FB: Conference of New England

[D3 Fan]

63 center, BSC is a long standing NEFC who has had 1 championship season in the last 5-10 years.  Why would you think they would leave now? EC is only 4 years old.  CG just returned to the league after bouncing around for a while and Curry was a very bad team before Coach Nelson arrived and they decided to make football important. 

The other question you should be asking is why would any team leave when there is an automatic bid to the NCAA's.  The closest to anyone leaving is the talk of the Mass State schools leaving the privates to a league of their own.

Without a full time staff, JV teams would be very difficult to have.

[Gr8Day2BaBear]

there is not enough quality teams in the mascac to deserve an automatic bid, nor are there enoug legit school's to in the nefc to make the league legit, so without the 16 there isn't much........one huge issue though....does anyone that's talkin **** about the nefc realize that bsc only lost by 7......56-49 back in 99, the nefc is no that far off as much as everybody is hatin

[Pat Coleman]

43-38, actually. And that team that the NEFC lost to (Ursinus) in 1999 then lost 55-0 the next week.

You could try to point to that Western Connecticut/Westfield State 8-7 game, but then Western Connecticut lost the next week 43-14.

The Centennial Conference is 4-8 in the playoffs. Two of those wins were against the NEFC and they're 2-8 against everyone else.

Sorry -- having a couple competitive games doesn't make the NEFC competitive. It just means that the bottom two teams in the bracket met in the first round because of the inane seeding criteria.

Last year was the most impressive tourney performance for the NEFC. If Curry hadn't changed coaches in the offseason afterwards it might have a better shot at respectability.

By the way, it's not a matter of number of quality teams to get an automatic bid. Unfortunately, it's just a matter of having seven teams.

[Old NEFC fan]

Pat,

I'm confused as to how you can say Curry would have a better shot at respectability if it weren't for the coaching change. They are 8-0 and have retained more than half of the previous staff. Yes they are a young team but right now are playing better than they have in the past. Their Defense if nationally ranked in most categories. It looks like Curry has built on top of the foundation that Steve Nelson developed.

Yes the NEFC has a long way to go to be able to compete with the New York, New Jersey and PA schools on a regular basis but it appears the coaching change at Curry hasn't negatively effected that program one bit.

Adding Coast Guard and Plymouth State to the league will only help in the long run by improving the overall level of competition. As for playing outside of the league, I'm in agreement that it would only help the league from a competitive standpoint. However I'm not an AD who has an athletic budget to consider and taking 60-80 players, coaches and trainers on an out of state road trip certainly does cost a lot of money.

I would also like to add a special thanks to you for hosting this wonderful web site that gives players, coaches, fans and family members of D3 programs around the country a venue for their programs. Keep up the great work.

[Jonny Utah]

Pat,

I'm confused as to how you can say Curry would have a better shot at respectability if it weren't for the coaching change. They are 8-0 and have retained more than half of the previous staff. Yes they are a young team but right now are playing better than they have in the past. Their Defense if nationally ranked in most categories. It looks like Curry has built on top of the foundation that Steve Nelson developed.

Yes the NEFC has a long way to go to be able to compete with the New York, New Jersey and PA schools on a regular basis but it appears the coaching change at Curry hasn't negatively effected that program one bit.

Adding Coast Guard and Plymouth State to the league will only help in the long run by improving the overall level of competition. As for playing outside of the league, I'm in agreement that it would only help the league from a competitive standpoint. However I'm not an AD who has an athletic budget to consider and taking 60-80 players, coaches and trainers on an out of state road trip certainly does cost a lot of money.

I would also like to add a special thanks to you for hosting this wonderful web site that gives players, coaches, fans and family members of D3 programs around the country a venue for their programs. Keep up the great work.

good post.  Skip Bandini is a great coach and I also believe that he will bring Curry even more success than in the past.

(also former Ithaca SS Todd Nestor is the Curry DC.)

[Pat Coleman]

Pat,

I'm confused as to how you can say Curry would have a better shot at respectability if it weren't for the coaching change. They are 8-0 and have retained more than half of the previous staff. Yes they are a young team but right now are playing better than they have in the past. Their Defense if nationally ranked in most categories. It looks like Curry has built on top of the foundation that Steve Nelson developed.

