NESCAC

[ChopMan23]

Can someone make a NJIT thread? Or can that not happen until they beat a team who wins more than 3 games a year....?

[shorelax12]

https://njithighlanders.com/news/2023/9 ... he-us.aspx

NJIT - US News and World Report ranking is #76.

All different rankings exist. This is one from WSJ, that’s all.

Agreed, you can always seem to find a college ranking that suits your needs, not much different than political polls. Again, much like political polls, you need to look at the methodology. In regard to this WSJ poll, the weight was on a very limited number of factors, the most important being the cost of attendance vs. graduate salary, which is obviously more favorable to NJIT $18,512 in-state/$34,972 out as compared to most of the NESCACS. If you look at another poll from the WSJ/Higher Education, which broadens the factors considered, NJIT places 177. I know that I am not helping the cause, but we really need to move on from this NJIT obsession.

Ugh.
Princeton
Stanford
Yale
Harvard
MIT
Amherst
UPenn
Columbia
Georgetown
….
Are these schools there because they’re all so cheap? Don’t make no sense…

You’re absolutely right, but don’t expect an answer, because at some point you get to a place where no semantics, or word smithing will make 2+2 not = 4. Maybe they’ll try to find out where you work to really teach you a lesson.

If you get it, no explanation is needed. If you don’t no explanation will do. There is a special kind of arrogance in the circles following some of these schools. “We’re the best because we have historically been the best. We were the best because we play the best, which is almost always exclusively US, the best.”

Times are a changing. Keep hoping, denying and dismissing anything to the contrary. #RollNJIT.

Yes, you are talking the top universities in the country that likely produce the highest earners in the country, so the differential between cost of attendance and earnings is muted because of the high earnings. A school with significantly lower cost of attendance achieves its ranking by having that lower upfront cost.

Right… come on, you can do it … you’re so close, just one more step-
“And therefore the other NESCACs not listed have a worse grad income relative to cost than _ _ _ _.”
I’d like to solve the puzzle Pat. N J I T.

Yep...

I guess that the Wheel of Fortune and WWF crowd was not interested in addressing my earlier post. But lets remember these wise words....

"You’re absolutely right, but don’t expect an answer, because at some point you get to a place where no semantics, or word smithing will make 2+2 not = 4. Maybe they’ll try to find out where you work to really teach you a lesson.

If you get it, no explanation is needed. If you don’t no explanation will do"

[RE6ULATOR]

Yes, you are talking the top universities in the country that likely produce the highest earners in the country, so the differential between cost of attendance and earnings is muted because of the high earnings. A school with significantly lower cost of attendance achieves its ranking by having that lower upfront cost.

Right… come on, you can do it … you’re so close, just one more step-
“And therefore the other NESCACs not listed have a worse grad income relative to cost than _ _ _ _.”
I’d like to solve the puzzle Pat. N J I T.

Yep...

I guess that the Wheel of Fortune and WWF crowd was not interested in addressing my earlier post. But lets remember these wise words....

"You’re absolutely right, but don’t expect an answer, because at some point you get to a place where no semantics, or word smithing will make 2+2 not = 4. Maybe they’ll try to find out where you work to really teach you a lesson.

If you get it, no explanation is needed. If you don’t no explanation will do"

All different rankings exist. This is one from WSJ, that’s all.

Agreed, you can always seem to find a college ranking that suits your needs, not much different than political polls. Again, much like political polls, you need to look at the methodology. In regard to this WSJ poll, the weight was on a very limited number of factors, the most important being the cost of attendance vs. graduate salary, which is obviously more favorable to NJIT $18,512 in-state/$34,972 out as compared to most of the NESCACS. If you look at another poll from the WSJ/Higher Education, which broadens the factors considered, NJIT places 177. I know that I am not helping the cause, but we really need to move on from this NJIT obsession.

