FB: Liberty League

[union89]

Just put this together for the Union Tailgating Mailing List, and realized it might be as applicable here...

I realize that many folks do not know the exact location to listen to or keep up with the Dutchmen Football games this season, so I wanted to point out the numerous ways you can all "stay tuned."

If you cannot make it to the Union College Fighting Dutchmen games for the remainder of the season, you now have several options to still catch the action.  In addition to our normal flagship radio broadcasts on 1160AM WABY (Mechanicville, NY) throughout the Capital Region and their webcast at http://saratogamoon.com , we welcome 89.7FM WRUC (Schenectady, NY), Union's own radio station, back to the "Fighting Dutchment Radio Network" this season.  We also highly recommend using http://teamline.cc (Team Code: 1160) for a great online experience (archives are available for $5.00 each, where available).

Union College itself is offering two services this season.  First, every football game will have live stats streaming online from Union Sports Information Director Eric McDowell at http://unionathletics.com/live/ .  This feature is again free this season.  Finally, we are excited to announce that Union has begun a new video streaming program for the remaining home football games (and several other home sporting events), which will contain the audio from the WABY broadcast on top of the video streaming.  For a nominal fee, you can sign up to view the Dutchmen Football games at http://www.unionathletics.com/member/bridge.asp?url=/member/aa_signup.aspx .  This weekend will be the first Union Football in-house video stream, so we hope those of you who can't make it will enjoy the video and let us know what you think of the online experience.

As always, during the broadcasts, please feel free to send question, comments and/or "shout-outs" to rossif@yahoo.com and we'll do our best to respond.  Hope to see you Saturday, but if not, I hope you'll listen to Carm Audino, Tom Santa Barbara, Alex Audino and me online or on the radio.

Who is this Alex Audino who you speak of??

Student at Union -- hopefully WRUC's next football color commentator next season, but we'll see how it all works out in the end.

Is it another relative of the Head Coach??  If so, you know where I'm going here....I respect your objectivity as it relates to Union and would like your honest thoughts on this one.

[Senor RedTackle]

As always, during the broadcasts, please feel free to send question, comments and/or "shout-outs" to rossif@yahoo.com and we'll do our best to respond.  Hope to see you Saturday, but if not, I hope you'll listen to Carm Audino, Tom Santa Barbara, Alex Audino and me online or on the radio.

...and don't forget to read about the Union broadcasting crew in this week's TV Guide!!!

[Senor RedTackle]

Just put this together for the Union Tailgating Mailing List, and realized it might be as applicable here...

I realize that many folks do not know the exact location to listen to or keep up with the Dutchmen Football games this season, so I wanted to point out the numerous ways you can all "stay tuned."

If you cannot make it to the Union College Fighting Dutchmen games for the remainder of the season, you now have several options to still catch the action.  In addition to our normal flagship radio broadcasts on 1160AM WABY (Mechanicville, NY) throughout the Capital Region and their webcast at http://saratogamoon.com , we welcome 89.7FM WRUC (Schenectady, NY), Union's own radio station, back to the "Fighting Dutchment Radio Network" this season.  We also highly recommend using http://teamline.cc (Team Code: 1160) for a great online experience (archives are available for $5.00 each, where available).

Union College itself is offering two services this season.  First, every football game will have live stats streaming online from Union Sports Information Director Eric McDowell at http://unionathletics.com/live/ .  This feature is again free this season.  Finally, we are excited to announce that Union has begun a new video streaming program for the remaining home football games (and several other home sporting events), which will contain the audio from the WABY broadcast on top of the video streaming.  For a nominal fee, you can sign up to view the Dutchmen Football games at http://www.unionathletics.com/member/bridge.asp?url=/member/aa_signup.aspx .  This weekend will be the first Union Football in-house video stream, so we hope those of you who can't make it will enjoy the video and let us know what you think of the online experience.

As always, during the broadcasts, please feel free to send question, comments and/or "shout-outs" to rossif@yahoo.com and we'll do our best to respond.  Hope to see you Saturday, but if not, I hope you'll listen to Carm Audino, Tom Santa Barbara, Alex Audino and me online or on the radio.

Who is this Alex Audino who you speak of??

Student at Union -- hopefully WRUC's next football color commentator next season, but we'll see how it all works out in the end.

hopefully it's the Audino offspring RT is thinking of.....

[union89]

Just put this together for the Union Tailgating Mailing List, and realized it might be as applicable here...

I realize that many folks do not know the exact location to listen to or keep up with the Dutchmen Football games this season, so I wanted to point out the numerous ways you can all "stay tuned."

