35.   
                                WAB got through the first round, beating Franklin, 33-14, then losing to Whitewater, 38-14.
               2015  WABASH  defeated Albion in Round 1, 35-14, and Thomas More in Round 2, 33-27 (OT).  They lost to
                                 St Thomas, 38-7.  They were the last NCAC team to advance to the 3rd round.
               2016  WiTTENBERG defeated Thomas More, 33-30--then lost to Whitewater, 37-9.
               2017  WITTENBERG lost to Frostburg St in the first round, 35-7.
               2018  DENISON lost to Mt Union 60-0 in Round 1.       
               2019  WABASH lost to North Central, 51-15 (and finished 7-4).
               2020  XXXXXXXXXXXX
               2021  DEPAUW defeated Rose-Hulman, 26-21, and then lost to Whitewater, 45-0
               2022  DEPAUW lost in the first round to Carnegie Mellon, 45-14.
Only three X in the last decade has an NCAC team made it through the first round:  2014, 2015, 2021

     Closing thoughts:  Other teams have caught up to, or passed, the WAB/WIt combo that had dominated the league for many years.  Good for the league?  More and better competition always makes the title run more interesting and unpredictable.
My own conclusions about WABASH:  The administration has changed since the glory days when the powers that be understood the value of being really good.  It appears there is no internal  pressure to be better than they are.  As long as there are  winning seasons under the current arrangement, I don't see any changes on the horizon.  For  an old-timer
like me, the downward slide is disappointing (to put it mildly).  To those younger and who were not there to see the old days, and who know about them from what they have been told, not so much (with a few exceptions like those who post here).   

[Crawford]

Closing thoughts:  Other teams have caught up to, or passed the WAB/WIt combo that had dominated the league for many years.  Good for the league?  More and better competition always makes the title run more interesting and unpredictable.

As a Wabash fan the ER years were fun because of how good and aggressive our Defense was.  I think ER had a philosophy of speed, speed, speed and Hammer was a great D coach. It seems to me the top 4 -6 teams in the NCAC are more competitive which is great, but I also feel Witt and Wabash have taken backwards steps.  Depauw and Dennison are much better.  For years a lot of NCAC fans wished the conference was more competitive.  As a Wabash fan I miss the D of the ER era.

[Dr. Acula]

As a Mount fan who has been paying attn to the NCAC neighborly since the mid 90's I can say for me the most dangerous the NCAC was as a foe was the great defense Wabash teams under ER.  Prior to that those great defense Witt squads led by dudes like Goldsberry never really worried me bc I knew 1-22 they weren't that good.  Those Wabash teams were loaded defensively.  It's sad what that defense has become.  I feel the pain of a lot of Wabash posters.

[smedindy]

We should give some credit to Neal Nethery for instilling the Hard Hat D mentality when he was an assistant coach under Creighton. He named EMU's defense the same, and I notice their D is lacking since he retired.

https://emueagles.com/news/2022/12/19/football-emus-neathery-announces-retirement-from-coaching

[smedindy]

In my eyes, the D-Line and LBs aren't getting to the QB to cause pressures. In the damn 'good ol' days' (I really hate that) we used to get to the QB often. Against Wooster and Denison, we really didn't that often.

[Crawford]

We should give some credit to Neal Nethery for instilling the Hard Hat D mentality when he was an assistant coach under Creighton. He named EMU's defense the same, and I notice their D is lacking since he retired.

https://emueagles.com/news/2022/12/19/football-emus-neathery-announces-retirement-from-coaching

Thanks Smedindy for posting the link.  I'd not followed Wabash that closely in the early 2000's so missed the Neathery years.  Like this line in the EMU article: "With Neathery serving as defensive coordinator and linebackers coach, Wabash ranked fourth in NCAA Division III in total defense in 2003, No. 3 in scoring defense in 2005 and No. 8 in quarterback sacks in 2007."

In the recent Dennison game, it seemed Dennison got pressure or sacks on Liam at critical times and that was because of blitzes.

[Whitecarrera]

We should give some credit to Neal Nethery for instilling the Hard Hat D mentality when he was an assistant coach under Creighton. He named EMU's defense the same, and I notice their D is lacking since he retired.

https://emueagles.com/news/2022/12/19/football-emus-neathery-announces-retirement-from-coaching

Yeah, because the defense's were terrible before Neathery, and BJ learned everything he knew from him.

[TigerKing]

...quite frankly, the NCAC needs all of the help it can get from an attention standpoint- this isn't a particularly interesting league right now for anybody who isn't acutely attached to one of the teams.

When was the NCAC a particularly interesting league for those not acutely attached to one of the teams?  23 years ago when Earlham went 6-4?  This league has had an overwhelming top and a bad bottom for as long as I can remember.  It seems much more interesting to me over the last few years when there have been 4 teams competing for 1st place.

"Interesting" of course is in the eye of the beholder.  It's fair to say that a league is more interesting (in a vacuum, ignoring the national picture) when there are more teams contending for that league title / when the gap between team #1A/1B in that league and the rest of the league is relatively smaller.  Heck, just this morning, I wrote a post on the PAC board where I said the bottom of the league is at least fun (if not particularly good) because there's real "anybody can win in any pairing between any of these two teams" feel to it. 

I get that, and would be the first to admit that the rest of the league would never have caught Wabash/Wittenberg where they were ten years ago.  That being said, I'm not sure anybody in the NCAC has ever had the potential to make a real run at the national championship, including when Bash won 2 playoff games.  I was at the DPU/CMU playoff game a year ago, and saw the gap between a good team and a contender.  Even so - I think conference championships are a big deal in NCAA DIII, and the NCAC has become much more interesting to me than when I first started following the league in 2013.

