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.

My predictions have been pretty much meaningless this season, but maybe this week...

Mach's Hopes and Dreams(not predictions):

Cortland - 31
Ithaca - 14
If the right Cortland team shows up, they should win comfortably.

Rochester - 31
St. Lawrence - 14
Rochester should finish out strong.

RPI - 31
Union - 14
I feel like I'm being trolled with all the Union faithful even thinking RPI is gonna win. But RPI SHOULD win.

Hartwick - 31
Hilbert - 14
Dare I say Dilbert has a fighting chance? Maybe. But it's not gonna happen unfortunately.

Buffalo St. - 14
Hobart - 31
Hobart finishes .500 and looks for momentum heading into 2026.

Quote from: Jonny Utah on November 10, 2025, 08:36:05 AM

Quote from: Machiavelli on November 08, 2025, 07:34:51 PM

Quote from: ICGrad on November 08, 2025, 07:14:09 PM

Quote from: Machiavelli on November 08, 2025, 05:23:27 PMThe RPI 2 point conversion was nothing more than an adrenaline rush decision after a blocked punt TD. It was dumb. Had they just kicked the PAT, I have zero doubt they would have won. But they didn't, and here we are. May not matter in reality, but losing matters and losing sucks. And they shouldn't lose to an inferior team. Great game either way, but crumby ending.

Zero doubt? Really?

Yeah. Zero.

Mach's Spot-On Week 10 Predictions:

Ithaca - 13
RPI - 41
There, I said it. I think RPI takes the Ithaca boys out to the woodshed.

Did you have any doubt with this pick?

HEY OHHHHHH

Anyway points scored doesn't really mean much.  The most important W:
TOP:
ITHACA: 34:16   
RPI:    25:44

Fun fact, Ithaca is 1-8 in TOP this year with only one win vs RPI.

Fine, I was making picks with my heart. I told you before the game, JU, Ithaca's QB scared the shizz out of me. And he was good. He just has a knack for big plays and keeping drives alive, and that's huge in these types of games. RPI's Defense just couldn't get off the field.

Still steaming about the 2pt conversion. As far as I'm concerned, if you wanna go for 2, line up and call a 2pt conversion play. Faking the kick and tossing the ball to a corner of the endzone with fingers crossed, it was just kinda gross. I had a bird's eye view for that play and it was very obvious and wasn't even really close to being successful. I'd rather they lined up and just called a non-fake play. But they should've just kicked it, played defense, maybe kick a field goal, or take it to OT.

Now, in typical LL fashion, it's all gray going into the last week and only Union controls their own destiny.

Quote from: ICGrad on November 08, 2025, 07:14:09 PM

Quote from: Machiavelli on November 08, 2025, 05:23:27 PMThe RPI 2 point conversion was nothing more than an adrenaline rush decision after a blocked punt TD. It was dumb. Had they just kicked the PAT, I have zero doubt they would have won. But they didn't, and here we are. May not matter in reality, but losing matters and losing sucks. And they shouldn't lose to an inferior team. Great game either way, but crumby ending.

Zero doubt? Really?

Yeah. Zero.

The RPI 2 point conversion was nothing more than an adrenaline rush decision after a blocked punt TD. It was dumb. Had they just kicked the PAT, I have zero doubt they would have won. But they didn't, and here we are. May not matter in reality, but losing matters and losing sucks. And they shouldn't lose to an inferior team. Great game either way, but crumby ending.

I guess the national panel isn't as excited for the RPI/Ithaca game as I am. I get it's not gonna be the 'Game of the Week', but it didn't even get an 'under the radar' callout? Pssssh...Ya'll gonna miss a good one. Have fun with Alfred vs. Alfred St. and Coast Guard vs Springfield, though. I'm sure those will both be bangers. LOL.

Bring on some Ruck wings and Blue Cheeshhhh....

Big week! Let's go!

Mach's Spot-On Week 10 Predictions:

Hobart - 54
Hilbert - 6
Bart by a million.

Union - 24
Rochester - 12
Rochester could have a fighting chance, but I don't think it will happen. Though it wouldn't make me mad.

Ithaca - 13
RPI - 41
There, I said it. I think RPI takes the Ithaca boys out to the woodshed.

St. Lawrence - 21
Buff St - 6
If a bear sh!ts in the woods, does anyone smell it?

