FB: Conference of New England

[Boxer7806]

EC nor Curry will knock down Curry any pegs...Curry is by far the best team in this conference... Plymouth is better than Nicholls but it will still be a good game... a tough stretch for curry the next couple weeks with EC then Plymouth then Nicholls...see what they are made of...if they win those games it wil be interesting to see if the east fan poll will move them up and give them some respect

[Boxer7806]

i also agree with coach 21 on the framingham vs bsc game...it was a good game no matter the stats..the second half was very evenly matched... still BSC is a better team and there game against coast guard will determine the bogan... but its nice to see that framingham is closing the gap in talent after some dismal years

[Findtheball]

Answer me this .........

Has Curry played anyone.....anyone with a winning record YET ?

[Findtheball]

 Yes Currygrad I have to agree ...the EC QB looked good but so did  the other guys QB ....Both teams are hungry

[63Center]

EC seems to be struggling this year to hang onto the ball.   Here is the turnover stats for EC so far this season:

Against RPI - 3 turnovers (1 Int, 2 fumbles)
Against MMA - 5 turnovers (1 Int, 4 fumbles)
Against SRU - 2 turnovers (2 Int)
Against Nichols - 3 turnovers (1 Int, 2 fumbles)
Against PSU - 2 turnovers (1 Int, 1 fumble)

Couple the turnover with the penalty yards in the last three games (75, 62, 64), it eplains why they are 1-4 this year.  EC won a lot of games in the past with ball control.  Turnovers and penalties will kill you in close games like MMA, Nichols, and PSU.   Without those turnovers, EC could be looking at a 4-1 record.  If they expect to beat Curry they will certainly need to hang onto the ball and keep it out of Curry's hands.

CGA appears to have found their offense, which should make for a good game against BSC.

I think PSU has a slightly better team than Nichols.  PSU has beatedn CGA and UMD while Nichols seems to have struggled to beat MIT and lost to Worcester State.  In competition agsint the same opponent (EC) they appeared to be about equal (PSU 28-17, Nichols 28-14).  This should be the game of the week in the NEFC.

[Pat Coleman]

No mention of Plymouth State on the front page? Figured the NEFC board would be all over it.

[Dudley Hill]

Nice article on PS. It's good to see the NEFC get some lead story time.

[Gr8Day2BaBear]

Coach,
I'm sure you know how the saying go's about assuming things...I never said smoked, I was just making a point that Bridgewater controlled the game.  I gave credit to UMass about playing Bridgewater because the 31-17 score didn't show how good of a game it was.  And actually Buffalo controlled two aspects of that game they would've won if they had an offense.  This is a college board no need for pro references anyways.

Boxer,
I wasn't talking stats I actually watched the game so I have an honest opinion.  And I think the change in philisophy is the big difference, the coach has them believing they can win because a lot of their skill position guys are the same.

I don't know about CGA finding it's offense I mean at this point a pop warner team could find it's offense against Fitchburg.  They got beat pretty bad by Plymouth State and Bridgewater's signature win at this point is UMD.  With all that I said it's time for both teams to put up or shut up on Saturday as this game will most likely determine the Bogan division champion.

I will give some credit to Plymouth State for what they've done so far beacuse they did beat what appears to be the sleeper in the Boyd in UMD and an unproven CGA team.  This weekend is a statement game though against Nichols with Curry coming up the following week.  If they handle Nichols then there will be no denying their rise to power and will setup a showdown in Milton with the Boyd on the line.

[Paul Heering]

Just want to preface my post by saying I know very little about DIII football (follow baseball mostly). 

But my question is why don't teams in the NEFC play very many out of conference games?  Especially a team like Curry.  It seems from what I have read on here that the NEFC won't get much respect around the east until they A) win some out of conference game or B) Win a playoff game.   Since the conference as a whole only gets one shot to win a playoff game, why not schedule more out of conference.

By looking through the teams schedules I get only 9 out of NEFC games for the 16 teams

2 Losses vs SUNY Maritime (Mass Maritime & Salve)
2 Losses vs WPI (Worcester State & Mass Dartmouth)
1 Win vs Merchant Marine (Coast Guard)
1 Win vs Becker (Maine Maritime)
1 Win vs Mount Ida (Plymouth)
1 Win vs Hartwick (WNEC)
1 Loss vs RPI (Endicott)

Actually comes out to a 4-5 record which isn't a bad percentage but the question I have is why so few games?  is it scheduling difficulty, travel concerns, or other issues?

[coach21]

I would say the reason for not playing many out of conference games is due to expenses to travel. Besides about 2 of those games you mentioned were against weak opponents. It would be nice to see the top teams from the NEFC play some strong out of confernce games.

[Boxer7806]

As coach 21 said it is hard because so many of these schools cant afford travel, the only schools from the division who played those games are are private schools with more money... worcester st and WPI are schools in the same city and its not a far drive from Dartmouth to Worcester either... for the NEFC to gain respect they will have to travel to other states to play more competitive programs...unfortunately they dont have the expenses to do that at this time...by the way a nice article on PSU

[Findtheball]

 I too would like to comment on the DIII article ...well said ! It's been a long time since PSU has made any noise . Then again the recruiting had gone south for a stint of 10 years .

My hats off to PSU in staying alive , I had heard the program was in jeopardy 8 years ago when they were struggling . That could've been a rumor, not totally sure .

Next thing they need is a player on SI like years ago (JOE DUDEK) , just kidding . That would be a nice lift for the NEFC , no matter what team they were from. Just my opinion

                                        NLNG

[63Center]

I agree with the others that it was great to see the PSU article on the front page and a little bit of love for the NEFC.

Regarding the question about why the NEFC teams don't play out of conference games:
1.  As already stated the travel costs especially for the state schools is too much; and
2.  Schedule limitations.  The NEFC requires each team to play every team in their division, which means 7 games.  Then they play two cross-over games against the other division, which make 9 games.  Then add in the possible NEFC championship game which gives a total of 10 games.  Most of the teams hope to get to play in the ECAC tourney which would make 11 games and there is a limit (help here Pat) on the number of games the teams are allowed to play. 

I agree with your assessment that they need to play more non-conference games, but it won't happen as long as they have 9 games locked up in league play.

[Paul Heering]

thanks guys, that make sense. 

It seems like it would be very hard to schedule out of conference games because a the expense and the required conference games (7 conference and 2 crossover--if i am reading that correctly) would make it very tough to schedule other games

[Findtheball]

      If these other teams have a bigger budget maybe they would travel instead . so every crossover would be a home game for all NEFC.
I guess thats a little selfish huh .