This first round game features the champions of the NEC, Sacred Heart against the champions of the CAA, Delaware.
Tag: NEC
2021 CSJ NEC Spring Football Preview
On February 1st, Northeast Conference Commissioner Noreen Morris announced revised regular season competition and NEC Championship formats for fall-to-spring, winter and spring sports, which included football.
CSJ Spring 2021 Week 1 Roundtable: Can A Spring Season Be Pulled Off?
The CSJ writing staff answer the questions many of us have about the beginning of this unprecedented FCS season.
Historic Spring College Football Season Set to Begin
The National Football Foundation (NFF) highlighted today the more than 310 schools and 35 conferences playing college football this spring at the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), Division II, Division III and NAIA levels. FBS independent New Mexico State will also play games this spring.
Five Burning Questions I Have About A Spring Football Season For the Patriot League
I have five burning questions on the issue that might help to give clarity on what a spring season for the Patriot League might look like.
ANALYSIS: As Ivy League Contemplates Moving to Spring, NCAA Needs to Clarify Whether An FCS Championship Will Happen
The Patriot League’s dilemmas, whether the rest of FCS admits it or not, is the FCS’ dilemmas. And as we inch closer to an alleged 2020 college football season, the NCAA needs to make some things very clear before a huge mess happens.
2020 College Sports Journal FCS Preseason All-America Team Announced
Sixty student-athletes in the NCAA Division I Football’s Championship Subdivision have been named to the 2020 College Sports Journal Preseason FCS All-America Team.
2019 FCS Playoffs, Round 1 Review: CSJ Staff Gives Their Opinions
With the first round of the FCS Playoffs now complete, we give you links to all our recaps and our writers’ impression of the games. Monmouth 44, Holy Cross 27 FCS 1st Round Playoffs: Monmouth Overwhelms Holy Cross 44-27 For Hawks First-Ever Playoff Victory Chuck: Monmouth proved they have a balanced offense that can give […]
FCS 1st Round Playoffs: Undercuffler’s Record-Setting Day Lifts Albany Over Central Connecticut State, 42-14
The Albany Great Danes, behind a tremendous performance by QB Jeff Undercuffler and defeated the Central Connecticut Blue Devils 42-14 on Saturday in the first round of the FCS Playoffs.
2019 FCS Playoffs: CSJ Playoff Picks
The FCS playoffs are finally here! Enjoy the picks of the staff of the College Sports Journal and find out who we think will win the FCS National Championship.
2019 FCS First Round Playoff Matchup: Central Connecticut State at Albany, How To Watch and Fearless Predictions
Picked to finish twelfth in the twelve team CAA, no one expected to see Albany’s name pop up in the playoff bracket. But the Great Danes had an excellent season finishing alone in second in the conference behind James Madison.
2019 FCS Playoff Bracket Announced: How To Watch, CSJ Staff Impressions
Two-time defending national champion North Dakota State (12-0) tops the bracket as the number one seed after winning the Missouri Valley Football Conference. The Bison are making their 10th consecutive and 15th overall appearance in the championship.
SEASON IN REVIEW: Dark Days are Over for Robert Morris Football
The dark days are over! Robert Morris caps off an incredible season finishing 7-5 with their most recent victory coming over Sacred Heart 16-14.
College Sports Journal Sagarin FCS Playoff Predictions–FINAL 2019
Using the Sagarin ratings from this week alone to project the FCS playoffs, along with the automatic bid for the conferences that receive a bid, the following would be the playoff teams. These teams are seeded 1 through 24 for the 24 teams that make the FCS playoffs. The seven Division I win criteria was […]
FCS Playoffs ‘Til I Die: Final Playoff Picks, 11/23/2019
The FCS Playoff Committee has a pretty unenviable job this time around in trying to determine the playoff seeds. With a crazy day of upsets of Montana, South Dakota State, Illinois State and others, teams who looked like certain seeds suddenly look like they are going to be practicing on Thanksgiving Day instead.
College Sports Journal Top 25 11/19/19
Just like that, we are down to the last week of the regular season. Selection Sunday comes to your airwaves thus Sunday November 24th at 11:30 AM on ESPNU. This past week, six of the ten automatic bids were sewn up. Those bids went to Monmouth (Big South), James Madison (CAA), North Dakota State (MVFC), Central Connecticut State (NEC), San Diego (Pioneer), Wofford (Southern). The Southland will be decided on Thursday night, while the Big Sky, Patriot and Ohio Valley will be decided on Saturday. The top 25 this week will look at each team from the prism of the playoffs.
Sacred Heart’s Julius Chestnut Roasts Lehigh For Two Late TDs In 13-6 Win Over Mountain Hawks
Going into this game, Lehigh’s defense had a serious challenge on their hands – to stop, or a least slow down, the leading rusher in FCS, Sacred Heart RB Julius Chestnut. For three quarters, they did just that, but in the fourth quarter Chestnut would score a pair of rushing touchdowns to lifted Sacred Heart to a 13-6 victory.