Ugh.
Princeton
Stanford
Yale
Harvard
MIT
Amherst
UPenn
Columbia
Georgetown
….
Are these schools there because they’re all so cheap? Don’t make no sense…

You’re absolutely right, but don’t expect an answer, because at some point you get to a place where no semantics, or word smithing will make 2+2 not = 4. Maybe they’ll try to find out where you work to really teach you a lesson.

If you get it, no explanation is needed. If you don’t no explanation will do. There is a special kind of arrogance in the circles following some of these schools. “We’re the best because we have historically been the best. We were the best because we play the best, which is almost always exclusively US, the best.”

Times are a changing. Keep hoping, denying and dismissing anything to the contrary. #RollNJIT.

Yes, you are talking the top universities in the country that likely produce the highest earners in the country, so the differential between cost of attendance and earnings is muted because of the high earnings. A school with significantly lower cost of attendance achieves its ranking by having that lower upfront cost.

Right… come on, you can do it … you’re so close, just one more step-
“And therefore the other NESCACs not listed have a worse grad income relative to cost than _ _ _ _.”
I’d like to solve the puzzle Pat. N J I T.

That's exactly right, their ratio is not as good, but that alone does not make a school better or worse. This is the problem with rankings based upon limited metrics. NJIT is a very good engineering school that comes with a great public school price tag (top value school on Niche), but is also the 90th ranked engineering school in the country according, to US News, and 100th on Niche. I am sorry that the facts are inconvenient, but if we are going to rely on rankings, lets rely on the rankings (plural), not just the ones that are convenient.

Ugh. What is your obsession with NJIT?

You never answered Charlie’s question, but need every aspect of your anti-NJIT diatribes addressed.

But, here you go, If a SMALLER investment, yields a proportionately BETTER RETURN, I wouldn’t call that ratio “not good.” Does that register with you?

[shorelax12]

Yes, you are talking the top universities in the country that likely produce the highest earners in the country, so the differential between cost of attendance and earnings is muted because of the high earnings. A school with significantly lower cost of attendance achieves its ranking by having that lower upfront cost.

Right… come on, you can do it … you’re so close, just one more step-
“And therefore the other NESCACs not listed have a worse grad income relative to cost than _ _ _ _.”
I’d like to solve the puzzle Pat. N J I T.

Yep...

I guess that the Wheel of Fortune and WWF crowd was not interested in addressing my earlier post. But lets remember these wise words....

"You’re absolutely right, but don’t expect an answer, because at some point you get to a place where no semantics, or word smithing will make 2+2 not = 4. Maybe they’ll try to find out where you work to really teach you a lesson.

If you get it, no explanation is needed. If you don’t no explanation will do"

All different rankings exist. This is one from WSJ, that’s all.

Agreed, you can always seem to find a college ranking that suits your needs, not much different than political polls. Again, much like political polls, you need to look at the methodology. In regard to this WSJ poll, the weight was on a very limited number of factors, the most important being the cost of attendance vs. graduate salary, which is obviously more favorable to NJIT $18,512 in-state/$34,972 out as compared to most of the NESCACS. If you look at another poll from the WSJ/Higher Education, which broadens the factors considered, NJIT places 177. I know that I am not helping the cause, but we really need to move on from this NJIT obsession.

Ugh.
Princeton
Stanford
Yale
Harvard
MIT
Amherst
UPenn
Columbia
Georgetown
….
Are these schools there because they’re all so cheap? Don’t make no sense…

You’re absolutely right, but don’t expect an answer, because at some point you get to a place where no semantics, or word smithing will make 2+2 not = 4. Maybe they’ll try to find out where you work to really teach you a lesson.

If you get it, no explanation is needed. If you don’t no explanation will do. There is a special kind of arrogance in the circles following some of these schools. “We’re the best because we have historically been the best. We were the best because we play the best, which is almost always exclusively US, the best.”

Times are a changing. Keep hoping, denying and dismissing anything to the contrary. #RollNJIT.

