FB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[formerd3db]

Well said, Wally, on both counts i.e. McDaniels and DePauw.

Also, aueagle: Hopefully, things will pick up for your OWU next year.  As you said, "no new news" regarding any (coaching) changes at OWU.  Keep us posted.

[DPU3619]

9/3 - open
9/10 - RHIT
9/17 - @ Allegheny
9/24 - @ Rhodes
10/1 - Centre
10/8 - @ Birmingham-Southern
10/15 - @ Sewanee
10/22 - @ OWU
10/29 - @ Austin
11/5 - open
11/12 - Wabash

If I may take some time for a little self-reflection here, this schedule is awful.  You win at Gheny and you're getting the Pool B.  That's not as easy said as done, but that's the one hurdle.  There's a LOT of roadies there, but there's two good teams on it.  Yes, OWU isn't exactly a pushover, but they're no better than the teams DePauw beat this year.

The problem is that the vast majority of that schedule is not regional.  DePauw has 5 region games on that schedule.  To me, you call Olivet right now and get them to give you another winnable region game, like they did with Adrian this past season.  It's an easy schedule.  The playoff bid is there for the taking, regardless of what happens on Monon.

I guess it's a sacrifice you make.  I'm willing to punt a season in order to get in the North Coast.  I guess the administration was, too.

[wally_wabash]

9/3 - open
9/10 - RHIT
9/17 - @ Allegheny
9/24 - @ Rhodes
10/1 - Centre
10/8 - @ Birmingham-Southern
10/15 - @ Sewanee
10/22 - @ OWU
10/29 - @ Austin
11/5 - open
11/12 - Wabash

If I may take some time for a little self-reflection here, this schedule is awful.  You win at Gheny and you're getting the Pool B.  That's not as easy said as done, but that's the one hurdle.  There's a LOT of roadies there, but there's two good teams on it.  Yes, OWU isn't exactly a pushover, but they're no better than the teams DePauw beat this year.

The problem is that the vast majority of that schedule is not regional.  DePauw has 5 region games on that schedule.  To me, you call Olivet right now and get them to give you another winnable region game, like they did with Adrian this past season.  It's an easy schedule.  The playoff bid is there for the taking, regardless of what happens on Monon.

I guess it's a sacrifice you make.  I'm willing to punt a season in order to get in the North Coast.  I guess the administration was, too.

Do you really think DPU could lose a game and get the Pool B spot?  Remember, there's only one of those available next year and Wesley still swims in that pond.  One thing I did neglect to mention is that any leftover Pool B's are technically available for Pool C as well...and now that we're down to just one Pool B bid, I think the likelihood that one of the Pool B eligible teams would get considered for Pool C increases by quite a bit.  So maybe 8/9-1 gets DPU on the board.  It'll be interesting to see. 

Honestly, DPU could win 7-8 games next year or lose 7-8 games next year.  Neither would really surprise me.  I just have no idea how the youth movement coupled with the between conferences limbo will affect them. 

[wabashcpa]

9/3 - open
9/10 - RHIT
9/17 - @ Allegheny
9/24 - @ Rhodes
10/1 - Centre
10/8 - @ Birmingham-Southern
10/15 - @ Sewanee
10/22 - @ OWU
10/29 - @ Austin
11/5 - open
11/12 - Wabash

If I may take some time for a little self-reflection here, this schedule is awful.  You win at Gheny and you're getting the Pool B.  That's not as easy said as done, but that's the one hurdle.  There's a LOT of roadies there, but there's two good teams on it.  Yes, OWU isn't exactly a pushover, but they're no better than the teams DePauw beat this year.

The problem is that the vast majority of that schedule is not regional.  DePauw has 5 region games on that schedule.  To me, you call Olivet right now and get them to give you another winnable region game, like they did with Adrian this past season.  It's an easy schedule.  The playoff bid is there for the taking, regardless of what happens on Monon.

I guess it's a sacrifice you make.  I'm willing to punt a season in order to get in the North Coast.  I guess the administration was, too.

