FB: Liberty League

[IC798891]

turf and lights coming to Butterfield for next season, track to be relocated to Yavits

https://athletics.ithaca.edu/news/2022/11/29/ithaca-college-football-stadium-to-get-artificial-turf-field-and-lights.aspx

boooooo

As someone who grew up going down to the grass fields after the games starting in the 1980s, the nostalgic football fan in me is a bit sad, and understand why others feel that way as well.

But ultimately, as an IC alum, I think it's great. This is a move for not just the football program — who per the release, seem to approve — but the entire college. To allow other teams to use that surface, or to allow community partners to possibly use that surface, year round. To do with the help of a gift from an alum is fantastic

[Ice Bear]

One of the fumbles appeared to be the QB/FB mesh, the other ones the defense stripped the QB and Fullback it looked like.  (so 1 exchange, two caused).  For NCC, Ithaca just has to play mistake free football.  Isn't that always the plan?  Make less mistakes than your opponent?

I do think Ithaca will need to run the ball.  For once their oline seems to have the size to compete against the big boys with regular zone read.  They will need to get some first downs (AND TOP) if they want to hang.  SC is a tough gauge because of their option but Ithaca's defense has been very good in almost every game this year.  NCC's RB is a lot like SC's rbs (basically fullbacks as running backs) so stopping Greenfield will be key.

Ice Bear says word Utah. IC will absolutely have to run the ball with some success, possess the ball (that mother****ing TOP again), and play the NCC run as hard as they can. Ice feels in games like this, and most others, when the favored team can FORCE the underdog to become one dimensional, the fat lady begins to waddle her way out to midfield. Ice says never have those Bomber boys up front been so important on both sides of the ball.

[Bartman]

The Bombers have their hands full tomorrow with NCC in Naperville. Now that the Bombers are in the Liberty League and have reached the third round, Bartman notes that in the the last ten years Hobart reached this level in 2012 and 2014 (both teams were undefeated) and RPI reached this level in 2018 and 2021. Each time the LL Champs hit a wall in the third round with a team from the next level( St.Thomas, now Division I, Wesley and a great Johns Hopkins team and NCC). Ithaca needs to play mistake free,(no penalties or turnovers), call a great game on offense , have Wingfield make great decisions, and contain the NCC run game to stretch the game out. NCC has the better overall talent, but I think Ithaca is close enough in talent to have a chance, so I am not expecting a roll by NCC. Good luck to the Bombers tomorrow .

[Pat Coleman]

RPI and North Central as well, last year.

[Ice Bear]

Ice says this is going to be a tough cookie for the Bombers and obviously the most talented team they've seen all year and maybe in the history of the program (Ice knows they faced Mighty ****ing Mount before as well). Ice says this round 3 wall is usually what does it for the East (like Bartman mentioned) in the last decade or two. Ice recalls Brockport getting through to the semi's but being simply outclassed in most every way during that game against UMHB (if Ice remembers correctly).

Ice says (we) as in the East Region just don't have the teams and enough talent to hit that final tier. Ice says with that being said the Bombers may just be the most talented and deep East team we've seen since that Brockport team (and then back to the famed Rowan squads filled with D1 transfers lol).

Ice really loves this Bomber team and wishes them the best tomorrow. Ice says he could not be more proud of them and regardless of tomorrow's result everything they have accomplished this season is remarkable. What a team, program, alum, and great group of fans. Ice says go ****ing leave it all out there!

[Bartman]

RPI and North Central as well, last year.

Thanks Pat, I fixed it.

[unionpalooza]

Like the rest of the board, really looking forward to tomorrow.  I think this is the best chance an East team has to knock off one of the big power players in years - Ithaca has more than 40 seniors/grad students, and so (at least as the top of the roster) is built more in the mold of Mt. Unions and MHBs, which are football factories masquerading as institutions of higher ed. 

NCC is actually a young team - fewer than 10 seniors, as I recall.  And notwithstanding the D3 gurus assumption that they remain world-beaters per prior performance, their on-field resume year is just fine, nothing more.  I am going to boldly take Ithaca in this one, by a late Baha field goal.

