Eastern Collegiate Football Conference

[Pat Coleman]

The stadium wasn't designed for football.  It's a baseball field that was built before Husson started its football program. 

This.

[NED3Guy]

Pat Coleman posted the link to this story in a few other conference threads (where he sees Keystone as being a potential fit), but I figured I'd post it here as well:

http://www.d3football.com/notables/2018/01/keystone-adds-football-brings-total-to-252

Under 3hrs to Alfred State and SUNY Maritime. Under 5 to Gallaudet.

I'm sure each of those teams would love another "southern" member of the ECFC. With Husson on the way out, the overall footprint of the league gets much smaller, and Keystone would seem to be a decent fit given the three teams mentioned above.

I have no idea what kind of school they are academically (though a quick google search shows a 92% acceptance rate as of 2014)...might be a great fit for the ECFC.

[Pat Coleman]

Sorry -- I meant to post it here, too, because I think it's a reasonable fit for the ECFC as well!

[Jonny Utah]

So I'm working at the NECC women's basketball semi-final game the other day (Newbury College vs. Elms College), and the Newbury AD tells me that Hellenic College (small Greek Orthodox school in Boston) and Newbury have "combined" athletic departments and students at Hellenic College can play sports at Newbury College.

Now I read in the Boston Globe today that Mt. Ida and Lasell are looking to "merge" schools (something different than Newbury and Hellenic).  Would this now mean that Lasell students could play football at Mt. Ida?

This seems to be a new thing, with Boston University "merging" with Wheelock as well.  Obviously BU is D1 and Wheelock has several d3 programs.  Not sure how that is going to work out in the future as well in terms of athletics.

[AUPepBand]

Alfred State has a new coach....but he probably won't need to "move" very far:

http://www.alfredstateathletics.com/sports/fball/2017-18/releases/20180319m2a5o9

[Jonny Utah]

Now it looks like Umass (Amherst) is just buying out Mt. Ida altogether.  So looks like the end of Mt. Ida football, and from what I'm hearing, Mt. Ida students will simply become Umass Dartmouth students, not Umass Amherst students, and can transfer there.....

[d3fan142511]

Ida Alumni was on the 2012 ECFC championship team....Disappoint and upset this happened the program and facilities really upgraded over my 4 years there and we were competing well in New England..Coach Landers was a great coach and feel for him and the players. RIP Mount Ida Football #MustangCity

[Pat Coleman]

Sad indeed.
http://www.d3football.com/notables/2018/04/mount-ida-closing

[Jonny Utah]

Now the article notes that Umass Boston will be able to use the facilities.  Since Umass Boston dropped their football team (and did it at the same time the got rid of their football field in front of their campus on the water), we can dream that maybe Umass Boston will get back into it and use the stadium at Mt. Ida?

[Pat Coleman]

I didn't get the impression that facilities was the reason UMB dropped football.

[jknezek]

Raw deal for the ECFC. They are running out of teams...

[Jonny Utah]

I didn't get the impression that facilities was the reason UMB dropped football.

It wasn't, but the Umass system is doing all sorts of land buying and speculating, maybe they have plans to use some of the sports facilities there?

[NED3Guy]

As noted on the LL board, the Mount Ida news also means that 9 teams have extra open dates to fill for next fall.

[Ralph Turner]

Raw deal for the ECFC. They are running out of teams...

Half sarcasm, half out-of-the-box thinking...

Maybe Thomas More could affiliate for the 2019 season to keep the Pool A bid...

[NED3Guy]

Castleton added Misericordia (1-9) in place of Mt Ida, as announced in the Rutland (VT) Herald....so much for that Hobart v Castleton game rumored on the LL board.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/category/sports/

Article was behind a paywall, but the headline can be seen by scrolling down that page