FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[Ghostrider]

The 75 rule was originally used to reduce costs for school, but the biggest  cost incured was the cost of travel. Alot of team in the NESCAC are back maybe 1 week prior to school so pre-season costs were limited. The NESCAC now allows travel squads to be unlimited so where are you saving money. Some claim title nine, but reality is that title nine means equal opportunity which most schools have, as well as equal money, and if you look at some of the money's given per school, female students are provided more money per athlete than men...It is a stupid rule with no application..and if other 'female' teams don't have caps (some will make cuts to, but are not required to) then football has a potential Title XI lawsuit...

Also, if the NESCAC football wants to unite, they could make a case that Football is not provided equal opportunity to play in the play-offs like counterpart womens sports at their schools and could make a case for a Title XI lawsuit.

Title XI is an equal oppotunity law, not a women's rights law which some people confuse...Either way the NESCAC presidents are the ones that are in control, and it would be nice to see someone ruffle there feathers the way the book' Game of Life' did....

Just my opinion

[Pat Coleman]

The 75 rule was originally used to reduce costs for school, but the biggest  cost incured was the cost of travel. Alot of team in the NESCAC are back maybe 1 week prior to school so pre-season costs were limited. The NESCAC now allows travel squads to be unlimited so where are you saving money.

Probably by allowing only 75 players instead of 100 or 200.

[speedy]

The 75 rule was originally used to reduce costs for school, but the biggest  cost incured was the cost of travel. Alot of team in the NESCAC are back maybe 1 week prior to school so pre-season costs were limited.  . .

I believe that the 75-player cap on football rosters was designed more to improve parity within the NESCAC than to reduce costs. For a while, the weaker NESCACs -- like Hamilton, Bowdoin, and Bates -- were fielding small squads  while the stronger NESCACs -- like Trinity and Wiliams -- were fielding huge squads which included may players who never saw any action. The idea was that with the 75-player cap football players would gravitate to some of the weaker NESCACs in order to get a chance to join the football team and the overall quality of the league would improve. The 75-player has apparently had its intended effect as squad size has improved at the weaker NESCACs.

[frank uible]

The various rationale behind the Rule of 75 are either downright folly or downright insincerity or both and consequently speak volumes about the nature  of the administrations of the NESCAC colleges, the arrogantly self-styled best of world undergraduate college education.

[Jonny Utah]

I like the rule.  Makes you earn your spot instead of "just being on the team."

[Ghostrider]

The 75 rule is good in that respect, but what about when you have 76-77 kids..You cut 2, and once the rosters are set if you have a slew of injuries you cannot bring people to fill the spot.

Pat..In regards to your comment on 75, those programs may get to 100 roster spots, but with the slot system of 14 admits and the tough academic standards it would limit the ability of NESCAC to get to 100 kids. The 'slots' control numbers on the front end, and hurts the kids that love to play but are cut because they need to be under 75.....Either way it sucks that if you have a few kids that work hard give a good practive look and are having a positive experience on the team...you have to cut them because of the 75 rule, that is not what d3 athletics is about. I hope they reconsider it, or raise the number a bit to where they can not have the problem of cuts.

Also the 75 rule did increase the parity in the league...the funny thing about that is Williams (which lost out on the increased parity) introduced the slot system....In my opinion the system they developed is a way for  them to stay on top...Williams has has far more room to manuever for below the margin acacemic kids. I have seen kids get into Williams, but denied at all the other NESCAC schools. Also they can get  more high end academic kids because they have the repuation as the #1 academic school. If they have every school in the NESCAC subscribe to slots, it will limit the ability to get more talented kids in to you program, and when you don't have high end kids offsetting the low end kids...(IE a 1600 sat, and a 1000 sat...avg out to a 1300) they have a distinct advantage again in recruiting....

This is an opinion from being in and around the NESCAC and not based on concrete facts...I do know they introduced the Slot system, after years of Dominance by Trinity...

It would be nice to see the NESCAC Presidents stop being hypocritical in there view of athletics...especially football.

[Jonny Utah]

The 75 rule is good in that respect, but what about when you have 76-77 kids..You cut 2, and once the rosters are set if you have a slew of injuries you cannot bring people to fill the spot.

Pat..In regards to your comment on 75, those programs may get to 100 roster spots, but with the slot system of 14 admits and the tough academic standards it would limit the ability of NESCAC to get to 100 kids. The 'slots' control numbers on the front end, and hurts the kids that love to play but are cut because they need to be under 75.....Either way it sucks that if you have a few kids that work hard give a good practive look and are having a positive experience on the team...you have to cut them because of the 75 rule, that is not what d3 athletics is about. I hope they reconsider it, or raise the number a bit to where they can not have the problem of cuts.