More generally, this time of year, I always find it fascinating to see what type of schools are able to built the kind of elite football program it takes to get to the Elite 8.  The answer in football looks nothing like the answer in other sports - low graduation rates and high acceptance rates.  Ithaca is the only program left with a graduation rate above 75%; UMHB, Mt. Union and Del Valley are all sub 60%, the rest in between.  (FWIW, UMHB's graduation rate is 45%, which combined with an average annual cost of nearly $27k after grants/scholarships ought to be a crime.)  And NCC is the only program with an acceptance rate less than 70%, clocking in at 53%.  Again, that looks very different than the top tier of other D3 sports.  I'd be curious for why folks think that is - is it just the fact that roster size is so much larger in football, and the ability to bring large amounts of kids is a major advantage?  Or something else? 

When the season wraps, I'd be super-interested to see D3F (or someone) tackle some of the big picture questions in D3 football, like competitive parity, regional parity, roster size, etc.  Unlike the other divisions, D3 does not have any basic set of competitive levelers (scholarship caps, roster limits, academic qualification criteria, etc.) and it's obviously a huge range of schools across the country.  You'd therefore think that there would be a lot of thought and attention paid to how competition is actually working, and how competitive pressures are shaping the student-athlete experience, which is what Division III says it is about.  But I rarely see much of that.

[NCC2010]

Like the rest of the board, really looking forward to tomorrow.  I think this is the best chance an East team has to knock off one of the big power players in years - Ithaca has more than 40 seniors/grad students, and so (at least as the top of the roster) is built more in the mold of Mt. Unions and MHBs, which are football factories masquerading as institutions of higher ed. 

NCC is actually a young team - fewer than 10 seniors, as I recall.  And notwithstanding the D3 gurus assumption that they remain world-beaters per prior performance, their on-field resume year is just fine, nothing more.  I am going to boldly take Ithaca in this one, by a late Baha field goal.

More generally, this time of year, I always find it fascinating to see what type of schools are able to built the kind of elite football program it takes to get to the Elite 8.  The answer in football looks nothing like the answer in other sports - low graduation rates and high acceptance rates.  Ithaca is the only program left with a graduation rate above 75%; UMHB, Mt. Union and Del Valley are all sub 60%, the rest in between.  (FWIW, UMHB's graduation rate is 45%, which combined with an average annual cost of nearly $27k after grants/scholarships ought to be a crime.)  And NCC is the only program with an acceptance rate less than 70%, clocking in at 53%.  Again, that looks very different than the top tier of other D3 sports.  I'd be curious for why folks think that is - is it just the fact that roster size is so much larger in football, and the ability to bring large amounts of kids is a major advantage?  Or something else? 

When the season wraps, I'd be super-interested to see D3F (or someone) tackle some of the big picture questions in D3 football, like competitive parity, regional parity, roster size, etc.  Unlike the other divisions, D3 does not have any basic set of competitive levelers (scholarship caps, roster limits, academic qualification criteria, etc.) and it's obviously a huge range of schools across the country.  You'd therefore think that there would be a lot of thought and attention paid to how competition is actually working, and how competitive pressures are shaping the student-athlete experience, which is what Division III says it is about.  But I rarely see much of that.

NCC set the regular season record for margin of victory in D3, how can you say their on field resume is "just fine, nothing more" ?  Anyways, looking forward to good game tomorrow!

[unionpalooza]

Like the rest of the board, really looking forward to tomorrow.  I think this is the best chance an East team has to knock off one of the big power players in years - Ithaca has more than 40 seniors/grad students, and so (at least as the top of the roster) is built more in the mold of Mt. Unions and MHBs, which are football factories masquerading as institutions of higher ed. 

NCC is actually a young team - fewer than 10 seniors, as I recall.  And notwithstanding the D3 gurus assumption that they remain world-beaters per prior performance, their on-field resume year is just fine, nothing more.  I am going to boldly take Ithaca in this one, by a late Baha field goal.

More generally, this time of year, I always find it fascinating to see what type of schools are able to built the kind of elite football program it takes to get to the Elite 8.  The answer in football looks nothing like the answer in other sports - low graduation rates and high acceptance rates.  Ithaca is the only program left with a graduation rate above 75%; UMHB, Mt. Union and Del Valley are all sub 60%, the rest in between.  (FWIW, UMHB's graduation rate is 45%, which combined with an average annual cost of nearly $27k after grants/scholarships ought to be a crime.)  And NCC is the only program with an acceptance rate less than 70%, clocking in at 53%.  Again, that looks very different than the top tier of other D3 sports.  I'd be curious for why folks think that is - is it just the fact that roster size is so much larger in football, and the ability to bring large amounts of kids is a major advantage?  Or something else? 

