A look at the A10 North OOC

As all good UMass fans know, a team's OOC (out-of-conference schedule) is crucial to the goal of making the playoffs. The big attraction of I-AA football is the playoffs where a National Championship is decided on the field.

To that end, OOC scheduling is a chess game. Playing in the deep A10 means over scheduling the OOC leads to doom for the playoffs.

Here is my take on the A10 North (in order of difficulty).

1. Maine-- @Youngstown State, @ Boston College. Maine only plays 10 games this year. With likely losses to its two OOC games, Maine needs go 7-1 in the A10 (7 I-AA wins is the minimum number to be considered eligible for the playoffs). The Black Bears need to go 8-0 to get a home game. This is going to be tough to do. Prediction 0-2 and no playoff bid for the Black Bears in 2006...
   
2. Northeastern--@Virginia Tech, @Holy Cross, @North Dakota State. Not as suicidal as last years OOC, but tough enough. The Crusaders are no longer a patsy. The Huskies could go 1-2 and 0-3 is not out of the question.
   
3. UMass--Stony Brook, Colgate, @Navy. Colgate was a I-AA playoff team last year and has given UMass fits. Navy crushed Colorado State in a bowl game last year. UMass needs to beat to Raiders to jump start its season. 2-1 is possible, which means UMass would only have to go 6-2 in the A10 to get a playoff bid. Prediction 2-1.
   
4. Hofstra--@Stoney Brook, @ Marshall,@Delaware. The Thundering Herd are not the team UMass played when the Heard was ranked in the top 15. Winning at Delaware is tough but doable. Hofstra could come out with a 2-1 record.
5. URI--@UConn, Merrimack, Brown. Brown has been contending for the Ivy Championship the last couple of years. Still, UConn and Brown are beatable. The Rams should crush DII Merrimack. Prediction 2-1
   
6. UNH-- @Northwestern, Stony Brook, @Dartmouth. The Wildcats probably have the best offense in I-AA. They should crush Stony Brook and Dartmouth. They have a chance at Big 10 Northwestern if the Wildcats take them lightly. Prediction 3-0 (with UNH getting the uset over the Big 10 team)