Because Nelson was a proven commodity in the Division III community and change is never automatically good for a top team. The new coach has to be proven. And not just against other NEFC teams. Sure, the defense is ranked statistically, but who are they playing against?

Yes the NEFC has a long way to go to be able to compete with the New York, New Jersey and PA schools on a regular basis but it appears the coaching change at Curry hasn't negatively effected that program one bit.

You are stuck thinking in NEFC terms. NEFC terms doesn't win playoff games. You have to think wider than that.

[nefan]

What is alot of money to some of these programs is pocket change to some of the other.... adding a jv team with four away and four home contests will cost coaching (two-four additional coaches -6,000 to 12,000 dollars) food ( 2,000 dollars meal money), ref's (4,000 dollars), Trans. (4,000 dollars), other support staff(trainers, etc) ...... 20,000 dollars is about 25% of some of the NEFC budgets...... JV is unrealistic with the current make up of the NEFC..   

[Pat Coleman]

If you insist on four assistant coaches solely to handle three or four JV games then yes, it would be 20K. Meanwhile, all a program has to do is add 10 or so kids who wouldn't be in the school otherwise and it can justify the budget increase.

[D3 Fan]

Pat, you are more able to justify the additional cost at the privates then you are at the state schools.  Remember the state schools don't need football but the privates do.  They can justify an extra $30,000 in costs to  bring in 10 extra players that will in turn bring in an extra $300,000.

[Pat Coleman]

Perhaps, but from all I've heard, I don't think the Massachusetts state schools can afford to turn down tuition-paying students.

[ctgridironmom]

I am new to the whole D3 football scene and the NEFC.  What happened historically with football in this region that caused the NEFC to be (apparently) so far behind other leagues?  Are their programs just newer?  The East as a whole seems strong comparatively and then there is the poor NEFC.......why?

[Jonny Utah]

I am new to the whole D3 football scene and the NEFC.  What happened historically with football in this region that caused the NEFC to be (apparently) so far behind other leagues?  Are their programs just newer?  The East as a whole seems strong comparatively and then there is the poor NEFC.......why?

I would say a few things....

1) Very little football tradition with any NEFC school except for maybe Coast Guard.

2) Except for MIT and Coast Guard, NEFC schools are academically a step behind other eastern football schools.  (Nescac, LL, NE-10,)

3- Not too many full time staffs with full time jobs at the school.

4- Mass state schools arent cheap compared to other state schools, or even Northeast private schools which will give you just as much financial aid as these state schools.

[labart96]

I'd agree with Senator Utah.

Many of the other NE/Upstate NY schools have been playing football since the late 1800's and have long standing football tradition and history (and the endowments and booster support that come along with it).

The NE region (and MA in particular where most NEFC teams are based) is (second only to NY) the most heavily recruited by pretty much all the Top eastern D3 teams, as well as many from the "South" Region (in this case, PA, MD, etc) - as well as the usual line up of "sticker schools" (such as the LL and NESCAC schools). 

I am aware that a few of the other NEFC schools are somewhat commuter based making having an on campus program like football that much tougher to support.  It takes a special kind of student athlete to enroll at the Service Academies and these institutions will appeal to only so many kids too.

In my own personal experience, the "sticker school" brand awareness of NE also puts these programs at a disadvantage as well.  I have to admit, I never even heard of most of the schools in the NEFC and I grew up in New England before going to play D3 ball in college.  I pretty much only looked at a couple of LL and NESCAC schools b/c that's where my parents and guidance counselors directed me towards (and expected me to go to).

['gro]

aren't there a few DII and I-AA non scholarship schools in the NE region that all compete for kids?  Stonehill and a few others?

[InTheMix]

Is Curry for real this season? Is there any cahnce they can get any higher than an 8 seed and possibly win the conference's first playoff game.

i saw Curry play against Endicott this year for ECs homecoming. They were very slow to start but once they got rolling it was hard for EC to shut them down. I think Curry has a pretty good chance at winning an NCAA game this year, but everyone has a CHANCE. as far as a higher seed i don't think they'll be any higher, just because of the reputation that the NEFC has. everyone knows that the NEFC team is the easy team and everyone wants to play them. but we'll see