When the season wraps, I'd be super-interested to see D3F (or someone) tackle some of the big picture questions in D3 football, like competitive parity, regional parity, roster size, etc.  Unlike the other divisions, D3 does not have any basic set of competitive levelers (scholarship caps, roster limits, academic qualification criteria, etc.) and it's obviously a huge range of schools across the country.  You'd therefore think that there would be a lot of thought and attention paid to how competition is actually working, and how competitive pressures are shaping the student-athlete experience, which is what Division III says it is about.  But I rarely see much of that.

NCC set the regular season record for margin of victory in D3, how can you say their on field resume is "just fine, nothing more" ?  Anyways, looking forward to good game tomorrow!

It's not a slight, just looking at SoS and quality wins objectively.  Single regular season victory over playoff-caliber team Wheaton, relatively easy playoff draw to date (Carnegie Mellon and Lake Forest).  Margin of victory doesn't strike me as all that meaningful; piling up 60-point wins over all one's mediocre league competition says as much about the quality of opponent and the coach's approach to blowouts as it does about the quality of the team.

EDIT:  As an example of the margin of victory point, I took a lot at the 2008 Mt. Union team, arguably one of the best of the past 30 years.  Fifteen wins, but they only scored more than 50 points three times, and never more than 56.  If they had wanted to set the D3 record for margin of victory that year, I'm pretty sure they could have.

[NCC2010]

Like the rest of the board, really looking forward to tomorrow.  I think this is the best chance an East team has to knock off one of the big power players in years - Ithaca has more than 40 seniors/grad students, and so (at least as the top of the roster) is built more in the mold of Mt. Unions and MHBs, which are football factories masquerading as institutions of higher ed. 

NCC is actually a young team - fewer than 10 seniors, as I recall.  And notwithstanding the D3 gurus assumption that they remain world-beaters per prior performance, their on-field resume year is just fine, nothing more.  I am going to boldly take Ithaca in this one, by a late Baha field goal.

More generally, this time of year, I always find it fascinating to see what type of schools are able to built the kind of elite football program it takes to get to the Elite 8.  The answer in football looks nothing like the answer in other sports - low graduation rates and high acceptance rates.  Ithaca is the only program left with a graduation rate above 75%; UMHB, Mt. Union and Del Valley are all sub 60%, the rest in between.  (FWIW, UMHB's graduation rate is 45%, which combined with an average annual cost of nearly $27k after grants/scholarships ought to be a crime.)  And NCC is the only program with an acceptance rate less than 70%, clocking in at 53%.  Again, that looks very different than the top tier of other D3 sports.  I'd be curious for why folks think that is - is it just the fact that roster size is so much larger in football, and the ability to bring large amounts of kids is a major advantage?  Or something else? 

When the season wraps, I'd be super-interested to see D3F (or someone) tackle some of the big picture questions in D3 football, like competitive parity, regional parity, roster size, etc.  Unlike the other divisions, D3 does not have any basic set of competitive levelers (scholarship caps, roster limits, academic qualification criteria, etc.) and it's obviously a huge range of schools across the country.  You'd therefore think that there would be a lot of thought and attention paid to how competition is actually working, and how competitive pressures are shaping the student-athlete experience, which is what Division III says it is about.  But I rarely see much of that.

NCC set the regular season record for margin of victory in D3, how can you say their on field resume is "just fine, nothing more" ?  Anyways, looking forward to good game tomorrow!

It's not a slight, just looking at SoS and quality wins objectively.  Single regular season victory over playoff-caliber team Wheaton, relatively easy playoff draw to date (Carnegie Mellon and Lake Forest).  Margin of victory doesn't strike me as all that meaningful; piling up 60-point wins over all one's mediocre league competition says as much about the quality of opponent and the coach's approach to blowouts as it does about the quality of the team.

EDIT:  As an example of the margin of victory point, I took a lot at the 2008 Mt. Union team, arguably one of the best of the past 30 years.  Fifteen wins, but they only scored more than 50 points three times, and never more than 56.  If they had wanted to set the D3 record for margin of victory that year, I'm pretty sure they could have.

I dont even believe NCC is the best team this season (I personally think UMHB is still the team to beat) but still think you are discrediting how well NCC has played on the season.  Wash U is a playoff caliber team they beat 31-0. If their on field resume would qualify as "just fine", that means what, 4-5 teams in the nation are graded better than "just fine" this season?

