Week 4 doesn’t have a ton of big games — a lot of focus will be on Ithaca hosting St. John Fisher.
Game that won’t live up to previous years: DePauw at No. 13 Trinity (Texas). Yeah, so this is an obvious one, since it isn’t being played. Unfortunately it sets up the conference for some pretty messy tiebreaker decisions. This game coming off the schedule makes the schedule significantly less interesting.
Game that will live up to previous years: RPI at Hobart, and that’s not a good sign for RPI. Hobart has won the last three, and has outscored the Engineers 82-20 in the past five quarters. And those games were both at RPI.
Game that won’t live up to the hype: No. 17 St. John Fisher at No. 15 Ithaca. No game can live up to the pregame chatter this matchup has generated.
Best game nobody is talking about: UW-Platteville/Augustana has become a very competitive rivalry. The past three games have all been decided by three points or less, except for the 2002 game, which wasn’t decided at all — it was halted by a lightning storm in the third quarter.
Top 25 team most likely to get upset: No. 8 Occidental. Cal Lutheran could be the second-best team in the SCIAC (although Redlands will have something to say about that later). But I would be hard-pressed to call a game between No. 15 Ithaca and No. 17 St. John Fisher an upset possibility since the teams are so close together. I also don’t think No. 19 UW-Eau Claire will win this weekend, but the Blugolds are playing the No. 2 team in the NAIA — this wouldn’t be an upset either.
Off the schneid: There’s a chance for a couple of teams with long losing streaks to end up in the W column this week. Catholic (0-14) hosts Randolph-Macon, who has three wins in that span. Concordia, Ill. (0-13) hosts Eureka, which has three wins in its past 13 as well.
Mass independence: Mount Ida was looking like a possible 6-4 or 7-3 team this year (against, admittedly, a less-then competitive schedule). But that was before an 0-3 start which included allowing 42 points to Norwich. Norwich has scored 12 points in two games since. Becker has gone from having no chance at all in this game for the mythical championship of Massachusetts independent programs.
More mythology: Cortland State can wrap up the mythical SUNYAC football title with a win against Buffalo State (it has already beaten Brockport). … Mass Maritime hosts Maine Maritime for the last undisputed Maritime title. (SUNY-Maritime adds varsity football in 2006).
Guaranteed to have no playoff impact: This isn’t even a comment on the NESCAC, although that conference does finally start play this weekend. It’s the Chowan/Newport News game, which features a former Division III team (Chowan, which announced last year it was dropping to D-II) and a non-Division III team (Newport News, which isn’t an NCAA member but whom we recognize to complete ACFC standings).
RE: “Chowan … dropping to D-II”
I love it! 🙂
– Wish you were here: Or, more accurately, wish I were there – #17 St. John Fisher @ #15 Ithaca. Before the season I would’ve said the Bombers were prohibitive favorites to avenge last year’s loss to the Cards, but Fehrenbach has made me a believer that SJF’s offense is more than good enough to hang in this one.
Instead of watching in person, I’ll just have to look North for smoke signals as computers near Rochester or Ithaca burst into flames. Whichever team wins, its fans are going to light up our message boards with happy posts.
– Don’t sleep on this one: I think RPI/Hobart will be better than previous years, with the final score within a touchdown. Then again, maybe I’ve just been reading the Liberty League message board too much. That’s possible, too.
– Most likely Top 25 Team to Lose: 3-0 Case Western beats Wooster, which is ranked #21 in the AFCA poll. Oh, you meant our Top 25 poll? In that case, it’s UW-Eau Claire to NAIA stud St. Francis (Ind.).
– Gordon’s super ridiculous pick of the night: McMurry knocks off Texas Lutheran, rewarding the ever-diligent Ralph Turner for his efforts to bring ASC updates to others. McMurry finishes the night tied with HSU and ETBU for first place (UMHB is now idle). Hey, this prediction has this title for a reason…but I was only 7 points off with Newport News over Brockport last week!
– Saturday night’s alright: Other than the above-mentioned ASC showdown, I’d encourage you to listen to #8 Occidental and Cal Lutheran. The Oxy guys do a good job with their broadcasts and are usually entertaining regardless of the score.