The travel on this schedule is absolutely brutal.  The three nearest opponents are all home games.

[bashbrother]

Do you believe the fact that available pool B spots are being reduced puts any pressure on conferences like the UAA to possibly merge with an AQ conference? 

[DPU3619]

Ah crap Wally, you're right. I've done really bad job of paying attention the last couple of weeks. No, one loss won't. 9-0 would be it, which then you're in a numbers game with Wesley. Hard to believe the numbers will be in DePauw's favor with that list of opponents, but you never know.

Don't call Olivet then. Need a region win that can help your OWP, not hurt it.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Ah crap Wally, you're right. I've done really bad job of paying attention the last couple of weeks. No, one loss won't. 9-0 would be it, which then you're in a numbers game with Wesley. Hard to believe the numbers will be in DePauw's favor with that list of opponents, but you never know.

Don't call Olivet then. Need a region win that can help your OWP, not hurt it.

I can pretty well guarantee (well, it IS the NCAA; I'm reasonably certain ) that 9-0 would get you a pool C.  MOST years, even 8-1 would get a pool C (though this past year several one-loss teams were left out).

Have we even heard for sure which region DePauw will be in this season?  I assume the north (but, again, we're talking about the NCAA!); might be a nice thing to know in designing a schedule!

[wally_wabash]

Ah crap Wally, you're right. I've done really bad job of paying attention the last couple of weeks. No, one loss won't. 9-0 would be it, which then you're in a numbers game with Wesley. Hard to believe the numbers will be in DePauw's favor with that list of opponents, but you never know.

Don't call Olivet then. Need a region win that can help your OWP, not hurt it.

I can pretty well guarantee (well, it IS the NCAA; I'm reasonably certain ) that 9-0 would get you a pool C.  MOST years, even 8-1 would get a pool C (though this past year several one-loss teams were left out).

Have we even heard for sure which region DePauw will be in this season?  I assume the north (but, again, we're talking about the NCAA!); might be a nice thing to know in designing a schedule!

Given the situation, I don't really think regionality is the top priority.  Getting 9-10 games for those student-athletes has to be the priority.  DPU's home game situation is what it is because Trinity and Millsaps have decided that they won't make the originally scheduled trip to Greencastle (which I think tells you all you need to know about how silly the whole DPU in the SCAC thing was to begin with...if the travel is so burdensome for those two schools that they'd rather try and find a mid-season non-league game on very short notice than make that trip, then I think you start to understand what an ill fit the whole thing was from the jump) which has left DePauw in the uneviable position of not only having to find games for next year on short notice, but they have to convince whatever partner that they find for next year to travel for said short-notice game.  Not an easy situation. 

[wally_wabash]

Do you believe the fact that available pool B spots are being reduced puts any pressure on conferences like the UAA to possibly merge with an AQ conference? 

Teams have been scramblilng to get into Pool A leagues since the A-B-C situation came about in 1999.  The NWC, USAC, and SCAC are all leagues that have made moves to either get Pool A eligible or stay eligible.  There is some movement in Northeast leagues as well with Pool A in mind.  If Pool A was a desirable situation for the UAA guys, they probably should have addressed it before now because the music is about to stop and we're pretty much out of chairs. 

I know it's been bandied about that the NCAC should absorb the UAAs for football and have a 14-team super(smart) league.  I hate this idea for about 1047 reasons, not the least of which will be the inevitable temptation to split us all up into different divisions and stage some kind of conference championship game in week 11.  Ugh. 

[ExTartanPlayer]

Teams have been scramblilng to get into Pool A leagues since the A-B-C situation came about in 1999.  The NWC, USAC, and SCAC are all leagues that have made moves to either get Pool A eligible or stay eligible.  There is some movement in Northeast leagues as well with Pool A in mind.  If Pool A was a desirable situation for the UAA guys, they probably should have addressed it before now because the music is about to stop and we're pretty much out of chairs. 

I know it's been bandied about that the NCAC should absorb the UAAs for football and have a 14-team super(smart) league.  I hate this idea for about 1047 reasons...

