East Region Fan Poll

[lewdogg11]

Sorry, gave credit to the wrong poster...  :-)

[dlippiel]

dlip believes as far as the NCAA's go you cannot argue the point that east region fans want the strongest east regions teams to represent them in the tourney. Why on earth would they want anything else? And it should annoy ER fans that that does not come close to happening year in and year out. The East already has such an uphill climb against the misplaced innaccurate national perception of the region's strength that having teams from two of the nations lowest rated conferences get auto bid just doesn't help. Question: this year do teams from the NEFC, MASCAC, and ECFC get auto bids or is it not until next year that the MASCAC gets the bid?

[jknezek]

MASCAC does not get one this year. The other two do. One is a holdover from the old conference and the other is a new Pool A after the waiting period expired.

[MMBucs]

MASCAC has a two year waiting period. The automatic bid is not in effect until the 2015 season.

[dlippiel]

Thanks fellas. Dlip should of looked it up himself but was a bit too lazy...

[pumkinattack]

I actually think Gaulludet would beat anyone in the NEFC or MASCAC this year.  I also like the confidence in Bart, but we all know Cragg will call off the dogs and rest his starters in the second quarter if the game is in hand, so 70 in 2 quarters would be (awesome) unlikely.  Would be nice to get a preferred first round matchup this year though.

I'd be more upset if Framingham gets a pool B/C. 

As far as I'm conference, Rochester is no better than #3 in the conference behind MMA and they lost to SLU, so while the conference isn't strong, representing them as LL #2 isn't right.

And Shen has Coach yoder.  They went from awful to competent this year and will be better in coming years.

[D3MAFAN]

Quick Question:

What should/could the NEFC, ECFC, and MASCAC do to strengthen their perspective conferences? Do you think it is monetary, admissions, etc...

[AUPepBand]

Quick Question:

What should/could the NEFC, ECFC, and MASCAC do to strengthen their perspective conferences? Do you think it is monetary, admissions, etc...

Pep is thinking there's a glut of college football programs in New England/Northeast much because the country was settled from east to west.
Pep says, "Go West, young man!"

[D3MAFAN]

Quick Question:

What should/could the NEFC, ECFC, and MASCAC do to strengthen their perspective conferences? Do you think it is monetary, admissions, etc...

Pep is thinking there's a glut of college football programs in New England/Northeast much because the country was settled from east to west.
Pep says, "Go West, young man!"

I always enjoy watching two top teams from top conferences face off against each other in the season, either it be East region vs. East region or East region vs. "X" region. However, speaking from an East region perspective, do you think teams that schedule tough opponents are at risk of not making the playoffs, especially if you lose that OOC game and don't win your conference. I was poking around other regions and they felt that their top teams should not play each other, because of that risk, so you rarely see a UW-Whitewater play a St. Thomas or a Linfield vs. St. John's. Does it behoove the East region top teams to schedule against each other, especially looking at how this year has gone. I know it is not the case in everyteam, since some top teams have lost conference games that they should not have.

[Bombers798891]

Quick Question:

What should/could the NEFC, ECFC, and MASCAC do to strengthen their perspective conferences? Do you think it is monetary, admissions, etc...

Pep is thinking there's a glut of college football programs in New England/Northeast much because the country was settled from east to west.
Pep says, "Go West, young man!"

I always enjoy watching two top teams from top conferences face off against each other in the season, either it be East region vs. East region or East region vs. "X" region. However, speaking from an East region perspective, do you think teams that schedule tough opponents are at risk of not making the playoffs, especially if you lose that OOC game and don't win your conference. I was poking around other regions and they felt that their top teams should not play each other, because of that risk, so you rarely see a UW-Whitewater play a St. Thomas or a Linfield vs. St. John's. Does it behoove the East region top teams to schedule against each other, especially looking at how this year has gone. I know it is not the case in everyteam, since some top teams have lost conference games that they should not have.

Generally speaking, this is the whole issue with the lack of Pool C bids. It becomes so hard for a two-loss team to make the playoffs (Remember 2007, when the 3rd place, two loss, Bombers got in?) that it creates a disincentive.

But, the bolded part is what interests me the most. While there's a lot of things the East Region deals with that are out of their control, this isn't. Too many of the best conference teams don't go through a season unscathed and lose to teams they are better than (Fisher to Wick in 2007, Ithaca to Fisher in 2008, Alfred actually running the E8 table in 2010 and losing to 6-4 RPI and at home to a 4-5 Rochester?)

Fisher has scheduled rather ambitiously, Salisbury does as well, Ithaca and Cortland are usually pretty good, but there's way too much shooting yourself in the foot in the East, especially in the E8.

[dlippiel]

Quick Question:

What should/could the NEFC, ECFC, and MASCAC do to strengthen their perspective conferences? Do you think it is monetary, admissions, etc...

