FB: Liberty League

[Garnet]

Chargers ?  Lame.

It will be easier to refer to teams as Garnet and I predict that is what will happen. On the other hand, some may shorten in to Chargers.  Garnet Chargers is too much.

[Caz Bombers]

Chargers ?  Lame.

It will be easier to refer to teams as Garnet and I predict that is what will happen. On the other hand, some may shorten in to Chargers.  Garnet Chargers is too much.

might be fun to pretend it's French. Gar-nay Shar-zhaiarhh.

[Bartman]

No karma dings from me IC. I agree with you and palooza. So do two of the biggest sports stars in Union College history, basketball great Jim Tedisco, now a NYS Senator, and football great Tom Arcidiacano BOTH have come out publicly against the nickname change as have hundreds of other former Dutchmen and Dutchwomen.

I agree with IC's analysis, that ex athletes and sports enthusiasts care, the rest of the campus and alumni, not so much, especially at the D3 level which despite having a D1 hockey team, union is.  This says it all from one of the greatest D3 backs I had the pleasure of watching:

Union football great says new nickname 'makes me sick'
East Greenbush's Tom Arcidiacono, the program's career rushing leader, says he'll never buy "Garnet Chargers" gear

Arcidiacono was a friggin beast, I'd want  him on my side.

[IC798891]

I agree with a lot of what you say.  While I am not familiar with this particular school situation,  I know in general (at least according to some article I read over a decade ago,so no clue if it is still accurate), former athletes generally are among the biggest donors by percentage of alumni giving and total dolars given to most schools. 

Now how should a school navigate that if it,  is another factor to consider.

So this is true from my experience as well — with a caveat.

In my general experience, while what you say is true, much of that giving is concentrated to athletics (obviously). There's nothing wrong with that, of course. But, like all directed giving (athletics-related or not), the impact isn't felt by everyone. I suspect Union feels that this nickname change will be something that will resonate for everyone (but as we've seen, it's not)

I think the problem with, as palooza suggests, giving more of the influence over a name change to the athletes/supporters is that it sort of is like saying the quiet part out loud. The institution doesn't want to say that the change is mostly going to impact them — even though I suspect they agree with our takes that it does — so they can't leave the decision up to them. So, here we are.

[The Third Division]

Union college should do away with any sort of mascot since they can't come up with any good names for themselves.

[Bartman]

Congratulations to Ithaca's A J Wingfield for his selection to the D3.com pre-season All American team, well deserved. It is interesting to note the Liberty league has had 5 selections per year in the last two years . It looks like we took a hit during the Covid years when it comes to recruiting top prospects . That said, hopefully we will have a few more players rise to the top during the season.

[IC798891]

Re: the top players in the LL the past few years

The big problem is k-12 enrollment in the Northeast (and in NY) is declining, and for teams in the E8/LL, this is simply going to mean fewer players to split.

Source: https://newyork.edtrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/ETNY-Enrollment-Report-2023.pdf

In 2017-18, there were ~2,885,000 K-12 students in traditional public and private schools in NY
In 2021-22, there were ~2,657,000

"New York State lead the nation in enrollment loss between 2019-20 and 2021-22."

Working at IC, one of the big things we've been preparing for/dealing with is the new reality on the way regarding projected college-age students in the coming years.

Interestingly, nationwide, a lot of the population is moving to states without strong D3 football (or any at all), save of course, for Texas.

https://www.boston.com/real-estate/local-news/2022/12/28/northeast-continues-to-lose-population/

Does this mean D3 teams will have to start recruiting non-traditional areas?

[Pat Coleman]

A number of D-III's have been doing this for a good two decades now.

[Jonny Utah]

Re: the top players in the LL the past few years

The big problem is k-12 enrollment in the Northeast (and in NY) is declining, and for teams in the E8/LL, this is simply going to mean fewer players to split.

Source: https://newyork.edtrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/ETNY-Enrollment-Report-2023.pdf

In 2017-18, there were ~2,885,000 K-12 students in traditional public and private schools in NY
In 2021-22, there were ~2,657,000

"New York State lead the nation in enrollment loss between 2019-20 and 2021-22."