Good comments as always, wally, and you're right about the scrambling in the Northeast - check out the musical chairs being played with Empire 8, Liberty League and Northern Athletics Conference schools...

You're absolutely right about the UAA "merging" with the NCAC being a bad idea...I prefer for teams to play a full round-robin (or as close as possible) within their conference, and 14-team conferences are just clunky in general for football.

My hunch re: the UAA teams' lack of action is that the playoffs weren't even a consideration until 2006, so up to that point there was no urgency.  Even now, my spies tell me that the UAA schools would rather remain in the ever-shrinking Pool B field rather than join a conference solely for playoff access.  The UAA is a fine conference in most sports (football and wrestling being the only real exceptions I'm aware of), and I don't think it's a priority to the school presidents or the respective Trustees at each school to make a move into a conference solely for playoff access.

*Note; Rochester DID feel this way, that's why they left the UAA in football (moved to the Liberty League) back in the early 00's, but stayed in all other sports.  I was interested in both Rochy and CMU, and that was a big selling point of the Rochy coaching staff to the recruits - they were moving to a conference that provided AQ access to the playoffs.

[wally_wabash]

At this point, I'm not sure I'd be scrambling to get into a Pool A league either.  I think next year we are down to something like 12-13 Pool B teams.  That's it...and DPU is just passing through, so it will be one less in 2012.  What league could the UAA teams join where their mathematical access to a playoff spot is going to be much better than 1 in 12?  And as mentioned, I think, with appropriate scheduling (read: stop beefing up on the bottom half of the NCAC coughCWRUcough), pool B teams that happen to be living in this era of Wesley awesomeness probably will be hitting the table with other Pool C's...so while there is no automatic bid, there is still more than fair access for teams that have tremendous seasons.  

[smedindy]

A 10-0 or 9-1 UAA team will have good enough peripherals to be a "C" contender even if Wesley gets the "B" for a while.

[ExTartanPlayer]

Agree, smedindy.  An undefeated UAA team will be in the Pool C conversation even if Wesley grabs the only B bid...and I think they'd get in.  But I think they'd have to be undefeated.

With all due respect to my alumni conference, a 9-1 UAA team would not deserve a playoff bid over 9-1 teams in the Pool C field such as the OAC runnerup, MIAC runnerup, et cet.  THIS year, I thought Chicago had a chance at 8-2 because they were competing against Pool B's, but if they were in the Pool C field they wouldn't have been in the top 15 candidates.

wally, I've tried to get you to believe this for a while, CWRU isn't "intentionally" beefing up on the bottom half of the NCAC.  That schedule was set up before Case was any good.  From 2001-2005, Case had been struggling to beat the Oberlins and Denisons of the world.

[wally_wabash]

wally, I've tried to get you to believe this for a while, CWRU isn't "intentionally" beefing up on the bottom half of the NCAC.  That schedule was set up before Case was any good.  From 2001-2005, Case had been struggling to beat the Oberlins and Denisons of the world.

For the first two years, maybe, but I believe there was ample opportunity to get out of 1-2 of those games (before they were set in stone) and find some meatier competition for 2010-2011.  

Wittenberg is taking a road trip to Alabama (Alabama!) in 2011 in lieu of their previously scheduled game vs. Hiram.  You can get out of undesireable games if you really want to. 

[wabco]

OK ... early prognositcations:
Wabash has some great players coming back and experience on O with good D returning.  It is re-load not re-arm.  Watch as recruiting and returners matters develop.
Wabash has a great potential for running the table next year.
DePauw is in the ca ca patch.  They will fill their schedule but it is odd odd odd and travel travel travel.  There is basically no chance for playoffs.  They will have recruiting trouble against Wabash, Trine, Franklin in Indiana and the 47-0 drubbing of the "best team ever" will have lingering impact.  Loss of this year's seniors will have impact.  Cupbard is not bare but not loaded.  This will be more Robbie's team rather than fired predecessor.  Question is:  will this coming year and the results which I believe will occur ... cause further lingering negative impact on the Dannies in football?