FB: Middle Atlantic Conference

[kate]

Good Luck to Del Val Thursday night taking on Wesley College at 7 pm in Doylestown.   Hope the weather holds out, and i'm looking forward to a great game that i'll be watching on my tablet!   Go Aggies!!!

[dlippiel]

Good Luck to Del Val Thursday night taking on Wesley College at 7 pm in Doylestown.   Hope the weather holds out, and i'm looking forward to a great game that i'll be watching on my tablet!   Go Aggies!!!

Dlip will be watching as well. He has been looking forward to this all year! Great week #1 East Region matchup!

[bman]

Good Luck to Del Val Thursday night taking on Wesley College at 7 pm in Doylestown.   Hope the weather holds out, and i'm looking forward to a great game that i'll be watching on my tablet!   Go Aggies!!!

I missed get just have to tune in as well...not sure whom I'll be rooting for yet though....

[kate]

Hey, bman, can't go wrong with the green and gold!   I just want a well played game where there are no injuries on either side!   Also, good luck to King's tomorrow night when Moravian (our college right up the road) goes up to Wilkes Barre!   Go Aggies and Go Monarchs!

[jmcozenlaw]

Yours truly was "as money as money could be" last year with my weekly and final standings predictions, so much so that if the possibility to put money down on the table existed..........I'd be typing this from my villa in Bermuda, getting fanned while being fed grapes!! So what I'm saying about 2017..........there is nowhere to go but down as perfection can't be perfected. I'll just try to be very good. Yes, I've lowered the bar!!

The top three teams (DelVal, Stevenson, Albright) were virtually in a tie for the top spot (75, 72 and 72 points) so it really is a crapshoot. I've also learned a few things about these polls from friends of mine on the basketball side.........let's just call it a "psychological vote", if one can read between the lines (i.e. let's really get up for the team voted #1, we were disrespected, blah, blah, blah:)

Here are the Final Standings Predictions:

The Top Three (Unlikely, but all could go 8-1 in the MAC):
1. Albright - Has just about every offensive key player back in the fold as well as key players on the defense. Has DelVal at home.
2. Stevenson - Loaded and capitalizing on built in recruiting advantages and big packages combined with cheaper tuition. Won't be in the MAC in 5 years (the buzz is building). Has Albright at home.
3. DelVal - Might have the best defense in the league but offense lost some key players and will be up and down. Has Stevenson at home (and is playing no games with tickets, eh hem:)

The Close Three:
4. Widener - Very young last two years. Very skilled returnees. Should be very dangerous and could contend if things break right.
5. Lycoming - In the Widener boat. Very young. Very skilled. Just about every key player is back. No excuses. Expectations high in Williamsport.
6. King's - Tough team to figure out but with the QB returning, if they get any defense, they could surprise some people.

The Distant Four:
7. LebVal - A lot of youth last year and should be a bit better. A 4 win season would be a victory.
8. Wilkes - Tough one to figure out. A lot of returnees but not sure how that translates against the Top Three and Close Three.
9. FDU- Loved their passing game last year. If they can establish a running game and play some defense they could pick off a couple of teams.
10. Misericordia - It feels like it's about time to see some improvement in the program. My hoops buddies say they put some nice packages together for a handful of "difference makers". We'll see.

Week One Predictions:
Wesley - 24     DelVal - 20     I don't see Wesley losing in consecutive years to anybody not named Mount Union, Whitewater, UMHB, John Carroll, etc. Too much on the defensive side returning and a QB with a full year under his belt. Games are won and lost in the trenches and this is Wesley's big advantage
King's - 30     Moravian - 23     To give any reason here would be akin to the talking heads on sports talk radio acting as if they actually  are in the "know". They are not. Nor am I:) Go MAC!!!
Stevenson - 20     Frostburg - 16     Stevenson returns a ton from last year, more than Frostburg. These two will be in the same conference 5-7 years from now. Book it!

FDU - 27     TCNJ - 16     TCNJ won't stop the FDU passing game in a battle of the acronyms
Albright - 26     Salisbury - 23     Down to the wire but my preseason MAC champ squeezes out a victory (against another team that will be in the same conference as Stevenson in 5-7 years:)

Merchant Marine - 27     Misericordia - 21     Could this be Miser's best shot at a victory this year? Close but no cigar.
Lycoming - 30     Susquehanna - 20     The "no excuses" season starts out on the right foot with a season opening victory. Our Lyco poster is at least with us this year for a week or two:)
F&M - 31     LebVal - 30     A closer game than expected goes down to the wire.
Muhlenberg- 34     Wilkes - 17     Wilkes has a puncher's shot. Not a McGregor shot (which was no shot)......but a puncher's shot.
Widener - 24     Rowan - 20     Widener had a ton of very young talent last year that has matured. Rowan lost quite a bit. This could go either way so I flipped a coin and made bman happy!!

Lastly:
The Eagles will go 8-8 but make tangible progress
The Sixers will get the #7 seed in the East
Gold's spike is fools gold (pun intended)........short it soon
I will take Mount Youngstown/University of Wisconsin/UMHB...............and you can all have the field (kind of like me taking the Golden State Warriors and giving you the field:)

Football is here...............Merry Christmas to all........and to all a good day/night!!