If you cannot make it to the Union College Fighting Dutchmen games for the remainder of the season, you now have several options to still catch the action.  In addition to our normal flagship radio broadcasts on 1160AM WABY (Mechanicville, NY) throughout the Capital Region and their webcast at http://saratogamoon.com , we welcome 89.7FM WRUC (Schenectady, NY), Union's own radio station, back to the "Fighting Dutchment Radio Network" this season.  We also highly recommend using http://teamline.cc (Team Code: 1160) for a great online experience (archives are available for $5.00 each, where available).

Union College itself is offering two services this season.  First, every football game will have live stats streaming online from Union Sports Information Director Eric McDowell at http://unionathletics.com/live/ .  This feature is again free this season.  Finally, we are excited to announce that Union has begun a new video streaming program for the remaining home football games (and several other home sporting events), which will contain the audio from the WABY broadcast on top of the video streaming.  For a nominal fee, you can sign up to view the Dutchmen Football games at http://www.unionathletics.com/member/bridge.asp?url=/member/aa_signup.aspx .  This weekend will be the first Union Football in-house video stream, so we hope those of you who can't make it will enjoy the video and let us know what you think of the online experience.

As always, during the broadcasts, please feel free to send question, comments and/or "shout-outs" to rossif@yahoo.com and we'll do our best to respond.  Hope to see you Saturday, but if not, I hope you'll listen to Carm Audino, Tom Santa Barbara, Alex Audino and me online or on the radio.

Who is this Alex Audino who you speak of??

Student at Union -- hopefully WRUC's next football color commentator next season, but we'll see how it all works out in the end.

hopefully it's the Audino offspring RT is thinking of.....

I think it is RT.....I'm sure she wouldn't tolerate anyone affiliated with Troy.

[Senor RedTackle]

If that's next year's color commentator situation, then 2 things need to happen...

1)make sure that there's a camera doing periodic pans to the broadcast booth (ala Monday Night Football)

2) RT needs to be invited back for special "guest" spots on WRUC

[Frank Rossi]

Who Is in Control of Their Own Destiny in the LL?
----------------------------------------------------

Coming into this weekend, there are six teams with one loss or less in the Liberty League.  That means that there are some teams in more control of their own destinies than others for the elusive Pool A Automatic Qualifier Bid to the NCAA Playoffs.  Here is a look at the control each LL team has over their own destinies:

Union (2-2, 2-0 LL)
---------------------
In control of its own destiny.  In fact, Union can still lose to Susquehanna and win the LL at this point, assuming it wins its other four games (WPI, SLU, HOB, RPI).

RPI (4-0, 2-0 LL)
------------------
In control of its own destiny.  In fact, RPI can still lose to Merchant Marine and win the LL at this point, assuming it wins its other four games (SLU, WPI, ROC, UNI).

Hobart (2-2, 1-1 LL)
----------------------
Not in control of its own destiny.  Because of its loss to RPI, Hobart cannot end up in ANY tiebreaker against RPI with one loss each, as RPI would beat Hobart in a head-to-head tiebreaker OR in a three-way tiebreaker (there cannot be a four-way tiebreaker in this scenario at one loss) -- RPI would win any second tiebreaker in a three-way tie (reverse order comparisons of LL opponents) and any third tiebreaker (W/L percentage vs. all teams .500 or better) since Dickinson is guaranteed to be .500 or greater and RPI has no out-of-conference losses).  Thus, Hobart needs RPI to lose twice in order to win the LL.

Rochester (1-3, 1-1 LL)
-------------------------
Not in control of its own destiny.  Because of its loss to Union, Rochester cannot win any head-to-head tiebreaker against Union.  Rochester also loses in a three-way tie against Union and RPI with one loss each.  There is only one three-way tiebreaker at one loss that Rochester COULD win, and that is with Union and St. Lawrence -- this would come down to the third tiebreaker and involve several out-of-conference scenarios to play out (too many to list here, but most require Carnegie Mellon to finish below .500.  Thus, Rochester needs Union to lose twice in order to have a predictable chance at the LL win.

WPI (4-1, 1-1 LL)
-------------------
Not in control of its own destiny.  Because of WPI's loss to Hobart, WPI cannot win any head-to-head tiebreaker against Hobart.  Thus, we look at the three-way ties that could form with Hobart -- but there is only one:  against RPI and Hobart.  This would place the teams in the third tiebreaker, in which RPI and WPI would tie and Hobart would be eliminated, making WPI the winner in the head-to-head.  Thus, WPI needs Hobart to lose a second game OR Union to lose to both Hobart and RPI (with RPI winning out with the exception of the WPI/RPI game) to win the LL.

