Recruting Agent's perspective - Academics vs money

gointhruaphase
Thu, 26 Mar 2015 02:47:38 +0000

Ohio Dad,

I feel like I am hijacking a number of threads of late, but I have to disagree about the NESCACs only playing each other and being considered the weakest of the leagues. First of all, all teams have substantial out of league play. Baseball, for example, does not play the full 40 games allowed by NCAA rules, but it is pretty close at +/- 35-37. I would say around 20 of those games are against non-NESCAC opponents. This can be confirmed by a simple review of the NESCAC website, which contains all of the full schedules. Second, I think the NESCACs are the strongest league athletically (as a whole) of any other league in the country. If you compare the SOS of many of the NESCAC teams with other teams I think you will find stronger SOSs in the NESCACs (if only because they play each other). There will be doubters, but NESCAC mens soccer regularly has more teams in the NCAA tournament than any other D3 league, and typically three or four teams are nationally ranked each year. Tufts womens softball last year won the NCAA tournament (and is undefeated so far this year). That is not to take anything away from Tufts mens soccer, which won the NCAA tournament last year. Hamilton has won an NCAA womens lacrosse tournament, as has Trinity. Trinity also has won a couple of D3 world series. Williams has won more directors cups than any other D3 program. Without researching it, I can confidently say that Amherst does not fall into the athletic slouch department. In given areas, you may find stronger teams. For example, Messiah’s mens soccer is consistently higher than most other D3 soccer programs. But, the fact that the league has several teams invited to the tournament each year suggests that overall the league is one of the strongest – if not the strongest in the country.