FB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[ADL70]

An affiliation agreement with the SCAC would be beneficial for both conferences, as they both will need access to the automatic bid.

If you mean the non-Texas breakaways, that does seem like it would work.

[Joe Wally]

Looking forward to some reports regarding the 2011 Little Giants.

My White Sox are making me crazy.  Need some college football, NOW!

And some college soccer on the new Mud Hollow pitch as well .  Have you see the photos of the new facility, SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET.  And I fully admit that I was the guy that bitched and complained about directing funds to athletic facilities while the faculty was shrinking.  Still feel that way, but those new baseball fields and soccer  pitches sure are purty (sic)!

[wally_wabash]

An affiliation agreement with the SCAC would be beneficial for both conferences, as they both will need access to the automatic bid.

If you mean the non-Texas breakaways, that does seem like it would work.

I think we're talking about the teams that did not break away.  The teams that broke away from the SCAC already have enough teams to qualify automatically for the tournament and wouldn't need UAA participation to have that access.  Trinity and Austin do, so a consolidation amongst the remaining SCAC and the UAA is mutually beneficial (they still need one more team though).  

Edited above for derp-ness.  Those that broke off do NOT have enough schools to qualify for Pool A, so they need help.  Doesn't Huntingdon seem like a too-obvious fit for that group?  They'd still need one more.  You'd have to question how eager those schools would be to jump into an arrangement with the UAA...one thing specifically cited was the desire to keep things within about a 500-mile radius, which their new group does.  Jumping into bed with the UAA effectively squashes that. 

[WittFan]

I had missed the reference in the "Schedule" section that NCAC was going to full round-robin in 2012, ending the NCAC-UAA schedule.

Two obvious questions:

• Does this mean the strength-of-schedule for the upper half of the league just went from bad to worse?
• If so, does this pretty much guarantee the NCAC's days of hosting a first-round playoff game are over?

[wally_wabash]

I had missed the reference in the "Schedule" section that NCAC was going to full round-robin in 2012, ending the NCAC-UAA schedule.

Two obvious questions:

• Does this mean the strength-of-schedule for the upper half of the league just went from bad to worse?
• If so, does this pretty much guarantee the NCAC's days of hosting a first-round playoff game are over?

I don't think so.  As it was, respectable SOS's were available to the NCAC.  Wabash was ranked #15 by the NCAA's SOS formula last year.  Wittenberg's SOS was abysmal because the WUStl game didn't count for SOS purposes and Olivet went 0-10 out of a league that had just one team above .500 (which doesn't help the OOWP at all). 

What's going to happen is that both the OWP and OOWP figures will trend toward .500 for everybody in the league which will plant most of our teams somewhere around the middle or maybe just a touch above the middle of the pack.  10-0 NCAC champions will host a game more often than they won't. 

[wally_wabash]

How do you guys feel about the NCAC going to a full round robin?  It's a topic that has come up occasionally over the years...

My thoughts are that I think it's a good idea now which is a change from what I would have said two or three years ago.  Swapping Earlham with DePauw makes all the difference.  If we draw the top/bottom tier line in our league now I think you have the Ws, Depauw, and Allegheny in the top half while OWU/Kenyon/Oberlin/Denison/Hiram in the bottom half.  With a round robin, the top half teams are going to have four real tests and then five games that should be winnable.  Before DePauw, you were really only dealing with four teams, and even three in a couple of Wooster's lean years post-Sutton, which wouldn't have made for a compelling round robin and prevented teams from using the three-non conference games to get some better games (for instance those Wabash/Franklin classics never would have happened).  Four good league games plus one elective to go schedule a good opponent (hopefully) I think makes for a pretty good football schedule.  We'll see how it works out in practice, but I think now is a good time to try it out at least.  At the very least we can kiss those silly power ratings goodbye.   

[wally_wabash]

A smattering of NCAC players around the D3football.com preseason All American list...

1st team: WR Josh McKee (Witt), DT Dan Terhune (Wooster), ST Jonathon Koop (Wabash)
2nd team: T Wes Kitley (Wabash), RET Wes Chamblee (Wabash)....and why not, G Lewis Brown (DePauw)

Solid league representation and very solid Wabash representation.  Good signs for the league and Wabash I hope. 

[DPU3619]

You sorta mentioned in there - the thing I'd be concerned about with a full round-robin is that you have no control over the strength of your schedule.  Witt is probably good.  Wabash is probably good.  Witt Woo, Gheny, and DePauw are in the conversation more years than not.  However, if a couple of those teams are down, then you're hosed on OWP.  

