FB: Centennial Conference

[njf1003]

Looks like the Centennial Conference will be calling off the season-maybe playing a conference only schedule in the Spring, maybe...oh well.

Considering the national powerhouses the Centennial has for lacrosse programs (both DIII and DI) ... a spring football schedule even five or so games against conference opponents is going to be rather challenging.

They can do it. They handle successful soccer and field hockey programs with football normally. Lax may need to move a match to Sunday or something. It'll be extra work to pull off for sure, but not something they can't handle.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Looks like the Centennial Conference will be calling off the season-maybe playing a conference only schedule in the Spring, maybe...oh well.

Considering the national powerhouses the Centennial has for lacrosse programs (both DIII and DI) ... a spring football schedule even five or so games against conference opponents is going to be rather challenging.

They can do it. They handle successful soccer and field hockey programs with football normally. Lax may need to move a match to Sunday or something. It'll be extra work to pull off for sure, but not something they can't handle.

You are only considering games. On that token, football moves to Friday night before they start stealing from lacrosse games on Saturdays. Also, there are teams in this region that won't play on Sundays.

But games are the tip of the iceberg. There are practices to try and manage on limited fields. Johns Hopkins basically has one field. Do tell me how they are to manage two soccers, field hockey, two lacrosses, and football practices during a week (remember, there are also mid-week games for all but football) on one field? And being it is turf and any other field is grass, unless they are playing on another grass field that week it isn't practical. Not a lot of schools have the field access to be able to have all teams have practices when they need NOR is it fair to have teams practicing on fields that won't prepare them for their upcoming games.

Also, there is locker room space. At Hopkins, lacrosse has their own facilities, but the rest have to share facilities. I am pretty sure there isn't going to be enough locker room space especially considering you might be coming off winter sports that are using locker rooms until March as well.

Then there are training staffs. There aren't enough trainers to handle all of those practices and all of those games at the same time - especially when lacrosse and football need multiple trainers per game/practice usually. And god forbid COVID is still rampant and social distancing is still needed because then that means either limited people in the training room and half of the training tables able to be used, or it means taking over locker rooms (as one school as described to me their plan) which hampers the ability to use locker rooms for teams.

Then you get to game-day operations. How many games in one day is too many? I worked at Stevenson where in the fall having a football game followed by a soccer game followed by another soccer or a field hockey game happened a few Saturdays in the fall and was just about the worst day imaginable. Game day staffs tend to be heavily student involved. Do you have enough students to do this? Do you have enough staff? Of course staff tends to double-dip with their other jobs. Those who work lacrosse games are coaches in the fall and vis versa. How do you do things when staff are busy with their own teams? Can you realistically have game day staff available for all those events all week long? And moving games to other days to lessen the burden of one day now hampers the ability for teams to practice because the field is spoken for.

And of course there are sports information departments. They are already overworked in a "normal" year. Now you expect them to be able to do solid work when covering nearly every sport a department has ... at the same time? That means live stream coverage, live stats, writing stories, updating season stats, keeping things up to date, dealing with media, prepping for games, the list is exhausting.

I never even mentioned the athletes who might participate in one sport in the fall and another in the spring. That option is now gone.

While it may seem easy to move around dates of games, the logistics of having fall sports in the spring is pretty daunting. Schools are losing money so far in this at incredible rates. Throwing money at the 'problem' just isn't going to fly or could it be an option. This isn't easy especially at DIII institutions and thus why I say often ... I don't see this happening.

[jmcozenlaw]

What a scheduling mess many schools are dealing with. By the hour..........and with number 3 pencil (the youngsters are wondering what that means)

Wasn't it a number two pencil?!

[erwinsto]

Nothing new in this announcement regarding football unless I'm missing something. Revisit spring options in January.

https://twitter.com/CentennialConf/status/1337109962565234690?s=19

[UfanBill]

Is anybody out there With the new NCAA region alignments the CC is now in Region 2 with the E8, LL and NJAC. With that comes a responsibility to step up the comments on this board, right? I see the CC board has not had a comment since last December. Pat and his crew give us a forum for our opinions. Does anyone have anything to say about their favorite CC team?  What do you think of being in Region 2? Does it matter?  Let's hear something from the CC.

[Former CAC Coach]

Agree that the CC board has been weak....Not sure why there is no chatter or digs at other schools, when it has 3 of the top 38 teams in the national poll....

[erwinsto]

That Muhlenburg loss today was pretty surprising. Sounds like Ursinus played a great game after being beat pretty soundly the previous week.

[MRMIKESMITH]

That Muhlenburg loss today was pretty surprising. Sounds like Ursinus played a great game after being beat pretty soundly the previous week.

