NE teams busy moving
The old adage that you can’t tell the players without a program has morphed into a new adage that you can’t tell the programs without, well, a program.
At least, that’s the way it appears in New England Division 3 football this season, where the movement of teams has been startling.
The biggest change has been the dissolution of the New England Football Conference after 52 years. Five of the NEFC footballplaying holdovers — Western New England, Salve Regina, Curry, Nichols and Endicott — along with Becker have resurfaced as part of the inaugural season of the new Commonwealth Coast Football, under the umbrella of the multi-sport Commonwealth Coast Conference.
“I love it. I think it’s exciting that we are bringing football under the Commonwealth Coast banner,” said league commissioner Gregg M. Kaye, who noted that the CCF will retain the NEFC’s old automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
Next year, the CCF will add the University of New England, which will play its first season of varsity football, and current Eastern Collegiate Football Conference entrant Husson will join in 2019. Husson went 6-0 last year before falling to NEFC champion Western New England in the NCAA Div. 3 playoffs.
Husson features senior running back John Smith, who has posted three consecutive 1,000-yard rushing campaigns and has 50 touchdowns on his resume.
“The Commonwealth Coast Football league will still operate as a singlesport sports conference, and once you fall below seven teams you have two years to get back up to seven,” added Kaye. “So this year will be our first year in the so-called grace period, and the next two years we will be back up to seven with the University of New England and Husson.”
Meanwhile, three former NEFC standbys — MIT, Coast Guard and Maine Maritime — have jumped to the NEWMAC. MIT and Coast Guard are previous NEWMAC members for all sports, while Maine Maritime joins as an associate member for football along with Catholic (D.C.), Merchant Marine and Norwich.
NEWMAC members Springfield and WPI are also moving over from the Liberty League, where they formerly played.
Since NEWMAC is a new football-playing conference, there is no automatic bid to the NCAA postseason for a period of three years.
The Eastern Collegiate Football Conference will add Dean and Alfred State.
The nine-team MASCAC is headed by preseason pick Bridgewater State, which last year went to the NCAA tournament under first-year coach Joe Verria. The Bears (83, 8-0 last year) feature All-Conference back Alex McLaughlin of Littleton, and multi-threat Malik Garrett of Dorchester and Melrose High.
Expected to chase the Bears in the order of the preseason poll are Framingham State, Western Connecticut, UMass-Dartmouth, Plymouth State, Fitchburg State, Mass. Maritime, Worcester State and Westfield State.
“This conference has come a long way. There are no weeks off,” said Framingham State coach Tom Kelley, who has a dynamic returning player in junior Quron Wright (591 rushing yards, 468 return yards) of Worcester, who ran for eight touchdowns last year.
“We’re not going to worry about the poll,” said Verria. “Everybody is so close. You could put four different teams up there. Every team has done a good job improving.”