FB: Liberty League

[Bartman]

As far as the Mach v. IC debate on ranking:

1.Hobart played and lost by a touchdown to both Ithaca(at home but no Aidan Conrath) and Utica(at Utica with Aidan) and I would rank these teams even based on live observation.
2. Mach has a legitimate point that D3 Football rankings overweight the NJAC, in my opinion. I like to look at Hansen Ratings, and while formulaic, it has the E8 as the better conference and the NJAC and LL as equivalent if you look at the top 4 teams in each conference:

    E8.            NJAC.              LL

Cortland(15).    Chris Newport(29).  Ithaca(20)
Utica(25).        Rowan(41).          RPI(37)
Brockport(35).    Salisbury(53).      Hobart(51)
SJ Fisher(79).    Montclair ST(59).  Union(70)

While you can argue Hansen's assumptions, I personally think this meets the observation and performance records so far this year.

[JT2]

As far as the Mach v. IC debate on ranking:

1.Hobart played and lost by a touchdown to both Ithaca(at home but no Aidan Conrath) and Utica(at Utica with Aidan) and I would rank these teams even based on live observation.
2. Mach has a legitimate point that D3 Football rankings overweight the NJAC, in my opinion. I like to look at Hansen Ratings, and while formulaic, it has the E8 as the better conference and the NJAC and LL as equivalent if you look at the top 4 teams in each conference:

    E8.            NJAC.              LL

Cortland(15).    Chris Newport(29).  Ithaca(20)
Utica(25).        Rowan(41).          RPI(37)
Brockport(35).    Salisbury(53).      Hobart(51)
SJ Fisher(79).    Montclair ST(59).  Union(70)

While you can argue Hansen's assumptions, I personally think this meets the observation and performance records so far this year.

I like your quoted lines in your footnote space.

[IC798891]

I think Mach is massively overselling what The Voters think of Montclair and Salisbury.

No one thinks Montclair is a "world-beater". Exactly one voter thinks they're the 25th ranked team in the country. Meanwhile, Salisbury has dropped from 322 points in the poll to 6. If anything The Voters are jumping ship on them en masse. That two or three stragglers are either going to go down with that ship if the Gulls lose to Christopher Newport in Week 11, or prove to us they knew all along what they were doing if they win, is hardly indicative of any real groundswell of support.

And we're not ignoring some massive piece of evidence in Ithaca's favor here. This isn't like 2023, when Endicott was 4-1 and ranked behind a 3-1 Hardin Simmons team they ****ing dog-walked for 60 minutes. We're parsing varying degrees of lousiness in OOC opponents.

As for the Golden Eagles, they're stronger this year. But are they strong enough to be the third team in the Top 25 from a conference? Because they feel like the clear #3 in the conference to me.

[Machiavelli]

Ok, regardless of how and where the voters placed anyone, here is how it plays out based on 'votes received':

E8
11. Cortland
26. Utica
39. Brockport

NJAC
10. Christopher Newport
23. Rowan
38. Salisbury
40t. Montclair

LL
40t. Ithaca

NEWMAC
34. Springfield

I don't know how anyone can look at that and not see the glaring NJAC boners. 1 boner, 4 boners, it doesn't matter. Whoever DOES win the LL has a much better chance of winning in the postseason than Rowan, Salisbury or Montclair. I will die on that hill.

Since you mentioned Endicott, they'd smoke CNU. Cortland would smoke CNU. Cortland vs Endicott...that'd be a fun one. Ithaca would go at least 2-1, if not 3-0 vs. Rowan/Salisbury/Montclair. BUT...too many NJAC boners. Utica and Brockport would likely both go 3-0 against the same 3, and I think they'd both have a good chance to beat CNU as well.

[IC798891]

I don't get this optimism about the eventual LL winner, which will either be IC or RPI

The Engineers spent their OOC schedule no-showing against two teams that have been Cortland's personal punching bag in the E8 for the entire decade.

The Bombers lost to a Hopkins team that followed it up by going winless for a month and a half. But how about the 7-point win over Hobart?!?!

We've seen flashes of both those teams being dominant over meh competition since. But there's scant evidence either team is really a threat in the playoffs