No More Complaints About Notre Dame. Please.

  Let’s begin with something which sparked a lot of comments from last week’s blog. That would be the Notre Dame-CFP flap.

I remarked that I felt no pity for the Notre Dame athletic administration. They knew that  they were dealing from both ends when they made their pact with the College Football Playoff committee to garner greater consideration as an independent because, to put it bluntly, they ARE Notre Dame, a singularly popular academic institution with a football team. Glorified in the Great Depression by sportswriters and able to capture the imagination of so many Catholics throughout the country, thus drawing capacity crowds in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, the Irish became powerful media darlings. 

Growing up, a staple of Sunday morning television in the New York market was the package of Notre Dame highlights filmed on Saturdays, edited overnight and voiced over by the great Lindsey Nelson, a national TV announcer for NBC and a local star broadcasting the infant New York Mets in the 1960’s. The next day—whether it was at school or in businesses in the area—there was bound to be a discussion about the exploits of the boys from South Bend. 

Even being Jewish and not actively rooting for Notre Dame, I was awed by the mythical stature of coaches Knute Rockne and Ara Parseghian. Along with the greatness of Johnny Lujack, Paul Hornung and other star Irish players.  And I did watch the movie Rudy, a story about a walk-on who captured the spirit of a team and its fans when he finally got his chance to play. 

In my quest to see as many college campuses and stadiums, I mapped out a stop at Notre Dame. That was part of an itinerary which began in Detroit; migrated through Michigan; stopped in Green Bay to pay homage to the Packers and Madison to see the University of Wisconsin and friends who lived there; then wound into Chicago before returning to Detroit. 

It was an early morning mid-Summer trip from the Windy City, with my wife and two tired children in our rental car. I was hellbent on seeing the campus and at least driving by the fabled Notre Dame Stadium. 

I found the stadium easily. We parked the car. The gate was open as the maintenance crew was cutting the historic sod. It looked smaller than I thought it would (then again, I thought Ohio Stadium looked bigger than Michigan Stadium—which, capacity-wise it wasn’t). Older and a little worn. 

Dutifully, my family posed for pictures and I ran around like the lunatic I could be at times, getting whatever angles of the field and stands I could before being shooed away. I had reached the Mecca for so many and I was in the presence of stadium royalty. 

Then reality struck home. Little children need to go to the bathroom. Try finding a place for that on a campus which was still very much asleep and with school not in session. The basketball arena was locked tight. Other doors couldn’t be opened. I tried to ease my children’s concerns. But the pressure was mounting. 

Then I remembered that the tall building with the mural on it—affectionately called “Touchdown Jesus”—was the school library. So we headed to the doors and saw movement inside. 

Except that nobody was moving to the doors. The library was not ready for public admission. 

I continued to knock on the doors and gesture about my children. Finally, a female librarian came to the door and in a typical manner and voice, scolded me for banging on the doors. 

I told her I had two children who needed to go and no place was open. I pleaded to her sensibilities. 

She looked to the security guard next to her and said okay, I will make an exception. She informed us that the guard would accompany us to the restrooms just down the hall from the entrance

He stood outside the doors, closely monitoring the situation. Not that we planned a heist of any books from the library, nor were we going to desecrate the building in any manner, other than taking care of business in the lavatories. 

We were hustled out of the building and I could distinctly hear the locks being shut to keep the place intact after we had intruded. There’s more to the story which includes what I said to my wife as we headed to our car. 

The point I want to make is the people at Notre Dame act as if their school is sacred. Whether it is workmen, librarians, security guards or athletic directors, the belief that Notre Dame is better than anywhere else is palpable. 

I’m not saying that other schools don’t display arrogance in public. The Ivies are certainly like that. Known academic schools like Michigan, Virginia, Duke, MIT all retain special status from their academics. 

But at Notre Dame, they want to stand alone yet reap all the benefits of conferences and their members. Emboldened with money which flows to them from NBC and Peacock, which exclusively televise Irish home football games, plus a merchandising arm which appears to match that of “America’s Team,” the Dallas Cowboys, the coffers of the school are filled with donations and revenue streams other schools could only wish they had. This is a continuation of the groundbreaking deal the school signed with ABC in 1953, generating the needed capital to stand alone while carving out a national schedule  with the likes of schools like Stanford and USC, the service academies and others willing to schedule the school to obtain more exposure in the pre-ESPN era. 