[ExTartanPlayer]

FWIW, I do agree with that.  One of the things that I really like about the AQ system for playoffs is that it puts the focus on winning conference titles: anyone gets a ticket to the dance by winning their league.  And I totally agree that within a league's footprint, a league is more interesting when a few horses have a real shot to win the race vs. just one or two.  We're in agreement overall.  Just saying why I think from a national standpoint, even a league with only one or two real contenders might get a little more attention and be considered "interesting" - again, to grab 2 random conferences to contrast, I have at least passing awareness of what's going on in the American Rivers Conference because Wartburg has made some playoff runs and I know if anyone beats them they might also be worth following, whereas I really don't know anything about the UMAC other than it's a bunch of teams that all seem pretty competitive wih one another but will lose by 60 to a MIAC team in the playoffs.  Doesn't make the UMAC any less fun for teams within the league, just the reason why a casual D3 fan from afar probably doesn't bother all that much.

[Crawford]

I was wondering how the NCAC being more competitive and possibly causing our champ to have a loss or two, how that effected our first round playoff game.  I remembered Wabash's teams between 2008 - 2015 to have games that were competitive.  But to my surprise the NCAC has only been paired with a powerhouse in the first round a few times - Dennison in 2018 vs Mt Union and Wabash in 2019 against North Central.  Depauw has had realistic games the last two season.  I suspect the NCAA tries to schedule games that cause less travel, is that true?  Also teams with losses probably more likely to play on the road?

[ExTartanPlayer]

I suspect the NCAA tries to schedule games that cause less travel, is that true?  Also teams with losses probably more likely to play on the road?

Ironically, I just wrote a post about this on the PAC board today for a Grove City fan who asked about their chances of hosting a first round game.

Teams with losses are more likely to play on the road, yes, although the bracket isn't purely set by seeding the teams 1-to-32 so occasionally you can get a surprise host that may not be one of the top 16 teams.  As you noted, travel considerations are very much relevant, but not just to pair teams who are in each others' backyards.  The main worry, I think, is minimizing the number of games that may require a flight.  So as long as there are a bunch of teams "within 500 miles" they can try to set first round pairings that at least mostly put teams that are perceived as higher seeds against teams that are perceived as lower seeds (e.g. teams with two or three losses and no big feathers in their cap are more likely to get sent to a Mount Union or North Central).  This does occasionally create some weird but fun first round matchups.

[Jay Murry]

Hello All,

While I will be following from afar WashU's efforts against North Central, it won't be idle following.

I will be in the midst of my Rett Gets Rocked 2023 24-hour ultramarathon at WashU to raise awareness of Rett syndrome and research funds to find a cure.  I'm starting around 8:00 Friday night (after I provide the call for the WashU-Saint Louis U. swimming and diving meet), and ending at 8:00 Saturday night. 

Rett syndrome is a neurological disorder caused by a gene mutation on the X chromosome.  It lays in the weeds until a child is between 6-18 months old, just when a child is learning to walk and talk.  Rett is like Lucy in the Peanuts comic strip when she pulls the ball away from Charlie Brown, as he tries to kick it.  Unlike Charlie Brown...when Rett pulls the ball away from children, they don't get a chance to get up and try again.  Children go into severe neurological regression; many end up in wheelchairs and most lose the ability to talk and to do sign language.  Those with Rett also are prone to seizures, extreme nerve pain, GI issues, breathing abnormalities, and eating difficulties that can all be life-threatening.

Researchers are relentless, providing hope on two fronts.  Back in March of this year, Daybue became the first FDA-approved drug to target the effects of Rett syndrome.  Daybue helps blunt some of the seizures and has helped improve some vocal and gross motor skills.  Gene replacement therapy clinical trials in two North American locations have helped one patient sit up independently for the first time in a decade, and to grasp objects for the first time since infancy.

It is this momentum of hope and progress that I am trying to assist and perpetuate.

If you would like to make a donation, click on this Rett Racers link:  https://rettracers.funraise.org/fundraiser/jaymurry

The families of children who have Rett and fight a tough fight every day, will be very grateful for your help.

Thank you for your time and consideration, and enjoy the games this weekend!

[sigma one]

Week 8 in the NCAC----------
WOOSTER (2-4) at DENISON (4-3)  They play for the Old Red Lantern.  Given the FIGHTING SCOTS inability to stop any of
the top teams in the conference, this should be a walk over for the BIG RED.  Fabrocini will have his usual big rushing day,
and the DENISON D will shut down the WOO O.  DEN takes home the trophy.
DEPAUW (7-0) at WITTENBERG (5-1)  The game of the week in the NCAC.  DPU has to be a considerable favorite; their D has
been spectacular.  They will  also remember that WIT went to Greencastle last year when the NEW TIGERS were controlling the league and beat them down.   The NEW TiGERS will  win, but expect a good fight from WIT at home.
OBERLIN (1-5) at HIRAM (0-7)  The TERRIERS have a strong chance at a first win.  Their D has played well the last two weeks, and they missed a two-point conversation late in the game last Saturday v. OWU to lose 19-18.  I want to say it's a toss up, but OBE's recent play leads me to think  that HIRAM will get win #1.
WABASH (4-2) at KENYON (1-5)  The LGs were stung by DENISON last week after leading 24-14.  The strong point for the
OWLS has been their running game.  To keep it reasonably close they will have to control the ball.  Liam Thompson approaches more all-time NCAC records.  If the game goes the way it probably will, Morel will have to think about how long LT stays in.  Morel doesn't like to run up the score, and he doesn't much care about stats.  Kenyon will score points, but it will be hard for them to stay close.
OWU rests after a close call last week.