Quote from: Bartman on January 14, 2026, 11:00:33 AM

Quote from: Machiavelli on January 14, 2026, 09:44:41 AMSomeone sent me a bit of the Social Media banter. It's kind of embarrassing for Division 3 football. Frank should not be looked at as an ambassador of DIII. All he does is stir the pot and act like a complete a$$hat to anyone who comments. Disgusting behavior.

I'm really liking Frank's outfit for the game.He must have trained at the BTBarnum Circus master of ceremonies online school.

LOL. He shops at an exclusive apparel store called 'Look at me! Look at me!'.

Someone sent me a bit of the Social Media banter. It's kind of embarrassing for Division 3 football. Frank should not be looked at as an ambassador of DIII. All he does is stir the pot and act like a complete a$$hat to anyone who comments. Disgusting behavior.

Quote from: unionpalooza on December 17, 2025, 11:52:05 AMMan, the NCC fans seem to be running hard to keep up with the Mt. Union guys in the joyless department.  They've hit Twitter to express their outrage that ESPN+ has brought in two outside players by play guys, one of whom is a John Carroll alum, instead of using NCC's house guys, for Saturday's game. Putting aside the fact that (i) of course ESPN+ is going to use guys who have worked with ESPN+ crews instead of guys who have never done so and (ii) you can't coherently complain the JCU guy will bring bias and then argue it should be two NCC guys instead, it just baffles me that NCC fans can watch their teams win a bunch of nattys and still whine about stuff this small and dumb.

I saw our boy FR going off about this on Twitter, basically making some pretty serious slanderous comments towards one particular individual. It's pretty sad seeing how this dude navigates life.

FR holding grudges, being spiteful, and making more enemies? No way. I don't believe it for a second.

My AI friends say:

Division 3 (D3) football head coaching salaries vary significantly but generally fall in the $70k to $120k+ range, often bundled with teaching or other university roles, with top coaches at major D3 programs potentially earning more, though far below D1 figures; expect lower salaries at smaller schools and higher pay at private institutions with better funding, sometimes including housing or benefits, but rarely reaching the millions like their D1 counterparts.

Pretty cool seeing Coach Behrman's John Carrol knock off Mt. Union. Feels like his move from Union was a good one.

Not sure if anyone caught the Endicott/Salisbury game, but it was a good one. Endicott looked very overmatched early, but tightened up the defense and their offense started moving the ball. They had a chance to tie the game in the 4th from like the inch line and called a boneheaded play from shotgun. Seriously, 3 inches. QB sneak will get that 97 times out of 100. Instead they handed it off 4 yards behind the LOS and that was that. Great effort overall. QB had some good reads but throws like it's a shotput and a few were a little too slow to the WRs.

In any case, with the thinking that Salisbury can likely compete with anyone, this was a really nice showing by Endicott.

I was streaming the RPI/Fisher game(no technical difficulties) until about halftime when I tried flipping over to the Union game and couldn't stream it...It's kinda funny espn is loaded with excuses, because last year I remember having the exact same issues for several of the games. If the NCAA is going to require these games be streamed via espn, they need to get their sh!t together. Sure, the number of fans is pretty low and D3 is not a real revenue generator, but if there is a requirement for this, it should be flawless. I didn't have a single issue with streaming games all season, not on the espn app.

I wasn't gonna do predictions, but probably the last(at least for the LL) predictions of the year.

Mach's pre-Turkey Predictions:

Union - 24
Muhlenburg - 42
I think the Mules start fast and Union can't keep up. I won't be mad if I'm wrong here, but Muhlenburg's body of work is pretty impressive.

RPI - 42
St. John Fisher - 24
Honestly, Fisher's W against Brockport stands out to me, due to losing to Rochester and barely beating the Larries. Makes me feel they are not great. Biggest fear in this one is will we get a fired up RPI building towards next year and wanting to end on a positive note, or a sulking, secondary-less, offense-less, uninspired performance? Hopefully they will show up and take care of business.

Hobart - 42
SUNY Maritime - 24
Hobart should mop up this game, but they've been all over the map this year. SUNY has a couple 'good losses', but they really haven't beaten anyone. I'd like to see Hobart(and RPI) rep for the LL in these consolation games.

There it is. I'm not picking Union, but I AM routing for them. The cowbell can eat sh!t still.