Standing alone in football is what they crave in South Bend. Keeping as much of  the money for themselves as would be possible. Yet they need to compete in other sports—scheduling becomes a nightmare remaining as an independent.

Notre Dame has ventured into other conferences to meet the demands for opponents. For many years the basketball teams toiled in the Big East, a predominantly Catholic school league. That was not exactly what the school wanted, but more of what it needed.

Notre Dame repeatedly sought entry into the Western Conference (now the Big Ten), only to be rejected led by opponent Fielding Yost of Michigan, who was influenced mightily by anti-Catholic sentiment of the day. All rumors that Notre Dame wanted to join the Big Ten in recent years were that—just rumors (Men’s ice hockey does compete in the Big Ten—but that is isolated and not enough to thaw the frostiness between the school and the conference). 

What has gotten Notre Dame football into a pickle was the COVID-19 pandemic. To be able to play, Notre Dame signed an agreement with a very willing Atlantic Coast Conference to play its entire 2020 slate against ACC institutions. In doing that, agreements were reached for other sports and for the football team to play 5 ACC schools each season. If Notre Dame sought conference affiliation, it must be with the ACC. 

Notre Dame was more than wiling to live with this, given its alliance with NBC. Besides, which teams, outside of Miami, Clemson and Florida State were likely to give the Irish much trouble—and it was unlikely that they would have to play all three in any given year. That was a beautiful deal which should get ten wins nearly every season. 

Plus being a full partner with the conferences at the CFP table was better than being in a conference and having revenues slashed, too. Notre Dame expected deference would be given to them as it is to the SEC. 

Then the unthinkable happened. A really sound Irish squad lost two close, early season contests to Miami of the ACC and Texas A&M from the SEC. Those schools each recorded double-digit wins in 2025. 

The committee had to weigh whether Miami losing to Louisville by three points and at SMU in overtime pushed Notre Dame ahead of the Hurricanes. It decided it didn’t. 

Fans of the Irish were outraged. The school decided that if they weren’t good enough to pass a team it had lost to early on and be a part of the CFP—they surely were better than James Madison or Tulane, teams which came from the Group of 5 conferences not named SEC, ACC, Big Ten or Big 12—they just would not settle for a bowl game (and perhaps shared revenue—which they didn’t have to do if in the CFP). 

Despite my story, I really have no axe to grind with Notre Dame. Could the playoffs have been better if they were included instead of Miami? That might be answered when the Hurricanes and the Aggies square off in College Station on Saturday in what has been dubbed the “Notre Dame Bowl.” 

And any question as to whether Alabama belonged in the playoffs was resoundingly answered when the Crimson Tide rolled into Norman, erased a 17-0 deficit and won 34-24 on Friday night. Next up for the Tide is #1 Indiana in the Rose Bowl.

We have a set field of 12 vying for the championship. Ohio State, Indiana, Texas Tech, Oregon and Georgia are the top five seeds. And to the detractors of JMU and Tulane, the Division II, III and FCS playoffs take more teams than the CFP, allowing for conference champions from a variety of leagues (now including the Ivy League) to experience the reward for a very good season by playing additional contests. 

Until the field is expanded to 16 teams with no byes, then we will have the hiccups and still experience schools bellyaching about having a good enough record yet being excluded. I don’t think that the 12 teams are sorry that Duke defeated Virginia, which left the Cavaliers on the sidelines and thus eliminated Notre Dame, too. 

Besides, I would much rather have discussed the LA Rams-Seattle Thursday night showdown won by the Seahawks on two 2 point conversions. Or the Knicks winning the NBA Cup. Or even Texas A&M stopping the undefeated then 33-0 Nebraska women’s volleyball machine en route to the NCAA finals. 

 

So no more complaints about Notre Dame. Please. Their largesse can become self-defeating. 

Football Evolution

  I’m back from South Florida, visiting relatives and law school roommates. It was warm. The food and company were excellent. Even the United flights out of Newark, a notorious late departure airport, to West Palm Beach, left early and arrived early. And now there is snow and cold. 

The irony of the trip was that it was a day after my wife and I endured a half of miserable football from the New York Jets, who hosted South Florida’s own Miami Dolphins. Actually, it was nearly two halves, as we hightailed it out of Met Life Stadium with the home team trailing by a score of 24-7.  

We were home with little traffic on Route 3, the Garden State Parkway and Interstate 78.  In time to see much of a scoreless third quarter and all of the final stanza. The result was an overwhelming 34-10 win for the Dolphins. 

