FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

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PolarCat

I will co-sign the bill of the Senator from New Jersey.  And I will add an amendment as we sent it to committee:  In the flexible scheduling, have each of the Top 4 teams play another Top 4 team in the first game of the season (though not their traditional,  year-ending rival).  This will end the current practice of the Big Dogs starting their season by tuning up on one of the Little Dogs, and the predictable 1-0 start for the haves and 0-1 start for the have-nots.

Steal a page from the NFL and start the season with competitive games, rather than the current almost-guaranteed cakewalks (Trinity v. Bates, Midd v. Bowdoin,  Amherst v. Hamilton).

JEFFFAN

Quote from: jumpshot on February 18, 2017, 11:59:58 AM
More evidence from new England football observer of the plague's blatant extensive use of transfers to gain a competitive advantage in its "major" sports. Likely to trigger further backlash following recent report on curtailing and reforming troubled athletics at the plague.

What did I miss???

PolarCat

jumpshot is off his meds again.  Par for the course.

Grabowski

Quote from: PolarCat on February 19, 2017, 10:12:06 AM
I will co-sign the bill of the Senator from New Jersey.  And I will add an amendment as we sent it to committee:  In the flexible scheduling, have each of the Top 4 teams play another Top 4 team in the first game of the season (though not their traditional,  year-ending rival).  This will end the current practice of the Big Dogs starting their season by tuning up on one of the Little Dogs, and the predictable 1-0 start for the haves and 0-1 start for the have-nots.

Steal a page from the NFL and start the season with competitive games, rather than the current almost-guaranteed cakewalks (Trinity v. Bates, Midd v. Bowdoin,  Amherst v. Hamilton).

Esteemed Senator PolarCat, your pork is indeed welcome in my bill, and your specific proposal seems easily accommodated.  In addition the committee should discuss Frank U's suggestion that we start scheduling a single game with like-minded small schools around the country.  If we ever do get the 9th game, I'd rather use it to schedule up the likes of Pomona, Claremont McKenna, Carleton, UChicago, W&L, Hopkins, Grinnell, Harvey Mudd, Oberlin, WashU-StL.  I think there's great value in that kind of travel and exposure to other places for the players.  And we get a little broadening of the NESCAC brand while we're at it. 

But yeah, I know, it's a pipe dream. 


amh63

Now that is good news for the Colby football team! 
NFO....thanks...plus K

NESCAC.Football.Observer

#11721
Any of you academics have access to "The Chronicle (of Higher Education"?

Seems as if someone wrote an article critical of Amherst and its athletic programs....

The link to "Behind Ugly Locker-Room Talk, Divisions of Class and Race" is below, and part of their "premium" subscriber service:

http://www.chronicle.com/article/Behind-Ugly-Locker-Room-Talk/239238?cid=rclink

Biddy's response, "Amherst's Problems Are Society's Problems", is also on the same website, but available to all:

http://www.chronicle.com/article/Amherst-s-Problems-Are/239315




nescac1


JEFFFAN

#11724
Quote from: nescac1 on February 08, 2017, 11:41:35 AM
Jefffan, without commenting on jumpshot's comments, since I have no such "inside" information about Amherst, I will note that the Director's Cup is not the end-all-and-be-all.  I'm glad Williams wins it regularly (although seems unlikely to do so this year) but the sports that enable Williams to win are not sports that require dramatic recruiting concessions and/or impact transfers to succeed in, and also don't have the same sort of effect on campus culture / academic life as the sports that Amherst have experienced a dramatic uptick in success over the past 5-10 years .  Williams tends to perform extremely well, year in and year out, in men's and women's swimming, cross country, tennis and track and field (which are four different teams for purposes of the Director's Cup), and women's golf and crew.  That group of sports alone is responsible for a huge percentage year in and year out of the Ephs' Director Cup points, before you even get to team sports.  Only the Williams women's soccer team has been regularly dominant in NESCAC / nationally among Eph team sports. No one on campus is really going to notice that women's cross country is winning national titles because generally those students are indistinguishable from the rest of the student body in terms of GPAs, course selection, admissions criteria, and so on. 

