FB: New Jersey Athletic Conference

[Pat Coleman]

When you have a team like UMU recruiting a large portion of their athletes from Florida, you can't compete with that level of athleticism.  Most DIII teams tend not to recruit like a DI program.

-Ski

This is true, in that 125 or more of the 249 tend not to, but the top programs do recruit Florida, Texas, California pretty hard. The teams Wesley would be competing with beyond the first couple rounds of the playoffs definitely do.

[gordonmann]

Do any East Region teams regularly recruit in Texas, Florida or California?

Brockport's entire roster is from N.Y. I don't know of any MAC schools that recruit beyond driving distance. I assume the same goes for the NJAC.

Maybe those teams were implicitly set aside since they don't frequently last more than a week or two.

[Oline89]

Do any East Region teams regularly recruit in Texas, Florida or California?

Brockport's entire roster is from N.Y. I don't know of any MAC schools that recruit beyond driving distance. I assume the same goes for the NJAC.

Maybe those teams were implicitly set aside since they don't frequently last more than a week or two.

I posted this on the Liberty League board earlier:

So now that we are in the off season, let's talk recruiting.  I just ran some numbers:

National Powers:
Mt Union:  123 on roster, 51 from out of state (41%), 15 states represented
Mary Hardin Baylor: 172(!) on roster, 5 out of state (3%), 4 states represented

Best East teams:
Brockport: 85 on roster, 100% from NY
Del Vall: 142 on roster, 65 out of state (although 50 of these are NJ, 45%), 6 states

LL
Hobart: 106 roster, 59 out of state (56%), 10 states

My take away is that Mt Union can recruit the best athletes on a national level, not on par with FBS teams, but certainly can recruit with the majority of FCS teams.  MHB draws from a  talent rich, top 3 football producing state, those players that don't quite make the cut as high school seniors for UT, TCU, Baylor, A&M, Houston, SMU. Regional East Coast power teams (Wesley, Brockport, Del Val), need to catch lightning in a bottle, where everything lines up at the right time.   Occasionally a school like Johns Hopkins or Hobart can have the ability to pull players from out of the region and make an impact.   Didn't solve the mystery of life here, but obviously it will take a little more than good recruiting for the East to compete with the national powers.  On  a much more positive note, the inter-region fight for the top spots in the East is by far the most compelling and exciting in the country!!

[Oline89]

Hobart currently has 4 players on the roster from Florida (including Sr receiver Brandon Shed), Ithaca College has 2.  By comparison, Mt Union has 12

[ITH radio]

Do any East Region teams regularly recruit in Texas, Florida or California?

Brockport's entire roster is from N.Y. I don't know of any MAC schools that recruit beyond driving distance. I assume the same goes for the NJAC.

Maybe those teams were implicitly set aside since they don't frequently last more than a week or two.

Yes, actually Coach Audino was one of the earlier recruiters of kids from FL which helped other schools like Hobart get kids from there eventually also (e.g., Brandon Shed, Dom Ellis, Jake Stanley, Joe Barrocas, etc). RPI has kids from like 41 states or something crazy like that. USMMA and academy type institutions also pull from everyone, including TX, CA, GA, etc.

My favorite story this season was getting to hear how John Smith was found by Husson from GA. Talk about going the distance!

[gordonmann]

Yeah, pretty cool story with John Smith.

I'm not surprised that RPI or Merchant Marine has a national reach given their academic profile. I also don't think of those schools as frequent playoff contenders, which was part of Pat's description. Same goes for the NESCAC schools who recruit all over the place but don't participate in the playoffs.

Not an East region school per se, but does Hopkins draw from a larger area? Washington & Jefferson?

[Bombers798891]

I mean, ultimately, there is probably very little ROI for some of these schools to recruit there. Not that they don't get good players, but they're not going to get many, and there's likely a limited budget for that kind of travel.

