FB: Old Dominion Athletic Conference

[bcsportswriter]

Outsider- Thanks for the info.  Ill message you sometime before we go up. 

[bcsportswriter]

Oh Keith...when will you give us some respect?

[Olinemom]

Here is the letter I just sent to the Richmond Times Dispatch, the state's supposed newspaper.

I thought the Richmond Times was a state paper, but I guess the state stops at Ashland or maybe it gets a little farther.  However, when you are talking about the All-Odac teams, there is no excuse not to mention the players from Bridgewater College who earned first team honors, second team honors or honorable mention.  After all,  they won the ODAC championship as they have for the last 5 years.  And what's with not congratulating Coach Mike Clark who was honored by his peers by being named Coach of the Year.  What pitiful reporting this is.  Not to mention that we are the only VA team left in the DIII football playoffs, which we have been in every year since 2000, I might add.  During that time we have been to the Stagg Bowl once and to the semi-finals once.  You'd think that sports reporters would recognize these accomplishments.  I'm sure the parents of the 7 young men named to the first team would have appreciated seeing their son's achievement noted in the state's newspaper.  Ditto for those named to the 2nd team  or Honorable Mention. 

Barbara Long

PS  They wIll be representing Bridgewater College of VIRGINIA & the ODAC Conference  this Saturday at Thiel College of the PAC.  It should be a good game.

PPS  probably a lot better game than the Cavalier / Miama game if last Saturday was any indication.

If they can mention PLAYERS from W&L they can surely mention the players from the ODAC Champion BC Eagles!

GO EAGLES

[Olinemom]

.

i got the times-dispatch on their omissions. it would be great if some more people could back me up. that really is irresponsible of them.

I wrote them as well, Outsider.  They have been slighting us for far too long.  And if they can tout LiamMurray from New York, they can certainly talk about our guys.  For example, Marcus Washington who is from Crozet, just outside of Charlottesville;  Paul Getty from Hopewell, Va.  (suburb of Richmond);  Nik Reese from Maryland (lot closer than New York!);  Antwaine Campo from Ocean City New Jersey (still closer than New York);  Chuck Brown from Fredericksbur, Va.; Josh Knight from Harrisonburg, Va.;  Adrian Herndon from Lynchburg, Va.;  Troy Burnett from Ridgeway, Va.;  Winston, Young from Florida these days;  David Clements from Lexington, Va.;  Deon Mays from Lynchburg, Va.;  Brandon Borst from New Castle Delaware; and Corey Hulsebus from  Belvedere, South Carolina.  So 8 home-grown Virginia men.  I think I'm going to send them this list also, now that I have made it.    Hope to see you Saturday at the game!

GO  BC  GO

[Pat Coleman]

but are Bublavi or Ricca or Washington not on there because of academics and comm. service?   or were they not good enough on the field to be considered?

Take a look at where the guys are from who are represented on that finalist list. Only Elliot and Knoblauch are from outside of the midwest. It looks to me like this is a regional award, which considers just a few players from other regions. 

Do you know Bublavi, Ricca or Washington were nominated?

Last year's winner played at Wesley, in Delaware. More winners are from Mount Union than any other school (also outside the Midwest, by the way) but that's understandable.

[Pat Coleman]

And to all you complaining about the RTD, do you guys know if Bridgewater or Emory & Henry sent them a release? I don't see a release on either team's Web site regarding All-ODAC selections.

[Bwana]

And to all you complaining about the RTD, do you guys know if Bridgewater or Emory & Henry sent them a release? I don't see a release on either team's Web site regarding All-ODAC selections.

As the newspaper of record in Virginia, one would think they would pursue the story and that a release from the school is not necessary.  They seem to have the full information-probably sent to them by the ODAC.  In fact, the article concludes with almost a full line listing of who made the team (again, which can be had at the ODAC site), and paid no attention to anyone from Bridgewater in the body of the article. 

A more precise example of the RTD unequal treatment is seen in that they they list the honorable mention players, they did list players from HSyd, WL, EH, RMac, but no Bridgewater Players.

However, it did say "State Players Only" next to the listing of Honorable Mention players...so I thought maybe they are only listing HonMen players who are from Virginia.

So, I checked the W&L site.  Sure enough, there is a release, and there is an Honorable Mention player from W&L-who hails from Dallas, TX.  He was mentioned.