FCS Playoffs ‘Til I Die: Finally, Finally! A Whole Heap of Clarity
I’ve been doing this FCS Playoff field predictions a very long time now, and it’s been a very strange year. It’s not customary for so many autobids to be in doubt this late in the season. But this week, a lot of results came in that clarified five of the autobids.
A Winning Season For Two Teams On The Line As Lehigh Travels To Sacred Heart
It’s highly unusual for Lehigh (4-5, 3-2) and Sacred Heart (6-4, 4-2)to be playing a non-conference game this late in the season, but for both teams, important milestones remain.
FCS Playoffs ‘Til I Die: Two Weeks Til Selection Sunday, Zero Autobids Offered
Two weeks to go, and how many autobids have been clinched? How about… none?
FCS Playoffs ‘Til I Die: Finally, Things Start To Come Into Focus
There are three more football weekends to go before FCS Playoff Selection Sunday, where FCS Nation hopes ESPN pronounces all the schools’ names correctly and don’t forget to specify who is home, and who is away in the first round.
FCS Playoffs ‘Til I Die: When Last Week’s Bracket Goes Terribly Wrong
Remember when I had Villanova as a seed? Good times. Harken back to when I had Delaware in my field? Yes, way back when – last week. Do you recall the time that I had more than two Southland teams in my bracket? It’s so long ago, why, when it happened, North Dakota State and […]
FCS Playoffs ‘Til I Die: Where Everything Is Made Up And the Picks Don’t Matter
As of right now, the FCS Playoff field feels like the show “Who’s Line Is It Anyway”, where the picks are just random improvisations of things that end up not making any sense. Nonetheless, we’ll keep pressing on, trying to figure out some version of truth.
FCS Playoffs ‘Til I Die: Who Will I Cast Out Of the Projected Bracket This Week? (By Picking Them)
Welcome, America, to the FCSP’TID Cover Photo Curse.
Eastern Washington, UC Davis, Jacksonville State, and, last week, Montana State graced this space as rising teams that were all but guaranteed spots in the FCS playoffs after a particularly impressive win, or a gut-check performance.
College Sports Journal Northeast Conference Previews And Streaming Links: Week of 10/12/2019
This week’s games feature a couple of challenges vs. the Ivy League, LIU still trying to win their first game in the NEC, and a good old-fashioned western Pennsylvania rivalry game.
FCS Playoffs ‘Til I Die: Your Modestly Improving 2019 FCS Playoff Projection, Week of 10/8/2019
Don’t bother looking at my previous editions of “Playoffs ‘Til I Die” to get a solid playoff bracket. Like the rest of America, I had Eastern Washington and UC Davis in my brackets and now, let’s just say, they are not. As the Big Sky autobid turns, however, we inch ever closer to a better […]
The Week That Was: Highlights of the Five Top FCS Games, Week Ending 10/6/2019
It was a week of thrilling conference rivalries, and it’s the “Military Classic of the South” that yielded the best story of them all.
Lehigh Guts Out A Win For Tom Gilmore’s First as Mountain Hawk Head Coach
On a hot, humid late September afternoon at Murray Goodman Stadium, Gilmore won his first football game as head coach, finally outlasting visiting Merrimack 10-3 in a game where defense and special teams were the order of the day.
QUICK RECAP: This Time, Defense and Special Teams Translates Into Lehigh Victory, 10-3 over Merrimack
It wasn’t the sort of game for the NFL’s Red Zone channel. It wasn’t for people who love power rushing, precision passing, or turnover-free ball. But it was a win that the Lehigh Mountain Hawks will happily take. The Lehigh Mountain Hawks had six sacks and kept Merrimack out of the end zone, and rode […]
College Sports Journal Northeast Conference Previews: Week of 9/28/2019
A brand-new rivalry is spawned in the NEC and a league tilt between St. Francis (PA) and Bryant feature this week.
Show-Me Game Looms for Lehigh Mountain Hawk Football Against Merrimack
In the end, the matchup this weekend will be a show-me type of game, one that might set the trajectory for both programs.
FCS Playoffs ‘Til I Die: Your Somewhat More Relevant 2019 FCS Playoff Projection, Week of 9/21/2019
It would be nice if Eastern Washington would stop making my sample FCS Playoff brackets look so foolish. The first playoff bracket of the season, I had the Eagles in the field as a seed, mostly on the backs of their potential to win the Big Sky. Two losses and a 1-3 record later, I’m […]
College Sports Journal Northeast Conference Previews: Week of 9/21/2019
Another interesting week awaits us in the NEC, featuring a battle between a NEC title contender and a Pioneer Football League contender.
FCS Playoffs ‘Til I Die: Your Modestly More Relevant 2019 FCS Playoff Projection, Week of 9/14/2019
Last week, we shook the dust off our first laughable attempt at picking an FCS Playoff field, and this week, we make another laughable attempt at picking an FCS Playoff field, but with a few more data points so that it’s, well, a tiny bit less hilarious. This week, we saw North Dakota State extend […]
College Sports Journal Northeast Conference Previews: Week of 9/14/2019
Things pretty much played out as expected when the teams of the NEC stepped up in class, losing some games against tough competition. It was the losses to D-II squads that were an issue, with Wagner and Robert Morris losing some bad games against sub-D-I competition. This week, the NEC has another mixed back of play-up and play-down competition.
