FB: Empire 8

[union89]

If Secky is healthy for the rest of the season, they win out.  He is extremely impressive.  If he played the whole game today it probably isn't that close. 

AU is the real deal and Secky is the most impressive QB I've seen this year. 

That'll be the question. If he and Hendrix are healthy, it's a 9-0 season. If not, it's an open race, for now.

Would 9-0 be enough for a #1?

I would say yes. Pat, I'm sure, will disagree with me, but if Alfred wins out in the E8, I don't think there's a way to import MUC.

Albright has the chance at going 10-0, so in theory if they do in fact end up with 10 wins (including one over a nationally ranked DVC squad), I think a 9-0 AU team would end up as a "#2 seed".

   Isgro was injured in yesterdays game and will get x-rayes on right shoulder today according to local newspapers. His replacement was 2 of 9 passing which could make DelVal a very one dimensional attack without him

Man, that's gonna be a tough sell on Alfred. The E8 isn't looking like the strongest conference this season. I could see a scenario where the entire conference except Alfred has three losses and with that OOC, they won't look good there. Maybe their best bet is Springfield running the table? At least then they'd have that win over a 8-1 Pride.

But let's say Springfield loses to IC and Fisher, Cortland beats IC and the Wick beats Utica but loses to Fisher (convoluted sure but this is like a worst case scenario). You'd have

Alfred 9-0
Fisher 7-3
Springfield 6-3
Ithaca 6-4
Hartwick 5-4
Utica 4-6 (assuming they  beat Mt. Ida)

That's a pretty ugly looking E8, and Alfred will have zero decent OOC wins. It'd be hard to find a truly impressive win. The best would probably be at Fisher.

Unfortunately, Alfred picked a bad year to put it all together (although maybe that's why they've be able to; who knows?) and the E8 is just not helping them at all. Ithaca beating Union would have helped a lot, but it's just a bad year for the conference

I think this is bunk. If au goes 9-0, they get a high seed regardless of everything else. the e8, despite a struggle this year, is still regarded as a damn good conference.

A HIGH seed yes. But a #1 seed? Doubtful. In 2008, Ithaca went 9-1, in a similarly weak conference, but they had a pair of wins over two conference champions (Lycoming and Cortland State) and MUC got imported. Sure, a loss hurts, but either of those two OOC wins is exponentially tougher than any team Alfred faced all season. The conference was weaker, but Ithaca played tough teams out of conference

What about Fisher in 2007? Yes, they also had a loss. But they won a conference that had two other NCAA playoff teams going 8-2 and Alfred who went 7-3. So even though their OOC schedule wasn't good, the conference was. Two at large teams is pretty good. If Alfred goes 9-0, does anyone else in the E8 get a second look?

Look, I've said all alone that this Alfred team is very good. But are we really saying the Saxons have put together a better resume than Ithaca '08 or Fisher '07 for the committee? Unless Springfield keeps winning, I disagree. The OOC schedule is too weak to me. It's not a question of even having a very good, or even good team on there. 

Mass Dartmouth is 0-8
FDU Florham is 1-6
St. Lawrence is 2-5
Rochester is 3-4

Sure, St. Lawrence could be better, but come on. That's a total record of 6-25. If you're OOC schedule is going to be BAD, then you need a strong conference. And, reputation aside, the E8 is not living up to that right now.

The main point that you seem to be glazing over is that both Ithaca & Fisher had a loss in those scenarios.....IMO, you can't compare an undefeated Alfred to those situations.

[dlippiel]

Interesting, but look at D3's Top 25......4 OAC teams.....2 with two losses....all 4 ahead of Alfred.   I'm not even sure what my point is....OAC is a great conference, but D3.com always crushes on them.....running the table in the E8 in any year is pretty impressive to me.

dlip concurs U89 and seriously not trying to sound bitter towards the OAC but winning the E8, a top ten conference, is quite an accomplishment and should be recognized. If the winner of the E8 runs the table in conference and goes undefeated they should be considered for a #1 seed. The same goes for LL, NJAC, and MAC. Let the regions battle it out. WT****? Thinking out loud here if Alfred did schedule some solid OOC teams this discussion wouldn't be totally necessary. Maybe the import bull**** would still happen but at least we would know how good they were and could make a more legitimate argument. dlip always says, if you want to be a top team, make some real noise and be considered top notch, you must schedule the best OOC teams you can. If you do, and win out, you leave very little to debate.