Yes, you are talking the top universities in the country that likely produce the highest earners in the country, so the differential between cost of attendance and earnings is muted because of the high earnings. A school with significantly lower cost of attendance achieves its ranking by having that lower upfront cost.

Right… come on, you can do it … you’re so close, just one more step-
“And therefore the other NESCACs not listed have a worse grad income relative to cost than _ _ _ _.”
I’d like to solve the puzzle Pat. N J I T.

That's exactly right, their ratio is not as good, but that alone does not make a school better or worse. This is the problem with rankings based upon limited metrics. NJIT is a very good engineering school that comes with a great public school price tag (top value school on Niche), but is also the 90th ranked engineering school in the country according, to US News, and 100th on Niche. I am sorry that the facts are inconvenient, but if we are going to rely on rankings, lets rely on the rankings (plural), not just the ones that are convenient.

Ugh. What is your obsession with NJIT?

You never answered Charlie’s question, but need every aspect of your anti-NJIT diatribes addressed.

But, here you go, If a SMALLER investment, yields a proportionately BETTER RETURN, I wouldn’t call that ratio “not good.” Does that register with you?

Yes, you are 100% correct, that is good, I could not agree more, but it does not correlate into NJIT being the 19th best school, just 19th for one thing. It's like ranking teams based solely upon ground balls. For what's its worth, I could care less about NJIT, I actually have said many time in this forum that it is a good school, the obsession lies with the pro-NJIT crowd. I am just hoping to end the NJIT discussion with facts so that we can move on. I have said my peace and look forward to a fun season for all. Best of luck to whatever team/conference that you support.

[laxdad1434]

Yes, you are talking the top universities in the country that likely produce the highest earners in the country, so the differential between cost of attendance and earnings is muted because of the high earnings. A school with significantly lower cost of attendance achieves its ranking by having that lower upfront cost.

Right… come on, you can do it … you’re so close, just one more step-
“And therefore the other NESCACs not listed have a worse grad income relative to cost than _ _ _ _.”
I’d like to solve the puzzle Pat. N J I T.

Yep...

I guess that the Wheel of Fortune and WWF crowd was not interested in addressing my earlier post. But lets remember these wise words....

"You’re absolutely right, but don’t expect an answer, because at some point you get to a place where no semantics, or word smithing will make 2+2 not = 4. Maybe they’ll try to find out where you work to really teach you a lesson.

If you get it, no explanation is needed. If you don’t no explanation will do"

All different rankings exist. This is one from WSJ, that’s all.

Agreed, you can always seem to find a college ranking that suits your needs, not much different than political polls. Again, much like political polls, you need to look at the methodology. In regard to this WSJ poll, the weight was on a very limited number of factors, the most important being the cost of attendance vs. graduate salary, which is obviously more favorable to NJIT $18,512 in-state/$34,972 out as compared to most of the NESCACS. If you look at another poll from the WSJ/Higher Education, which broadens the factors considered, NJIT places 177. I know that I am not helping the cause, but we really need to move on from this NJIT obsession.

Ugh.
Princeton
Stanford
Yale
Harvard
MIT
Amherst
UPenn
Columbia
Georgetown
….
Are these schools there because they’re all so cheap? Don’t make no sense…

You’re absolutely right, but don’t expect an answer, because at some point you get to a place where no semantics, or word smithing will make 2+2 not = 4. Maybe they’ll try to find out where you work to really teach you a lesson.

If you get it, no explanation is needed. If you don’t no explanation will do. There is a special kind of arrogance in the circles following some of these schools. “We’re the best because we have historically been the best. We were the best because we play the best, which is almost always exclusively US, the best.”

Times are a changing. Keep hoping, denying and dismissing anything to the contrary. #RollNJIT.

Yes, you are talking the top universities in the country that likely produce the highest earners in the country, so the differential between cost of attendance and earnings is muted because of the high earnings. A school with significantly lower cost of attendance achieves its ranking by having that lower upfront cost.

