FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[Garnet]

NESCACMan.... Hockey hastened Union's departure from NESCAC, but in the early-mid 80s, Union's football program also outgrew NESCAC, first with former Brown assistant Joe Wirth and then with Al Bagnoli (who of course went on to win a bunch of Ivy titles at Penn and now has Columbia winning).Under Bagnoli, and with plenty of institutional support, Union began recruiting de facto I-AA athletes in large quantities (the the type of players that Williams or Amherst has always gotten here and there, but not in bulk) and making the D3 playoffs almost every year, including a couple losses in the national championship game. Union sustained this level for a decade or more. Not sure how they are today. But back then, Union was playing Hamilton, Middiebury and Williams every year and those schools were happy to see Union go elsewhere. As you and others have said, D3 fortunes rise and fall, but for a while Union was among the best programs in the country and had no business in NESCAC.

+K

[amh63]

The only story I heard wrt to Union's Nescac departure was the D1 Hockey program.  Now that a "Garnet" poster has supported an Union desire to seek upgrade it's football goals too, I must simply state that Union just outgrewit's Nescac "britches". :
How is Union doing these days in Football?  Does have a nice circular structure that was once it's Library. 

[JEFFFAN]

Springfield swings wildly depending on how talented and experienced the triple option quarterback is.

In the 70's, schools like Springfield, Union, AIC, WPI, Coast Guard, Rochester, Norwich, and Union would regularly appear regularly on future NESCAC schools' schedules and, if memory serves, those future NESCAC teams won much more often than they lost.  These were the days when College was divided only in two divisions, College and University.  The lines of distinction were blurred back then (teams like Delaware were in the small college division while the IVYs were large) and coaches like the Darp attracted great athletes (Swift, Scott, Fuget, etc).  One can't really compare the eras, but this was a great one for New England small college football.

Until 1991, when the NESCAC schools decided to only play themselves, the current NESCAC teams played an 8-game schedule comprised of 7 "in-league" games against "NESCAC" teams and 1 "out of conference" game against the likes of schools listed above (the other 2 NESCAC schools not on a teams schedule rotated onto it every 2 years). Our recollection is that some of the games were pretty big rivalries, for example, Middlebury/Norwich, Wesleyan/Coast Guard, Williams/Union, Hamilton/U of R (Rochester)...in fact, one of those schools, Union, was a  "NESCAC" school until 1977 (we think the story was that they pulled out because that was when Ned Harkness was the hockey coach there and they went D1 in hockey, the first time around before the big scandal...but that's a story for another day and another Board)....The league did not officially crown sports champions until 1999.

From Wikipedia: "The conference originated with an agreement among Amherst, Bowdoin, Wesleyan and Williams in 1955. In 1971, Bates, Colby, Hamilton, Middlebury, Trinity, Tufts, and Union College joined on and the NESCAC was officially formed. Union withdrew in 1977 and was replaced by Connecticut College in 1982...."

NESCACMan.... Hockey hastened Union's departure from NESCAC, but in the early-mid 80s, Union's football program also outgrew NESCAC, first with former Brown assistant Joe Wirth and then with Al Bagnoli (who of course went on to win a bunch of Ivy titles at Penn and now has Columbia winning).Under Bagnoli, and with plenty of institutional support, Union began recruiting de facto I-AA athletes in large quantities (the the type of players that Williams or Amherst has always gotten here and there, but not in bulk) and making the D3 playoffs almost every year, including a couple losses in the national championship game. Union sustained this level for a decade or more. Not sure how they are today. But back then, Union was playing Hamilton, Middiebury and Williams every year and those schools were happy to see Union go elsewhere. As you and others have said, D3 fortunes rise and fall, but for a while Union was among the best programs in the country and had no business in NESCAC.

Thus leading to the hiring by Amherst of Jack Sedlecki and, for a few years, one of the darkest periods in Amherst football history.   Team got better - quickly - but the "Union to Amherst" student movement was not successful.

[FanOfNescac]

The only story I heard wrt to Union's Nescac departure was the D1 Hockey program.  Now that a "Garnet" poster has supported an Union desire to seek upgrade it's football goals too, I must simply state that Union just outgrewit's Nescac "britches". :
How is Union doing these days in Football?  Does have a nice circular structure that was once it's Library. 

