FB: Liberty League

[Pat Coleman]

Give Curry credit for a great April Fool's.

[Jonny Utah]

Good to see the boards back up. 

Speaking of Curry, Ithaca is traveling to Curry next year, while hosting Hopkins and Endicott.  I also see Curry is hosting Hardin Simmons (two trips to MA in two years for the TX school is a little odd.) Hardin Simmons also has them going to Endicott again this year on their webpage?  Not sure if that is accurate or not.

Should be an interesting LL season again this year if SLU can join the big 4 again.  A lot of tough non league schedules for all of the LL teams will make the Pool A bid important.  Not sure where this playoff expansion thing is headed.

In other sports the LL league is dominating the d3 lacrosse world with 5 of the top 10 teams coming from the LL.  Hobart also winning the natty in Hockey was impressive this winter. 

[Bartman]

Good to see the boards back up. 

Speaking of Curry, Ithaca is traveling to Curry next year, while hosting Hopkins and Endicott.  I also see Curry is hosting Hardin Simmons (two trips to MA in two years for the TX school is a little odd.) Hardin Simmons also has them going to Endicott again this year on their webpage?  Not sure if that is accurate or not.

Should be an interesting LL season again this year if SLU can join the big 4 again.  A lot of tough non league schedules for all of the LL teams will make the Pool A bid important.  Not sure where this playoff expansion thing is headed.

In other sports the LL league is dominating the d3 lacrosse world with 5 of the top 10 teams coming from the LL.  Hobart also winning the natty in Hockey was impressive this winter. 

Liberty league is a pretty strong league overall for D3 sports. Hobart Hockey winning back to back Natty's is really special. Plus the team has a very high GPA overall......especially the Russians and Ukrainians.....yes and even the Canadians 

[Garnet]

[UfanBill]

Union has released it's 2024 schedule https://unionathletics.com/sports/football/schedule and as palooza mentioned a couple of weeks ago it includes upgrades. Gone are the cupcakes that they opened with the last few seasons replaced by old friend Utica and SUNY Maritime, last year 5-5 in the NEWMAC. Perennial rival Springfield and a visit to Montclair St. are also featured. 

[UfanBill]

A closer look at the Union schedule shows that new HC John Drach and his revamped Garnet will have their work cut out for them. Besides opening at Utica on a Friday night 9/6 their game at Springfield is also on a Friday. In fact 4 of their first 5 games are on the road  including their LL opener at St. Lawrence. Later they're at Hobart and RPI. They only have 4 home games total. As an old Dutchman once said "better dig, dig, dig in." 

[Bartman]

A closer look at the Union schedule shows that new HC John Drach and his revamped Garnet will have their work cut out for them. Besides opening at Utica on a Friday night 9/6 their game at Springfield is also on a Friday. In fact 4 of their first 5 games are on the road  including their LL opener at St. Lawrence. Later they're at Hobart and RPI. They only have 4 home games total. As an old Dutchman once said "better dig, dig, dig in." 

This "big boy" schedule should toughen the Chargers up especially compared to the cupcake schedules some in the Liberty League have had recently. I'm looking forward to see the final Hobart schedule. Hobart game is at the Boz this year where the old Dutchmen hadn't won in 14 years. Perhaps the name change will change their luck.  

[jayhawkdaddy]

Bartman....The Hobart schedule is on their twitter page. Released on March 4th.

[UfanBill]

This "big boy" schedule should toughen the Chargers up especially compared to the cupcake schedules some in the Liberty League have had recently. I'm looking forward to see the final Hobart schedule. Hobart game is at the Boz this year where the old Dutchmen hadn't won in 14 years. Perhaps the name change will change their luck.  

Bartman, I'm glad it's you that brought up the term "luck" because Union has not had any at the Boz in the last decade. In 2022 Hobart won 23-21, 2020 no game, 2018, 29-28 and 2016, 27-23...in ALL of those games Union led in the 4th quarter. Kudos to the Statesmen for finishing. Perhaps the name change WILL change their luck this year.

Thanks to Jayhawk Daddy for clueing us in on the 'Bart 2024 schedule. After opening at home against Alfred(4-6 last year) they make a daunting trip to Randolph Macon(13-1) and then play Keystone(2-8) and at Moravian(4-6). Maybe not "cupcakes" but 3 muffins and a hardroll? The LL opener is against Ithaca,luckily at home since the Statesmen have never won at Butterfield. 

[ICAlum16]

Does anyone have any insights into if there have been any D1,FC, or D2 transfers into any of the LL teams? Does anyone know if there is any interesting commits during this recruiting cycle?