I watch that Ursinus vs. Johns Hopkins game and I think aside from that horrible 2nd quarter, where Ursinus had a couple turnover on downs and turnovers that saw a 21-14 game with 5 minutes left in 2nd  go to 42-14. I think both teams were fairly even early on. I think a questionable 4 down attempt in the 1st quarter led to a momentum shift that carried over into 2nd quarter for Johns Hopkins that they never relinquish. Don't get me wrong, Johns Hopkins defense stepped up on the critical 4th down attempts and the offense made some explosive plays, so kudos to them. They are looking like the #1 team in Region 2 IMHO. I think you could possibly see a 4-way tie in the CC this year, between Susquehanna, Johns Hopkins, Ursinus, and Muhlenberg. I think people are forgetting about Susquehanna after their closs win against a pesky Franklin & Marshall team. Ursinus and Johns Hopkins plays F&M in consecutive weeks, respectively. We shall see over the next two weeks if Ursinus is really good as they face both F&M and Susquehanna, respectively. I think all these teams are very good. Although, I think both Johns Hopkins and Muhlenberg should be much higher in the Top 25, I think it will settle itself out by year's end. Although, I think this conference is strong enough to be a two bid league, I think Susquehanna and Johns Hopkins have the best case this year as their OOC games were against 2-1 Lycoming and albeit a winless Stevenson team, respectively, but are surely enough to make it on Region 1 regional rankings if each win out. Stevenson finishing 7-3 and/or Lycoming winning the league or finishing 8-2.

[erwinsto]

Definitely agree regarding that questionable choice to go for it on fourth down so early. That really shifted the game. Their offense was playing pretty well up to that point but it was all down hill from there. I thought their offense was good/balanced. Interested to see Susquehanna and Muhlenburg in person.

[erwinsto]

Has it gone as you expected, surprised by the results? Thoughts on how it will play out including playoff spots? Any way that the conference gets two spots this year?

[MRMIKESMITH]

Has it gone as you expected, surprised by the results? Thoughts on how it will play out including playoff spots? Any way that the conference gets two spots this year?

Responding to your question with my breakout of both R1/R2, that is posted weekly in R1 section. The only surprise result(s) for me is Muhlenberg's loss to Ursinus and although the record may not show, Dickinson three losses are to teams that are a combined 14-2, losing by an average margin of 16. They have some key matchups late and if John's Hopkins survives it's matchups against Muhlenberg and Susquehanna over the next two/three weeks, it can't overlook this Dickinson team. Now, to answer your last question, it depends on multiple factors because currently Susquehanna has a current SOS ranked 74 and will get better as they play both JH and Muhleberg later in the season. Additionally, Susquehanna will want Lycoming  to finish the season with 7/8 wins. As for John's Hopkins, Stevenson is currently 0-5 and could easily finish 5-5, but could only finish with 2/3 wins and currently have a SOS rank of 196. Muhlenberg current SOS rank is 142, which will improve as the season progresses, but will need TCNJ, which is 3-2 and tied atop the NJAC to finish with 7/8 wins, which is not unrealistic as the NJAC has been flipped upside down this year sans Salisbury. I think Susquehanna has the best case with how the MAC has been performing and Lycoming probably being ranked in R1. Another case would be for the committee to be very subjective when selecting at-large teams, which they have the ability to.

My updated Regional Rankings
R1:
1. Delaware Valley (5-0) (1-0) - Key Win - Lycoming (3-2)
2. Merchant Marine (5-0) (1-0) - Key Win - FDU-Florham (4-1)
3. Wilkes (5-0) (0-0)
4. FDU-Florham (4-1) (0-1) - Key Win - Widener (5-1)
5. Widener (5-1) (0-1) - Key Loss - FDU-Florham (4-1)
6. Catholic (3-2) (1-1) - Key Win - Endicott (5-1)
7. Endicott (5-1) (0-1) Key Win - St. Lawrence
8. Lycoming (4-2) (0-2) Key Losses - Delaware Valley (5-0), Susquehanna (5-0
9. Salve Regina (5-1) (0-0) Key Win - UNE (3-2)
10. Bridgewater State (4-2) (0-0) - Key Loss - Ithaca (5-0)

R2.
1. Ithaca (5-0) (2-0) Key Win(s) - Hobart (4-1), Brockport (3-2), Bridgewater State (4-2)
2. Union (5-0) (1-0)  - Key Win(s) - Utica (4-1), St. Lawrence (3-2)
3. Susquehanna (5-0) (1-0) Key Win(s) - Lycoming (4-2), Ursinus  (3-2)
4. Cortland (5-0) (0-0) - Key Win(s) - Brockport (3-2), TCNJ (3-2)
5. Johns Hopkins  (5-0) (0-0) - Key Win(s) - Ursinus (3-2)
6. RPI (6-0) (0-0)
7. Salisbury (3-1) (0-1) Key Loss - UW-W (5-0)
8. Hobart (4-1) (0-1) Key Loss - Ithaca (5-0)
9. Utica (4-1) (0-1) Key Loss - Union (5-0)
10. Muhlenberg (4-1) (0-0) - Key Win(s) - TCNJ (3-2)

Key Wins - Teams above .500

Here is my updated bracket - officepoolstop.com/Brackets/35411

[erwinsto]

Has it gone as you expected, surprised by the results? Thoughts on how it will play out including playoff spots? Any way that the conference gets two spots this year?