Looks like Union is 7-2 this year. They would appear to a be a solid D3 team, but not the powerhouse that they were at the time of their departure from NESCAC. You are right, Union became too good for NESCAC in football, at least for a while. That does not appear to be the case at present. Also amh63, you would appreciate that the Amherst FB coach who preceded Ostendarp was John McLaughry, who came to Amherst after a successful decade at Union. So there is a connection. McLaughry coached Amherst from 1950-58, then was hired at Brown, which opened the door for the `Darp to take over the team then known as the LJs. (McLaughry was 44-23 in 9 years at Amherst, with 3 Little Three titles; he was not nearly as successful at Brown, 17-51-3 in eight seasons, and then fired; he probably should have stayed in the Pioneer Valley, but then who knows where/when Ostendarp would have been gotten a head coaching job. Maybe Williams?)

[Nescacman]

The Foy TD pass with under 1 minute (?) to play in first half should go down as THE PLAY OF THE NESCAC YEAR!

Agreed. This play, albeit in the first half, really swung the momentum of the game and after the Amherst score to open the 3rd quarter I never really felt like Trinity was in the game.

* Kudos to Mills..thoroughly outcoached Devaney, and the OL thoroughly outplayed their Bantam counterparts.
* Must have been a bad day for heralded Puzzo..he looked very average, 17-30, lots of overthrows, not much touch at all.
* Bant RB Chipouras..has had a great career, tough, steady, but again, not impressive.  Not as shifty as Figueroa, nor as sturdy as Hickey, yet for three seasons has had 97% of the carries.  Do they ever change pace by using another back?

Agree with this as well; Puzzo just seemed off as many of his downfield attempts were significantly overthrown. Trinity repeatedly tried to get Chipouras going but there didn't appear to be much room to run against a stout Mammoth run defense.

Hats off to Amherst. This is now the fifth straight loss at Pratt Field for the Bantams.

Frank, you will never see a NESCAC school in the Top 25 in football primarily because we have decided that the D3 football playoffs are either somehow beneath us or the powers that be think football players are too stupid to handle a sport and study for finals. You could have an undefeated NESCAC team beating everyone 100-0 and they still wouldn't be ranked. Occasionally, a NESCAC school will get some votes and be in the "also receiving votes" category, but even that is rare.

We have seen a lot of D3 football over the years and there is no doubt in our mind that there are schools in the Top 25 that NESCAC schools could beat. However, until we are allowed to compete in the playoffs in football as we do in every other sport and prove how good we are, you will not see NESCAC schools ranked.

Wrong again Nescacman. Trinity finished 25th in the D3football.com poll in 2005 after completing a third consecutive undefeated season: http://d3football.com/top25/2005/final
My guess is that it was your subpar research skills that prevented you from being accepted to Trinity.

Finally, I saw a listing of top NESCAC coaches winning percentages a few pages back. For what it's worth Devanney is currently at .854 (82-14) after almost 12 full seasons. Chuck Priore had a .813 winning percentage (39-9) in his six seasons at Trinity. Eight of Priore's nine total losses were in his first two seasons.

The only school we know of from Hartford in the NESCAC is called "Hartford State". The "Top 25" team mentioned by that poster must have been Trinity in Texas...

[footballfan2155]

WEEKEND CHAMPIONSHIP SCENARIOS
With the addition of the 9th game, the NESCAC adopted a new championship format in football that will allow for tie-breakers to determine a single champion.
-If Amherst wins on Saturday, they will be the lone NESCAC Champion. They hold the head to head tie-breaker with Trinity.
-If there is a 3-way tie between Amherst, Wesleyan and Trinity at 7-2, Amherst is the champion with wins over both Trinity and Wesleyan.
-Middlebury can still win it outright with a win over Tufts and Amherst and Trinity loses. This would create a 4-way tie with Middlebury holding a 2-1 record against the 3 other teams.

[nescac1]

Interesting, didn't realize that NESCAC had changed the head-to-head championship tie-breaker rule.  Makes a ton of sense.  Anything can happen Saturday, and the Ephs will be hungry and motivated for their rivalry game after a rough game against Wesleyan, but realistically, it's gonna take a TON of breaks in the Ephs favor to set them up for a historic upset that would keep the Jeffs from securing the title on Weston Field, alas.  The Walk will be back soon enough, but the reality is, whatever happens on Saturday, nobody could have expected the Ephs to even come close to five wins this season. 

[westcoastDad]

Head to Head should matter!

[amh63]

WCD...I agree and the "new" rules point the direction!.  Beat Williams in Willytown and Amherst WINs the Title.  No matter what happens in the battle....it will be a battle...between the Bantams and the Cardinals.  I'm sure the coaches have copies of the Wes beatup of Williams film.
Interesting that the game for the Little Three Title will have a NESN broadcasting crew and other associated good things.  Hope the weather will be dry and football playing temps will also be had.