It wasn’t that the Jets didn’t try hard. They did. The first quarter punt return by Isaiah Williams resulted in a 78 yard scamper to pay dirt. That was the highlight of the game for the home faithful. 

Otherwise, with an injury to backup QB Tyrod Taylor in the first quarter, NYJ was forced to bring in undrafted free agent Brady Cook, a University of Missouri product, to direct the offense as best he could. Which really wasn’t too great and Cook was injured late but he made it through to the end. Cook will be this week’s starting quarterback when the Jets face AFC South leader Jacksonville on the road this Sunday. Good luck, kid. Just don’t get re-injured. 

New York has to play out the schedule with three of the four remaining games away from East Rutherford. Only New Orleans isn’t playing for a playoff spot. Buffalo and New England are, and they tangle this Sunday in Foxboro. 

Whether the team remains with 3 wins this season or somehow reaches the lofty heights of 4-13, New York will have a good chance to find its QB of the future. Speculation that NYJ will trade up to do that is just that; with the plethora of first round picks they can do that or sit tight and build a real foundation if the draft selections in the next two years are well-thought out. Could it be Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza from Indiana the Jets crave?

I want to briefly talk about Miami. The Dolphins began the season almost as bad as the Jets. Losers of six of the first seven contests, the only thing which prevented Miami from going 0-7 was that they came away winners over the Jets on the last Monday in September. 

But after a loss in Cleveland, the Dolphins started to turn the season around. Except for a loss to Baltimore, the Dolphins have won five of the last six games they have played. 

The remaining schedule isn’t daunting: at Pittsburgh on Monday night, a team currently leading its division with a 7-6 record, has lost its top pass rusher, T.J. Watt, to a collapsed lung which required surgery  and which has been inconsistent in its playing with 42 year old Aaron Rodgers at quarterback; Cincinnati, a below .500 team in turmoil, with its star quarterback Joe Burrow not necessarily wanting to remain in town; Tampa Bay, which is also on a losing streak that included a dud at home versus Atlanta on Thursday night when Kirk Cousins, the overpaid backup QB, led the team to a comeback victory, prompting mild-mannered Tampa Bay Head Coach Todd Bowles to go on a f-bomb tirade about his team; and a finale on the road against the current AFC East leaders, New England, which has a critical game on Sunday when it hosts Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills—if the Patriots win they will clinch the division, but if they lose, the finale could still be meaningful. 

I am not predicting that the Dolphins will win out nor that they will make the playoffs—which mathematically they have a chance to do if they continue to win. They have to catch the Los Angeles Chargers, Buffalo, Houston and free-falling Indianapolis, which lost its signal caller Daniel Jones to an Achilles tendon injury and has imported retired 44 year old Philip Rivers, whose name is among those presently under consideration for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, to keep its dreams alive to either win the AFC South or snag a Wild Card berth. Plus if Baltimore and/or a woe begotten Kansas City can get their acts together in these final four games, they have a better shot to make the playoffs than Miami. 

What is notable is that the Dolphins never gave up, despite the losses and injuries. Those who think that wunderkind Mike Mc Daniel can’t coach should think again. I am not saying that the Yale grad will survive the season and be on the Miami sidelines next year. 

I am simply stating that the guy can flat out coach. Which showed against the Jets, with the Dolphins scoring touchdowns on tier first three possessions, all but ending the competitiveness of the game. 

While the Jets will likely lose to Jacksonville, a legitimate AFC Super Bowl threat, my attention will be for the 4:25 EST game from the West Coast. My daughter will be in beautiful So Hi Stadium in Inglewood attending the Detroit-Los Angeles Rams game which is the FOX doubleheader game televised nationally. 

It is an important game for both teams in their particular quests to reach the playoffs. Detroit is 8-5 and in third place in the NFC North, behind Green Bay and Chicago. Currently the first team outside of the post-season, a loss for the Lions will put their hopes to continue playing in January in real jeopardy. It might come down to the final Sunday when the Bears host the Lions to decide the Wild Card and maybe the division. 

For LAR, they are in a tie with Seattle for first place in the NFC West. San Francisco is one game back of both teams. The division may well be decided on Thursday when the Seahawks host the Rams. Seattle first has to overcome the drama surrounding the return of Philip Rivers and a good Indianapolis team fighting for its playoff life. Or if San Francisco keeps on winning and Seattle trips up, the season closer in Northern California between the Niners and Seattle may be quite meaningful. 