Let's do this!!!

Bartman is hitting it quick this week! I'll join in on the fun, though not much excitement this week:

Mach's Boring Ass Week 9 Predictions:

Hobart - 35
Rochester - 13
Probably the only half decent game this eek. I expect Hobart to keep rolling their schedule the rest of the year.

Buff St - 6
Ithaca - 34
Ithaca isn't necessarily 'playing for pride' quite yet, but I could see a bit of a letdown this week. Thankfully for them, they have Buff St.

RPI - 49
St. Lawrence - 17
Hopefully we don't see St. Lawrence get out to an early lead on another RPI defensive blemish. I'd like to see RPI resting guys again by the 3rd.

Hilbert - 7
Union - 56
I could see Union getting about 35-42 points on big plays in the first half then scaling it back and resting up.

One more week to wait and then it gets real.

RPI finally broke into getting a few votes in the Top 25 poll. To be honest, I was almost expecting Union to get those votes, but RPI definitely deserves them. Can make a similar argument with Union now with last week's win.

Hilbert was as bad as advertised. Probably worse. I don't really care about the Hilbert TD in the 2nd half with a lot of reserves in, but that early long TD run feels an awful lot like the Buff St. long TD early last week. Against better competition, those early breakdowns are gonna hurt a lot worse. Aside from that, RPI is doing everything they need to do heading into the Ithaca and Union games after next week.

I did watch the Union/Ithaca game as well and it was a good one. Both teams battled but it felt like Union's game to lose right from the kickoff though they did match up pretty evenly. It's gonna be a fun last couple weeks of the season, that is for sure.

Glad to see Hobart get a W as well. They should win out and get to .500.

I guess after a league-wide bye week, it's time for predictions again. Here we go!

Mach's Dynamite Week 8 Predictions:

RPI - 70
Hilbert - 0
RPI's 2nd and 3rd stringers get extra burn this week.

St. Lawrence - 14
Hobart - 24
Hobart has to win eventually.

Union - 10
Ithaca - 13
Huge game for both teams. I don't know which way it will go, but I think Ithaca's D stifles the Union O just enough and wins by a FG then gets ranked 15th in the country.

Rochester - 31
Buff State - 17
Buff State may give an early scare, but Rochester should end up winning this by a few scores.

I'm putting Cortland on upset alert this week.

The Mach hath spoken.

Some interesting games today. Only watched the RPI game but followed the Live Stats site for Union/Hobart and some of the Ithaca/SLU game.

While the scoreboard looked fine in the RPI game, I have some serious concerns with their secondary. Ironically, Buff State impressed me with their athletes on offense. There is no way that team should be that bad. What the heck is going on up there? The defense was atrocious. Did not look well coached at all, but they definitely have some dudes on that team. But yeah, with RPI's secondary, the Utica score makes sense to me now. They have to get better. But the offense is looking solid and the kicker is a stud. Good W in any case, particularly after giving up a long TD on the first play of the game.

Ithaca baffles me. Seemed like a terrible game until they put up some scores in the 2nd half. While anyone can win rivalry games, I don't think Ithaca matches up well when they face RPI. That offense will need to score points and it doesn't seem like that is their thing...at all.

And I have to grudgingly give Union some credit. When I watched them melt down against Cortland, I thought they looked like garbage in that 4th quarter. But they are now clicking and got a really promising win today.

I still think the LL looks like it's RPI's to lose, but the last few weeks of the year will be very interesting.

Ithaca/Union is gonna be real interesting in 2 weeks for sure. I think whoever comes out of this year's top 3 in the LL might very well have a postseason surprise in store with the improvement I've seen. We shall see.

Anyone want to wager that Union will get a Top 25 vote this week? LOL. 

Quote from: UfanBill on October 09, 2025, 11:57:36 AMD3football's Greg Thomas has come out with his yearly Ranking of Conferences column and as we have been discussing the Liberty League has taken a nosedive. After ranking 6-8 the last few years and 8th last year guru Thomas now has the LL in 14th place.   This is understandable because league members have just not fared well in non conference games so far going 9-13. Thing is they're playing tougher foes...The E8 is ranked 6th.     

Without knowing the criteria, I'd go on a limb to say the Hilbert add contributes to this dip quite a bit.