FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[PolarCat]

Yes, but when Williams folds their program, an 8 game schedule will suffice.   

[gridiron]

Great point--you are on today---and brave for sure.

[PolarCat]

Donning the Kevlar.....

[nescac1]

I think it's only a matter of when, not if, that football goes extinct at NESCAC ... the combination of diminishing alumni interest as schools grow increasingly diverse, hostility towards football among many faculty member and administrators, the increasing awareness of long-term health effects of the sports, the high percentage of men on small campus who are football recruits, the huge admissions concessions needed to be competitive, the high costs, and general lack of interest among the student body will eventually -- talking many decades down the line -- spell football's doom.  But with the best overall football history/tradition in NESCAC, a huge number of VERY wealthy and VERY generous alums on Wall Street, many of whom played / enjoy football, and a brand new 20 million dollar plus stadium built specifically for football, if that happens, Williams will almost certainly be last in line, other than perhaps Trinity, to abandon the pigskin. 

[polbear73]

nescac1: Those exact same sentiments were expressed, perhaps in even stronger fashion due to the added presence of the war in Viet Nam in 1970 across college campuses.  You did add the qualifier of football's extinction taking decades, but it is still being played 5 decades later.  Only time will tell, but the attitudes described have been around a long time. 

[NewtoNescac]

The most troubling objection to football (and I point out it's from the uninformed football haters) is that it has a horrific long term impact on health. I agree with the obvious, football is a physically demanding sport. It hurts. And the higher the level, the higher the increased risk of long term injuries to some. But what should be stressed is the positive, rather than the negative, and major college and pro football are doing a terrible job if it. The big positive is that football is safer today than at any time in the past.

Two quick examples come to mind. The emphasis on hydration. Years ago we received minimal water in extreme heat, they gave us salt tablets instead. Second, years ago we unknowingly played with concussions. Today all head trauma is closely monitored and players' helmets taken away for the remainder of games, or the are held out for weeks while adhering to recovery protocol.

So we need to sell the positives of football, and their are many. If you love the game, as we all obviously do, that's a very easy sell.

[polbear73]

The most troubling objection to football (and I point out it's from the uninformed football haters) is that it has a horrific long term impact on health. I agree with the obvious, football is a physically demanding sport. It hurts. And the higher the level, the higher the increased risk of long term injuries to some. But what should be stressed is the positive, rather than the negative, and major college and pro football are doing a terrible job if it. The big positive is that football is safer today than at any time in the past.

Two quick examples come to mind. The emphasis on hydration. Years ago we received minimal water in extreme heat, they gave us salt tablets instead. Second, years ago we unknowingly played with concussions. Today all head trauma is closely monitored and players' helmets taken away for the remainder of games, or the are held out for weeks while adhering to recovery protocol.

So we need to sell the positives of football, and their are many. If you love the game, as we all obviously do, that's a very easy sell.

Good points; when we played, water was for sissies and they gave us aspirin to tape to our foreheads when we got our "bell rung".  Added to the list of the new awareness is the increased emphasis on teaching the proper techniques of blocking and tackling, starting in youth leagues. 

[NothingButNESCAC]

Joe and I won't post too often on here because you know, we have our own place to write about this stuff, but we did want to post the link to our first article about football this fall. http://nothingbutnescac.com/2015/09/01/welcome-to-2015/.

We are going to try to publish an article every weekday up until the season starts so keep checking in.

And to put in my personal opinion about the matter of NESCAC 'football expansion', I'm right there with everyone on adding a ninth game. As for the playoffs, from what it sounds like, NESCAC teams are a far cry from actually competing in the playoffs. So it would take a lot of effort like bringing all the players back three weeks earlier, having spring football, expanding the roster from 75. Those would be tough for schools ostensibly about academic and athletic balance to justify and I don't see the upshot of teams being able to make the playoffs as worth it.

[PolarCat]

Nice post, New to NESCAC.  Except I wish you hadn't reminded me about those salt tabs.

Concussion issue is the 500 pound gorilla in the room, and the discussion will certainly amp up when the Will Smith / Ridley Scott movie comes out this Christmas.  If you haven't seen the trailer yet, you can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io6hPdC41RM. 

Unlike global warming, it's next-to-impossible for naysayers to refute the science, especially in the wake of tragedies like Junior Seau.  The fact that the media has been allowed to paint football as "the" concussion sport is appalling, as the problem clearly exists in soccer (think Taylor Twellman, and a third of all the girls playing the sport), women's lacrosse (there is an ongoing moveent to require helmets, which opponents fear would make that sport MORE dangerous) and boxing.  Yet another example of how the NFL has failed totally in protecting the public's perception of the sport (yeah, I'm also thinking about you, Ray Rice) and why Goodell has to go.  (Says the Patriots fan).

