Sitting here at the Pats, and like the rest of New England, I’m bored with this.
SO let’s start talking local.
My esteemed colleague Dan Ventura brought up some interesting football stuff on his blog about the MIAA questioning the points system employed by the MVC, which has deemed Tewksbury as Division 2 champion.
Lawrence, 2-1 in the division with Methuen coming up, could go 3-1 in the small with its Haverhill win, but not go to the playoffs because Tewksbury won three D1 games.
Why the MIAA is involved with the MVC’s business I don’t know.
But this brings up a great point. Once you offered Haverhill relief, doesn’t that pretty much void the crossover games?
Look, in my eyes, Tewksbury deserves to go. Lawrence had its chance on Friday night. If you can’t beat a 3-5 Dracut team on your home field, do you deserve to go to the playoffs? No.
But …………..
The bottom line is, it’s a split, they are two divisions now. We know that because Haverhill didn’t have to play Central and Chelmsford.
This could get ugly. If you’re Lawrence, or for that matter the Hillies or Dracut if they go 3-1 and LHS doesn’t, do you push for the MIAA to intervene?
Shame on the MIAA and the MVC Ads for not hammering this out already.
In the past two years, it didn’t matter. But this year, it does.
This could get nasty.
Switching gears, it was great to see my man Terry Doyle, two-time Eagle-tribune Baseball MVP at Salem High, dazzling with the best young stars in pro baseball Saturday night in the Arizona Fall League’s “Rising Stars All-Star Game.”
Top picks like Bryce Harper and Gerrit Cole played in the game. Two dugouts full of bonus babies, and here’s our own White Sox 37th-rounder, pumping in the heat at 92 with some nasty off-speed stuff.
Doyle pitched a scoreless inning. Yeah, I turned off the Bama-LSU game to watch the frame on the MLB network.
Good for Terry. Great kid, great worker. Good for him.
So the latest hot gossip has Masconomet Regional calling the Northeastern Conference’s bluff and seriously courting the MVC. The NEC tabled talk on Masco in the last meeting.
Now, isn’t that interesting?
Word is, by the way, coming out of the league that the boys hoop alignment in 2012 will be:
Large: Lawrence, Central, Andover, Lowell, Haverhill and North Andoover (Welcome to the big leagues, guys).
Small: Dracut, Tewks, Methuen, Billerica and Chelmsford, with potentially Masco joining down the road.
Wow, I might have thought NA would go to the small. Guess not.
Things are heating up on the football scene with the NH playoffs upon us and playoff spots up for grabs in Mass.
For the record, the unofficial, not even for news matter only, line on the MVC coaches this year is:
Total MVPs
Over 7 -150
Under 7 +150
Total “first-team” all-conference players:
Over 64.5 -130
Under 64.5 +130
Please remember fellas, that there are only 22 guys on the field at once, and even if you add 11 special teamers, that’s 33.