[phil]

It's kinda strange. Somehow since I left New Jersey and all my NJAC posting, my then 1 yr. old diaper-wearing daughter has turned into a 13 yr. old softball player who has already been on ESPN, won 3 national titles, and has been noticed by college coaches. Yesterday, her friend whom she played with on a Tennessee team (we live in Texas), committed to University of Florida (she's in 7th grade). Another four friends (8th graders), committed to UCLA, Oklahoma, and LSU (2). My pragmatic 7th grader, who's taking 9th grade algebra in 7th grade, wants to play softball for Princeton or schools like Washington University of St. Louis, University of Chicago, Williams or Amherst. Rational is to play ball at the best college possible – one she might not get into otherwise. When rooting for the College of NJ, I used to bash the NESCAC for their ability to recruit from all over the country. Now I'm sitting here in Texas and I can totally see her heading back East to play college ball someday...

On the other hand MUC ain't Amherst. I'd be curious to see what kind of financial "aid" packages those Florida players get.

[Jonny Utah]

It's kinda strange. Somehow since I left New Jersey and all my NJAC posting, my then 1 yr. old diaper-wearing daughter has turned into a 13 yr. old softball player who has already been on ESPN, won 3 national titles, and has been noticed by college coaches. Yesterday, her friend whom she played with on a Tennessee team (we live in Texas), committed to University of Florida (she's in 7th grade). Another four friends (8th graders), committed to UCLA, Oklahoma, and LSU (2). My pragmatic 7th grader, who's taking 9th grade algebra in 7th grade, wants to play softball for Princeton or schools like Washington University of St. Louis, University of Chicago, Williams or Amherst. Rational is to play ball at the best college possible – one she might not get into otherwise. When rooting for the College of NJ, I used to bash the NESCAC for their ability to recruit from all over the country. Now I'm sitting here in Texas and I can totally see her heading back East to play college ball someday...

On the other hand MUC ain't Amherst. I'd be curious to see what kind of financial "aid" packages those Florida players get.

That is the big question.  I'm not sure if schools have to report this to the NCAA or not?

[Pat Coleman]

It's kinda strange. Somehow since I left New Jersey and all my NJAC posting, my then 1 yr. old diaper-wearing daughter has turned into a 13 yr. old softball player who has already been on ESPN, won 3 national titles, and has been noticed by college coaches. Yesterday, her friend whom she played with on a Tennessee team (we live in Texas), committed to University of Florida (she's in 7th grade). Another four friends (8th graders), committed to UCLA, Oklahoma, and LSU (2). My pragmatic 7th grader, who's taking 9th grade algebra in 7th grade, wants to play softball for Princeton or schools like Washington University of St. Louis, University of Chicago, Williams or Amherst. Rational is to play ball at the best college possible – one she might not get into otherwise. When rooting for the College of NJ, I used to bash the NESCAC for their ability to recruit from all over the country. Now I'm sitting here in Texas and I can totally see her heading back East to play college ball someday...

On the other hand MUC ain't Amherst. I'd be curious to see what kind of financial "aid" packages those Florida players get.

That is the big question.  I'm not sure if schools have to report this to the NCAA or not?

They do. Schools can't give more than 4% greater aid to student-athletes than they do to the rest of the student body.

[Oline89]

Pat, that 4% number is one I have never heard.  Is that  a universal D3 number or conference specific?  Is it related to a per capita average, i.e. the average financial package for all athletes has to be within 4% of the average member of the student body?  Also I assume this is grant money we are talking about, not federal student loans

[phil]

Pat, I haven't heard about the 4% either. Is that 4% more than the best aid package they can offer? At a place like Carnegie Mellon, that makes a tremendous difference. Tuition, Room & Board is just north of $70k there – but an average Carnegie Mellon Grant for those whose income is less than $50k is $43k. If you can take another 4% off of that for an athlete, the package which Carnegie Mellon might offer would make four years of tuition room & board less than attending a state school here in Texas. One of the girls in my daughter's softball organization playing 18u ball just committed to Carnegie Mellon's fledgling softball program, I've gotta track them down and find out...