Right… come on, you can do it … you’re so close, just one more step-
“And therefore the other NESCACs not listed have a worse grad income relative to cost than _ _ _ _.”
I’d like to solve the puzzle Pat. N J I T.

That's exactly right, their ratio is not as good, but that alone does not make a school better or worse. This is the problem with rankings based upon limited metrics. NJIT is a very good engineering school that comes with a great public school price tag (top value school on Niche), but is also the 90th ranked engineering school in the country according, to US News, and 100th on Niche. I am sorry that the facts are inconvenient, but if we are going to rely on rankings, lets rely on the rankings (plural), not just the ones that are convenient.

Ugh. What is your obsession with NJIT?

You never answered Charlie’s question, but need every aspect of your anti-NJIT diatribes addressed.

But, here you go, If a SMALLER investment, yields a proportionately BETTER RETURN, I wouldn’t call that ratio “not good.” Does that register with you?

Yes, you are 100% correct, that is good, I could not agree more, but it does not correlate into NJIT being the 19th best school, just 19th for one thing. It's like ranking teams based solely upon ground balls. For what's its worth, I could care less about NJIT, I actually have said many time in this forum that it is a good school, the obsession lies with the pro-NJIT crowd. I am just hoping to end the NJIT discussion with facts so that we can move on. I have said my peace and look forward to a fun season for all. Best of luck to whatever team/conference that you support.

It will never end!

[RE6ULATOR]

[Laxxal22]

One guy's kid doesn't get much PT as a freshman at a school and now we're all getting punished for it on this thread for the last two months. There's some sort of metaphor for late stage capitalism/21st century living in that.

[choochooCharlie]

…I have been one of the people who for the last 4-5 years kept thinking "this is the year Middlebury makes some noise..." and finally in 2023 I think we could see some significant results for them in that light. I am very worried about the panthers this year...

Been hearing the same old Middlebury schtick for years. We get it they play in the NESCAC, but a 16-6 Loss vs RIT, 10-9 win over SMCM and Hamilton taking them to double OT just ain’t jiving.

... After being on the outside looking in last May, why wouldn't they change it up? I've heard there may have been a lack of available teams, but curious to hear any other intel out there.

Any update on any of this? Have we figured out what’s going on at Middlebury? Is it just, “they can get in the NCAA tournament as things stand, so why change anything?” Is where they are the last few years right where they’re comfortable?

[Dadof3]

USILA preseason poll out: 5 Nescac in top 20. Tufts #2; Midd #6; Bowdoin #10; Amherst #13; Williams #t19. (Midd doing something right ‘despite weak ooc’)

[justanotherperson]

Lumping all the threads into one response

For me, Tufts always find a way to reload and every year people are looking to their demise and fall from grace so when that happens Ill stop looking for them to be a preseason favorite. With regards to Middlebury, I think they generate a lot of convo because of their historical legacy of success which is makes their recent lack of success more polarizing. Now it is eve more interesting as they seemed to be on the upswing again the last two years and now this year. Finally Conn College seems to have generated a wide variety of responses as to either winning the NESCAC or finishing in the bottom 4. I guess this will be the year to see if Nagle has put it together.

And finally, finally, as a non NESCAC, non NJIT parent, I do find all of this humurous and it is fun to read. Ranking services are full of bias and faults so they should really be taken with a grain of salt and not relied on as gospel The WSJ ranking system received a lot of criticism when they changed it to outcome based rankings this year but one could argue outcomes are not such a bad thing. Good to use as a starting point but thats about it. In addition, all NESCACs are not created equal. Some are much better than others academically so to compare NJIT to all of the NESCACs is probably not a fair assessment but maybe it is on par with Conn College or Trinity which still makes it a decent school but NJIT is a good option option for engineering and compsci. But for what its worth, here are the rankings for NJIT across all the major ranking services:

19 - WSJ
70 - Forbes
86 - US News (which does not include small liberal arts colleges so this ranking is somewhat falsely elevated)
101 - Washington Monthly
132 - RUR Academic Rankings
133 - Scrimago
155 - University Ranking by Academic Performance
159 - Academic Ranking of World Universities
164 - Webometrics
177 - Times Higher Education
181 - CWTS Leiden
198 - NTU Scientific Paper Ranking
199 - QS World University Rankings
206 - Center for World University Rankings

[shorelax12]

Lumping all the threads into one response

For me, Tufts always find a way to reload and every year people are looking to their demise and fall from grace so when that happens Ill stop looking for them to be a preseason favorite. With regards to Middlebury, I think they generate a lot of convo because of their historical legacy of success which is makes their recent lack of success more polarizing. Now it is eve more interesting as they seemed to be on the upswing again the last two years and now this year. Finally Conn College seems to have generated a wide variety of responses as to either winning the NESCAC or finishing in the bottom 4. I guess this will be the year to see if Nagle has put it together.

And finally, finally, as a non NESCAC, non NJIT parent, I do find all of this humurous and it is fun to read. Ranking services are full of bias and faults so they should really be taken with a grain of salt and not relied on as gospel The WSJ ranking system received a lot of criticism when they changed it to outcome based rankings this year but one could argue outcomes are not such a bad thing. Good to use as a starting point but thats about it. In addition, all NESCACs are not created equal. Some are much better than others academically so to compare NJIT to all of the NESCACs is probably not a fair assessment but maybe it is on par with Conn College or Trinity which still makes it a decent school but NJIT is a good option option for engineering and compsci. But for what its worth, here are the rankings for NJIT across all the major ranking services:

19 - WSJ
70 - Forbes
86 - US News (which does not include small liberal arts colleges so this ranking is somewhat falsely elevated)
101 - Washington Monthly
132 - RUR Academic Rankings
133 - Scrimago
155 - University Ranking by Academic Performance
159 - Academic Ranking of World Universities
164 - Webometrics
177 - Times Higher Education
181 - CWTS Leiden
198 - NTU Scientific Paper Ranking
199 - QS World University Rankings
206 - Center for World University Rankings

Interesting take in the first paragraph. I agree that this may be a defining year for Midd., they have an experienced and talented group, it will be interesting to see what they do with that experience and talent. Also, a little off topic, but on the experience front, I am interested to see what happens in the NESCAC over the next few seasons as the teams cycle through kids that will hopefully have an uninterrupted 4 years of development. Unless I am counting on my fingers incorrectly, the current sophomore class will be the first to have 4 full seasons.

[MVPiccoli]

I'm with you justanotherperson. One of the old head posters used to have this in their signature. The quote from the former HC of the Raven's, Brian BIllick. It wen't something like "We all work for a C student from Salisbury State."

Every place, every education, is what you make it. Nothing is guaranteed. I've seen unsuccessful people with degrees from Villanova/UPenn/Cornell/Haverford College to name a few...and I've seen guys that crushed their careers graduating with an associates degree from Delaware County Comm College. All the rankings, all the nonsense on this thread. It's for the birds.

[Laxattackjack]

I'm with you justanotherperson. One of the old head posters used to have this in their signature. The quote from the former HC of the Raven's, Brian BIllick. It wen't something like "We all work for a C student from Salisbury State."

Every place, every education, is what you make it. Nothing is guaranteed. I've seen unsuccessful people with degrees from Villanova/UPenn/Cornell/Haverford College to name a few...and I've seen guys that crushed their careers graduating with an associates degree from Delaware County Comm College. All the rankings, all the nonsense on this thread. It's for the birds.