[westcoastDad]

Class 18'  Lord Mammoths want to finish their career with an unblemished record against the Ephs.  Their 3rd ring is at stake.  A chance for 32-5 record to boot.  Lots of pressure on their plate against a dangerous revitalized Ephs team. 

[lumbercat]

One of the best Amherst-Williams matchups in quite a while.

Too bad the eggheads at Amherst elected to remove the game last year from regional TV coverage on NESN where it had been broadcast live for many years.

Amherst people cited declining viewership as their reason for pulling the game from NESN.

Obviously ratings were down due to EPHs struggles in the past few years. I guess the Amherst folks assumed that Williams would never be competitive again. NSN no substitiute for the TV production viewed on NESN for several years. Internet coverage is ok but nothing like real TV.

[nescac1]

Heading into the last week, who are folks thinking are the leading contenders for all-league and the individual honors?

OPOY has loads of contenders ... Lebowitz is the MVP for the time he played, but has probably missed too much time, alas.  Breuler, Piccirillo, Chipouras, McDonald all seem like really solid candidates.  Breuler looks most likely to take home the honors I'd say, just ridiculous stats and he's been doing it for several years now.   

Rough year for all-league RB candidates.  Lots of contenders injured and missed too much time.  After Chipouras and Hickey, it gets pretty thin pretty fast.  Amherst's Figueroa might be next best even though he's number two on own squad.

For WR, Breuler, O'Regan and Schofer have to be the first team.  A bit of a drop-off after that trio, but I'd say Stola, Schmidt and Dolan for second team. 

QB: it's a lot of dudes, but the coaches may find a way to honor all four worthy guys (Lebowitz, Piccirrillo, McDonald, Puzzo).  Tough to exclude any of them. 

Tough year for the rookies: Stola, Costa, Rothmann, Pedrini, Bierman, and Wesner would all be contenders most years, but Maimaron -- even after a rough game against Wesleyan -- has that one locked down. 

Defensive POY has to by Yamin.  But man, what a year for LBs in NESCAC.  Besides him, Morris, Hudson, Holt, Wesner, Rothman, Kaminski, Sommer all had big years, but a few of those dudes will be shut out of all-league contention.

DB, OL and DL will probably be pretty stacked with guys from Trinity and Amherst, I imagine.  Both have great units across the board.  Tufts has some nasty DL too, Adickes and Harrison will definitely both be all-league. 


 

[amh63]

Lumbercat....read your "beatdown" of Amherst wrt to the lack of a NESN broadcast last year. 
Just made my reservation to watch the NESN viewcast in DC...with Williams fans .  I could get it at home via Directv BUT will make my way downtown....where I met Nescac1 a number of years ago.
Check the Williams website for their broadcast info.

[lumbercat]

Amh63-

Beatdown is a pretty severe term, no malice intended. Thought I would tweak the #2 liberal arts college in the country with the Egghead characterization to describe the folks in the administration who made that call last year.

But my apologies for my comment overall- I did not realize they had put the game back on Nesn this year- so the Eggheads are off the hook.

That's great for all- can watch live or DVD. May very well be a good one.

[Nescacman]

WEEKEND CHAMPIONSHIP SCENARIOS
With the addition of the 9th game, the NESCAC adopted a new championship format in football that will allow for tie-breakers to determine a single champion.
-If Amherst wins on Saturday, they will be the lone NESCAC Champion. They hold the head to head tie-breaker with Trinity.
-If there is a 3-way tie between Amherst, Wesleyan and Trinity at 7-2, Amherst is the champion with wins over both Trinity and Wesleyan.
-Middlebury can still win it outright with a win over Tufts and Amherst and Trinity loses. This would create a 4-way tie with Middlebury holding a 2-1 record against the 3 other teams.

The scenario cited above and methodology for deciding the NESCAC football champ for 2017 in the event of a 2 or more way tie was still being debated by the league AD's as recently as today. The above scenario is not in any way referenced on the NESCAC website as being official. Some of the league AD's recall this issue being discussed and voted on by them, others don't. We have not yet checked our sources to decide what decision was made...

Although we don't disagree with the logic of the above, the NESCAC AD's could decide to do what their big brothers in the Ivy League do. What is that you ask? Well they decided years ago to NOT award the title in the event of a tie for first based on head-to-head record. Instead, in the event of a tie, the impacted teams are all considered co-Ivy League Champs. The Ivy's logic is as follows: football is the most important sport from a fundraising perspective and if more schools can call themselves champ, it will help more of them with fundraising. Interesting concept. In that the NESCAC seems to mimic the Ivy's in many ways, it would not surprise us if they go the same direction....