Amherst's prominent success of late has been in a few sports that require the most recruiting concessions, and the Amherst report indeed (like the Williams report before it) singles out a few sports in particular for scrutiny, where the members of those teams cluster in particular majors and particular careers, etc. etc. ... football, and men's soccer/lacrosse/ice hockey/baseball, I believe.  Amherst is not alone -- Tufts, after years of mediocrity or worse, is suddenly a NESCAC power in football and winning multiple national titles in men's lacrosse and men's soccer. These sort of changes in those types of sports in particular don't happen by accident.  Amherst, for example, has had several impact transfers play a big role on its men's soccer team in recent years, has two current seniors on the basketball team who are D1 transfers, and a starting football QB who is also a D1 transfer.  Amherst also regularly takes D1 transfers on its men's hockey team, among other sports.     

I'm not opining whether any of this is good or bad.  I'm just making a prediction based on a similar experience at Williams -- after a period of athletic dominance in high visibility sports (football in particular) and a lot of whining by the faculty, Williams put together a report like this, and things changed fairly dramatically for a certain subset of campus athletic teams (again, not those that really factor much into the Director's Cup -- football for example can't even score any points).  After a few sports-related controversies at Amherst, a little **too** much success in certain high-profile men's sports, a similar type of report at Amherst, and (I'd be willing to bet) complaints from some faculty members, don't be surprised if things changes at Amherst, much as they did at Williams in the early aughts.  The margin for error in football, basketball, hockey etc. is not all that high.  If Amherst stops focusing so many transfer slots on impact athletes and just trims frosh recruiting a bit at the margins for a few sports, the results could change substantially.   Just ask Williams!

It must be time to question the emphasis on sports at Williams now that the Ephs have made it to the Final Four in a major sport, basketball!


jumpshot

Jefffan, nice try.

If the facts are on your side, argue the facts. If not, pound the table as you do.

The facts are that the Ephs have been to Salem 8 times in the past 20 years in men's basketball ---and have won 34 national NCAA Championships in 11 different sports, not to mention 19 of 21 Directors' Cups consistent with the Ephs longstanding approach of maximizing the student/athlete experience for as many young people as possible through 32 varsity, several junior varsity teams, numerous club sports, and effective intramural and fitness programs, etc.

Perhaps best you focus on getting the plague's house in order as described by the national media, triggering yet another recent response from Biddy ....

JEFFFAN

Quote from: jumpshot on March 14, 2017, 12:00:56 PM
Jefffan, nice try.

If the facts are on your side, argue the facts. If not, pound the table as you do.

The facts are that the Ephs have been to Salem 8 times in the past 20 years in men's basketball ---and have won 34 national NCAA Championships in 11 different sports, not to mention 19 of 21 Directors' Cups consistent with the Ephs longstanding approach of maximizing the student/athlete experience for as many young people as possible through 32 varsity, several junior varsity teams, numerous club sports, and effective intramural and fitness programs, etc.

Perhaps best you focus on getting the plague's house in order as described by the national media, triggering yet another recent response from Biddy ....

Thanks for copying and pasting the summary from the Williams athletics homepage on the excellence of Williams athletics - saves all of us the effort of having to search on the website ourselves.   And thank you as well for making my point about the emphasis on athletics at Williams, as evidenced by the Director Cup standings over the years.   I really have nothing to add to my point that Williams emphasizes athletics just as much if not more than any school in NESCAC, including Amherst as you have made it for me.   Best to stop complaining about Amherst athletics in the spirit of people in glass houses ....

jumpshot

Jefffan, you miss the point entirely regarding the seemingly endless flow of unfavorable mainstream media regarding amHerst and the flaws of your school's focus on "major" sports.

I am glad to know that on items on which we disagree you are still capable of learning ....

PolarCat

Please take this off line.  It's boring AF for the rest of us. 

amh63

JEFFFAN.....Based on your posting that you have joined the Amherst fan "club".  It is mid March and the letters should be in the mail by now...if my memory serves me. 
If so, hope to meet you at Amherst's Homecoming....it will be with Wesleyan this year.  Amherst's QB coach and recruiting coordinator has moved on...to Harvard?  Therefore the news wrt Class of '21 recruits is not readily flowing. :'(
While I am digging out my car, with Spring about to arrive, I am starting to make plans for the Fall.  Guess this year, I will take in the Hamilton game in Clinton with my daughter's family and Maybe just maybe drop by Frank U's hangout at The Log after the Williams game. 
Believe that Amherst will have a successful FOOTBALL season...with a rebuilt offensive line and a defensive backfield.