FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[Nescacman]

Given every NESCAC team has at least one loss and with the top four teams in the standings set to face one another five times over the next three weeks I thought it was worth noting that since the inception of the NESCAC in 1970 only twice has the top team(s) in the league finished the year with more than one loss and the most recent occurrence was 38 years ago!

• 1983 - Middlebury and Trinity finished 6-2
• 1987 - Amherst, Hamilton, and Trinity finished 6-2

Just to temper the enthusiasm of those Continental fans out there...despite the NESCAC being formed in 1970, as a reminder, the League did not recognize a champion in football until 2000. So there has actually never been a two loss champion in NESCAC history. Will this be the year?!?

Kudo's to Hs7-2 for being very careful in his language to NOT call those 2 loss teams in 1983 and 1987 "league champions", which they were not (despite him continuing to give Hartford State credit in his message signature footer for non-existent "league championships" prior to 2000).

NM

[Trin9-0]

Nescacman, just because the league didn't officially award a football title for the first 29 years of its existence doesn't mean we don't know who finished with the most wins and losses in those seasons. It isn't hard to figure out so I'm confused as to why you insist on willfully ignoring the history of the league prior to 2000. The NESCAC used to publish their league standings ALPHABETICALLY for crying out loud! Just because they did it doesn't mean it makes sense.

My guess is that it's because it makes Wesleyan's single outright title and two shared titles seem even less impressive when you consider it's over the course of 54 years (53 seasons).


Conversely, the eight times Trinity finished with the best NESCAC record in the 29 seasons prior to 2000 is actually a much lower percentage (27.6%) than the eleven times they've won the league in the 24 seasons since (45.8%). Hmmm, maybe I will take those off my signature afterall... 

Anyway, for those interested in a full accounting of the NESCAC football teams with the best records since the league was formed please see below:

Year	School	Wins	Losses	Ties
1971	Williams	7	1
1972	Middlebury	8	0
1973	Amherst/Middlebury	7	1
1974	Trinity/Williams	7	1
1975	Williams	7	0	1
1976	Middlebury	7	1
1977	Middlebury	7	1
1978	Trinity	7	1
1979	Tufts	8	0
1980	Trinity	7	1
1981	Middlebury	7	1
1982	Amherst	7	1
1983	Middlebury/Trinity	6	2
1984	Amherst	8	0
1985	Amherst	7	1
1986	Tufts	7	1
1987	Amherst/Hamilton/Trinity	6	2
1988	Williams	6	1	1
1989	Williams	8	0
1990	Williams	8	0
1991	Trinity	6	1	1
1992	Middlebury	7	1
1993	Trinity	8	0
1994	Williams	8	0
1995	Williams	7	0	1
1996	Amherst /Trinity	7	1
1997	Amherst, Wesleyan, Williams	7	1
1998	Williams	8	0
1999	Williams	7	1
2000	Amherst/Middlebury/Colby	7	1
2001	Williams	8	0
2002	Trinity/Williams	7	1
2003	Trinity	8	0
2004	Trinity	8	0
2005	Trinity	8	0
2006	Williams	8	0
2007	Middlebury	7	1
2008	Trinity	8	0
2009	Amherst	8	0
2011	Amherst	8	0
2012	Trinity	8	0
2013	Amherst/Middlebury/Wesleyan	7	1
2014	Amherst	8	0
2015	Amherst	8	0
2016	Trinity	8	0
2017	Trinity	8	1
2018	Trinity	8	1
2019	Middlebury	9	0
2020	N/A
2021	Williams	9	0
2022	Trinity	9	0
2023	Middlebury/Trinity	8	1
2024	Wesleyan	8	1

[Former CAC Coach]

Tsk tsk, HS9-0.......if this truly is the list of the BEST records each season, you have conveniently forgotten that Amherst also went 8-1 in 2018...

Unfortunately for the Mammoths, 2018 was the ONE (and only) time NESCAC decided that the tiebreaker would be the head-to-head result to determine the conference champion.   Trin beat Amherst 27-16 that season, but Trin lost to Williams 21-16 early in the season.  Amherst whipped Williams 45-14 at the end of the campaign.

[Charlie]

One clear observation I took from this past weekend. There is a clear division of talent in the NESCAC Trinity , Williams , Middlebury. Wesleyan perhaps Amherst making the entrance to this circle. The other teams are what they are and showing no evidence of getting momentum to get in the top ranks. I am not talking about the surprise win or upset but consistent winning. Having said that with next year being the first year of D3 playoffs with NESCAC I am certain that this will greatly impact the division of talent. A top athlete would want to go play for a College that has a chance to get into the playoffs and keep playing football. The top teams will keep replenishing their talent and the bottom feeders of the league will get the players that could not get recruited by the top teams or that deemphasize football as a part of their College.