This is coming from the guy whose team filled their open date with Anderson & RHIT the past few years, but I think it's still a legitimate gripe.  If I want to go schedule a good CCIW or PAC team, I can't.  I have to go to Hiram instead and hope I either go 10-0 or Gheny & Woo hold up their end of the deal.

[Duster72]

I think a lot of voters saw Weston destroy the DPU DLine on national TV last year.  LOL. 

[Pat Coleman]

In DePauw's defense, with all the travel on the SCAC schedule it's understandable that they chose more local non-conference opponents. Gotta take some "cheap" games when you're traveling like they did in the SCAC.

[cave2bens]

You sorta mentioned in there - the thing I'd be concerned about with a full round-robin is that you have no control over the strength of your schedule.  Witt is probably good.  Wabash is probably good.  Witt Woo, Gheny, and DePauw are in the conversation more years than not.  However, if a couple of those teams are down, then you're hosed on OWP. 

This is coming from the guy whose team filled their open date with Anderson & RHIT the past few years, but I think it's still a legitimate gripe.  If I want to go schedule a good CCIW or PAC team, I can't.  I have to go to Hiram instead and hope I either go 10-0 or Gheny & Woo hold up their end of the deal.

Agree with you 100%, Wes.

Kenyon for Homecoming in Crawfordsville?  Yeah, okay as a potential cakewalk since this isn't swimming or tennis, but the damage to strength of schedule and then have the game not count in league standings?    Scarlet-tinted lenses aside, what are benefits to the LGs in this circumstance besides game experience for the second and third units and "for the good of the NCAC?"    Shades of a few years back when a team (Kenyon, maybe - and I'm not intentionally "dissing" the Lords   ), when favorable schedule quirks allowed them to escape playing two (of three) "Ws" and nearly gain an automatic berth until a late season hiccough.  Perhaps someone might explain the NCAC's novelty of define a league tilt to this crotchety curmudgeon.   

The "round robin" format appears a double-edged sword.  If as a full schedule, it eliminates the NCAC selectivity criteria of the past and everyone plays each other for "all the marbles," it is a positive, particularly for the league.  Potential shortcomings dependent on overall, conference strength in a given year puts the NCAC into a position similar to the OAC - limited opportunity to accommodate new opposition.  Glad that DPU's move to NCAC preserves the Monon traditions/rivalries.     

       

[Anon E Moose]

Since my son is headed to play in the NCAC this fall I'll wade in on the scheduling issue. I'm not a huge fan of ten team leagues for football. AD's & college CFO's probably love them because they make scheduling and budgeting much easier and every other sport still has ample out-of-conference opportunities.  However football is reduced to just that one opportunity. We're all football fans here and we know that football is the most visible of collegiate sports, even at the D3 level.

Putting aside the SOS arguments, those out of conference games give colleges the chance to "advertise" their school's brand more widely, attract a more geographically diverse pool of athletes and measure your conference against others.  The Centennial Conference schools used to have very interesting out-of-conference games each year against the ODAC, PAC, NJAC, Liberty League, MAC and the NCAC that made things more interesting for both players and fans and provided a diverse pool of competition. They've crept up to 10 football members as well. I don't think its an improvement and I don't think that ultimately its good for the schools or D3 football in general. It's like a step back to the 9-game era of the 60's & 70's where insular schedules were the rule. (Check with the MAC schools regarding when they were an 11 team conference and there were no OOC games)   

The NCAC teams all had really interesting out-of-conference games. The arrangement with the UAA was a real positive for both groups. The long-time NCAC people may take it for granted but the chance to travel to Chicago, St. Louis, Pittsburgh and ( yes even ) Cleveland for games against nationally recognized schools was a pretty cool selling point.  While eliminating the bypassing of in-conference teams is a positive, overall I don't think it outweighs the positives derived from a diversified schedule.

[ADL70]

Welcome Moose.

Which team, if that info won't compromise your anonymity.

[ADL70]

Impressive feature on Denison's recruits.

http://www.hudl.com/presview/10016

[Anon E Moose]

Welcome Moose.

Which team, if that info won't compromise your anonymity.

Thanks for the welcome. I was more concerned with my son's anonymity than my own. He'll be going to Denison. A little farther from home than his mom and I would have liked (from our selfish point of view) but I think he'll have a great four years there.

I was really impressed with all of the NCAC schools he visited. Great academics, good coaches, nice facilities and a good healthy perspective on the role of athletics in higher education. I don't think he would have went wrong with any of the schools.  I really like this conference.  I'll just be logging some extra miles (like a few thousand) over the next four years.