I saved my last bit of NFL commentary for you Philadelphia Eagles fans. Stop ranting and raving over the performance of your team. Things will straighten out. Your team has two games with 3-10 Washington upcoming and the Birds host 2-11 Las Vegas. A trip to frigid Buffalo right after Christmas is the only real bump in the road to the playoffs. Once they get there is another story. 

College football has been in the news this week. The CFP Committee excluded Notre Dame from the 14 team field, setting off a firestorm of protest over Alabama and the University of Miami making it in and not the Irish. 

That Notre Dame gets extra-special consideration to begin with is appalling. The fact that its schedule is littered with five ACC teams and they lost to the Hurricanes early in the season didn’t help. Nor did then 7-5 Duke defeating Virginia in the ACC Championship Game help the Notre Dame cause. 

The ACC is a weak conference for football. It has gone downhill for basketball, too. To fill out their schedule, Notre Dame agreed to play all other sports as ACC members and to meet 5 ACC schools in football annually. 

Moreover, if Notre Dame wanted to embellish its chances by joining a prestigious conference like the Big Ten or SEC, it can’t. Not until 2036—when its binder to join only the ACC is no longer. 

I feel no pity for the superiority of Notre Dame or the whining when they don’t get what they want. I applaud the CFP having the courage to exclude the Irish this season. It was the right thing to do and can really only be remedied with expansion of the playoffs to 16 teams—which I don’t think the participating conferences are in favor of. 

So when Notre Dame took its football with them and said they would not play in any bowl games as a consolation—I say good riddance. Sore losers are not tolerated well in college football. 

The final story is a very sad one. The University of Michigan fired Head Coach Sherrone Moore for cause after it was determined that he was having a relationship with a staffer. That kind of stuff is not permitted and was supposedly a known thing for the past two years. Moore is now under arrest for domestic violence assault when he allegedly carried a knife to the staffer’s residence and broke in. He had been described as suicidal. 

Nothing is going to come out of this that will be good. Lives and a family have been ruined. The players who trusted him have lost that bond. 

Michigan will be in the hunt for a new football coach. That may impact other schools and players and coaches. All because of a series of bad decisions. 

I don’t root for the Wolverines. Nonetheless, I hope that those who make the decision on the next Head Coach get it right. Michigan is a top tier school in academics and athletics and the administration needs to set a new direction that is unmistakable in ethics and morality. 

I hope that Moore and the young lady can move forward from this. Unfortunately, this kind of thing won’t stop—Rutgers AD Pat Hobbs acted irresponsibly when he entered into a relationship with the school’s gymnastics coach, which led to Hobbs’ leaving his job. 

At least Michigan doesn’t have to play Notre Dame until 2033 and 2034. Until then, football will continue to evolve. 

DIII Doubleheader

  In the midst of college and pro football seasons, college basketball broke out for me. Division III college basketball to be exact. 

On Wednesday night, my wife and I traveled to Hoboken, New Jersey. When I said “traveled,” I really meant trekked. 

For those unfamiliar with the New York/New Jersey Metropolitan area, thee are roadways which, at certain times, become parking lots, with little movement and plenty of frustration for those driving. 

Which is why, if possible, I opt for mass transit, even though using New Jersey Transit has its own self-inflicted problems, in addition to what might transpire in a day or week. Getting to Newark or New York Penn Station is a stressful adventure, as you search for parking in locations like Summit and Millburn, where the local authorities make life exceptionally difficult for those who wish to avoid traffic, parking lots and Congestion Pricing. Plus the NYC Subway system is older, antiquated and its own mess—I still marvel at how functional it remains despite its obvious setbacks. 

Yes, you can take mass transit to Yankee Stadium, Citi Field, Madison Square Garden, the USTA Tennis Center, the Prudential Center and to Long Island to see the New York Islanders’ UBS Arena adjacent to Belmont Park. Except for MSG and the Rock, the rides involve multiple trains and long trips. Plan to spend the bulk of your day traveling. 

But for other venues, the car is the only way to get there. Going to Rutgers, Princeton, and the NJ state colleges all require using an automobile. Which is what our mode of transportation was to get to Stevens Institute of Technology. 

Stevens was probably the only college campus in New Jersey I hadn’t seen. So while I knew it was part of the formation of Hoboken, I was going to be reliant upon my GPS to arrive there in time for the 6:00 p.m. tip off for the visiting Franklin and Marshall College Diplomats and the home standing Stevens Ducks. 

