East Region Fan Poll

[boobyhasgameyo]

Salisbury 70
WNEC 10
WNEC is VERY pumped up in the first half and falls to a large 49-0 halftime deficit.  Once calm, they put up 10 points in the 4th.

Nice.  +k

[wesleydad]

sorry for my arrogance, as i have been accused of it before.  hobart has no chance.  they have not played a team close to as good as wesley is, dont give me fisher, i have seen both play this year live, most of you have not, and they are not close.  wesley wins by 30 unless they turn the ball over, then the game may be close.  i think fisher has a good chance of winning and so does cnu.

[boobyhasgameyo]

sorry for my arrogance, as i have been accused of it before.  hobart has no chance.  they have not played a team close to as good as wesley is, dont give me fisher, i have seen both play this year live, most of you have not, and they are not close.  wesley wins by 30 unless they turn the ball over, then the game may be close.  i think fisher has a good chance of winning and so does cnu.

I don't think you're arrogant Wesleydad, you've been ok in my book.  We differ only in the sense that you seem to view Wesley as a team that nobody has ever seen before, and a team that will lose to nobody outside of UWW or UMU.  Wesley is good but they aren't Mount Union good.  They can be beaten by a team outside of the top 5 in the country.  Heck it has even been proven this year.  I know Wesley supporters like to pretend the Kean game didn't happen, much like the Fisher people wish Hobart never happened to them.  But if Hobart plays the way they did against Fisher...it won't be a blowout.  Of course Hobart it would seem hasn't played at the level they played the day I saw them since the Fisher game.  So in the end you may be correct. 

[Upstate]

sorry for my arrogance, as i have been accused of it before.  hobart has no chance.  they have not played a team close to as good as wesley is, dont give me fisher, i have seen both play this year live, most of you have not, and they are not close.  wesley wins by 30 unless they turn the ball over, then the game may be close.  i think fisher has a good chance of winning and so does cnu.

I don't think you're arrogant Wesleydad, you've been ok in my book.  We differ only in the sense that you seem to view Wesley as a team that nobody has ever seen before, and a team that will lose to nobody outside of UWW or UMU.  Wesley is good but they aren't Mount Union good.  They can be beaten by a team outside of the top 5 in the country.  Heck it has even been proven this year.  I know Wesley supporters like to pretend the Kean game didn't happen, much like the Fisher people wish Hobart never happened to them.  But if Hobart plays the way they did against Fisher...it won't be a blowout.  Of course Hobart it would seem hasn't played at the level they played the day I saw them since the Fisher game.  So in the end you may be correct.

Yeah there's been more arrogant posts about teams that aren't consistently inside the top 5-10 like Wesley has been...

No issues with what Wesleydad has said...

[pg04]

In reality Wesley's performance will come probably somewhere between hobart having no chance like Wesleydad says (I'm not sure I really believe that) and my prediction of a last second victory.  For sure, a perfect storm would need to happen to get Hobart to win.  And there are other things I hadn't realized about the Hobart team (injuries) when making the pick... Oops!  It is what it is, I won't change it now!

[wesleydad]

pg, you are right, game will likely fall somewhere in between our predictions.  the injuries to the offense would seem to limit hobart's chances to score much, especially if the qb is not playing.

booby, you are also correct, if wesley plays as bad as they did against kean then anyone would have a chance to beat them.  i would like to forget that the game happened but i had the misfortune of watching it live so thats not happening.  i really hope for a good game today, blowouts are not fun to watch.  hope anyone that gets to a game gets to see a good one.  the fisher - hopkins game should be a good one and so should the kean - cnu game.  cnu played salisbury tough and has been playing well lately.  kean is not an offensive powerhouse so the game will likely be low scoring and anyone can win those games.

[lewdogg11]

wesleydad, I'm having a hard time figuring out if you've seen a live game this year.

[Charles]

wesleydad, I'm having a hard time figuring out if you've seen a live game this year.

Hear you'll be in Beverly today. Please where a big red hat so that we can find you!

[Cardinal Pride]

I am not usually this optimistic about Fisher this year, but I have a good feeling about this game.
Their size and physicality should be a key factor in winning this game.

I also feel real good about this game for Fisher.  John Hopkins hasn't played the competition that the Cardinals have and I think the size and physical nature of this Fisher team prevails.