Academics aside and admissions aside the disparity between the top teams will grow even more in the coming years as the top schools especially if they win a few rounds in D3 playoffs can utilize this as selling tools to future recruits. I just think in the next two to three years you will see a more clearer division of football talent in the NESCAC if you have not already.

[Brady12]

I just think in the next two to three years you will see a more clearer division of football talent in the NESCAC if you have not already.

it will be interesting to see how it plays out. I think the roster limits will have an impact on team's ability to load up on volumes of talent. Coaches have to build their teams with injuries in mind. Mentioned in another post Colby only having 3 QB's on roster. That is not a recipe for a playoff run.

I would like to see the schools have an expanded emergency roster and let them play a couple JV games. Would allow teams to recruit 5 QB's like Williams did a few years ago and develop them before the kids get frustrated and switch positions or worse quit.

[Nescacman]

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[Trin9-0]

Tsk tsk, HS9-0.......if this truly is the list of the BEST records each season, you have conveniently forgotten that Amherst also went 8-1 in 2018...

Unfortunately for the Mammoths, 2018 was the ONE (and only) time NESCAC decided that the tiebreaker would be the head-to-head result to determine the conference champion.  Trin beat Amherst 27-16 that season, but Trin lost to Williams 21-16 early in the season.  Amherst whipped Williams 45-14 at the end of the campaign.

Former CAC Coach, I can't please everyone (anyone?)! Warning, this will be a long post... In my mind the league has three distinct periods when considering it's "championship" history:

1971-1991: The league is formed with 11 teams (including Union who would depart in 1977). At this point there is a more formal association but several NESCAC schools continued to played out of conference games. Trinity and Wesleyan routinely played the Coast Guard Academy, Hamilton played St. Lawrence, Middlebury played Norwich, Williams played RPI, etc. This makes it somewhat more complicated to crown a champion, as Nescacman points out. I've elected to list the team with the best record against NESCAC opponents (including Union from '71-'76). For ease let's just refer to them in this post as "champions".

1992-1999: The league transitions to a NESCAC-only football schedule but still refuses to award an actual champion. This makes it much easier to assume the NESCAC champ. However, with 10 football playing members and an 8 game schedule it's still imperfect. Also, there's no way to truly know how they would've handled a head-to-head tiebreaker i.e. in 1996 when Trinity and Amherst both finished 7-1. The Bants beat the Lord Jeffs that season but given how the league has traditionally handled tiebreakers we can only assume they would award a co-championship.

2000-Present: The NESCAC schedule we know and love today, with the one significant change being the addition of a 9th game in 2017. The league finally awards an actual championship to the team(s) with the best record. The only exception being the aforementioned 2018 Amherst team. While it's not necessarily fair to that team, it is the reason I that purposely excluded them from the list.

I did go back and make some revisions from the prior list and what's included below now reflects the "champions" based on NESCAC-only records (I included their overall record as well). Thankfully, NESCAC.com has added some excellent archival PDFs which has made it easier to track records from 1985-1991 and I also did some additional digging through various schools' digital archives.

As a result, by my count:
Trinity can lay claim to 18 NESCAC Championships. 15 solo titles and 3 shared. Williams is close behind with 16 NESCAC Championships. 14 solo titles and 2 shared. Middlebury and Amherst have each won 11 NESCAC Championships. 8 solo titles and 3 shared for Midd while Amherst has 7 solo titles and 4 shared (not including 2018). Then there's a significant drop off to Wesleyan who has won 3 NESCAC Championships. 1 solo and 2 shared. Tufts has won 2 NESCAC Championships, both outright while Colby has won 1 NESCAC Championship, a shared title. Neither Bates, Bowdoin, nor Hamilton has ever won a league title.