From what I can see from the Bombers, it appears the JLO is back for a 5th year and should be the front runner for LL OPOY and a few returning OL and DL. As usual, Bombers will probably need to re-load in the defensive back 7 especially with the graduation of Slewka. However, IC always has a ton of depth at those positions so I feel ok about the defense. Hopefully on offense they can get back to attacking the field vertically in the passing game.

[IC798891]

Several Qs for Ithaca's offense this year:

If Jake Williams returns from his injury, who is RB1? Williams had a 2:1 edge over JLO in terms of carries in 2022.

I wonder if it will come down to the fact that JLO is a bigger threat in the passing game. Though the pair had nearly identical catch totals in 2022, JLO averaged five yards per catch more than Williams. Ithaca is going to be very light at WR, even if Sam Kline returns for a 5th year. If he doesn't, no returning player other than JLO had more than 17 catches. Ithaca may, by necessity, need to use him more in the passing game thus giving more carries to Williams. But regardless, WR is a big question mark for IC, as is the offensive line, where Ithaca has several departures

I'll be glad when this season is over and we can stop trying to figure out who has their extra COVID year.

But from what I have heard, Schumm looks very good so far in practice. As awful as it was, Jake Williams's and A.J. Wingfield's injury did not really hurt the Bombers in 2023 — it's unlikely they'd have beaten Cortland with them, and certainly the R-M game was not going to be different — but it will make the 2024 team better, with the experience Schumm got being huge, and it gives IC another weapon for him. I'd go so far as to say it's the only reason I put IC as the slight favorites for now.

A Bombers' team returning basically JLO with an unknown QB1 would be too high variance.

[Bartman]

Bartman....The Hobart schedule is on their twitter page. Released on March 4th.

Thanks , I'm getting old and forgetful,I recall this post now. 

[Bartman]

This "big boy" schedule should toughen the Chargers up especially compared to the cupcake schedules some in the Liberty League have had recently. I'm looking forward to see the final Hobart schedule. Hobart game is at the Boz this year where the old Dutchmen hadn't won in 14 years. Perhaps the name change will change their luck.  

Bartman, I'm glad it's you that brought up the term "luck" because Union has not had any at the Boz in the last decade. In 2022 Hobart won 23-21, 2020 no game, 2018, 29-28 and 2016, 27-23...in ALL of those games Union led in the 4th quarter. Kudos to the Statesmen for finishing. Perhaps the name change WILL change their luck this year.

Thanks to Jayhawk Daddy for clueing us in on the 'Bart 2024 schedule. After opening at home against Alfred(4-6 last year) they make a daunting trip to Randolph Macon(13-1) and then play Keystone(2-8) and at Moravian(4-6). Maybe not "cupcakes" but 3 muffins and a hardroll? The LL opener is against Ithaca,luckily at home since the Statesmen have never won at Butterfield. 

Gee. thanks UFAN for reminding me. I should really stop giving the finger in the general direction of Butterfield every time I drive through Ithaca....but, whenever the streak is broken, I'm sure that entire Hobart team will be entered into The Hall of Fame  

[Jersey42]

I see RPI opens up at home with a Thursday evening game against the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.  Last year UW-La Crosse finished fourth in the d3football.com top 25.  RPI has not yet announced their schedule, but the UW-La Crosse schedule came out yesterday.

https://uwlathletics.com/sports/football/schedule

I have no idea how this game came about, but I'm glad to see another midwest/west team coming to play in the east. 

RPI's full schedule was posted today.  In addition to UW-LaCrosse they also play at Endicott.  Endicott finished #15 in the final d3football.com poll.  Traditional rival WPI and Wilkes round out their non conference schedule.

[unionpalooza]

I see RPI opens up at home with a Thursday evening game against the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.  Last year UW-La Crosse finished fourth in the d3football.com top 25.  RPI has not yet announced their schedule, but the UW-La Crosse schedule came out yesterday.

https://uwlathletics.com/sports/football/schedule

I have no idea how this game came about, but I'm glad to see another midwest/west team coming to play in the east. 

RPI's full schedule was posted today.  In addition to UW-LaCrosse they also play at Endicott.  Endicott finished #15 in the final d3football.com poll.  Traditional rival WPI and Wilkes round out their non conference schedule.

The LL SOS numbers this fall are going to be rock solid.  If we end with a 40 team tournament and a Pairwise-esque selection criteria, three LL bids is possible and maybe even probable. (Basically 8-2 gets it done.)