Pep is thinking there's a glut of college football programs in New England/Northeast much because the country was settled from east to west.
Pep says, "Go West, young man!"

I always enjoy watching two top teams from top conferences face off against each other in the season, either it be East region vs. East region or East region vs. "X" region. However, speaking from an East region perspective, do you think teams that schedule tough opponents are at risk of not making the playoffs, especially if you lose that OOC game and don't win your conference. I was poking around other regions and they felt that their top teams should not play each other, because of that risk, so you rarely see a UW-Whitewater play a St. Thomas or a Linfield vs. St. John's. Does it behoove the East region top teams to schedule against each other, especially looking at how this year has gone. I know it is not the case in everyteam, since some top teams have lost conference games that they should not have.

Funny dlip was talking about this with a friend yesterday. No, there aren't really enough spots open to play low level teams and ruin your reputation and/or not build on it. dlip says schedule tough, earn respect, build your program, and play the best you can. Honestly if there were enough at-large bids (pool B) then sure, play cupcakes and do everything you can to go undefeated. Obviously you would have to keep an eye on your SOS in comparison to others around the country but it would be too risky to play other tough teams and risk a loss.

dlip would love to see more match-ups of top teams whether it be in or out of region (obviously travel costs can limit this). When you tend to play opponents that are a level or two below you or at least percieved to be, you have nothing to gain and everytihng to lose (IDHO). To this day dlip respects the **** out of SJF for the way they have scheduled for the past decade.

[ExTartanPlayer]

Quick Question:

What should/could the NEFC, ECFC, and MASCAC do to strengthen their perspective conferences? Do you think it is monetary, admissions, etc...

Pep is thinking there's a glut of college football programs in New England/Northeast much because the country was settled from east to west.
Pep says, "Go West, young man!"

I always enjoy watching two top teams from top conferences face off against each other in the season, either it be East region vs. East region or East region vs. "X" region. However, speaking from an East region perspective, do you think teams that schedule tough opponents are at risk of not making the playoffs, especially if you lose that OOC game and don't win your conference. I was poking around other regions and they felt that their top teams should not play each other, because of that risk, so you rarely see a UW-Whitewater play a St. Thomas or a Linfield vs. St. John's. Does it behoove the East region top teams to schedule against each other, especially looking at how this year has gone. I know it is not the case in everyteam, since some top teams have lost conference games that they should not have.

I guess it depends on the goal.  The way I see it, if you're purposely scheduling lighter OOC games to try to assure that you finish 9-1 in the event you lose a conference game, that's no way to build a program.  It might be a good way to sneak into the playoffs once or twice, but if the goal is building to compete nationally, I think you have to schedule up and gamble that maybe you'll miss the playoffs once or twice because you finished 8-2.  Oh well.  I'm pretty firmly of the mind that teams who don't win conferences not named the OAC or WIAC squabbling about whether they deserve a Pool C bid are missing the bigger point - if you're a national contender, just win the damn conference.  Henceforth, top teams should feel free to schedule some tough OOC games, because if you have designs on advancing in the playoffs, you'd better also be planning to win your conference.

[jknezek]

I'm pretty firmly of the mind that teams who don't win conferences not named the OAC or WIAC squabbling about whether they deserve a Pool C bid are missing the bigger point - if you're a national contender, just win the damn conference.  Henceforth, top teams should feel free to schedule some tough OOC games, because if you have designs on advancing in the playoffs, you'd better also be planning to win your conference.

Completely agree. But I'd throw the MIAC in that list as well.

[Pat Coleman]

"Just win the damn conference" is an interesting take for those conferences. Those are places where you could be a national quarterfinal team and not be the best team in the conference. Surely we want to get national quarterfinalists in the field.

[jknezek]

"Just win the damn conference" is an interesting take for those conferences. Those are places where you could be a national quarterfinal team and not be the best team in the conference. Surely we want to get national quarterfinalists in the field.

Suggestions on how to find a solution? Personally, right now, I don't really think it is a problem. With the A bids growing to 25 in the next couple years, and B probably shrinking to 1, that's 6 Pool C bids. Are there six conferences in the country where the runner-up is good enough to be a quarterfinalist? Not really possible, since theoretically those 6 conference champions should be as quarterfinalist capable as the runner-up. That's 12 teams for 8 spots just from those conferences. In other words, there are enough C bids to cover the potential second chance teams, even if there aren't enough C bids to cover all the runner ups that are better than the weaker champions.

I don't think it becomes a problem until you are under 4 Pool C bids. As for options, I don't want to see the AQ limit upped as that will lead to more conference musical chairs. And I don't think the NCAA is going to be real interested in growing the tournament size again, especially if they start losing revenue from some of the lawsuits going around.