[saxontad]

Please remember all of you posters who are discussing post-season seedings and undefeated seasons, this is pretty heady stuff for us Alfred rooters.  I, for one, don't care about that stuff.  I hope the team enjoys this win, has a great week of practice and plays well against Rochester.  The point is to play well.  The wins and losses and seedings will take care of themselves if you play well. That beingsaid

On Saxon Warriors.

[Boxer7806]

Dlip i agree with you all the way. Alfred should get the #1 seed if they win out. The best chance for this to happen is if Springfield wins out which will be tough with Ithaca and SJF the next two weeks. If Springfield does win out, Is it correct to assume they will get a Pool C bid as a #7/8 seed in the east?

[theoriginalupstate]

Dlip i agree with you all the way. Alfred should get the #1 seed if they win out. The best chance for this to happen is if Springfield wins out which will be tough with Ithaca and SJF the next two weeks. If Springfield does win out, Is it correct to assume they will get a Pool C bid as a #7/8 seed in the east?

It's not a regional selection anymore...

[dlippiel]

Dlip i agree with you all the way. Alfred should get the #1 seed if they win out. The best chance for this to happen is if Springfield wins out which will be tough with Ithaca and SJF the next two weeks. If Springfield does win out, Is it correct to assume they will get a Pool C bid as a #7/8 seed in the east?

Honestly the only thing dlip can say with confidence about that is that if the Pride does win out (dlip would love this!) dlip feels they would be deserving of a bid with their only loss coming to Alfred on the road. Wins over SJF and even IC at this point would still impress dlip enough to feel that the Pride would warrent serious consideration.

[theoriginalupstate]

Dlip i agree with you all the way. Alfred should get the #1 seed if they win out. The best chance for this to happen is if Springfield wins out which will be tough with Ithaca and SJF the next two weeks. If Springfield does win out, Is it correct to assume they will get a Pool C bid as a #7/8 seed in the east?

Honestly the only thing dlip can say with confidence about that is that if the Pride does win out (dlip would love this!) dlip feels they would be deserving of a bid with their only loss coming to Alfred on the road. Wins over SJF and even IC at this point would still impress dlip enough to feel that the Pride would warrent serious consideration.

Agree, if SC wins out they have a really good chance to get one...

[Bombers798891]

If Secky is healthy for the rest of the season, they win out.  He is extremely impressive.  If he played the whole game today it probably isn't that close. 

AU is the real deal and Secky is the most impressive QB I've seen this year. 

That'll be the question. If he and Hendrix are healthy, it's a 9-0 season. If not, it's an open race, for now.

Would 9-0 be enough for a #1?

I would say yes. Pat, I'm sure, will disagree with me, but if Alfred wins out in the E8, I don't think there's a way to import MUC.

Albright has the chance at going 10-0, so in theory if they do in fact end up with 10 wins (including one over a nationally ranked DVC squad), I think a 9-0 AU team would end up as a "#2 seed".

   Isgro was injured in yesterdays game and will get x-rayes on right shoulder today according to local newspapers. His replacement was 2 of 9 passing which could make DelVal a very one dimensional attack without him

Man, that's gonna be a tough sell on Alfred. The E8 isn't looking like the strongest conference this season. I could see a scenario where the entire conference except Alfred has three losses and with that OOC, they won't look good there. Maybe their best bet is Springfield running the table? At least then they'd have that win over a 8-1 Pride.

But let's say Springfield loses to IC and Fisher, Cortland beats IC and the Wick beats Utica but loses to Fisher (convoluted sure but this is like a worst case scenario). You'd have

Alfred 9-0
Fisher 7-3
Springfield 6-3
Ithaca 6-4
Hartwick 5-4
Utica 4-6 (assuming they  beat Mt. Ida)

That's a pretty ugly looking E8, and Alfred will have zero decent OOC wins. It'd be hard to find a truly impressive win. The best would probably be at Fisher.

Unfortunately, Alfred picked a bad year to put it all together (although maybe that's why they've be able to; who knows?) and the E8 is just not helping them at all. Ithaca beating Union would have helped a lot, but it's just a bad year for the conference

I think this is bunk. If au goes 9-0, they get a high seed regardless of everything else. the e8, despite a struggle this year, is still regarded as a damn good conference.