[New Tradition]

Like the rest of the board, really looking forward to tomorrow.  I think this is the best chance an East team has to knock off one of the big power players in years - Ithaca has more than 40 seniors/grad students, and so (at least as the top of the roster) is built more in the mold of Mt. Unions and MHBs, which are football factories masquerading as institutions of higher ed. 

NCC is actually a young team - fewer than 10 seniors, as I recall.  And notwithstanding the D3 gurus assumption that they remain world-beaters per prior performance, their on-field resume year is just fine, nothing more.  I am going to boldly take Ithaca in this one, by a late Baha field goal.

More generally, this time of year, I always find it fascinating to see what type of schools are able to built the kind of elite football program it takes to get to the Elite 8.  The answer in football looks nothing like the answer in other sports - low graduation rates and high acceptance rates.  Ithaca is the only program left with a graduation rate above 75%; UMHB, Mt. Union and Del Valley are all sub 60%, the rest in between.  (FWIW, UMHB's graduation rate is 45%, which combined with an average annual cost of nearly $27k after grants/scholarships ought to be a crime.)  And NCC is the only program with an acceptance rate less than 70%, clocking in at 53%.  Again, that looks very different than the top tier of other D3 sports.  I'd be curious for why folks think that is - is it just the fact that roster size is so much larger in football, and the ability to bring large amounts of kids is a major advantage?  Or something else? 

When the season wraps, I'd be super-interested to see D3F (or someone) tackle some of the big picture questions in D3 football, like competitive parity, regional parity, roster size, etc.  Unlike the other divisions, D3 does not have any basic set of competitive levelers (scholarship caps, roster limits, academic qualification criteria, etc.) and it's obviously a huge range of schools across the country.  You'd therefore think that there would be a lot of thought and attention paid to how competition is actually working, and how competitive pressures are shaping the student-athlete experience, which is what Division III says it is about.  But I rarely see much of that.

NCC set the regular season record for margin of victory in D3, how can you say their on field resume is "just fine, nothing more" ?  Anyways, looking forward to good game tomorrow!

It's not a slight, just looking at SoS and quality wins objectively.  Single regular season victory over playoff-caliber team Wheaton, relatively easy playoff draw to date (Carnegie Mellon and Lake Forest).  Margin of victory doesn't strike me as all that meaningful; piling up 60-point wins over all one's mediocre league competition says as much about the quality of opponent and the coach's approach to blowouts as it does about the quality of the team.

EDIT:  As an example of the margin of victory point, I took a lot at the 2008 Mt. Union team, arguably one of the best of the past 30 years.  Fifteen wins, but they only scored more than 50 points three times, and never more than 56.  If they had wanted to set the D3 record for margin of victory that year, I'm pretty sure they could have.

Fascinating take when starters are out just after halftime and the 2's still hold opponents scoreless and continue to move the ball and put up points running inside zone for 30 min of game time.  Ask any one of the teams who ended up on the wrong side of those scores.  There was no classlessness or intentional running up of the score.  Try again. 

[Ice Bear]

Like the rest of the board, really looking forward to tomorrow.  I think this is the best chance an East team has to knock off one of the big power players in years - Ithaca has more than 40 seniors/grad students, and so (at least as the top of the roster) is built more in the mold of Mt. Unions and MHBs, which are football factories masquerading as institutions of higher ed. 

NCC is actually a young team - fewer than 10 seniors, as I recall.  And notwithstanding the D3 gurus assumption that they remain world-beaters per prior performance, their on-field resume year is just fine, nothing more.  I am going to boldly take Ithaca in this one, by a late Baha field goal.

More generally, this time of year, I always find it fascinating to see what type of schools are able to built the kind of elite football program it takes to get to the Elite 8.  The answer in football looks nothing like the answer in other sports - low graduation rates and high acceptance rates.  Ithaca is the only program left with a graduation rate above 75%; UMHB, Mt. Union and Del Valley are all sub 60%, the rest in between.  (FWIW, UMHB's graduation rate is 45%, which combined with an average annual cost of nearly $27k after grants/scholarships ought to be a crime.)  And NCC is the only program with an acceptance rate less than 70%, clocking in at 53%.  Again, that looks very different than the top tier of other D3 sports.  I'd be curious for why folks think that is - is it just the fact that roster size is so much larger in football, and the ability to bring large amounts of kids is a major advantage?  Or something else? 