Working at IC, one of the big things we've been preparing for/dealing with is the new reality on the way regarding projected college-age students in the coming years.

Interestingly, nationwide, a lot of the population is moving to states without strong D3 football (or any at all), save of course, for Texas.

https://www.boston.com/real-estate/local-news/2022/12/28/northeast-continues-to-lose-population/

Does this mean D3 teams will have to start recruiting non-traditional areas?

https://nefootballjournal.com/2023/08/04/colleges-coming-for-massachusetts-quarterbacks/

Very true IC, although coaching HS in MA for the past 20 years I have seen MA football really get better.  20 years ago our league (12 teams) might have 4-6 teams that had coaching staffs that really didn't know what to do.  Today there might be 1.  Every team has solid coaching and kids who seem to want to play college ball.  Football seems to be getting bigger here in Massachusetts, with specialty coaching helping that out a lot (offseason QB or other position coaching).  Not sure if this will have an impact on the d3 level, but there might be some balancing out with the residential movements out of MA and NY. 

It also seems easier to recruit nationally because of social media for many schools.  On the downside, it seems to me also a lot of MA kids look at d2 schools more then they have in the past.  Lots of kids going to d2 Assumption or St. Anselms today where 20 years ago those kids are going d3 to the LL/local schools. 

[Jersey42]

Hopefully this is readable.  Just for fun, it is an attempt to breakout last season's Liberty League rosters by state. Of course some of the numbers are affected by recruiting from 5-6 years ago.
NY was far and away the most popular state league wide (42%). NY was also the most popular state for each school. Buff State was 100% NY.  Union had the fewest from NY both by percentage (27%) and actual numbers.

State	BUF	HOB	ITH	ROC	RPI	STL	UNI	Total
NY	59	32	51	34	38	40	27	281
MA		6	5	11	22	30	26	100
NJ		12	28	8	16	2	21	87
PA		6	26	7	9	2		50
CT		3	6	2	5	9	17	42
MD		3	3	2	10		3	21
FL		1	4	4	3	1		13
NH		1		1	1	6	2	11
GA			2	4	3			9
CA				3	4		1	8
VA			1	3	4			8
VT		1				4		5
RI						2	2	4
DE		1		2				3
IL			1	2				3
TX				1	2			3
WA				1	2			3
MI				2				2
MN				1	1			2
OH			1	1				2
OR				2				2
SC					1		1	2
TN				1	1			2
AL				1				1
BC,Can						1		1
CO		1						1
DC							1	1
IN					1			1
LA		1						1
NC					1			1
NM					1			1
NV					1			1
ON, Can				1				1
Sweden						1		1
UT				1				1
Total	59	68	128	95	126	98	101	675

[UfanBill]

Hopefully this is readable.  Just for fun, it is an attempt to breakout last season's Liberty League rosters by state. Of course some of the numbers are affected by recruiting from 5-6 years ago.
NY was far and away the most popular state league wide (42%). NY was also the most popular state for each school. Buff State was 100% NY.  Union had the fewest from NY both by percentage (27%) and actual numbers.

State	BUF	HOB	ITH	ROC	RPI	STL	UNI	Total
NY	59	32	51	34	38	40	27	281
MA		6	5	11	22	30	26	100
NJ		12	28	8	16	2	21	87
PA		6	26	7	9	2		50
CT		3	6	2	5	9	17	42
MD		3	3	2	10		3	21
FL		1	4	4	3	1		13
NH		1		1	1	6	2	11
GA			2	4	3			9
CA				3	4		1	8
VA			1	3	4			8
VT		1				4		5
RI						2	2	4
DE		1		2				3
IL			1	2				3
TX				1	2			3
WA				1	2			3
MI				2				2
MN				1	1			2
OH			1	1				2
OR				2				2
SC					1		1	2
TN				1	1			2
AL				1				1
BC,Can						1		1
CO		1						1
DC							1	1
IN					1			1
LA		1						1
NC					1			1
NM					1			1
NV					1			1
ON, Can				1				1
Sweden						1		1
UT				1				1
Total	59	68	128	95	126	98	101	675

Excellent job on your compilation Jersey42. A lot of work there. Thanks and big +k. It's easy to see that the easternmost LL schools mostly recruit New England and that's precisely why they have New England schools on their OOC schedule.

