FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[Patrick Coleman]

Looking at the NPIs, I think if Nescac has two teams with one or fewer losses, it seems very likely to get both in the tourney. In the highly unlikely scenario of three one loss teams, all could get in.

That's what I've said all along, including on 9 Weeks last week.

[CarollFan]

1st NCAA National NPI Ranking is out:

https://stats.ncaa.org/selection_rankings/nitty_gritties/53089

Nice to see NESCAC well represented in the Top 50 and Top 25. Obviously, this is important for a potential at-large NESCAC team to make the play-offs, in addition to our AQ.

If you click the teams ranking you'll actually see the games currently being used to calculate a teams NPI.

[nescac1]

Some early thoughts on POTY possibilities:

OPOTY is easy/obvious: 1. Matt Fitzsimons, 2. Jaxon Carroll, 3. Marek Hill, 4. Luke Kurzum.  Great year for QB play at the top of the league, with Fitzsimons certainly the frontrunner as he has really been lighting it up so far (77 percent of passes completed through four games is insane), but it will come down to the games at the end of the season.   

DPOTY is much harder.  Some candidates I'd include: Angus Leary, Tommy Kilroy, Will Baker, Will Gale, Luke Pickard, and Matt Shaw, but no obvious frontrunner. 

Players on the watch list for ROTY: Jack Fabiano (hopefully he is not seriously hurt), Ace Etienne, Ryan Foley, Drew Weiler, and Nathan Rivera.

Speaking of Rivera, he was I think originally committed to Williams and then switched to Trinity, tough loss for the Ephs given that he is the rare FY starter for a loaded Trinity team.   It's pretty rare for an OL to receive a league-wide honor (I mean Thomas Perry never won POTY even if he was clearly the best player in the league) but this is the type of situation where it may actually happen.