Responding to your question with my breakout of both R1/R2, that is posted weekly in R1 section. The only surprise result(s) for me is Muhlenberg's loss to Ursinus and although the record may not show, Dickinson three losses are to teams that are a combined 14-2, losing by an average margin of 16. They have some key matchups late and if John's Hopkins survives it's matchups against Muhlenberg and Susquehanna over the next two/three weeks, it can't overlook this Dickinson team. Now, to answer your last question, it depends on multiple factors because currently Susquehanna has a current SOS ranked 74 and will get better as they play both JH and Muhleberg later in the season. Additionally, Susquehanna will want Lycoming  to finish the season with 7/8 wins. As for John's Hopkins, Stevenson is currently 0-5 and could easily finish 5-5, but could only finish with 2/3 wins and currently have a SOS rank of 196. Muhlenberg current SOS rank is 142, which will improve as the season progresses, but will need TCNJ, which is 3-2 and tied atop the NJAC to finish with 7/8 wins, which is not unrealistic as the NJAC has been flipped upside down this year sans Salisbury. I think Susquehanna has the best case with how the MAC has been performing and Lycoming probably being ranked in R1. Another case would be for the committee to be very subjective when selecting at-large teams, which they have the ability to.

My updated Regional Rankings
R1:
1. Delaware Valley (5-0) (1-0) - Key Win - Lycoming (3-2)
2. Merchant Marine (5-0) (1-0) - Key Win - FDU-Florham (4-1)
3. Wilkes (5-0) (0-0)
4. FDU-Florham (4-1) (0-1) - Key Win - Widener (5-1)
5. Widener (5-1) (0-1) - Key Loss - FDU-Florham (4-1)
6. Catholic (3-2) (1-1) - Key Win - Endicott (5-1)
7. Endicott (5-1) (0-1) Key Win - St. Lawrence
8. Lycoming (4-2) (0-2) Key Losses - Delaware Valley (5-0), Susquehanna (5-0
9. Salve Regina (5-1) (0-0) Key Win - UNE (3-2)
10. Bridgewater State (4-2) (0-0) - Key Loss - Ithaca (5-0)

R2.
1. Ithaca (5-0) (2-0) Key Win(s) - Hobart (4-1), Brockport (3-2), Bridgewater State (4-2)
2. Union (5-0) (1-0)  - Key Win(s) - Utica (4-1), St. Lawrence (3-2)
3. Susquehanna (5-0) (1-0) Key Win(s) - Lycoming (4-2), Ursinus  (3-2)
4. Cortland (5-0) (0-0) - Key Win(s) - Brockport (3-2), TCNJ (3-2)
5. Johns Hopkins  (5-0) (0-0) - Key Win(s) - Ursinus (3-2)
6. RPI (6-0) (0-0)
7. Salisbury (3-1) (0-1) Key Loss - UW-W (5-0)
8. Hobart (4-1) (0-1) Key Loss - Ithaca (5-0)
9. Utica (4-1) (0-1) Key Loss - Union (5-0)
10. Muhlenberg (4-1) (0-0) - Key Win(s) - TCNJ (3-2)

Key Wins - Teams above .500

Here is my updated bracket - officepoolstop.com/Brackets/35411

Great analysis. Thanks for sharing, really appreciate the insight. Looking forward to watching how this plays out. I thought Stevenson would have a better record but it seems they have had a tough schedule early on. To your point, maybe their wins come on the back half of the schedule. Your last comment was interesting; The ability to be subjective with at large selections. Anything to elaborate on there, or just referencing a general view of the subjective nature of the process?

[wally_wabash]

Another case would be for the committee to be very subjective when selecting at-large teams, which they have the ability to.

The selection criteria are really pretty objective. There is some wiggle room there, but they can't really color outside the lines too much. 

[MRMIKESMITH]

Good showing out of the CC today. Muhlenberg Defense looks to be back to what it was last year. Hopkins played admirably and at least it wasn't a "Cake Walk" that the pundits kept/keep mentioning. I think the game was loss for Hopkins the last 5 to 10 minutes of the 2nd quarter and missed opportunities early on to keep the lead. Again, great program in Hopkins. Looking forward to seeing what the Mules can do next week.

[Bartman]

Strong effort by Hopkins against Mt. Union today.There were many excellent D3 athletes on your side and you are well coached. Let's see how Muhlenberg does against the Raiders. CC has some talent, for sure.