FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[met_fan]

Just from what I know of the conference, I'd really doubt that any team would leave, especially to increase travel costs exponentially.  I also saw there was some thought of Rochester.  I don't think they would leave the Liberty League either.  It just doesn't really make sense. 

Rochester might if they had a viable football league, but why ever leave to join a four-team conference?  I mean, they're already getting the benefit of UAA affiliation from the other sports.  Tufts seems like it would be a good fit, if they weren't already in a prestige conference.  But it seems like it would be a stretch for them to leave NESCAC for UAA.

[frank uible]

The point being that in recruiting Tufts seems not to be taking recent advantage of its location in greater Boston to the extent that it did in the 40s and 50s, and that failure has not been explained to me. Perhaps it made a conscious decision in the 60s or 70s to deemphasize football and that decision has been reflected in its recruiting efforts, but nonetheless its location continues to provide a recruiting advantage over the teams currently on its schedules. Yet when was the last time Tufts had a 7 or 8 win season, despite the fact that it no longer schedules the Harvards, Yales, Browns, Bucknells, Lafayettes, Lehighs, UMasses, Northeasterns, New Hampshires, etc., which it scheduled (and defeated about 40% of the time) in the 40s and 50s? 

[nescac1]

Tufts also has an advantage in having a substantially larger student body than any other NESCAC school, with a bigger pool of walk-ons and so on, and perhaps more potential admissions flexibility since football represents a much smaller percentage of the student body. 

And it's not as if Tufts has not emphasized athletics -- for example, the Tufts men's lacrosse team won the 2010 national title, and finished second in 2011.  NESCAC footall and lacrosse players generally come from the same type of recruiting pool.  May just be a matter of bringing in the right coach.  (Isn't Tufts currently in a coaching search, in fact)? 

Next year in NESCAC should be pretty unpredictable / interesting.  New coach at Tufts, and Wesleyan continues to be in transition with Whalen's first recruiting class.  Arguably the best single group of QB's in NESCAC history graduates, with Midd, Amherst, Tufts and Williams all graduating record-setting QB's, and with huge question marks at that spot. 

Amherst, Trinity and in particular Williams (five first team all-conference defenders -- all of whom will be seniors -- plus a former defensive ROY, returning) should have loaded defenses.  But all have huge questions in the passing game -- Amherst loses its star QB and its top two reception leaders, Trinity one of its two QB's and the only two productive receivers from what was an anemic passing attack to begin with, and Williams has to find a replacement for conference POY QB Moffitt, with his anticipated successor now playing for Wesleyan.  Whoever wins the QB job for Williams will have the benefit of a ridiculous receiving corps, including two returning first-team receivers and 2-3 other WR's who would start at almost any other NESCAC school, but the question is, can someone get them the ball?  This could be the year for a surprise team to have a break through season, although those three will still be favored thanks to their strength on defense and excellent running attacks. 

[PistachioX]

Not sure about how stringent their current admissions standards for recruited athletes is, but here's a funny story about Tufts and admissions in the 40's...  how they could and would pretty much take anyone.

I have an uncle who served in WWII....due to enroll & play football at Harvard (maybe '45 or '46?) after his return from the service.  He got into some kind of 'trouble' before he got back to Boston, so Harvard rescinded their kind offer. 

His mother was neighbor to the Tufts Dean of Admissions, and sent out an SOS.  The next day he was enrolled at Tufts, and by the end of the week he played his first game for them, scoring 2 TD's as a frosh.  My uncle may have embellished a bit (he's 85 and a bit soft from too much drink) ...but he relayed this story recently, when we told him his great-nephew would be playing against the Jumbos over the next four years.

[amh63]