I also knew that the starting time for the game was going to put me into massive traffic. Part of that was going to be by the Holland Tunnel, one of the portals of entry into Manhattan. 

Rush hour at the Holland Tunnel is normally a nightmare. Add the fact that we are facing many gridlock alert days before Christmas, and the normally insane traffic around 5:00 p.m. took on a different dimension. 

I watched the arrival time to the Stevens campus continue to rise as I sat nearly motionless on a ramp coming off of the New Jersey Turnpike Extension. Making the left turn towards Hoboken became an adventure, as those who were more familiar with the daily rigors of commuting were aggressively pushing their cars into the flow of traffic—other drivers be damned. 

Once we crossed over from the high rises of Jersey City to Hoboken, there was a little more movement. My GPS was going to be my savior. Except it wasn’t. 

The address which I plugged into the screen for a parking lot at Stevens was not the right one. I was traversing Hoboken blindly. In a city with narrow streets, not a lot of spaces to pull over and lots of stop signs and pedestrians to boot. In essence, a very difficult place to drive if unfamiliar with it and at night. 

Now we were lost and the pressure to make it to the gym on time increased. Fortunately, I found a driveway entrance to pull into and reset the GPS for Stevens. Even when I pulled off the street, unbelievably, somebody pulled right behind me to park in the spot I was frequenting. 

We entered the Stevens campus and immediately saw we were by a high rise dorm. That was not the place to be. I traveled through an inner street which somehow put me near the lit athletic fields and a big parking lot—which I later learned was the one which I had been searching all along for on 8th Street. Nervously we parked there, for the online admonitions were that parking required a permit except for the 8th Street lot. 

I saw a bigger building nearby the multi-purpose turf fields which Stevens uses for soccer, lacrosse and baseball. I guessed correctly that it was the gym. But we had to go all the way around to locate an entrance. And my bladder was clearly indicating that it had been a bad idea to drink water and have pasta for lunch, then sit in traffic for nearly an hour and forty-five minutes. 

Fortunately, Stevens didn’t charge for attending the game nor did we have to go through metal detectors like at Rutgers and Seton Hall games. My bladder was taken care of and we were there with just over 13 minutes to go. 

Before taking our seats in the third row of the very nice Caravan Arena bleachers, I even caught an errant basketball and flipped it to a Stevens player. Good hands, I guess. 

The gym was far from packed. In the box score, the crowd size was 249. That’s if you counted the players, coaches, managers and on line announcers and camera men. They did make some noise when F&M shooters attempted foul shots. Otherwise, it was easy to converse with my wife and hear others bellyache about the officiating (they did miss some obvious calls which another patron agreed with me numerous times). 

As to the game, both squads entered the fray with only one loss. F&M had lost its opener to Elizabethtown College in a game which had to be postponed a day and switched to E-town due to a power outage which plagued Lancaster on November 8. Stevens lone loss was at home to Middlebury College, which itself had only one loss this season as of Wednesday. 

F&M had been tabbed as the favorite to repeat as Centennial Conference champions. With returning lettermen and abetted by some key freshmen, Head Coach NIck Nichay’s team seemed like it could power through the schedule. To a degree that was true, with the Diplomats having overpowered Hamilton College in its last contest. 

Nobody told Stevens that they should roll over for their opponents. The Ducks came out firing and didn’t stop. Thee was little that F&M could do to stop the onslaught and in turn, solve the matchup zone defense the Ducks were employing. 

Before long, F&M trailed by 19. Things looked dire. It was bad enough that we had to endure horrible traffic. But to do all this and then see my school lose badly was not a prospect I wanted. 

I told my wife that if the Diplomats could cut the lead to 10 or less by halftime, they had a chance. A flurry of shots plus turnovers and a few shots finally not going in for Stevens led to a score of 39-29 in favor of Stevens at the break. 

Jokingly, I said to my wife that now F&M would shoot at the better basket, where all the shots seemed to fall. That proved to be more prophetic than I thought. 

F&M rattled off a 11-0 run to start the second half and actually take the lead, only to see Stevens sink two three point shots to go back ahead 45-40. The lead swung back and forth through the second half, with F&M ahead but Stevens sinking a three point shot to tie the score at the end of regulation. 

Having had a double bonus for much of the second half and overtime, F&M made just enough free throws and baskets to outscore the Ducks 11-8 in the extra session to secure a hard-fought 77-74 win. 2024-25 Centennial Conference Player of the Year Kevin Nowoswiat tallied 25 points to lead the Diplomats, but his shooting mirrored the Diplomats—better in the second half and overtime but a paltry 42% for the team overall, with the foul line betraying the visitors to the tune of 13-22 for 59.1%. 

