FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[Gate 91]

Time to address a difficult question after this week of sloppy play across the NESCAC. Has the transfer portal killed the quality of play in the NESCAC? The top-tier players in the league now only stick around for 1 or 2 years before transferring to an FCS program.

[The #802]

I would guess the transfer portal would impact the NESCAC less than many other D3 conferences. Most players are in the NESCAC for football and academics. Not a lot of players are going to jump at the opportunity to leave a NESCAC after two years to play at UCONN or UMass.

[nescac1]

Very few teams have lost players who hadn't already graduated to the transfer portal - I think Tufts and Trinity lost two each, and Bates one, over the past few years?  Maybe I'm forgetting a few, but hardly any Nescac teams have been impacted at all.  Trinity has been hurt the most losing two all-league defenders each with two years eligibility, but Trinity has also brought in some high profile transfers over the years so it has benefited as well. 

I think the week one struggles are largely a factor of all but three teams having generally inexperienced starters and in many cases still unsettled situations at QB (and Midd, while having continuity at QB, had massive of turnover nearly everywhere else including some of the best all time in Nescac on both lines).