So apparently their criteria was to focus on players attending school in Virginia.

The RTD should know where think Bridgewater is located...they have covered enough HSyd and W&L losses that occured at BC in recent years-and wins from those same schools in years prior to 2000.

The fact is that the RTD had the lineup of the All-ODAC honorees, chose to recognize by name w/in the article all the honorees from Hampden-Sydney, W&L, and Randy Mac, but not BC...chose to recognize all Honorable Mention players in their listing from state schools except for Bridgewater...

I can only think this is the result of bad reporting, bad attitude, or even bad faith by the RTD.

[Jeremybozz]

www.ecac.org/feature/feature.asp?id=2198//

[Jeremybozz]

  I guess that JMU is eligible for the Lambert Trophy due to being an Atlantic 10 member and BC is not because the ODAC is mostly southern based but it is interesting to note where W&J and Thiel rank in the East.
  How is Trinity eligible to win the Lambert?

[Pat Coleman]

Because it is located in Hartford, Conn.

Bwana, as a member of the newspaper industry (and a former SID), I can tell you that nothing makes it easier on a publication than having a press release from the school. Who knows who did what?

[Jeremybozz]

  Sorry, I assumed that an unbeaten Trinity team with a 1st place vote in the Lambert poll would at least be in the top 25 nationally. I was mistaken. Thanks for the reply and setting the record straight.

[Bwana]

Bwana, as a member of the newspaper industry (and a former SID), I can tell you that nothing makes it easier on a publication than having a press release from the school. Who knows who did what?

Good philosophical question, and in this case we know what the RTD did...they treated other ODAC schools located in Virginia better than Bridgewater in the article about the All-ODAC selections.

What we don't know is why they did it.

Now, having vented my spleen and stood up for my alma mater, I will suggest "why" the RTD covered this as they did.  It's all about the Benjamins.

Both RMC and HSyd are 60 miles or so from The Holy City as the crow flies, so they are both local schools.  I expect the RTD feels Washington and Lee has a significant alumni presence in Richmond and BC does not.  

As far as alleged disrespect toward Bridgewater, you will note that they listed E+H players who were Honorable Mention...even though E&H does not have a web page release listing their ODAC-honored players.

This is nothing new.  The same thing happens in coverage in the Washington Post.  The last time the WaPo had a substantial mention of the BC football team was in December 2001, just before the Stagg Bowl.

In fact, go to the WaPo sport section/college scores on any given sunday during football season, and take a look at the local scores portion.  Catholic is listed as a local school, which is to be expected.  They also give scores from other "local schools" like UVa, JMU, VMI, and VTech.  The listing may include W&L, but I do not recall for certain.

You will note that these schools bracket BH20, some are 50 or more miles farther (further?) away from DC than BC, but they are "local" and BC is not.  Again, the WaPo sports department has decided that you have as many folks in the DC area who follow BC football as follow Trinity, UMHB, Hardin-Simmons, and all the other schools that typically show up in the general listing of scores from all other college football games played in the southern part of the USA.

It is a business/editorial decision on the part of these papers.  I understand it, but I don't have to like it.

[Bwana]

  Sorry, I assumed that an unbeaten Trinity team with a 1st place vote in the Lambert poll would at least be in the top 25 nationally. I was mistaken. Thanks for the reply and setting the record straight.

Pat, do all the D3 football conferences compete for the playoffs or want to be considered in the AFCA rankings?  Following your discussion with Jeremybozz I checked and saw that Trinity, Conn. is not only 8-0 this year but was 8-0 in each of the past two years.  I checked the discussion board for the NESCAC and no one is talking about the D3 playoffs.

What's the story with the NESCAC?  If it chooses to exclude itself, are there other conferences with the same limitations?  Is that why it is not in the D3 or AFCA top 25?

[mizzou_mafia]

What's the story with the NESCAC?  If it chooses to exclude itself, are there other conferences with the same limitations?  Is that why it is not in the D3 or AFCA top 25?

You got it Bwana.  30-game win streak for Trinity...and we'll never know how good they really are.

[Bwana]

What's the story with the NESCAC?  If it chooses to exclude itself, are there other conferences with the same limitations?  Is that why it is not in the D3 or AFCA top 25?

You got it Bwana.  30-game win streak for Trinity...and we'll never know how good they really are.

Why do they choose to exclude themselves?