Quote from: UfanBill on November 18, 2025, 04:25:17 PM

Quote from: Machiavelli on November 18, 2025, 01:56:47 PMI was travelling and away all weekend so I haven't had the chance to recap the weekend. I listened to the first half of Cortaca, then the 4th quarter during the Shoes halftime. I think 1 thing that hurts the LL/E8 in rankings is that these rivalry games between top teams in Upstate NY seem to always be a coin flip, no matter how much better on paper one team is than the other. Any of the big 4 in the LL can always go either way. It's a different brand of football that I don't think exists in other parts of the country. The year RPI made it to the Final 4(2003), they got beaten pretty good by Hobart. 2022 Ithaca was 12-0 at one point, beat both RPI and Union by only 3, but blew everyone else out. 2022 Cortland was undefeated until Cortaca and got smoked by Ithaca. 2022 RPI beat IC/Union, and then very good Endicott and Cortland teams in the playoffs, but lost 10-9 to Hobart. I just don't think this parity with 'rivalry' teams exists elsewhere and it makes for great football, but low national ranks and respect. In a number of cases, our under-appreciated conferences do a little damage in the postseason. While I'm sure Ithaca and Union supporters were hopeful they could both beat RPI, I don't think anyone thought it would happen based on common results heading into those games, but anyone can win in these games every year.

As for the games themselves:

Cortaca
It seems to me at the end of the year, Ithaca may have been the best overall team in the LL, but they made the QB change too late. Their defense would likely give them an edge in the playoffs with the added offensive firepower. While Cortland had a few chances to pull it out, the IC defense came up huge in the 4th quarter. In the end, Cortland got a much more favorable playoff matchup than Union and COULD give JHU fits in Round 2(assuming they get there). Cortland still has the stank of playoff magic from 2 years ago, so it will be interesting how they perform.

Shoes
I was pretty livid about how RPI started. I couldn't watch, and I wasn't there, but I also heard there was some pretty lobsided officiating going on, though RPI just didn't come out of the locker room the same way Union did. Union definitely has a weapon in Flanagan. I fear it could be a little too 'one-trick pony-esque' against a team like Muhlenburg, but they definitely have a puncher's chance and hope they can win a game and continue to show that this league can compete with teams that seemingly get more national credit year in/year out... I had made mention of concerns about RPIs secondary from earlier the season. I called it out in the Buff St and Hilbert games. The problem is, during those games, while you may see it happen, it doesn't get exposed or as much attention as those games end up in blowouts.

I don't want this to sound like an excuse(though it will), because I think Union physically beat and outperformed RPI last weekend, but I can't help but wonder if RPIs schedule hurt them in the last 2 games. Breakdowns against Buff St and Hilbert didn't matter because it was like they were invincible against the competition, and maybe they got a little sloppy or lost some of their edge the minute Ithaca and Union smacked them in the mouth. And they didn't get their sh!t together until later in both games.

I give RPI a lot of credit for showing a lot of heart and never giving up the last 2 weeks. It turns out the offense wasn't as good as we thought they were(again based on some of their competition) and the secondary was exposed with all 3 losses this year. Hopefully it's a building block towards continued success next year, and hopefully they finish strong and beat the hell out of SJF. I also hope and expect Hobart to win handily.

Good luck to both Union and Cortland. While W's in the postseason only seem to skew reality in the moment, I still would love to see some success.

One last thing...Union still sucks, and I hope whoever owns the cowbells that I had to listen to the entire game had fender benders on the way home and needed the cowbells physically removed from their a$$ses.

I have a couple of posts to make but I'll start with this.... Not sure what "lobsided(sp) officiating" you're referring to but I WAS THERE and I didn't recall many penalties at all so I checked them on the play by play and the video. The first RPI penalty happened on the 2nd play of the game. A late hit on Flanagan as he was being tackled into the RPI sideline. There was no question it was legit...Second RPI penalty didn't come until it was already 14=0 Union. A roughing the passer (happened at 1:13:44) that was also unquestionable. Since Patch completed the pass on the play to the RPI 9 yd. line the markoff was only 5 yards. A Flanagan run on the next play made it 21-0. The 3rd and last RPI penalty of the half was a drag down offensive holding call of no significance since 2 plays later Union was called for an (undetectable) illegal use of hands that evened things out and RPI subsequently scored anyway. Four total penalties on RPI (a false start)and 3 on Union (a false start and a block in the back) in a half doesn't seem lopsided to me. Sounds like sour grapes.       

Jesus Christ, ease up big guy. I wasn't there and I wasn't watching it. The info I got was from a non RPI/Union person(he was from St. Lawrence) and said the officiating was terrible in the first half. I have zero additional details. Maybe it was missed calls? He was a lineman, so maybe there were things he was seeing that the refs weren't. I don't know, but that was the info relayed to me. And I'm exceptionally sorry for the typo.

Are you just in a bad mood because they couldn't get the cowbell dislodged?

I was travelling and away all weekend so I haven't had the chance to recap the weekend. I listened to the first half of Cortaca, then the 4th quarter during the Shoes halftime. I think 1 thing that hurts the LL/E8 in rankings is that these rivalry games between top teams in Upstate NY seem to always be a coin flip, no matter how much better on paper one team is than the other. Any of the big 4 in the LL can always go either way. It's a different brand of football that I don't think exists in other parts of the country. The year RPI made it to the Final 4(2003), they got beaten pretty good by Hobart. 2022 Ithaca was 12-0 at one point, beat both RPI and Union by only 3, but blew everyone else out. 2022 Cortland was undefeated until Cortaca and got smoked by Ithaca. 2022 RPI beat IC/Union, and then very good Endicott and Cortland teams in the playoffs, but lost 10-9 to Hobart. I just don't think this parity with 'rivalry' teams exists elsewhere and it makes for great football, but low national ranks and respect. In a number of cases, our under-appreciated conferences do a little damage in the postseason. While I'm sure Ithaca and Union supporters were hopeful they could both beat RPI, I don't think anyone thought it would happen based on common results heading into those games, but anyone can win in these games every year.