[WRMUalum13]

Do any East Region teams regularly recruit in Texas, Florida or California?

Brockport's entire roster is from N.Y. I don't know of any MAC schools that recruit beyond driving distance. I assume the same goes for the NJAC.

Maybe those teams were implicitly set aside since they don't frequently last more than a week or two.

I posted this on the Liberty League board earlier:

So now that we are in the off season, let's talk recruiting.  I just ran some numbers:

National Powers:
Mt Union:  123 on roster, 51 from out of state (41%), 15 states represented
Mary Hardin Baylor: 172(!) on roster, 5 out of state (3%), 4 states represented

Best East teams:
Brockport: 85 on roster, 100% from NY
Del Vall: 142 on roster, 65 out of state (although 50 of these are NJ, 45%), 6 states

LL
Hobart: 106 roster, 59 out of state (56%), 10 states

My take away is that Mt Union can recruit the best athletes on a national level, not on par with FBS teams, but certainly can recruit with the majority of FCS teams.  MHB draws from a  talent rich, top 3 football producing state, those players that don't quite make the cut as high school seniors for UT, TCU, Baylor, A&M, Houston, SMU. Regional East Coast power teams (Wesley, Brockport, Del Val), need to catch lightning in a bottle, where everything lines up at the right time.   Occasionally a school like Johns Hopkins or Hobart can have the ability to pull players from out of the region and make an impact.   Didn't solve the mystery of life here, but obviously it will take a little more than good recruiting for the East to compete with the national powers.  On  a much more positive note, the inter-region fight for the top spots in the East is by far the most compelling and exciting in the country!!

Mount cannot compete with FCS schools in recruiting. FCS schools can offer 63 full scholarships, no way somebody is turning down a full ride at a d1 school to play at Mount.

[Pat Coleman]

Pat, I haven't heard about the 4% either. Is that 4% more than the best aid package they can offer? At a place like Carnegie Mellon, that makes a tremendous difference. Tuition, Room & Board is just north of $70k there – but an average Carnegie Mellon Grant for those whose income is less than $50k is $43k. If you can take another 4% off of that for an athlete, the package which Carnegie Mellon might offer would make four years of tuition room & board less than attending a state school here in Texas. One of the girls in my daughter's softball organization playing 18u ball just committed to Carnegie Mellon's fledgling softball program, I've gotta track them down and find out...

Here's the details:
http://www.ncaa.org/division-iii-financial-aid-reporting-program

[Ralph Turner]

It's kinda strange. Somehow since I left New Jersey and all my NJAC posting, my then 1 yr. old diaper-wearing daughter has turned into a 13 yr. old softball player who has already been on ESPN, won 3 national titles, and has been noticed by college coaches. Yesterday, her friend whom she played with on a Tennessee team (we live in Texas), committed to University of Florida (she's in 7th grade). Another four friends (8th graders), committed to UCLA, Oklahoma, and LSU (2). My pragmatic 7th grader, who's taking 9th grade algebra in 7th grade, wants to play softball for Princeton or schools like Washington University of St. Louis, University of Chicago, Williams or Amherst. Rational is to play ball at the best college possible – one she might not get into otherwise. When rooting for the College of NJ, I used to bash the NESCAC for their ability to recruit from all over the country. Now I'm sitting here in Texas and I can totally see her heading back East to play college ball someday...

On the other hand MUC ain't Amherst. I'd be curious to see what kind of financial "aid" packages those Florida players get.

Good to read your posts again, phil.

Softball?  D3softball in Texas?  UT-Tyler ($8,000 per year tuition)  or UTDallas or ETBU. 

Even Chicago U made it to the Softball post-season last year.

http://www.ncaa.com/news/softball/article/2017-05-13/2017-division-iii-softball-regionals-times-matchups-and-results

There are some good D3 schools who made the post-season last year.