I am probably older than most on here. I have found in life, it is a combination of who you know, and common sense. With a little education built in.
I was in an interview just out of college and I was told “all your degree means now, is that you can complete a task”

Unless you have a specific degree like a doctor, lawyer, computer programmer, your college experience is all about figuring out how to transition from people taking care of you, to taking care of yourself.

So yes, there are probably more millionaires that either didn’t go to college, or flunked out, then there are millionaires with elite degrees.

[SaltCounty]

Lumping all the threads into one response

For me, Tufts always find a way to reload and every year people are looking to their demise and fall from grace so when that happens Ill stop looking for them to be a preseason favorite. With regards to Middlebury, I think they generate a lot of convo because of their historical legacy of success which is makes their recent lack of success more polarizing. Now it is eve more interesting as they seemed to be on the upswing again the last two years and now this year. Finally Conn College seems to have generated a wide variety of responses as to either winning the NESCAC or finishing in the bottom 4. I guess this will be the year to see if Nagle has put it together.

And finally, finally, as a non NESCAC, non NJIT parent, I do find all of this humurous and it is fun to read. Ranking services are full of bias and faults so they should really be taken with a grain of salt and not relied on as gospel The WSJ ranking system received a lot of criticism when they changed it to outcome based rankings this year but one could argue outcomes are not such a bad thing. Good to use as a starting point but thats about it. In addition, all NESCACs are not created equal. Some are much better than others academically so to compare NJIT to all of the NESCACs is probably not a fair assessment but maybe it is on par with Conn College or Trinity which still makes it a decent school but NJIT is a good option option for engineering and compsci. But for what its worth, here are the rankings for NJIT across all the major ranking services:

19 - WSJ
70 - Forbes
86 - US News (which does not include small liberal arts colleges so this ranking is somewhat falsely elevated)
101 - Washington Monthly
132 - RUR Academic Rankings
133 - Scrimago
155 - University Ranking by Academic Performance
159 - Academic Ranking of World Universities
164 - Webometrics
177 - Times Higher Education
181 - CWTS Leiden
198 - NTU Scientific Paper Ranking
199 - QS World University Rankings
206 - Center for World University Rankings

Interesting take in the first paragraph. I agree that this may be a defining year for Midd., they have an experienced and talented group, it will be interesting to see what they do with that experience and talent. Also, a little off topic, but on the experience front, I am interested to see what happens in the NESCAC over the next few seasons as the teams cycle through kids that will hopefully have an uninterrupted 4 years of development. Unless I am counting on my fingers incorrectly, the current sophomore class will be the first to have 4 full seasons.

To add to that...

I am really curious if NIL ever gains traction or makes any level of an impact within the NESCAC landscape.
Admittedly - I don't have a very strong knowledge of how it works.

The impression College Football gives me is successful program + high academics + strong alums + name brand recognition = great NIL opportunities
Tufts Lacrosse might be the League's strongest example of that.
Some other NESCAC schools / sports have similar situations.

Would love to know what others think

[OSVAlacrosse]

Lumping all the threads into one response

For me, Tufts always find a way to reload and every year people are looking to their demise and fall from grace so when that happens Ill stop looking for them to be a preseason favorite. With regards to Middlebury, I think they generate a lot of convo because of their historical legacy of success which is makes their recent lack of success more polarizing. Now it is eve more interesting as they seemed to be on the upswing again the last two years and now this year. Finally Conn College seems to have generated a wide variety of responses as to either winning the NESCAC or finishing in the bottom 4. I guess this will be the year to see if Nagle has put it together.