The Union College Garnet have been back in town for a week now and along with some stalworth returnies come the first year's. Union has brought in 25 of them and in keeping with Jersey42's statistics most of them are from Connecticut(9) and Massachusetts(7). There's also 4 from NY, 2 from NJ, one from Toronto, Canada and a pair of LBs from the same school, Marin Catholic in California! Still no recruits from Pennsylvania. Leave those for the western NY schools I guess.

As for who's coming back...https://unionathletics.com/sports/football/roster/2023
On Offense...The big name is starting QB Donovan Pacatte. His ability and rxperience will be paramount since the Garnet have lost key offensive players, Ike Irabor and Andre Ross Jr. to graduation and WR's Nicholas Dunneman and Avery Turton to the dreaded transfer portal. Fortunately the O-line brings back 4 of 5 starters and some veteran reserves and RBs Michael Fiore, Jonathan Anderson and John Rust, all capable, are back to carry the rock. 20 WR candidates will fight it out to see who emerges as the next great Union receiver. Garrett Cafaro returns at TE.
As for the Defense...Look who's back, DT Jimaar Edwards, a 2021 LL 1st teamer and All Region 2nd teamer, has returned after missing the 2022 season. His presence will anchor the D-line along with all 3 of last year's starters. The LB corp is a strength with captains Cole DeSilva and Tommy Cavallo and 2 other starters returning. Now for the questionmarks. The secondary was wiped out by graduation and defection but there is talent and experience waiting for their chance.Their development will be key.   
Special teams...punter/placekicker Andrew Lau and backup Max Gluck both return. More consistency is needed.

The 2023 Union Dutchmen, Charging Garnet...OK Garnet Chargers will be interesting. New Head Coach Jon Poppe's ability to get the team functioning going into the tough part of their LL schedule will be helped by the relative ease of their first four OOC games and continuity on the coaching staff. The only new coach is OC/Line coach Greg Skjold who's a 2013 Union grad.   
                                                FTC

[IC798891]

A number of D-III's have been doing this for a good two decades now.

I'm aware, as I have been following D-III football for a number of decades.

I should have specified I meant "recruiting those areas more heavily than they may currently do, due to the aforementioned current and continuing decrease in student population in the traditional recruiting regions that are closer to the schools themselves."

[unionpalooza]

Hopefully this is readable.  Just for fun, it is an attempt to breakout last season's Liberty League rosters by state. Of course some of the numbers are affected by recruiting from 5-6 years ago.
NY was far and away the most popular state league wide (42%). NY was also the most popular state for each school. Buff State was 100% NY.  Union had the fewest from NY both by percentage (27%) and actual numbers.

State	BUF	HOB	ITH	ROC	RPI	STL	UNI	Total
NY	59	32	51	34	38	40	27	281
MA		6	5	11	22	30	26	100
NJ		12	28	8	16	2	21	87
PA		6	26	7	9	2		50
CT		3	6	2	5	9	17	42
MD		3	3	2	10		3	21
FL		1	4	4	3	1		13
NH		1		1	1	6	2	11
GA			2	4	3			9
CA				3	4		1	8
VA			1	3	4			8
VT		1				4		5
RI						2	2	4
DE		1		2				3
IL			1	2				3
TX				1	2			3
WA				1	2			3
MI				2				2
MN				1	1			2
OH			1	1				2
OR				2				2
SC					1		1	2
TN				1	1			2
AL				1				1
BC,Can						1		1
CO		1						1
DC							1	1
IN					1			1
LA		1						1
NC					1			1
NM					1			1
NV					1			1
ON, Can				1				1
Sweden						1		1
UT				1				1
Total	59	68	128	95	126	98	101	675

Excellent job on your compilation Jersey42. A lot of work there. Thanks and big +k. It's easy to see that the easternmost LL schools mostly recruit New England and that's precisely why they have New England schools on their OOC schedule.