Year	School	NESCAC Record	Overall Record
1971	Williams	7-0	7-1
1972	Middlebury	5-0	8-0
1973	Middlebury	5-0	7-1
1974	Williams	6-1	7-1
1975	Williams	6-0-1	7-0-1
1976	Middlebury	6-1	7-1
1977	Middlebury	6-0	7-1
1978	Trinity	6-1	7-1
1979	Tufts	7-0	8-0
1980	Trinity	5-1	7-1
1981	Middlebury	5-1	7-1
1982	Amherst	7-1	7-1
1983	Trinity	5-1	6-2
1984	Amherst	8-0	8-0
1985	Amherst	7-1	7-1
1986	Tufts	6-1	7-1
1987	Trinity	6-1	6-2
1988	Williams	6-1-1	6-1-1
1989	Williams	8-0	8-0
1990	Williams	8-0	8-0
1991	Trinity	6-0-1	6-1-1
1992	Middlebury	7-1	7-1
1993	Trinity	8-0	8-0
1994	Williams	8-0	8-0
1995	Williams	7-0-1	7-0-1
1996	Amherst /Trinity	7-1	7-1
1997	Amherst, Wesleyan, Williams	7-1	7-1
1998	Williams	8-0	8-0
1999	Williams	7-1	7-1
2000	Amherst/Middlebury/Colby	7-1	7-1
2001	Williams	8-0	8-0
2002	Trinity/Williams	7-1	7-1
2003	Trinity	8-0	8-0
2004	Trinity	8-0	8-0
2005	Trinity	8-0	8-0
2006	Williams	8-0	8-0
2007	Middlebury	7-1	7-1
2008	Trinity	8-0	8-0
2009	Amherst	8-0	8-0
2010	Williams	8-0	8-0
2011	Amherst	8-0	8-0
2012	Trinity	8-0	8-0
2013	Amherst/Middlebury/Wesleyan	7-1	7-1
2014	Amherst	8-0	8-0
2015	Amherst	8-0	8-0
2016	Trinity	8-0	8-0
2017	Trinity	8-1	8-1
2018	Trinity	8-1	8-1
2019	Middlebury	9-0	9-0
2020	No season due to COVID
2021	Williams	9-0	9-0
2022	Trinity	9-0	9-0
2023	Middlebury/Trinity	8-1	8-1
2024	Wesleyan	8-1	8-1

This also means that a NESCAC champion has NEVER lost more than one conference game in a season. Will this be the year that streak ends??

And FINALLY, all of this championship talk got me thinking...
As we know, the NESCAC will begin accepting their automatic bid to the DIII playoffs next season. However, I don't recall seeing a plan for how the league will handle tie-breakers. Clearly the head-to-head result should be used for a two-way tie but what about three-way tie?

Also, will they revert back to using head-to-head result to determine a league champion or will they still award "co-championships" but send the head-to-head winner to the playoffs as the automatic qualifier?

[Pat Coleman]

There are no good ways to break three-way ties in football. There are a number of them, but they all suck (IMO).

Sometimes conferences use the so-called Rose Bowl Rule, in a couple of different ways -- you either take the team that advanced to the playoffs most recently and remove them from the tie, taking head-to-head from the other two, or you take the team that has been out of the playoffs the longest and then put them in.

Generally conferences recognize a championship for both/all teams in a tie and the tiebreaker is only for the automatic bid, but your mileage may vary.

[Scoops]

There have been some really interesting statistics this year that I'm not sure anyone would really believe or notice if they were just watching the games at face value. Just looking at the stats across the league, there are some odd surprises.

Trinity is averaging 17.4 yds per punt return. A truly mind-blowing number at any level, and more than double the next team on the list (Wes 6.7)

Wesleyan, for all the talk of an improved running game,remains a middle to bottom tier running team (3.3 ypc, 104ypg). Although their pass pro has gotten better. Interestingly enough, they still lead the league in time of possession.

Amherst, on the other hand, has figured out how to run the ball after years of mediocrity in that department. Averaging 4.2 per carry and 125 per game. Impressive after last year's abysmal showing there.

Hamilton QB Luke Kurzum is quietly putting together an undoubtedly all-conference season. Averaging just over 250 ypg and throwing 11tds. If he had the supporting cast of some of the other NESCAC QBs, I don't think it's crazy to say he would be an MVP caliber player.

While Williams is unsurprisingly the top rushing team in the league, perhaps more surprising is that Bates ISN'T #2. Equally surprising, Bates is NOT last in the league in passing, with higher averages than Bowdoin and Colby in the passing game.

Colby has only ONE passing touchdown on the entire season, despite having the reigning OROTY in WR Jack Nye, who has not been able to replicate his first year success.

Tufts, after an incredible run of receiving talent, does not have a receiver in the top 10 of any category but one (yards per catch), and that player leads the league with an astonishing 33ypc. The catch (pun slightly intended), he averages less than one catch per game (.7cpg). Interestingly on the other side of the ball, after losing all 5 starters, the Tufts pass defense is among the top 3 in almost every category.

Bowdoin does not have a single player averaging over 3 yards per carry (Dorsey 2.9), but they are not last in the league in ypc as a team. They average 2.5 per carry, while Colby averages 2.4. The mules have more team carries and yards by a slim margin.

Not sure what to make of any of this, but it's certainly interesting. Truly a mind boggling year in the league, but I must admit it's been fun to follow along now that I have no skin in the game!