Despite not getting any points from football, Williams holds a comfortable lead in the NACDA Director’s Cup standings, 142.25 points ahead of UW-La Crosse.

The standings, which are based on national finishes in various sports, major and minor, are as follows:

1 Williams 739.75
2 UW-La Crosse 597.5
3 UW-Stevens Point 582.75
4 Washington U. 508.75
5 Middlebury 499
6 Trinity (Texas) 482
7 Calvin* 456
8 New Jersey 443.5
9 Springfield 407
10 Wartburg 395
11 Amherst 379.5
12 Wheaton (Ill.) 355.5
13 Emory* 345
14 Geneseo State* 334
15 Messiah* 330
* — does not sponsor football

Williams gained its winter points from fourth-place finishes nationally in women’s track and men’s and women’s swimming. The Ephs finished 12th in wrestling and 14th in the ever-popular women’s skiing, though that accounts for just 24 points.

Linfield, which won the Division III football title, got 100 points for football and is ranked 94th with 120.5 points, one-half point behind No. 93 St. John’s, which is sure to make fans of both schools… uhm, happy. Linfield finished 53rd in women’s track and field for the other 20.5 points.

Points are awarded based on each institution’s finish in up to 18 sports: nine women’s and nine men’s.

One of the best and worst things about football is that all of the games are basically played within a 24-hour span of each other.

It’s great because everyone is playing at more or less the same time, the information comes in fast and furious, and it makes Saturdays a load of fun. It’s bad, however, because it makes it difficult to see more than one game per week.

Well, for those on the east coast, you have a rare opportunity to get three games in in the same weekend, and it’s a scheduling convergence we’re definitely going to take advantage of as much as possible.

On opening night, Sept. 2, you can see a 2004 playoff team and a pair of Top 50 teams square off when Muhlenberg travels to College of New Jersey for a 7 p.m. kickoff in Ewing, N.J. (That’s according to the info Muhlenberg sent us last week. Most Friday night games are subject to change. The backup plan would be a possible NEFC title game preview between Worcester State and Curry.)

Find a good place to crash that night, because you’re going to need it — on Saturday we recommend the 1 p.m. St. John Fisher/King’s game in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. That’s slightly more than a two-hour drive straight up the Northeast Extension on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

Photo: TCNJ running back Cory Schoonover ran for 397 yards this past season as a sophomore.

The third leg of our journey is to Selinsgrove, Pa., for the 7 p.m. Ursinus/Susquehanna game. It’s 75 miles from King’s to Susquehanna, mostly on interstates. (If you don’t want to go that far into central Pennsylvania, there’s a game between Western Connecticut and Division I-AA non-scholarship St. Peter’s at 7 p.m. in New Jersey, but we can’t recommend a game involving a non-Division III team.

This is assuming noobdy changes their schedule between now and then, of course.

We hope to see as many of you at as many of these games as possible. Let us know if you are crazy enough to join us!