Stevens went 12-20 from beyond the arc—a torrid 60%. The foul disparity hurt the Ducks, as they went 8-11 from the line. 

The score was tied 9 times and there were 7 lead changes. The poise of the Diplomats facing such a daunting task was evident. A quality road win for F&M. 

It made our delayed dinner of egg salad eaten in the car in the parking lot so much tastier. The trip home was much easier. 

Saturday afternoon we made the much simpler and far more familiar drive to Madison to watch previously #20 Drew University host Lycoming College in a Landmark Conference game. Drew’s Baldwin Gym was older, smaller dingier, with a stage covered by a large Drew Rangers banner at one end—a far cry from how spacious and well-lit Stevens looked. Unlike Stevens and F&M, Drew charges admission to its games.

There was a crowd of 190 spectators on a Saturday afternoon in December—almost all Drew loyalists scattered around the gym. A full contingent of 24 noisy cheerleaders was there, ensconced at one end of the floor. 

Drew entered the game as the favorite. In its previous game, Elizabethtown roared back from a deficit of over 20 points in the second half to stun the Rangers 95-93 in overtime. Drew was seeking to right its ship with a win over what appeared to be a depleted Lycoming team—I observed four injured players on the bench. 

The Rangers came out firing—a lot like Stevens did against F&M. Hitting their first three three point shots and a regular basket, Drew surged to a 11-0 lead. 

That proved to be short-lived, as Lycoming fought back on a 29-12 run to take its biggest lead of the afternoon. Drew fought back and toed the score a the half at 39. 

The second half was much more physical than the first half, and the fouls mounted up for both sides. Not due to the defenses being spectacular, the shooting percentages plummeted. 

Lycoming’s depth and playing on the road caught up to them. Drew had a five point lead with a minute left to play. Still, the Warriors did not give up and in the game’s closing seconds, whittled the score to 75-73 as the game ended. 

Unlike the poise and athleticism from both teams in F&M—Stevens game, this was not as much a basketball game as a skirmish between two teams which liked to recklessly shoot the basketball. In the first half, Lycoming shot 18-33—a 54.55% clip. In the second half, the Warriors managed to take only 24 shots, hitting just 8. Lycoming shot 4-15 from three point range, and 16-27 from the foul line, which came to 59.3%.

Drew shot 36% for the game, taking an astounding 75 shots but hitting only 27. Bombing at will from behind the arc, the Rangers went 12-45. Drew was even more miserable from the foul line, shooting 52.9% on just 17 attempts. 

Drew won this game by out rebounding Lycoming by a 50-39 margin. The Warriors were far better in the paint and had a slight differential in their favor points off of turnovers. Drew won the game with a stronger bench and more fast break points. 

None of us was overly impressed with either team on Saturday. My wife thought, and I concurred, that Wednesday’s game was played at a far higher level. When the two teams meet again on January 31 in Williamsport, it would not surprise me if Lycoming emerged the victor. 

F&M could meet Drew on December 30 in Lancaster if the Rangers get by Lancaster Bible and F&M prevails over a weak CCNY squad. I expect Drew to tumble from the DIII Hoops Top 25. Conversely, F&M should move up in the voting—not necessarily cracking the Top 25 but close to its doorstep. 

The one common opponent for any of the teams thus far is E-Town. The Blue Jays are 7-1, having suffered a one point loss to currently 4-3 Moravian College on November 19. E-Town owns victories over both F&M and Drew. 

It’s too bad they don’t play Stevens (nor does Drew) so I could try to figure out how good any of these teams really are. Will E-town and Drew be at the top of the Landmark Conference? Will F&M repeat in the Centennial? Is Stevens a contender in the Middle Atlantic Conference? (The Ducks lost 79-74 on Saturday at 3-5 Albright, a school F&M defeated 66-60 at home on November 20)

One thing needed to be repeated—the officiating missed a lot of calls in both contests. Not that the officials are hounded to death at Rutgers in a Big Ten match for their inconsistency. 

It was fun. It was cheap—the two games cost me a total of $20.00 for five people (our daughter joined us on Saturday). Neither locale was far from home—getting through Chatham and Madison on a Saturday afternoon 19 days before Christmas was far easier than the rush hour ordeal on Wednesday. 

Two different skill sets. Two competitive games. My kind of DIII doubleheader.