St. Lawrence (2-2, 1-1 LL)
----------------------------
Not in control of its own destiny.  Because of St. Lawrence's loss to Rochester, St. Lawrence would not win a head-to-head tiebreaker against Rochester.  Thus, we look at the three-way ties that could form with Rochester -- but there is only one:  against Union and Rochester.  This would place the teams in the third tiebreaker, which Rochester could be eliminated to give St. Lawrence the win (this requires Carnegie Mellon to finish .500 or above in most scenarios).  However, the only predictable chance St. Lawrence would have to win the LL is for Rochester to lose again.

For USMMA and Susquehanna, it is not impossible for the teams to win the LL, but they would need a lot of help.  We'll review these scenarios if they become applicable in the next couple weeks.

(Edit:  Fixed some confusing language in the WPI and SLU rundowns.)

[Jonny Utah]

Who Is in Control of Their Own Destiny in the LL?
----------------------------------------------------

Coming into this weekend, there are six teams with one loss or less in the Liberty League.  That means that there are some teams in more control of their own destinies than others for the elusive Pool A Automatic Qualifier Bid to the NCAA Playoffs.  Here is a look at the control each LL team has over their own destinies:

Union (2-2, 2-0 LL)
---------------------
In control of its own destiny.  In fact, Union can still lose to Susquehanna and win the LL at this point, assuming it wins its other four games (WPI, SLU, HOB, RPI).

RPI (4-0, 2-0 LL)
------------------
In control of its own destiny.  In fact, RPI can still lose to Merchant Marine and win the LL at this point, assuming it wins its other four games (SLU, WPI, ROC, UNI).

Hobart (2-2, 1-1 LL)
----------------------
Not in control of its own destiny.  Because of its loss to RPI, Hobart cannot end up in ANY tiebreaker against RPI with one loss each, as RPI would beat Hobart in a head-to-head tiebreaker OR in a three-way tiebreaker (there cannot be a four-way tiebreaker in this scenario at one loss) -- RPI would win any second tiebreaker in a three-way tie (reverse order comparisons of LL opponents) and any third tiebreaker (W/L percentage vs. all teams .500 or better) since Dickinson is guaranteed to be .500 or greater and RPI has no out-of-conference losses).  Thus, Hobart needs RPI to lose twice in order to win the LL.

Rochester (1-3, 1-1 LL)
-------------------------
Not in control of its own destiny.  Because of its loss to Union, Rochester cannot win any head-to-head tiebreaker against Union.  Rochester also loses in a three-way tie against Union and RPI with one loss each.  There is only one three-way tiebreaker at one loss that Rochester COULD win, and that is with Union and St. Lawrence -- this would come down to the third tiebreaker and involve several out-of-conference scenarios to play out (too many to list here, but most require Carnegie Mellon to finish below .500.  Thus, Rochester needs Union to lose twice in order to have a predictable chance at the LL win.

WPI (4-1, 1-1 LL)
-------------------
Not in control of its own destiny.  Because of WPI's loss to Hobart, WPI cannot win any head-to-head tiebreaker against Hobart.  Thus, we look at the three-way ties that could form with Hobart -- but there is only one:  against RPI and Hobart.  This would place the teams in the third tiebreaker, in which RPI and WPI would tie and Hobart would be eliminated, making WPI the winner in the head-to-head.  Thus, WPI needs Hobart to lose two games OR Union to lose to both Hobart and RPI (with RPI winning out with the exception of the WPI/RPI game) to win the LL.

St. Lawrence (2-2, 1-1 LL)
----------------------------
Not in control of its own destiny.  Because of St. Lawrence's loss to Rochester, St. Lawrence would not win a head-to-head tiebreaker against Rochester.  Thus, we look at the three-way ties that could form with Rochester -- but there is only one:  against Union and Rochester.  This would place the teams in the third tiebreaker, which Rochester could be eliminated to give St. Lawrence the win (this requires Carnegie Mellon to finish .500 or above in most scenarios).  However, the only predictable chance St. Lawrence would have to win the LL is for Rochester to lose twice.

For USMMA and Susquehanna, it is not impossible for the teams to win the LL, but they would need a lot of help.  We'll review these scenarios if they become applicable in the next couple weeks.

So Frank, it seems to me (after reading the Hobart caption) that RPIs nonconference scheduling is the smartest thing all of the schools have done?  Although they still have to beat the teams in conference (they have already beaten Hobart) they still win the tiebreakers because they have no out of league losses.  So Hobart would have been better playing a 6 game schedule this year.....