In the 'CAC and elsewhere, it gives the anti-jock NARP element one more bullet.  "Football consumes an inordinate amount of our college's resources, and it lowers the quality of our student body by diluting our brilliance with dumb jocks.  And those poor misguided jocks will leave our hallowed halls even dumber than they arrived, since their so-called sport is turning their Neanderthal brains to tapioca."

Totally off topic, I watched We Are Marshall last night.  What a great film.  Everything that's good about football, everything that's good about America.

[PolarCat]

Joe and I won't post too often on here because you know, we have our own place to write about this stuff, but we did want to post the link to our first article about football this fall. http://nothingbutnescac.com/2015/09/01/welcome-to-2015/.

Adam,

That's a FABULOUS article, beautifully written.  I hope you and/or Joe move on to SI or ESPN when you graduate, as the world needs more great sports journalists, and fewer Erin Andrews'.

And I also hope you are grooming your own replacements.  It would be a shame if your blog died when you guys graduate.

[polbear73]

Joe and I won't post too often on here because you know, we have our own place to write about this stuff, but we did want to post the link to our first article about football this fall. http://nothingbutnescac.com/2015/09/01/welcome-to-2015/.

Adam,

That's a FABULOUS article, beautifully written.  I hope you and/or Joe move on to SI or ESPN when you graduate, as the world needs more great sports journalists, and fewer Erin Andrews'.

And I also hope you are grooming your own replacements.  It would be a shame if your blog died when you guys graduate.

Seconded.  We have missed you guys and look forward to reading more. 

[amh63]

Really "guys"... A more possible attitude here on this board .  I was annoyed when they outlawed the "flying wedge".  In football...the American sport....today things do go around a little.  Northeastern wanted to unionize the players and it was stopped for now....to pay players!  Heck, college football at schools like Notre Dame had pro players in the dark ages of football...where padding was minimum...even on the head. Amherst had a great athlete in Dr. Drew....the deleveloper of Blood Plasm.....who was recruited to play at Harvard AFTER he graduated and was attending medical school.
Concerns pointed out here wrt to the future of football in Nescac are valid....look at Swathmore.  Still, football is played? at Columbia and Brown .
I was struck recently by the Ivy schools that held "football" camps where many CAC coaches attend to look at prospects.  Camps are held at Dartmouth, Harvard and Columbia to name the ones in the East.  Amherst sent two coaches to Columbia!....guess it is to look at kids from the surrounding region.  What surprised me is that Columbia was the host school.  Does anyone remember the last time Columbia won an Ivy title?  It is a school because of site limitations built its newest gym Under the football field and got it's biggest Endownments growth when it sold the land under Rockerfellow Center.
Back to watching the new dorms being constructed....slow today....new students are arriving...affecting the flow of cement trucks...like none.

[RetiredMule]

Well today is the day that upperclassmen football players return to Mayflower Hill to move back into their dorms.  They will also assist with moving in freshmen under the watchful eye of the coaches.  While this is a great tradition at Colby that helps put football in a good light from Day 1 of freshmen and parents minds, it is not the tradition I am most sad I am missing.

Today is the Running of the Freshmen at Colby.  A time honored tradition of Colby football where the freshmen football players run their conditioning test and agility testing in front of the team as a whole.  What makes this so much fun is that it represents the first time the upperclassmen are back together as a group.  But there is something that is more fun about it.

When the freshmen show up to run, nervous to impress and get off on the right foot, they have no idea that the upperclassmen will be there to watch them run.  While this adds a bit more to the nerves, it serves a bigger purpose.  The upperclassmen get an opportunity to form early opinions about work ethic and athleticism of the incoming players.  And while there is nothing more nerve wracking then having your new coaches and teammates judge your 18 year old self, the strength of the day comes when the upperclassmen line the field to cheer on, encourage and advise young players as they run their first conditioning test. 

This right of passage represents the true opening of preseason on the Hill and was always something to look forward to.  And there is nothing better than the OL and DTs being told to remove their shirts for the final stretch of the conditioning test (Look at those big bodies run).

I am glad it is football season in the NESCAC again.

[PolarCat]

GREAT tradition!

Though if I was a 20-year-old college student, I might have more fun watching the freshman women's soccer team run.  Particularly if they removed their shirts at the end, a la Brandi Chastain.  Just sayin'.

[polbear73]

When I was a 20 year old freshman, I attended a mens' school.  Believe me, there was nothing to look at.  Also, as daunting as it must be for a freshman to run conditioning drills in front of his upper class teammates, singing one's high school fight song in front of them was far worse, especially to the terminally tone deaf!