FB: Empire 8

[boobyhasgameyo]

I'm not sure if he meant handle in terms of easily defeat so much as could handle the task of playing Fisher.  I don't know...maybe he did mean handle as in manhandle them.  Who is to know such things! 

[fisheralum91]

I forgot my mind reading hat today

[ITH radio]

Highlights from CBX come in about the 55 minute mark of the podcast:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ith/2014/09/21/in-the-huddlle--liberty-league-football-talk-show

[Bombers798891]

The new top 25 is out

Fisher is up to the #7 spot
Ithaca is up to #17
Alfred is in the receiving votes section

Go conference go. 

Things are getting very interesting in the E9 right now. Ithaca's vote totals haven't really moved up all year (140 to 154 to 162 to 184), which makes me think they're basically benefiting from being unbeaten and floating up. But there's a 91-point gap between 17 and 15, so if the Bombers want to help out Fisher, beating a team that at least one voter sees as top 25-caliber would be huge to closing that, because I'm not sure how much higher they can float on wins over unranked opponents.

Unfortunately for the Cardinals, if Ithaca does win, it really furthers the gap between Ithaca and the rest of the conference, which puts pretty much all of their eggs in the "Please let IC be 7-1 heading into Week 9" basket.

I wonder if an Alfred win would propel the Saxons upward while still keeping IC in the rankings. The Saxons don't play Fisher to the last game of the season. Could an Alfred victory be a net gain for the E9 by adding some depth to the top of the conference in the eyes of the selection committee?

[AUPepBand]

The new top 25 is out

Fisher is up to the #7 spot
Ithaca is up to #17
Alfred is in the receiving votes section

Go conference go. 

Things are getting very interesting in the E9 right now. Ithaca's vote totals haven't really moved up all year (140 to 154 to 162 to 184), which makes me think they're basically benefiting from being unbeaten and floating up. But there's a 91-point gap between 17 and 15, so if the Bombers want to help out Fisher, beating a team that at least one voter sees as top 25-caliber would be huge to closing that, because I'm not sure how much higher they can float on wins over unranked opponents.

Unfortunately for the Cardinals, if Ithaca does win, it really furthers the gap between Ithaca and the rest of the conference, which puts pretty much all of their eggs in the "Please let IC be 7-1 heading into Week 9" basket.

I wonder if an Alfred win would propel the Saxons upward while still keeping IC in the rankings. The Saxons don't play Fisher to the last game of the season. Could an Alfred victory be a net gain for the E9 by adding some depth to the top of the conference in the eyes of the selection committee?

If Alfred is to have a chance of winning on Saterday, the Saxons will need to shore up their sloppy special teams play. Pep can't see AU getting away with shoddy execution a fourth consecutive week and still come away with a win, especially against the Bombers. And until the special teams play is cleaned up, Pep can't justify in his mind a single vote for the Top 25.

On Saxon Warriors!

[boobyhasgameyo]

I think the best thing for Fisher if they were to go undefeated is to have Alfred win and have that be Ithaca's only blemish heading into week 9.  I don't think Ithaca would fall completely out of the top 25 if they lost this weekend, and even if they did it would be just barely.  I bet in that circumstance they would make their way back up if they were 7-1. 

In terms of the conference sending an at large into the playoffs, I think we will never see 3 teams from the conference go ever again.  So from that standpoint it doesn't really matter which team prevails as long as the winning side doesn't lose again, outside of Fisher. 

Now if Fisher does their Fisher thing and loses to a team that they probably should have beaten, let's say Salisbury if they aren't in contention this year, then things get interesting.  If we run the table against everyone else and take the AQ then we could take away a shot at anybody else in the E9 making it.  Because that would ensure at least a second loss for the Ithaca vs Alfred loser, and who is to say that the Ithaca vs Alfred winner also won't lose another game other than to Fisher. 

Lot of hypotheticals to play out here.  Maybe Fisher will make it a little easier on everyone and lose out the rest of the season.  Finish with two wins 

[AUPepBand]

Lot of hypotheticals to play out here.  Maybe Fisher will make it a little easier on everyone and lose out the rest of the season.  Finish with two wins 

We can only hope.... 

[Bombers798891]

And to clarify, my Alfred/IC thoughts are based on two things

1) Alfred's got a strong running QB, something IC has struggled with

2) Recently, the Alfred/IC games have swung quite a bit based on location. Pep posted something om IC's struggles at Merrill, but with all due respect to the Saxons, I think the grass/turf thing matters a lot. Look at how well Hartwick and Utica play IC on the road, and how non-competitive the games are at IC. Go back and check out how Springfield took one of Mike Welch's best ever teams to the woodshed in 2003 up there, and almost never played well at IC.

IC's one of the few teams that plays on grass still, and even if the turf stuff now isn't like the old concrete, I think there's a noticeable impact. Yes, some of it could be natural home/road stuff everyone deals with, but to me: mobile Saxon QB + turf = Alfred as the favorites

[Mr. Ypsi]

Not so fast Yip.
I think the Fisher NCC battle would be a great one!

Agreed.  I didn't mean NCC would 'kill' them, just that I think NCC would probably win the game.