Peace out!!

[PBR...]

DVC 21 Wesley 20 .... Werd....

[tweisman5]

Decided I'm going to spam every conference board with my preseason (non-returning-starter-adjusted) projections.

Team	Rating	Overall	Conference
Del Val	0.9057	8.1-1.9	7.8-1.2
Albright	0.8375	7.4-2.6	7.0-2.0
Stevenson	0.8077	7.2-2.8	6.8-2.2
Widener	0.6732	5.9-4.1	5.5-3.5
King's	0.5519	5.0-5.0	4.5-4.5
Lebanon Valley	0.5203	4.7-5.3	4.3-4.7
Lycoming	0.5006	4.4-5.6	4.1-4.9
Wilkes	0.2887	2.5-7.5	2.5-6.5
Misericordia	0.1325	1.5-8.5	1.4-7.6
FDU-Florham	0.0950	1.2-8.8	1.1-7.9

At Week 10 last season, Del Val was 3rd in the conference behind Albright & Stevenson, but dismantling Widener and then beating a dang good Muhlenberg team shot them up into first (Stevenson's loss to Wilkes helped, too). I've tried a few different ways of incorporating previous seasons, and using a team's final rating (i.e. how they were playing at the end of the season) pretty much always produces the best results. I'll be interested to see if they bring enough back to keep that momentum going into the season.

I think going into the season, the breakdown within the conference will be as followed:

Tier I (Championship Contender)
1. Stevenson
2. Del Val

Tier II (Dark Horse)
3. Albright

Tier III (Early Season Contender)
4. Widener

Tier IV (Middle of the Pack)
5. Lebanon Valley
6. King's
7. Lycoming
8. Wilkes

Tier V (Bottom Feeder)
9. FDU-Florham
10. Misericordia

Obviously the actual result will shake out differently as unforeseen injuries and unknown transfers during the offseason will create an impact. I believe based on what I seen last season, it is going to end with a Stevenson vs Del Val race for the conference championship. I'd circle the September 23 game, Stevenson at Del Val, as the conference game of the year since it could be a key decision for deciding who wins the conference.

Above is my conference prediction for the 2017 season that I posted recently. As for my prediction for week 1, below I included the spread favorite (-#) from Massey Ratings along with my predicted winner (in bold) and the score margin of victory. Additionally, I included the top 25 average preseason rankings for the games from Logan Hansen's website. I'm beyond excited for the season to finally kickoff!

Week 1 Predictions:
#10 Wesley(-10.5)@#25 Del Val: Wesley wins by 5
#21 Stevenson@#15 Frostburg St(-7.5): Stevenson wins by 3
Salisbury(-7.5)@Albright: Salisbury wins by 3
Moravian@King's(-0.5): Kings wins by 1
FDU@TCNJ(-10.5): TCNJ wins by 7
Lycoming@Susquehanna(-7.5): Susquehanna wins by 8
F&M(-3.5)@Leb Val: F&M wins by 7
Widener@Rowan(-8.5):Widener wins by 3
Wilkes@Muhlenburg(-19.5): Muhlenburg wins by 20
Misericordia@Merchant Marine(-10.5): Merchant Marine wins by 14

[Graham8020]

Is the game being streamed online?

Good Luck to Del Val Thursday night taking on Wesley College at 7 pm in Doylestown.   Hope the weather holds out, and i'm looking forward to a great game that i'll be watching on my tablet!   Go Aggies!!!

[kate]

At the half Del Val 22 - Wesley 3!   Hold on Aggies!!!

[wesleydad]

Kate, if the game continues as is you don't have to worry about that. Wesley is not very good so far. The vaunted O line is not very good at pass protecting. Barring any crazy change in the game Del Val will coast in this game. Wesley looks lost in most aspects. The only positive is the running game.

[kate]

No coasting, but Del Val hangs on for the win 24/19.   Wesley really made it close in the 4th quarter.

[Teamski]

Congrads to Del Val for a great game.  Good luck this year in the MAC and beyond.  We're going to need some as well......

-Ski

[bman]

Good Job Del Val!  Although a loos would have helped my WUs!   
Either Frostburg is really good again this year, or Stevenson has slipped a bit.   That was a dominating win by Frostburg.  I guess we'll know in a couple of weeks which it is...    Definitely going to be a good one between Stevenson and Del Val...

[wesleydad]

Well played first half by Del Val, took advantage of the Wesley mistakes and put enough point on the board to hold on for the win.  Adjustments by Wesley on D took away the short passes and Del Val struggled moving the ball.  The big run was on a broken play.  Del Val has a nice defense and will be tough on anyone, but the offense will have to generate more than 220 total yards to beat top teams.  Based on tonight's results, I did not see the Frostburg beat down of Stevenson, but I would have to make Del Val the favorite in that game especially at Del Val.  Good luck the rest of the season.

[PBR...]

DVC 21 Wesley 20 .... Werd....

All who cashed you're welcome.... those who chose to go the other way and ignore PBR thanks for playing....