And finally, finally, as a non NESCAC, non NJIT parent, I do find all of this humurous and it is fun to read. Ranking services are full of bias and faults so they should really be taken with a grain of salt and not relied on as gospel The WSJ ranking system received a lot of criticism when they changed it to outcome based rankings this year but one could argue outcomes are not such a bad thing. Good to use as a starting point but thats about it. In addition, all NESCACs are not created equal. Some are much better than others academically so to compare NJIT to all of the NESCACs is probably not a fair assessment but maybe it is on par with Conn College or Trinity which still makes it a decent school but NJIT is a good option option for engineering and compsci. But for what its worth, here are the rankings for NJIT across all the major ranking services:

19 - WSJ
70 - Forbes
86 - US News (which does not include small liberal arts colleges so this ranking is somewhat falsely elevated)
101 - Washington Monthly
132 - RUR Academic Rankings
133 - Scrimago
155 - University Ranking by Academic Performance
159 - Academic Ranking of World Universities
164 - Webometrics
177 - Times Higher Education
181 - CWTS Leiden
198 - NTU Scientific Paper Ranking
199 - QS World University Rankings
206 - Center for World University Rankings

Interesting take in the first paragraph. I agree that this may be a defining year for Midd., they have an experienced and talented group, it will be interesting to see what they do with that experience and talent. Also, a little off topic, but on the experience front, I am interested to see what happens in the NESCAC over the next few seasons as the teams cycle through kids that will hopefully have an uninterrupted 4 years of development. Unless I am counting on my fingers incorrectly, the current sophomore class will be the first to have 4 full seasons.

To add to that...

I am really curious if NIL ever gains traction or makes any level of an impact within the NESCAC landscape.
Admittedly - I don't have a very strong knowledge of how it works.

The impression College Football gives me is successful program + high academics + strong alums + name brand recognition = great NIL opportunities
Tufts Lacrosse might be the League's strongest example of that.
Some other NESCAC schools / sports have similar situations.

Would love to know what others think

With regards to NIL in the sport of lacrosse, I feel it falls into a different category than football and basketball. Think more like gymnastics, or U of Miami women's hoops. There is a place for student athletes to benefit from being student athletes but they have to do more than just perform on the field. A lacrosse player needs to use the platform to be a media influencer. Mitch Pehlke has been the best example of this path. I am sure there could be some players from Tufts or any NESCAC school who could do this. Advertisers would be for IG/Tik Toc/Twitch views v. stats. Then again kids are less likely to follow a players who does not play. I think it is a different path for the sport of lacrosse and NESCAC is a niche in a niche.

[shorelax12]

Lumping all the threads into one response

For me, Tufts always find a way to reload and every year people are looking to their demise and fall from grace so when that happens Ill stop looking for them to be a preseason favorite. With regards to Middlebury, I think they generate a lot of convo because of their historical legacy of success which is makes their recent lack of success more polarizing. Now it is eve more interesting as they seemed to be on the upswing again the last two years and now this year. Finally Conn College seems to have generated a wide variety of responses as to either winning the NESCAC or finishing in the bottom 4. I guess this will be the year to see if Nagle has put it together.

And finally, finally, as a non NESCAC, non NJIT parent, I do find all of this humurous and it is fun to read. Ranking services are full of bias and faults so they should really be taken with a grain of salt and not relied on as gospel The WSJ ranking system received a lot of criticism when they changed it to outcome based rankings this year but one could argue outcomes are not such a bad thing. Good to use as a starting point but thats about it. In addition, all NESCACs are not created equal. Some are much better than others academically so to compare NJIT to all of the NESCACs is probably not a fair assessment but maybe it is on par with Conn College or Trinity which still makes it a decent school but NJIT is a good option option for engineering and compsci. But for what its worth, here are the rankings for NJIT across all the major ranking services:

19 - WSJ
70 - Forbes
86 - US News (which does not include small liberal arts colleges so this ranking is somewhat falsely elevated)
101 - Washington Monthly
132 - RUR Academic Rankings
133 - Scrimago
155 - University Ranking by Academic Performance
159 - Academic Ranking of World Universities
164 - Webometrics
177 - Times Higher Education
181 - CWTS Leiden
198 - NTU Scientific Paper Ranking
199 - QS World University Rankings
206 - Center for World University Rankings

Interesting take in the first paragraph. I agree that this may be a defining year for Midd., they have an experienced and talented group, it will be interesting to see what they do with that experience and talent. Also, a little off topic, but on the experience front, I am interested to see what happens in the NESCAC over the next few seasons as the teams cycle through kids that will hopefully have an uninterrupted 4 years of development. Unless I am counting on my fingers incorrectly, the current sophomore class will be the first to have 4 full seasons.