[AUPepBand]

And to clarify, my Alfred/IC thoughts are based on two things

1) Alfred's got a strong running QB, something IC has struggled with

2) Recently, the Alfred/IC games have swung quite a bit based on location. Pep posted something om IC's struggles at Merrill, but with all due respect to the Saxons, I think the grass/turf thing matters a lot. Look at how well Hartwick and Utica play IC on the road, and how non-competitive the games are at IC. Go back and check out how Springfield took one of Mike Welch's best ever teams to the woodshed in 2003 up there, and almost never played well at IC.

IC's one of the few teams that plays on grass still, and even if the turf stuff now isn't like the old concrete, I think there's a noticeable impact. Yes, some of it could be natural home/road stuff everyone deals with, but to me: mobile Saxon QB + turf = Alfred as the favorites

Pep agrees the playing surface makes a ton of difference in the Alfred-Ithaca series. Saxons acted as if they were wearing tennis shoes on the grass at ButterField last year, getting pushed around by the fully-cleated Bombers. Not the same on Merrill Field.

Pep remembers football games in the side yard where the fellow that showed up wearing cleats had a clear advantage over the others in making moves in the grass. To quote Eastbay.com, "Your power, speed, and agility are all directly affected by your interaction with the playing surface beneath your feet."

On Saxon Warriors!

[sjfcards]

Not so fast Yip.
I think the Fisher NCC battle would be a great one!

Agreed.  I didn't mean NCC would 'kill' them, just that I think NCC would probably win the game.

How dare you?

[Mr. Ypsi]

Not so fast Yip.
I think the Fisher NCC battle would be a great one!

Agreed.  I didn't mean NCC would 'kill' them, just that I think NCC would probably win the game.

How dare you?

I'm a CCIW guy.  I have tremendous respect for SJF, but I think NCC is a step up.

As I see it, it is UWW, UMU, and UMHB on top, then NCC, Linfield, and Wesley, then a pack of about 5-6 teams (including SJF) in the next tier.  The next 20-30 teams are take your pick.  You?

[boobyhasgameyo]

Not so fast Yip.
I think the Fisher NCC battle would be a great one!

Agreed.  I didn't mean NCC would 'kill' them, just that I think NCC would probably win the game.

How dare you?

I'm a CCIW guy.  I have tremendous respect for SJF, but I think NCC is a step up.

As I see it, it is UWW, UMU, and UMHB on top, then NCC, Linfield, and Wesley, then a pack of about 5-6 teams (including SJF) in the next tier.  The next 20-30 teams are take your pick.  You?

I would agree that Fisher is in that 3rd tier.  They have the ability to knock off a second tier team but would have to play a perfect game and have some lucky bounces to take out a top tier team.  I know the final score says otherwise but that Mary Hardin Baylor game last year was winnable.  There was a momentum swing going on that brought it to a 1 score game in the middle of the 4th.  Who knows what would have happened if the Fisher DB would have caught that ball that bounced off his chest in the endzone instead of dropping it.  UMHB scores on the next play to go up 2 scores.  Causes Fisher to gamble on the next possession since they were running out of time --> we lose the gamble and turnover on downs deep in our territory --> UMHB punches it in with a minute left to go up 3 scores.  Looks like a blowout, but had we played a perfect 4th quarter and had some bounces...could have taken out that tier 1 team. 

I wasn't sure if NCC would qualify as being in the same level as Linfield or Wesley.  Both Fisher and NCC have only made it as far as the semi-finals since 2000 (to my knowledge), granted 2006 is becoming farther and farther away.  But then I looked at NCC's records over the past decade and it is pretty sustained excellence.  So maybe they are at the back end of the second tier. 

[fisheralum91]

In years past I would give you that tier system for Fisher.
I really think that this Fisher team has gotten to that 2nd tier with UMHB Wesley and NCC.
That UMHB game was indeed closer than the score indicated and Fisher has built upon that.
Lets see how the season shakes out but I do see something special here.

[jknezek]

In years past I would give you that tier system for Fisher.
I really think that this Fisher team has gotten to that 2nd tier with UMHB Wesley and NCC.
That UMHB game was indeed closer than the score indicated and Fisher has built upon that.
Lets see how the season shakes out but I do see something special here.

Interesting. I don't tend to think of the tier system as year to year. Teams in the first, second, third tier have gotten there based on sustained success with a few outliers (unless you are UMU. Then there are no outliers which is statistically fascinating). But Fisher doesn't have just outliers. They have a consistent pattern which isn't indicative of a second tier school. In some up years there are teams that can probably compete with the second tier, but it's just not consistent enough to actually join that tier in my mind.

Whether the team this year is one that can compete at that level we will see, and that would maybe give SJF two in a row, but the problem is the regular season losses. Those tier two teams just don't rack up two regular season losses per year. Occasionally? Sure. Regularly? No. For example NCC has two conference losses since 2008. Wesley gets less than two a season on average, but several have come to UMHB skewing the statistics. Linfield hasn't lost an NWC game since 2008 and only lost one non-playoff game in that time frame. Those tier two teams just don't look like SJF during the year. And yes, the ASC, NWC and Wesley's schedule are generally comparable to the E8ish.