The Union College Garnet have been back in town for a week now and along with some stalworth returnies come the first year's. Union has brought in 25 of them and in keeping with Jersey42's statistics most of them are from Connecticut(9) and Massachusetts(7). There's also 4 from NY, 2 from NJ, one from Toronto, Canada and a pair of LBs from the same school, Marin Catholic in California! Still no recruits from Pennsylvania. Leave those for the western NY schools I guess.

As for who's coming back...https://unionathletics.com/sports/football/roster/2023
On Offense...The big name is starting QB Donovan Pacatte. His ability and rxperience will be paramount since the Garnet have lost key offensive players, Ike Irabor and Andre Ross Jr. to graduation and WR's Nicholas Dunneman and Avery Turton to the dreaded transfer portal. Fortunately the O-line brings back 4 of 5 starters and some veteran reserves and RBs Michael Fiore, Jonathan Anderson and John Rust, all capable, are back to carry the rock. 20 WR candidates will fight it out to see who emerges as the next great Union receiver. Garrett Cafaro returns at TE.
As for the Defense...Look who's back, DT Jimaar Edwards, a 2021 LL 1st teamer and All Region 2nd teamer, has returned after missing the 2022 season. His presence will anchor the D-line along with all 3 of last year's starters. The LB corp is a strength with captains Cole DeSilva and Tommy Cavallo and 2 other starters returning. Now for the questionmarks. The secondary was wiped out by graduation and defection but there is talent and experience waiting for their chance.Their development will be key.   
Special teams...punter/placekicker Andrew Lau and backup Max Gluck both return. More consistency is needed.

The 2023 Union Dutchmen, Charging Garnet...OK Garnet Chargers will be interesting. New Head Coach Jon Poppe's ability to get the team functioning going into the tough part of their LL schedule will be helped by the relative ease of their first four OOC games and continuity on the coaching staff. The only new coach is OC/Line coach Greg Skjold who's a 2013 Union grad.   
                                                FTC

Very nice write up, UFan.  I think there are a few more new faces on the coaching staff, as Skjold also brought in two new assistants.

I really like this Dutchmen team.  Sure, Irabor and Ross Jr. are gone, but both had their statistically weakest seasons last year, so the production hole is less than you'd think, and there's plenty of talent at RB and WR.  Both the OL and DL will be strengths, and there are a lot of guys back after a tough season where the relative youth of the team saw the second half leads at Ithaca, Hobart and Utica slip away.  I'm hoping both sides of the ball keep things simple and disciplined on both sides of the ball; if they do, I think they've got every chance to compete for a LL title, especially if Pacatte stays healthy and takes another step forward.  Poppe and his staff are the real deal, and I wouldn't be surprised at all to see something of a first season pop like Ithaca saw last year under Toerper.

How are the RPI, Ithaca and Hobart squads shaping up?

[unionpalooza]

Interesting tidbit, now that rosters are starting to be posted - starting to see a return to parity in terms of senior numbers.  Ithaca's roster shows 19 seniors and 14 graduate students, for 34 senior guys (down from 46 last year year).  Union's roster reports 31 seniors (no grad program there) (up from 23 last year), and Hobart reports 19 seniors (again, no grad program).  RPI hasn't posted yet - they had 41 last year (16 grad students and 25 seniors).  They only had 10 juniors last year, so I would expect that number to be down.

[IC798891]

Rough position breakdown of ICs 2023 FY players

LB: 7
DL: 7
OL: 4
DB: 7
RB: 4
K: 2
WR: 7
QB: 4
TE: 4

Incomplete state breakdown:

NY: 8
NJ: 5
PA: 5
CT: 2
Mass: 1
Del: 1
Fla: 1