NEC Football Power Rankings | Week 13

Wagner Athletics

And then there were four.

Don’t tell me “and then there were two” because two schools have the chance to make the FCS

playoff. My issues with the playoff are well documented and probably not worth rehashing or

even explaining again for the uninitiated. The one sentence answer here is that in the NEC, the

point is to win the NEC, and I have always been a fan of that.

We enter the final week with four schools with a crack at raising a banner. It’s only fitting that

they’re the four at the top — that’s what it’s all about, after all — with the field below them.

1. Central Connecticut

CCSU lost to Duquesne, but they still control their own destiny. They gave up a troubling

amount in the run game to Taj Butts of Duquesne and now welcome in Brian Trobel of

Mercyhurst to Hard Hittin’ New Britain. CCSU showed me a ton on Saturday, I think I had

always been kind of underrating them as a team and talking about how they were able to pull

out close wins. Make no mistake, this is a good team and if they’re taken at all lightly in two

weeks if they’re able to knock off the Lakers, we might have a reason to start thinking about the

playoff in the future.

2. Duquesne

Despite the win, we have Duquesne here simply because they don’t control their own destiny. A

two game slump ended with the easy NEC football game of the year on the Bluff as a thrilling

conclusion and an Antonio Epps deflected interception. Epps was on fire all game, though. He

was seemingly always around the ball and there’s no one you’d rather be rewarded than him for

that effort. Ness Davis is usually the Dukes RB we talk about here, but Taj Butts exploded for

254 on the ground and was routinely running over Blue Devils like a PRT bus. Truly, look this

game up on ESPN+ and watch it if you haven’t yet.

3. Mercyhurst

The Lakers have recovered from an 0-2 slump of their own with 2 straight wins, including a win

against RMU that will have implications for next season. Now, the Mercyhurst Lakers control

their own destiny in their first year in the conference. A win against CCSU lets them raise a new

banner in Saxon Stadium as an NEC champion. We’ll have the Lakers radio broadcast on

NECBlitz.com this coming Saturday. I’m a firm believer on the importance of tradition in college

football and particularly the homer announcer as part of that tradition, so if you’re a Lakers fan

it’ll be a good way to get a Mercyhurst-centric broadcast. And yes, I know, you say HURST

DOWN! Anyway, Brian Trobel has become one of the best backs in the league, and Dylan

Evans was a little banged up but has since recovered and is in that top tier of receivers in the

NEC. I think they can give CCSU a battle. If nothing else, we didn’t expect the Lakers to make

much noise in the league this season, and instead they’re playing in a championship game.

Wow!

4. Wagner

The Seahawks are on an absolute tear. Four weeks ago I told a Seahawk that they could still

win an NEC title if they won out and got a little help. They took care of the part they could

control with a 4 game win streak. Some good things have broken their way, and a win in the

Boroughs Brawl against rival Long Island along with a CCSU loss will give Wagner a share of

the NEC Championship. Andre Hines has come on in the 2nd half of the season and is now a

full on wrecking ball at the tailback position, and Sam Martin has become one of the best DBs in

the conference. If they could have held on against CCSU, the Seahawks would be playing for

something much different in the Boroughs Brawl, but you can only look forward.

5. Long Island

The Sharks had CCSU pinned back against their own goal line, but the past is the past and now

Long Island is one of the best teams in the league yet cannot win the conference. Injuries

derailed this season for the Sharks, but this has probably been the best season for the former

LIU-Post since joining the NEC in football. They’ll be in their Super Bowl this week taking on

Wagner in the Boroughs Brawl.

6. New Haven

The Chargers finished their season and are now in recruiting mode with Head Coach Mark

Powell doing one of the better jobs in the league this season by getting the Chargers to .500.

7. Robert Morris

The Colonials couldn’t top their rivals up north on I-79, and so will look to finish their season

playing spoiler against in-city rival Duquesne at the Joe. Quarterback has been an interesting

position for the Colonials this season as they’ve tried a few different players. The upshot of that

is that Duquesne won’t know what to expect, and there will be some emotion behind this game.

Hopefully, the Dukes aren’t scoreboard watching.

8. Stonehill

The Skyhawks are a better team than their record, but unfortunately haven’t been able to put it

all together in recent weeks. We may have been one year early in our prediction for a big jump,

but this has been a solid team and a good job improving from the previous year by the coaching

staff.

9. Saint Francis

The Red Flash are going into their final game as a member of Division I at Stonehill. There has

never been a more obvious storybook ending than this and we expect to see it.