FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[Trin9-0]

Two big time players to watch this year from Hamilton: Freshman tailback Dan Kai and Quarterback Owen Butz. Both had storied high school careers out of Harrisburg PA as a one two bunch carrying/throwing the ball. Expect them to continue that rapport for the Continentals this fall

Is there a list of all Hamilton recruits?

Eight NESCAC schools announced their full recruiting classes via social media, and nescac1 tracked down all the future Ephs and shared them on this board. Middlebury remains the only NESCAC school who has not announced any incoming first year players.

Here's the full list of what has been announced:

Amherst 25 players
Bates 24 players
Bowdoin 23 players
Colby 24 players
Hamilton 29 players
Trinity 29 players
Tufts 30 players
Wesleyan 20 players
Williams 24 players

I find it interesting that Wesleyan's recruiting class size has gone from 31 in 2024 to 26 last season and now down to 20 this year.

[lumbercat]

Bowdoin was recently finishing up announcing their 2030 commits. Effective 7/1 offers for the class of 2031 can now be issued so we are  seeing early commitments for the Class of 2031 which might cause some confusion.

[jknezek]

Off to visit Wesleyan with my daughter today. She's a rising junior and has been touring colleges this summer. So far, I'm happy to admit, all D3 except Brown, which she don't care for. Emory, Brandeis, Tufts, Amherst, Wesleyan with only a hard no on Tufts so far.

Haven't been to Wesleyan in many years. I'll be interested to take the tour!

[RamapoRUFan]

Two big time players to watch this year from Hamilton: Freshman tailback Dan Kai and Quarterback Owen Butz. Both had storied high school careers out of Harrisburg PA as a one two bunch carrying/throwing the ball. Expect them to continue that rapport for the Continentals this fall

Is there a list of all Hamilton recruits?

I saw the list of 29 recruits for Hamilton for the Class of '30 but did not see the tailback or quarterback you referenced?

[TheHerst2and4]

In the small world moments, last weekend I found myself in Ferrera Italy watching the Italian Football League's championship game between the Parma Panthers against the Firenze Guelfi. The Guelfi's star receiver was Frankie Stola a Williams '22 graduate. He dominated all game, ending with 3 TDs and MVP honors. Frankie is also part of the Italian national flag football team making a run at the 2028 Olympics.

[quicksilver]

Two big time players to watch this year from Hamilton: Freshman tailback Dan Kai and Quarterback Owen Butz. Both had storied high school careers out of Harrisburg PA as a one two bunch carrying/throwing the ball. Expect them to continue that rapport for the Continentals this fall

Is there a list of all Hamilton recruits?

Seven NESCAC schools announced their full recruiting classes via social media. Bowdoin has announced 12 commits thus far with the most recent being two days ago so they are likely (hopefully?) not yet finished, and nescac1 tracked down all the future Ephs and shared them on this board. Middlebury remains the only NESCAC school who has not announced any incoming first year players.

Here's the full list of what has been announced:

Amherst 25 players
Bates 24 players
Bowdoin 12 players
Colby 24 players
Hamilton 29 players
Trinity 29 players
Tufts 30 players
Wesleyan 20 players
Williams 24 players

I find it interesting that Wesleyan's recruiting class size has gone from 31 in 2024 to 26 last season and now down to 20 this year.

The number of recruits announced by Bowdoin is actually 23 .. .

[Trin9-0]

One of, if not, the best things about NESCAC football is the rivalries. The history speaks for itself with nine NESCAC rivalry games having been played more than 100 times. 

Amherst	Williams	139 games
Bowdoin	Colby	136 games
Amherst	Wesleyan	130 games
Wesleyan	Williams	130 games
Bates	Colby	128 games
Bates	Bowdoin	127 games
Trinity	Wesleyan	124 games
Amherst	Trinity	120 games
Amherst	Bowdoin	103 games

Obviously, Williams-Amherst is historically the biggest rivalry in the NESCAC. Wesleyan has a great (little  ) rivalry with the purple schools as well, but it's certainly a tick below given neither Amherst, nor Williams view Wesleyan as their main rival. Wes winning the Little Three four straight years probably raises the rivalry-meter but not to the same level of Williams-Amherst. 

Meanwhile, Trinity sees Wesleyan as their biggest rival but alas Wes seems to care more about the Little Three. It makes sense as the series had been lopsided in Trinity's favor for so long. Perhaps that's shifted a little given the Cards' recent success against the Bantams, but certainly not all the way. It's probably the best current NESCAC rivalry as they've both been at the top of the league battling head-to-head for the league title the last few seasons.

It's always seemed to me that Bowdoin-Colby was the bigger rivalry in CBB triumvirate but I would be interested to hear others opinions on that.

My guess is that Middlebury views Williams as their biggest rival. Hamilton may feel that way about Middlebury but you can't really be rivals when you've lost to them for 30 consecutive years.

Does Tufts have a NESCAC rival? Recently they've had a great series with Wesleyan and I think the cache of NESCAC night games has added to that. Trinity-Williams was huge in the '90s and early '00s when their week 2 match-up often decided the league title, but it has lost some luster as the Ephs became far less dominant.

I'm hopeful that the NESCAC finally accepting their NCAA playoff bid won't diminish the value of these historic rivalries. There are, of course, many other examples across the country where this hasn't been the case.