To add to that...

I am really curious if NIL ever gains traction or makes any level of an impact within the NESCAC landscape.
Admittedly - I don't have a very strong knowledge of how it works.

The impression College Football gives me is successful program + high academics + strong alums + name brand recognition = great NIL opportunities
Tufts Lacrosse might be the League's strongest example of that.
Some other NESCAC schools / sports have similar situations.

Would love to know what others think

I think that the NIL has to figure itself out at the D1 level first. Having graduated from a Power 5 college, it has been interesting to see how the school has handled the NIL. While the school has high academics and alums covered, the weaker aspect has been the programs success on a consistent basis, so I definitely think that hurts. There is also the competing interests between the athletic department fundraising and NIL fundraising, Since these are completely separate funds, but a common pool of donors, they compete for the same money. I would think that at the D3 level, despite some of the NESCAC schools having substantial endowments, it would be hard to fund athletics and NIL due to the smaller footprint of athletes and alumni.

[Laxxal22]

For a brand to make a significant NIL offer to a NESCAC athlete they'd have to have a unique story like a three sport athlete who's won a title in all of them, or a blind swimmer who makes all conference. Something where it's more about what they represent (commitment, overcoming odds) than their actual identities. It's pretty easy to imagine a two-minute branded content video and online advertising campaign around either of those stories—for anything from a sports brand to a financial services company. But scenarios like those will be extremely rare/never happen.

I could see stuff with town businesses. E.G. the starting QB for Williams gets a free two-topping pizza a week for the semester for making two appearances at a local pizzeria and doing a weekly Instagram story telling people to get a slice after the game. Not a big deal, or even a cash exchange, but probably illegal in the eyes of the NCAA a few years ago.

[NNELax]

Didn't Spallina make like 100k+ for his NIL deal in HS?

[laxdad1434]

I'm with you justanotherperson. One of the old head posters used to have this in their signature. The quote from the former HC of the Raven's, Brian BIllick. It wen't something like "We all work for a C student from Salisbury State."

Every place, every education, is what you make it. Nothing is guaranteed. I've seen unsuccessful people with degrees from Villanova/UPenn/Cornell/Haverford College to name a few...and I've seen guys that crushed their careers graduating with an associates degree from Delaware County Comm College. All the rankings, all the nonsense on this thread. It's for the birds.

Yep..."Life is what you make of it"

[UpperDecky]

In preparation for Mondays start across the ‘cac, here’s my preseason rankings with tiers. Don’t rip me too hard
TIER 1 - National Title hopes
1. Bowdoin - return the most in the conference, natty ship hopes
2. Midd - exciting crop of underclassmen, next year could be theirs
3. Tufts - they lose a lot but they always replace, I might be eating my words by Memorial Day weekend
TIER 2 - Really good teams here, should make for some great games. Expecting lots of fluidity here through the season
4. Amherst - strong squad, bob gross potential conf. Poty
5. Conn - the gritty camels have a strong defense and great goalie, but they’ll need to replace Rainville
6. Williams - breaking in a new keep but return a lot of production
7. Trinity - Ike is a big loss but they return good production and a great goalie
8. Wesleyan - disappointing end to last year, Jack Raba is back but not sure the cards figure it all out
9. Hamilton - sleeper team here, their stud lsm could swing the tide and rise the conts up these rankings
TIER 3 - cellar
10. Colby - great hire w/ Bernhardt, but gonna be a couple years to get his guys in. Potential 2028 cac champs
11. Bates - nothing new here, roster pretty barren outside of close defenseman Curtis