When the season wraps, I'd be super-interested to see D3F (or someone) tackle some of the big picture questions in D3 football, like competitive parity, regional parity, roster size, etc.  Unlike the other divisions, D3 does not have any basic set of competitive levelers (scholarship caps, roster limits, academic qualification criteria, etc.) and it's obviously a huge range of schools across the country.  You'd therefore think that there would be a lot of thought and attention paid to how competition is actually working, and how competitive pressures are shaping the student-athlete experience, which is what Division III says it is about.  But I rarely see much of that.

NCC set the regular season record for margin of victory in D3, how can you say their on field resume is "just fine, nothing more" ?  Anyways, looking forward to good game tomorrow!

It's not a slight, just looking at SoS and quality wins objectively.  Single regular season victory over playoff-caliber team Wheaton, relatively easy playoff draw to date (Carnegie Mellon and Lake Forest).  Margin of victory doesn't strike me as all that meaningful; piling up 60-point wins over all one's mediocre league competition says as much about the quality of opponent and the coach's approach to blowouts as it does about the quality of the team.

EDIT:  As an example of the margin of victory point, I took a lot at the 2008 Mt. Union team, arguably one of the best of the past 30 years.  Fifteen wins, but they only scored more than 50 points three times, and never more than 56.  If they had wanted to set the D3 record for margin of victory that year, I'm pretty sure they could have.

Ice Bear says this is a huge W over a very, very good Wheaton team. Ice watched them play against Bethel and IIBHO not only were they an excellent team, but they most likely have run the table in the LL with relative ease. Ice Bear says this is just his opinion. Ice says tomorrow is going to be an incredibly tall order for IC. Ice says, to him, keeping it close tomorrow would be a major win. Ice Bear says with that said, he'd love to eat crow on this...but he doesn't think he will.

[unionpalooza]

Like the rest of the board, really looking forward to tomorrow.  I think this is the best chance an East team has to knock off one of the big power players in years - Ithaca has more than 40 seniors/grad students, and so (at least as the top of the roster) is built more in the mold of Mt. Unions and MHBs, which are football factories masquerading as institutions of higher ed. 

NCC is actually a young team - fewer than 10 seniors, as I recall.  And notwithstanding the D3 gurus assumption that they remain world-beaters per prior performance, their on-field resume year is just fine, nothing more.  I am going to boldly take Ithaca in this one, by a late Baha field goal.

More generally, this time of year, I always find it fascinating to see what type of schools are able to built the kind of elite football program it takes to get to the Elite 8.  The answer in football looks nothing like the answer in other sports - low graduation rates and high acceptance rates.  Ithaca is the only program left with a graduation rate above 75%; UMHB, Mt. Union and Del Valley are all sub 60%, the rest in between.  (FWIW, UMHB's graduation rate is 45%, which combined with an average annual cost of nearly $27k after grants/scholarships ought to be a crime.)  And NCC is the only program with an acceptance rate less than 70%, clocking in at 53%.  Again, that looks very different than the top tier of other D3 sports.  I'd be curious for why folks think that is - is it just the fact that roster size is so much larger in football, and the ability to bring large amounts of kids is a major advantage?  Or something else? 

When the season wraps, I'd be super-interested to see D3F (or someone) tackle some of the big picture questions in D3 football, like competitive parity, regional parity, roster size, etc.  Unlike the other divisions, D3 does not have any basic set of competitive levelers (scholarship caps, roster limits, academic qualification criteria, etc.) and it's obviously a huge range of schools across the country.  You'd therefore think that there would be a lot of thought and attention paid to how competition is actually working, and how competitive pressures are shaping the student-athlete experience, which is what Division III says it is about.  But I rarely see much of that.

NCC set the regular season record for margin of victory in D3, how can you say their on field resume is "just fine, nothing more" ?  Anyways, looking forward to good game tomorrow!

It's not a slight, just looking at SoS and quality wins objectively.  Single regular season victory over playoff-caliber team Wheaton, relatively easy playoff draw to date (Carnegie Mellon and Lake Forest).  Margin of victory doesn't strike me as all that meaningful; piling up 60-point wins over all one's mediocre league competition says as much about the quality of opponent and the coach's approach to blowouts as it does about the quality of the team.

EDIT:  As an example of the margin of victory point, I took a lot at the 2008 Mt. Union team, arguably one of the best of the past 30 years.  Fifteen wins, but they only scored more than 50 points three times, and never more than 56.  If they had wanted to set the D3 record for margin of victory that year, I'm pretty sure they could have.

Fascinating take when starters are out just after halftime and the 2's still hold opponents scoreless and continue to move the ball and put up points running inside zone for 30 min of game time.  Ask any one of the teams who ended up on the wrong side of those scores.  There was no classlessness or intentional running up of the score.  Try again.