[lewdogg11]

wesleydad, I'm having a hard time figuring out if you've seen a live game this year.

Hear you'll be in Beverly today. Please where a big red hat so that we can find you!

No problem. I should be pretty easy to find. I'll be the dude there that has a clue.

[DanPadavona]

sorry for my arrogance, as i have been accused of it before.  hobart has no chance.  they have not played a team close to as good as wesley is, dont give me fisher, i have seen both play this year live, most of you have not, and they are not close.  wesley wins by 30 unless they turn the ball over, then the game may be close.  i think fisher has a good chance of winning and so does cnu.

CNU was only good enough to win its own conference. They played 3 east region teams out of conference and lost them all, including Stevenson which won only 1 game in the MAC. Today they played a strong team from a strong east conference and got their teeth kicked in.

The East has been waiting for a chance to prove itself against someone in the country not named Mount Union. I think it is time people wake up and realize that teams like CNU and JHU play in much weaker conferences, and that their gaudy regular season records would not hold up in the NJAC, MAC, and the E8.

[pumkinattack]

The Hobart bracket is setting up nicely for UMBH as the Linfield/Wesley winner will likely have had consecutive dogfight matches.   And for how much better Wesley was, to quote some, our front 8 didn't have problems getting penetration and our little RB Webb ran over a few defenders and had Wesley guys slow to get off the field. 

I'm excited to see the winner of Del Val/SJF vs. St Thomas (assuming they get through).  I'm leaning towards DelVal, starting to become a buyer of them, by 7-10, but Fisher's got to have some confidence after an impressive win on the road - best win all year for them, IMO.  And for the Fisher guys, the reason you fared so well is Hassanian is from my hood (and it's become a hood for sure) - Binghamton.  We rarely get many Section 4 guys at Hobart.  Not sure why.   

[wesleydad]

pumpkin, i agree, your front 8 was real good today.  the coaches put them in great positions to make plays and they did for the most part.  webb is a nice running back.  they did themselves proud today in my opinion.  i was glad the game was a good one, i was not happy with how wesley played.  i agree, if wesley is not home next week i will be at del val to see that game, it should be a good one.  i give del val the slight edge, and who knows how fisher changes if kramer does not play at qb.

dan, i agree with you too, i had fisher beating hopkins.  not sure what happened to cnu but the game was 14 - 7 when cnu imploded before the half and gave up 3 td's in 1:20 to trail 34 - 7.  wesley has played both the cc and usa conf in the playoffs the past couple of years and they do not show very well.  the top teams are ok, but overall i would agree they are not the same as the njac, mac, or e8.  most of wesley's losses the last 5 or 6 years have been to teams from those conferences.

[Pat Coleman]

The East has been waiting for a chance to prove itself against someone in the country not named Mount Union. I think it is time people wake up and realize that teams like CNU and JHU play in much weaker conferences, and that their gaudy regular season records would not hold up in the NJAC, MAC, and the E8.

I think we already know this. Compare 1-loss Empire 8 team, undefeated MAC team and 1-loss NJAC team to undefeated Centennial team:

10    Salisbury    9-1    347    10
11    Delaware Valley    10-0    343    11
12    Kean    9-1    322
13    Johns Hopkins    10-0    305
http://www.d3football.com/top25/2011/week11

[Bombers798891]

Not to revive a dead horse, but LZ Granderson wrote a piece on six-win bowl teams that really draws some parallels to our discussion on Pool A auto bids

http://espn.go.com/espn/commentary/story/_/id/7307148/a-bowl-bid-six-wins-rewards-mediocrity

An excerpt, on UCLA:

I'm sure the Bruins worked as hard as they could for that .500 record, but hard work doesn't mean they or any other team with fewer than nine wins should get a bowl game. That's like putting community theater on Broadway because the locals gave them a standing O. Sometimes you're just not good enough, and that's part of the college experience too.

Obviously, it's not an apples to apples comparison, because there are different philosophies at play, but I feel like that could be re-written:

I'm sure the [Saints] worked as hard as they could for that .500 record, but hard work doesn't mean they or any other team with fewer than [eight? seven?] wins should get a [Pool A bid]. That's like putting community theater on Broadway because the locals gave them a standing O. Sometimes you're just not good enough, and that's part of the college experience too.