Also the 75 rule did increase the parity in the league...the funny thing about that is Williams (which lost out on the increased parity) introduced the slot system....In my opinion the system they developed is a way for  them to stay on top...Williams has has far more room to manuever for below the margin acacemic kids. I have seen kids get into Williams, but denied at all the other NESCAC schools. Also they can get  more high end academic kids because they have the repuation as the #1 academic school. If they have every school in the NESCAC subscribe to slots, it will limit the ability to get more talented kids in to you program, and when you don't have high end kids offsetting the low end kids...(IE a 1600 sat, and a 1000 sat...avg out to a 1300) they have a distinct advantage again in recruiting....

This is an opinion from being in and around the NESCAC and not based on concrete facts...I do know they introduced the Slot system, after years of Dominance by Trinity...

It would be nice to see the NESCAC Presidents stop being hypocritical in there view of athletics...especially football.

Well many of those schools are gonna have JV teams (especially if football is important enough to have 100 kids on the teams.) 

I would suggest have all frosh on the JV team and if you dont make the varsity cut after that, you go back on the JV team untill you earn a spot.

And the 75 limit should be for games only maybe.

But Im still gonna think that even with injuries, kid #76 and kid #77 arent really going to make an impact.  Especially when even teams with no limits have travel squads of 50-60 players.

[speedy]

Anyone know whether members of a JV team would count against the 75-player limit?? I can't find anything in the NESCAC rulebook on that question but I feel as though this was discussed a while back and the thinking was that the 75-player limit would encompass the members of a JV team.

And do any of the NESCAC school actually have JV squads? Years ago, a number of the NESCACs barred frosh participation in varsity competition (Amherst, Williams, Bowdoin, and Wesleyan) and fielded full freshman teams. That restriction vanished a few years after the advent of coeducation (mid-1970s) as did the freshman teams . . .

['gro]

RPI JV occasionally played Williams JV a few years ago (late 90's)

[frank uible]

JVers count against the 75. At least Amherst, Middlebury and Williams have had JVs in recent years.  RPI JVs have played Williams JVs at least twice and maybe thrice from 2001.

[Tags]

The various rationale behind the Rule of 75 are either downright folly or downright insincerity or both and consequently speak volumes about the nature  of the administrations of the NESCAC colleges, the arrogantly self-styled best of world undergraduate college education.

Frank I'm sensing a bit of hate there. You should have started your post by stating that you do not like college undergrad administrations in the first place, prior to the tongue lashing.

[frank uible]

I'm generally rankled when people hold themselves out to be better than they actually are - in this case the conspiratorial creators and enforcers of the Rule of 75, a lousy anti-student/athlete action. Does that take care of it?

[Trin9-0]

Though Trinity usually plays a JV game each year, there is no JV team per se. There is no designation between JV and Varisty players and the game is played mostly by Freshman and Sophomores, though based on positional needs it's not out of the question for a Junior or maybe even a Senior to play.

The kids who are 76th and up aren't going to make a difference on Saturdays and other than increasing the number of players on some teams the rule has done nothing to create parity.

The same schools that were on top are still on top and the same teams that were on the bottom are still on the bottom.

[Jonny Utah]

Though Trinity usually plays a JV game each year, there is no JV team per se. There is no designation between JV and Varisty players and the game is played mostly by Freshman and Sophomores, though based on positional needs it's not out of the question for a Junior or maybe even a Senior to play.

The kids who are 76th and up aren't going to make a difference on Saturdays and other than increasing the number of players on some teams the rule has done nothing to create parity.

The same schools that were on top are still on top and the same teams that were on the bottom are still on the bottom.

yea thats what Im saying.  These schools SHOULD set about 20-40 spots aside for just freshman that wont play varsity their first year.  Then have them earn a spot after that.

It doesnt have to be a JV team perse either.  Just freshman that make up a scout team.

Then again, maybe the presidents dont want schools that can afford it have 100 freshman on a JV team being a feeder system to the varsity.

[Jonny Utah]

I'm generally rankled when people hold themselves out to be better than they actually are - in this case the conspiratorial creators and enforcers of the Rule of 75, a lousy anti-student/athlete action. Does that take care of it?

Next thing you know these football players are gonna have to go to class!  Dam schools.