I never once said NCC was classless or intentionally running up the score, and I certainly don't think that's the case.  I actually think teams as good as NCC have to work hard not to beat mediocre teams by 60+.  My point was just that I was not going to celebrate it as a particularly useful indicator of their prowess.

As for "just fine" (which really seems to have hit a nerve elsewhere), again, it's not a slight.  It's just that relative to the rest of the Elite 8, there's nothing amazing and special about their on-field resume.  They've gone undefeated and beat a handful of very good teams; so has Wartburg.

[New Tradition]

Like the rest of the board, really looking forward to tomorrow.  I think this is the best chance an East team has to knock off one of the big power players in years - Ithaca has more than 40 seniors/grad students, and so (at least as the top of the roster) is built more in the mold of Mt. Unions and MHBs, which are football factories masquerading as institutions of higher ed. 

NCC is actually a young team - fewer than 10 seniors, as I recall.  And notwithstanding the D3 gurus assumption that they remain world-beaters per prior performance, their on-field resume year is just fine, nothing more.  I am going to boldly take Ithaca in this one, by a late Baha field goal.

More generally, this time of year, I always find it fascinating to see what type of schools are able to built the kind of elite football program it takes to get to the Elite 8.  The answer in football looks nothing like the answer in other sports - low graduation rates and high acceptance rates.  Ithaca is the only program left with a graduation rate above 75%; UMHB, Mt. Union and Del Valley are all sub 60%, the rest in between.  (FWIW, UMHB's graduation rate is 45%, which combined with an average annual cost of nearly $27k after grants/scholarships ought to be a crime.)  And NCC is the only program with an acceptance rate less than 70%, clocking in at 53%.  Again, that looks very different than the top tier of other D3 sports.  I'd be curious for why folks think that is - is it just the fact that roster size is so much larger in football, and the ability to bring large amounts of kids is a major advantage?  Or something else? 

When the season wraps, I'd be super-interested to see D3F (or someone) tackle some of the big picture questions in D3 football, like competitive parity, regional parity, roster size, etc.  Unlike the other divisions, D3 does not have any basic set of competitive levelers (scholarship caps, roster limits, academic qualification criteria, etc.) and it's obviously a huge range of schools across the country.  You'd therefore think that there would be a lot of thought and attention paid to how competition is actually working, and how competitive pressures are shaping the student-athlete experience, which is what Division III says it is about.  But I rarely see much of that.

NCC set the regular season record for margin of victory in D3, how can you say their on field resume is "just fine, nothing more" ?  Anyways, looking forward to good game tomorrow!

It's not a slight, just looking at SoS and quality wins objectively.  Single regular season victory over playoff-caliber team Wheaton, relatively easy playoff draw to date (Carnegie Mellon and Lake Forest).  Margin of victory doesn't strike me as all that meaningful; piling up 60-point wins over all one's mediocre league competition says as much about the quality of opponent and the coach's approach to blowouts as it does about the quality of the team.

EDIT:  As an example of the margin of victory point, I took a lot at the 2008 Mt. Union team, arguably one of the best of the past 30 years.  Fifteen wins, but they only scored more than 50 points three times, and never more than 56.  If they had wanted to set the D3 record for margin of victory that year, I'm pretty sure they could have.

Fascinating take when starters are out just after halftime and the 2's still hold opponents scoreless and continue to move the ball and put up points running inside zone for 30 min of game time.  Ask any one of the teams who ended up on the wrong side of those scores.  There was no classlessness or intentional running up of the score.  Try again.

I never once said NCC was classless or intentionally running up the score, and I certainly don't think that's the case.  I actually think teams as good as NCC have to work hard not to beat mediocre teams by 60+.  My point was just that I was not going to celebrate it as a particularly useful indicator of their prowess.

As for "just fine" (which really seems to have hit a nerve elsewhere), again, it's not a slight.  It's just that relative to the rest of the Elite 8, there's nothing amazing and special about their on-field resume.  They've gone undefeated and beat a handful of very good teams; so has Wartburg.

This is what I took exception to. To your point--these are the top 8 teams out of a field of 240.  Of course they're all within shouting distance of one another.  Everyone has a chance here and there are no gimmes. 

[Bartman]

There seems to be some sensitivity/ or insensitivity on what "just fine" means referring to NCC's season. Personally ,if my wife ever says that was "just fine" , I'm totally happy