A HIGH seed yes. But a #1 seed? Doubtful. In 2008, Ithaca went 9-1, in a similarly weak conference, but they had a pair of wins over two conference champions (Lycoming and Cortland State) and MUC got imported. Sure, a loss hurts, but either of those two OOC wins is exponentially tougher than any team Alfred faced all season. The conference was weaker, but Ithaca played tough teams out of conference

What about Fisher in 2007? Yes, they also had a loss. But they won a conference that had two other NCAA playoff teams going 8-2 and Alfred who went 7-3. So even though their OOC schedule wasn't good, the conference was. Two at large teams is pretty good. If Alfred goes 9-0, does anyone else in the E8 get a second look?

Look, I've said all alone that this Alfred team is very good. But are we really saying the Saxons have put together a better resume than Ithaca '08 or Fisher '07 for the committee? Unless Springfield keeps winning, I disagree. The OOC schedule is too weak to me. It's not a question of even having a very good, or even good team on there. 

Mass Dartmouth is 0-8
FDU Florham is 1-6
St. Lawrence is 2-5
Rochester is 3-4

Sure, St. Lawrence could be better, but come on. That's a total record of 6-25. If you're OOC schedule is going to be BAD, then you need a strong conference. And, reputation aside, the E8 is not living up to that right now.

The main point that you seem to be glazing over is that both Ithaca & Fisher had a loss in those scenarios.....IMO, you can't compare an undefeated Alfred to those situations.

True they had a loss...to me, the much more difficult schedule both teams played, means something.

So does the fact that they both scheduled 10 games, as opposed to 9. I know that's not Alfred's fault, but to me, those two factors outweigh the loss.

Fisher and Ithaca both played two playoff teams those years. Alfred won't play ANY unless Springfield gets a Pool C bid.

You have to play (and beat) good teams to get a #1 in my opinion

[raidertown]

I know I don't post often on here but I believe that the #1 seeds will be

East: Mt. Union
South: Wesley
North: Whitewater
West: Linfield

assuming these four win the rest of their games. (which their favored to do so).

[AUPepBand]

Please remember all of you posters who are discussing post-season seedings and undefeated seasons, this is pretty heady stuff for us Alfred rooters.  I, for one, don't care about that stuff.  I hope the team enjoys this win, has a great week of practice and plays well against Rochester.  The point is to play well.  The wins and losses and seedings will take care of themselves if you play well. That beingsaid

On Saxon Warriors.

Pep agrees. That was one heckuva hard-fought football game. And the Saxons will need to focus on a potent Rochester team that is getting untracked of late. AU will have its hands full with the Yellowjackets.

Meanwhile, Saxon fans are certainly hoping Secky and Hendrix can recover. The play of their replacements was a good indication that while AU has been hanging around the past five years, Coach Murray has also been adding some DEPTH to the Saxon football program. Pep was well aware that AU has a solid back-up QB and was not disappointed. He may be only 5-10 but he certainly played like he was 6-4 in setting up Rockwood for the game-winning field goal.

Pep thinks a team is only as good as what it shows in its next game, no matter what polls say.

On Saxon Warriors!

[maxpower]

So does the fact that they both scheduled 10 games, as opposed to 9. I know that's not Alfred's fault, but to me, those two factors outweigh the loss.

Fisher also only has 9 games.

[Bombers798891]

So does the fact that they both scheduled 10 games, as opposed to 9. I know that's not Alfred's fault, but to me, those two factors outweigh the loss.

Fisher also only has 9 games.

Yeah, but they're already in the playoffs 

[Kira & Jaxon's Dad]

I know I don't post often on here but I believe that the #1 seeds will be

East: Mt. Union
South: Wesley
North: Whitewater
West: Linfield

assuming these four win the rest of their games. (which their favored to do so).

St. Johns won't represent the West if they win out?

[labart96]

Congrats to Alfred on cracking the top 25.

[Pat Coleman]

I know I don't post often on here but I believe that the #1 seeds will be

East: Mt. Union
South: Wesley
North: Whitewater
West: Linfield

assuming these four win the rest of their games. (which their favored to do so).

St. Johns won't represent the West if they win out?

Strength of schedule numbers favor Linfield by a noticeable margin.
http://www.d3football.com/strength-of-schedule/2009