As usual,  I'm late to the party....to the Tufts' football topic.  I agree that Tufts, the largest school in the NESCAC has location, size, etc. to be a power in football.  Most recently, as nescac 1 has noted, Tufts has great teams in other sports.  I believe that after the 40's-50's, Tufts may have decided to put their sports programs into a lower "priority", especially football.
Amherst had its first football game with Tufts in 1877, even before Wes. (1882) and Williams (1884).  However, in spite of the size differences, with Amherst being one of the smallest school in the conference, Amherst has a 49 to 26 edge in wins.  It should be noted that the number of games  are much lower than say between Williams and Amherst.  Tufts in its glory days of playing Boston area schools and present Ivy schools must have dropped Amherst from its football schedule.  Sometime in its history, Tufts decided that it wanted a Div 3 level sports program and eventually entered the NESCAC.
Amherst, in spite of its lower enrollment, carried one of the largest football rosters.  Like Williams and Trinity, it was not unusual to see Amherst have a roster of 90 plus players.  Sometime in the past two decades, the conference presidents decided to even the playing field.  The decision was to cap the football team to 75 players.  A number of schools could not or would not field football teams the size of Amherst, Williams, Trinity, etc.  The question I put to this board is where was Tufts in the decision to limit the size of the football team.  It may reveal why Tufts football is where it is today....at least a little.
I know that in 1969, I attended a Amherst-Tufts football game at Tufts, when the Boston papers rated the undefeated Tufts team No.1 in NE......and a favorite over Amherst with a injured QB and several loses.  Amherst blew out Tufts due in part to a future NFL TE/WR and a QB, though injured, threw touchdowns whenever he wanted against Tufts.  It is noted here, that the QB from Iowa had turned down scholarships to Iowa and Iowa State to play at Amherst (family thing).  I remembered, overhearing Tufts fans remarking......why can't we ever beat Amherst?  I smiled going back to Cambridge.

[fulbakdad]

Wesleyan picked up two outstanding freshman from my sons Prep Team, Tabor.  Gregg Kelly (Linebacker) and Ibraheem Khadar (Defensive Tackle).  Kelley was getting good looks from D2 Bentley/Assumtion and Khadar was getting many D1aa looks but decided on the academics at Wesleyan.  Both will be impact players in the very near future.  Khadar could easily be a freshman starter.....

[frank uible]

Look out Trinity, Amherst and Williams! Like Silky Sullivan Wesleyan is starting its move from back in the pack. It will make NESCAC more interesting.

[Lawrence Oliver]

I did not play NESCAC football but I've followed it for years.  All of the schools are great academically and highly ranked.Trinity and Williams are BY FAR the best football schools, just look at the statistics.  What I found about Trinity is they do not rank as highly in some polls academically as other NESCAC schools.  However, the football alums are known to "take care" of the graduating seniors with jobs.  DeVaney has a program set up to market the kids to alums for internships which have led to lots of job offers.  To me, that is most important.

Mike Whalen is a good coach, but why would a Williams guy like Frank Uible refer to him as this adonis of head coaches.  Year in and year out Williams has best talent in NESCAC, yet Whalen lost at least 3 games versus Trinity by making stupid calls.  One year I was listening to Trin coaches and players calling out Williams plays by doing something, either reading signals or by tendency.  Let's face it, Farley did what he shouldve done at Williams while Whalen did not win as much as he shouldve with the talent he had.  Wesleyan is leting all sort of kids into school, ignoring slots etc.  Heard it from one of their coaches.  They will be better and I agree its good for competition, but they can never reach the level of Trinity or Williams as far as staying power is considered.  The place is wierd and football guys only hang with football guys.  They are outcasts.  At other NESCAC schools the kids fit in better.

[Lawrence Oliver]

Based on the amount of money Tufts budgets to support their football program, they will never pay the travel expenses involved with joining the UAA.

[frank uible]

Because Wesleyan now has a better HC, a better OC and a better DC, all of whom are techically proficient and good motivators and recruiters, plus Whalen is your correspondent's long lost Siamese twin brother.

[nescac1]

I don't think anyone at Williams is crying about Whalen leaving for Wesleyan, not after what Aaron Kelton did in his first season.  Wesleyan is certainly far better off than they were a year ago (particularly given the administrative and admissions support for the football program), but I'd argue that Williams is as well. 

[PistachioX]

...The place is wierd and football guys only hang with football guys.  They are outcasts.  At other NESCAC schools the kids fit in better.

My kid had the exact same impression.  He never looked back, after his campus visit/info session and meeting with coach. 

Whalen had been named (a big draw for my son), but he was not yet on campus at time of son's visit.  Even though the academic reputation, football tradition and athletic facilities were all very appealing, my kid figured he could get a slice of that 'wierdnes' at any other school...  but didn't want 24x7 submersion.  Different strokes...  it's all about fit.

From what I have read about Whalen... he is very capable of winning a championship in the next 5 years, to rekindle a football dynasty there. 

I agree that Williams, Trinity and Wesleyan will be fun to watch... in both the short and long-terms.

[Lawrence Oliver]

Funny that Bill Belichek is not sending his son to plat ay Wesleyan

[fulbakdad]

While I hear the Belichek's boy is a good lax player, he's an average at best football player.  He's probably not going to college to play football.

[fulbakdad]

Trinity also got one of the best players in our very competitive league, Mike Budness.  I'm pretty sure he'll be playing ILB in college.  He's a definate stud!