Imagine if the 1st playoff game the nescac plays is against union.

several volumes of books could be written based on nescac football discussion alone but I want to know if this 1.5 minute read suffices for a short explanation. If you would change anything, let me know.

"We're getting a new conference in the D3 football playoffs this year, so let's talk about the NESCAC.

The New England Small College Athletic Conference is often considered the Ivy League of Division III. Its schools are small, highly selective, and known for extremely high academic standards.

Ten of its eleven schools play football, with Connecticut College being the exception. The last membership change in football came in 1977, when Union was kicked out of the conference after recruiting violations involving its hockey program.

In 1993, the conference finally allowed its teams to compete in NCAA tournaments in every sport, except for football, but why?

Football is often the biggest driver of campus culture, becoming the main identity of schools around the nation. In an effort to keep academics first, the NESCAC placed strict limits on football.

They don't play non-conference games, didn't play a full round robin until 2017, and weren't permitted in the playoffs until 2026, thanks to the efforts of the NESCAC football players association.

Another controversial rule is the roster limit of 84 players. That restriction doesn't exist anywhere else in the NESCAC. Wesleyan head coach Dan DiCenzo has been a vocal critic of it, and families of players have threatened legal action against the conference citing gender discrimination.

As for the best teams, Trinity College in Connecticut, not to be confused with Trinity University in Texas, has historically been the conference's top program. The Bantams have won 12 conference titles since the first championship was awarded in 2000, showing dominance across three decades.

But in more recent years, Wesleyan has become a force to be reckoned with, sharing last year's conference title with Trinity, and winning their 1st outright title in 2024.

Will a NESCAC team make a deep run in the playoffs, will the players association succeed in removing the roster limit, and when will the conference allow non-conference games in the regular season?

Quote from: bleedpurple on February 24, 2026, 07:31:35 PMNext year will be much easier for the WIAC schools to fill their non-conference schedule as they will only need to schedule two games. Conference play will begin week three, there will be a conference bye week 6 and then week 10 will be pit 1 vs 8, 2 vs 7, 3 vs 6, and 4 vs 5. The regular season champion will be declared after week 9.

huh?

New Board discussion for topics related to Keystone or Gallaudet.

wtf is keystone cooking with their schedule?

Week 2: @ Washington & Jefferson 🤯
Week 4: vs Whitewater 💀
Week 5: @ Mary Hardin-Baylor 🫨

oh and they play gallaudet 😴 in week 10.

Whitewater's 3 non conference opponents this fall.

Sept. 5 - Vs Carleton
Sept. 12 - vs St. Xavier (NAIA)
Sept. 19 - bye
Sept. 26 - @ KEYSTONE!!!!? 😭 🤦

Matt walker has taken the HC job at Drake.

What are the chances Flo is telling the schools to NOT make the views data public? If they're gonna force the ASC to claim "100 Percent stream uptime" which is NOT the case at all, what else aren't they telling us?

Since we know Wartburg is playing Monmouth this year, we can deduce that the MWC is playing at least 1 non conference game despite having 11 teams.

This also leads me to believe that UMHB is gonna continue playing whitewater until whitewater says no.

>>>IF<<< it's a move to D2, i will lose it.

UMHB's two year scheduling agreement with Keystone screams desperation. It is not a good look for the program.

I'm confident this topic has been discussed for years in this website so I hate to bring it up again.

With NDSU moving up to FBS, My understanding is that mount union didn't move up their football program to D2 because it would have involved all their sports moving up to d2, and Mount Union didn't want to offer athletic scholarships.

Is there anything else I'm missing?

How old is he?

Knowing Gallaudet is going solo this fall, only one thing can be deduced from their minds.

They want the ECFC back.

Their next best options are the Middle Atlantic Conference or USA South.