As for the games themselves:

Cortaca
It seems to me at the end of the year, Ithaca may have been the best overall team in the LL, but they made the QB change too late. Their defense would likely give them an edge in the playoffs with the added offensive firepower. While Cortland had a few chances to pull it out, the IC defense came up huge in the 4th quarter. In the end, Cortland got a much more favorable playoff matchup than Union and COULD give JHU fits in Round 2(assuming they get there). Cortland still has the stank of playoff magic from 2 years ago, so it will be interesting how they perform.

Shoes
I was pretty livid about how RPI started. I couldn't watch, and I wasn't there, but I also heard there was some pretty lobsided officiating going on, though RPI just didn't come out of the locker room the same way Union did. Union definitely has a weapon in Flanagan. I fear it could be a little too 'one-trick pony-esque' against a team like Muhlenburg, but they definitely have a puncher's chance and hope they can win a game and continue to show that this league can compete with teams that seemingly get more national credit year in/year out... I had made mention of concerns about RPIs secondary from earlier the season. I called it out in the Buff St and Hilbert games. The problem is, during those games, while you may see it happen, it doesn't get exposed or as much attention as those games end up in blowouts.

I don't want this to sound like an excuse(though it will), because I think Union physically beat and outperformed RPI last weekend, but I can't help but wonder if RPIs schedule hurt them in the last 2 games. Breakdowns against Buff St and Hilbert didn't matter because it was like they were invincible against the competition, and maybe they got a little sloppy or lost some of their edge the minute Ithaca and Union smacked them in the mouth. And they didn't get their sh!t together until later in both games.

I give RPI a lot of credit for showing a lot of heart and never giving up the last 2 weeks. It turns out the offense wasn't as good as we thought they were(again based on some of their competition) and the secondary was exposed with all 3 losses this year. Hopefully it's a building block towards continued success next year, and hopefully they finish strong and beat the hell out of SJF. I also hope and expect Hobart to win handily.

Good luck to both Union and Cortland. While W's in the postseason only seem to skew reality in the moment, I still would love to see some success.

One last thing...Union still sucks, and I hope whoever owns the cowbells that I had to listen to the entire game had fender benders on the way home and needed the cowbells physically removed from their a$$ses.

So in other news: Hartwick beat Hilbert 52-0. Let that sink in.

Fitchburg would probably Monkey Stomp Hilbert. LOLOLOL

I know nothing is ever apples to apples, but let's take Endicott as an example. Endicott's first official season was 2003. They didn't play beasts by any means, but they won 4 games that year. By 2010 they had an NCAA appearance. This is an institution committed to their football program.

Hilbert is in their 4th season. They are 0-34 being outscored 1678-272. They've been shut out 10 times in 34 games and have scored less than 10 points in 24 of them. This, to me, shows ZERO sign of an institutional commitment to the football program.

Buffalo State was pretty good like 25+ years ago and have had 1 or 2 decent seasons since. They have 8 wins over their last 7 seasons and have scored 10 or less 36 times in that span. Once again, this shows pretty much ZERO commitment to their football program.

St. Lawrence and Rochester have had a few good seasons, and can compete any year, but have traditionally looked like the doormats of the LL. For us to look at those 2 programs VERY favorably due to how freaking bad Buff St and Hilbert are is nothing short of crazy.

As far as I'm concerned, I'd rather see the league compete in 70%+ of league games. Instead, we're at 50% with the 2 'football only' teams. It's just not good football and it's not good for the league. I'd much rather have 1 or 2 of the E8 bottom feeders, because at least they can be a tiny bit competitive in some years.

Here are my 2 favorites:

Sat., Nov. 29, 2003  RPI 40, Springfield 34  Springfield
I was at this game in Springfield. Springfield was a legit national contender that year. Their line was humongous and the Triple Option was pretty much unstoppable. RPI got out to a quick lead and it was cold and snowy. Springfield could not throw the ball and they basically ran themselves out of time because they couldn't stop the clock. Then RPI went onto the Final 4, so that was a big one.

Sat., Nov. 24, 2018  RPI 21, Brockport 13  Brockport
This was the Brockport team with Joe G. that was supposed to potentially make it very deep. They were a lot like the National Champ Cortland team. RPI had gotten crushed a few weeks earlier by Union and they shocked a lot of us with this game. It was another good run for RPI in the postseason.

Anyway, yes, those are homer picks, but those are my big 2.