[Frank Rossi]

If that's next year's color commentator situation, then 2 things need to happen...

1)make sure that there's a camera doing periodic pans to the broadcast booth (ala Monday Night Football)

2) RT needs to be invited back for special "guest" spots on WRUC

Relax, it's not who you're thinking of.  Alex is somewhat more distant than that in terms of the family tree.

As for U89's posts regarding this, I've tested him twice on the road so far, and I'm pleased with his maturity on the air already.  He played in high school and is very objective when it comes to what goes on at field level.  At this level, there is no mistake to be made as to who the people in the booth represent in the first place, so the only question is whether or not the folks in the booth are making things up or completely omitting certain things that are happening on the field or around the program.  As long as the play-by-play and color guys at Union recognize that neither of those is appropriate and they are both very adept at the broadcasting end of things, then I have absolutely no problem with them being on the air, homers or not homers.  I think it's the excitement they can interpose into the broadcast that makes it enjoyable for the listener -- and if a parent from the opponent's team doesn't like it, then either flip to the other broadcast OR make sure your school has one put in place for the next time.

It's taken me 13 seasons to become as objective as some believe I am, so trust me -- it's not something you're born with when you're broadcasting games regularly for you own school.

[Frank Rossi]

Who Is in Control of Their Own Destiny in the LL?
----------------------------------------------------

Coming into this weekend, there are six teams with one loss or less in the Liberty League.  That means that there are some teams in more control of their own destinies than others for the elusive Pool A Automatic Qualifier Bid to the NCAA Playoffs.  Here is a look at the control each LL team has over their own destinies:

Union (2-2, 2-0 LL)
---------------------
In control of its own destiny.  In fact, Union can still lose to Susquehanna and win the LL at this point, assuming it wins its other four games (WPI, SLU, HOB, RPI).

RPI (4-0, 2-0 LL)
------------------
In control of its own destiny.  In fact, RPI can still lose to Merchant Marine and win the LL at this point, assuming it wins its other four games (SLU, WPI, ROC, UNI).

Hobart (2-2, 1-1 LL)
----------------------
Not in control of its own destiny.  Because of its loss to RPI, Hobart cannot end up in ANY tiebreaker against RPI with one loss each, as RPI would beat Hobart in a head-to-head tiebreaker OR in a three-way tiebreaker (there cannot be a four-way tiebreaker in this scenario at one loss) -- RPI would win any second tiebreaker in a three-way tie (reverse order comparisons of LL opponents) and any third tiebreaker (W/L percentage vs. all teams .500 or better) since Dickinson is guaranteed to be .500 or greater and RPI has no out-of-conference losses).  Thus, Hobart needs RPI to lose twice in order to win the LL.

Rochester (1-3, 1-1 LL)
-------------------------
Not in control of its own destiny.  Because of its loss to Union, Rochester cannot win any head-to-head tiebreaker against Union.  Rochester also loses in a three-way tie against Union and RPI with one loss each.  There is only one three-way tiebreaker at one loss that Rochester COULD win, and that is with Union and St. Lawrence -- this would come down to the third tiebreaker and involve several out-of-conference scenarios to play out (too many to list here, but most require Carnegie Mellon to finish below .500.  Thus, Rochester needs Union to lose twice in order to have a predictable chance at the LL win.

WPI (4-1, 1-1 LL)
-------------------
Not in control of its own destiny.  Because of WPI's loss to Hobart, WPI cannot win any head-to-head tiebreaker against Hobart.  Thus, we look at the three-way ties that could form with Hobart -- but there is only one:  against RPI and Hobart.  This would place the teams in the third tiebreaker, in which RPI and WPI would tie and Hobart would be eliminated, making WPI the winner in the head-to-head.  Thus, WPI needs Hobart to lose two games OR Union to lose to both Hobart and RPI (with RPI winning out with the exception of the WPI/RPI game) to win the LL.

St. Lawrence (2-2, 1-1 LL)
----------------------------
Not in control of its own destiny.  Because of St. Lawrence's loss to Rochester, St. Lawrence would not win a head-to-head tiebreaker against Rochester.  Thus, we look at the three-way ties that could form with Rochester -- but there is only one:  against Union and Rochester.  This would place the teams in the third tiebreaker, which Rochester could be eliminated to give St. Lawrence the win (this requires Carnegie Mellon to finish .500 or above in most scenarios).  However, the only predictable chance St. Lawrence would have to win the LL is for Rochester to lose twice.