FCS Playoffs ‘Til I Die: Your Near-Meaningless 2019 FCS Playoff Projection, Week of 9/7/2019
There truly is a never-ending search for content, a fact I was reminded of when I was politely and earnestly asked this week about coming up with an FCS playoff projection for the 2019 season.
College Sports Journal Northeast Conference Previews: Week of 9/7/2019
Wagner, who came within a blown defensive penalty from having a chance to beat FBS UConn, isn’t the only NEC team chomping at the bit to start Week 2 of the football season. Duquesne, Central Connecticut State, Robert Morris and Sacred Heart also have their home openers this week.
Lehigh Wins The Internet, But Loses The Football Game to St. Francis (PA), 14-13
We live in a strange world where people consume things in bites. People consume bites like video clips quickly, and sometimes they love them enough to keep watching them, enjoy them, and share them with their friends and followers.
That’s what happened today with one play out of the 138 plays that were run in the St. Francis (PA)/Lehigh game this Saturday, the first game of the season for both teams.
QUICK RECAP: St. Francis (PA) Gets Revenge For Last Year, Hold On to Win 14-13
It was a game a defensive coordinator could love, and it resulted in a thrilling victory for St. Francis (PA) and an agonizing loss for Lehigh when a late 40 yard FG attempt went wide right for the Mountain Hawks, resulting in a 14-13 win for the Red Flash.
New Look St. Francis (PA) and Lehigh Look To Start 2019 With A Win
Last season, St. Francis (PA) and Lehigh faced off at the exact same time of year (Saturday, Labor Day weekend) at the exact same weekend. But the teams heading onto the field this weekend are not only filled with new personnel – they are also teams eager to put disappointing, losing season behind them in 2019.
College Sports Journal Northeast Conference Game Previews: Week of 8/31/2019
The NEC starts their 2019 football season as road warriors with the exception of Merrimack, who is not a full NEC member but is competing against mostly NEC squads. All of the games should be a challenge – with the exception of Merrimack, once again.
Five Takeaways from Lehigh Football’s 2019 Season-Opener Two Deep
Lehigh has just released their game notes for their 2019 Week 1 tilt against St. Francis (PA), and it’s our first look at Lehigh’s starting two deep. Here are my five takeaways from the list.
College Sports Journal 2019 Division I Football Conference Preview: Northeast Conference
The Northeast Conference welcomes two new members in 2019 in LIU and Merrimack, two teams that should bring some juice to the league in future years. That newness extends to many of the existing teams of the NEC, many of whom are headed by first or second year head coaches. In such an environment, Duquesne’s returning talent and longtime head football coach really stand out.
2019 NCAA Division I College Football Team Previews: Duquesne Dukes
Things looked grim after an early-season defeat to Bryant left the Dukes at 3-3. But Jerry Schmitt’s team would win their next five games to win the NEC title, earning a road game against Towson in the FCS playoffs and pulling off a stunning upset, 31-10, in a rainstorm.
2019 NCAA Division I College Football Team Previews: Central Connecticut State Blue Devils
Two close conference losses, both by a single score to Sacred Heart and Duquesne, were all that separated the Blue Devils from a conference title.
2019 NCAA Division I College Football Team Previews: Sacred Heart Pioneers
The FCS Playoff autobid came down to the wire in Pittsburgh, PA, but Sacred Heart’s 28-24 loss to Duquesne meant 7-4 Sacred Heart would end up tied for 1st for the NEC championship , but without the autobid.
2019 NCAA Division I College Football Team Previews: Wagner Seahawks
A tough, brutal early stretch of the schedule saw the Seahawks limp to a 1-5 record, though they would win their final two games against Bryant and Robert Morris to achieve a 4-7 record.
2019 NCAA Division I College Football Team Previews: Bryant Bulldogs
CCSU scored 48 straight points in a 34 point loss, and the Bulldogs never seemed to fully recover, dropping three of their last five games and squeaking by both Fordham (42-41) and Howard (56-55) by a single point each.
2019 NCAA Division I College Football Team Previews: Merrimack Warriors
A 31-14 win over Southern Connecticut (D-II) brought the Warriors time in Division II to a close with a 5-5 record. Merrimack announced they would be beginning their transition to becoming a Division I athletics program in 2019, where their final destination will be the NEC.
2019 NCAA Division I College Football Team Previews: St. Francis (PA) Red Flash
St. Francis (PA) Red Flash Location: Loretto, PA Coach: Chris Villarrial (40-59), 9th Season at St. Francis (PA) Stadium: DeGol Field (Capacity: 3,500) CSJ Projections: 6th: NEC 8th: Pennsylvania 103rd: FCS 233rd: Division I 2018 In a Sentence: Three heartbreaking, last-minute out-of-conference losses to Lehigh, Richmond, and Albany (NY) turned what could have realistically […]