For USMMA and Susquehanna, it is not impossible for the teams to win the LL, but they would need a lot of help.  We'll review these scenarios if they become applicable in the next couple weeks.

So Frank, it seems to me (after reading the Hobart caption) that RPIs nonconference scheduling is the smartest thing all of the schools have done?  Although they still have to beat the teams in conference (they have already beaten Hobart) they still win the tiebreakers because they have no out of league losses.  So Hobart would have been better playing a 6 game schedule this year.....

In some ways, yes.  The phenomenon that we experience here (and seemingly every year) is the 1-loss three-way-tie phenomenon.  Again, for those who don't know, the first tiebreaker is head-to-head results.  Because a 1-loss three-way-tie scenario is most frequent when the three teams go 1-1 against each other, this not only makes the first tiebreaker a nullity for now, but also the second (which is taking the teams in the league in reverse standings order and comparing results one by one against the teams in the tie until there is a difference).  This is because the teams in the tie are ALL 5-0 vs. the other teams in the league in this scenario.

That leaves the dreaded third tiebreaker:  W/L percentage vs. ALL teams that are .500 or better.  What matters here is not so much the numerator of the fraction you get, but the denominator.  In other words, LOSSES in this tiebreaker mean everything.  The only team RPI loses against in a three-way merry-go-round one-loss scenario is WPI in the Hobart/RPI/WPI scenario (others could form, but it would take out-of-conference teams on other LL teams' schedules to completely tank and is unlikely).  This is because both WPI and RPI were perfect in their out-of-conference schedules against Cheesesteak U and Cheesecake College.  This is exactly how RPI would have won the LL in 2005 if they had beaten Union when Union came into the game at 9-0 -- RPI would have won through the third tiebreaker if Hobart beat Rochester and RPI beat Union that day.

So, yes, RPI's weak schedule can benefit it in terms of the merry-go-round.  However, if you're going to sit there and tell me it benefits RPI in the longrun each season...I'm not so easily sold.

[labart96]

As usual, nice work Frank.

Hobart may not be in control of their own destiny as far as the LL goes, but if they win out (which in theory is something they do "control") they should be able to earn a Pool C bid with a 8-2 record with last second losses to 2 potential league champs/Pool A winners.  However, TGP also realizes that Hobart could go 8-2 and still get overlooked if certain scenarios play out (see 9-1 Cortland from a season ago).

The biggest game on the schedule obviously is Alfred (especially if the Saxons are still undefeated at that time and ranked in the Top 20), but Hobart basically has no room for error.  A third loss is pretty much a ticket to an ECAC bowl in a best case scenario.

['gro]

so what your saying Frank is that if there is a 3-way, RPI ends up on top.

sexy time!

[Senor RedTackle]

If that's next year's color commentator situation, then 2 things need to happen...

1)make sure that there's a camera doing periodic pans to the broadcast booth (ala Monday Night Football)

2) RT needs to be invited back for special "guest" spots on WRUC

Relax, it's not who you're thinking of.  Alex is somewhat more distant than that in terms of the family tree.

As for U89's posts regarding this, I've tested him twice on the road so far, and I'm pleased with his maturity on the air already.  He played in high school and is very objective when it comes to what goes on at field level.  At this level, there is no mistake to be made as to who the people in the booth represent in the first place, so the only question is whether or not the folks in the booth are making things up or completely omitting certain things that are happening on the field or around the program.  As long as the play-by-play and color guys at Union recognize that neither of those is appropriate and they are both very adept at the broadcasting end of things, then I have absolutely no problem with them being on the air, homers or not homers.  I think it's the excitement they can interpose into the broadcast that makes it enjoyable for the listener -- and if a parent from the opponent's team doesn't like it, then either flip to the other broadcast OR make sure your school has one put in place for the next time.

It's taken me 13 seasons to become as objective as some believe I am, so trust me -- it's not something you're born with when you're broadcasting games regularly for you own school.

not for nothing but your 2nd paragraph completely lost RT. RT doesn't see how that tied into RT's quote. Does anyone else have that view?

[Frank Rossi]

I was addressing U89's posts in the second paragraph, as the first sentence indicates.

[Senor RedTackle]

Frank,

RT is starting to get suspicious of your "Firm". The impressive quality of your LL posts have left RT to wonder how you are able to devote time to the practice. Do we have a situation where you're overbilling and funnelling money to the Caymans?? Do you have a security officer??

[Pat Coleman]

Not at the moment -- he's waiting for his delivery from Liberty Medical.