Roundtable: What Are You Most Excited For Entering the 2023 Season?

Cole Jacobson: While it’s far from being something to be “excited” about, something that should still be addressed is the news of Alderson Broaddus’ demise. While we’ll get to the implications of that event on the CSFL later, the first thing to stress is how unfortunate it is for the kids involved. To be stripped of not only your athletic career, but also potentially your chance to earn a college degree altogether, for factors completely out of your control, is simply a brutal turn of events — no other way to say it. On a human level, I hope all of those students who wish to continue playing football or other sports can find ways to do so at other institutions, and I hope that the non-athlete population of the student body can bounce back and get on track to graduate elsewhere.

As for how this impacts the CSFL, the league will be reduced from nine to eight teams this season. Because AB was in the South division, which was already slated to have only four teams (compared to the North’s five), the CSFL decided to move St. Thomas Aquinas to the South division. Candidly, I don’t like the way the CSFL handled this. I am sympathetic to the fact that it’s very difficult to respond to bombshell news like this with very little time before the start of the season. But with that being said, if there are only eight teams in the CSFL, I don’t see any reason to bother with North/South divisions when you can instead have a round-robin regular season schedule of seven games, where each team plays every other team once. For example, as of the writing of this article, Penn is currently slated to play Chestnut Hill twice, but won’t play Mansfield or Caldwell at all. How does that make sense? To clarify, this is not me saying the CSFL should abolish its championship game — as I’ve written before on this website, I think there’s immense value in having an undisputed champion rather than having two- or three-way ties. But such a championship game can and should include the two best teams regardless of geographic location, similar to how the Big 12 does it (or at least, how they are doing it until Oklahoma and Texas prank them by moving to the SEC). Strictly pertaining to the regular season schedule, there’s no reason why every team shouldn’t be playing every other team. And for what it’s worth, if the league is going to continue with the divisional format, Caldwell is objectively further south than St. Thomas Aquinas is, making the CSFL’s choice a suspect one for multiple reasons.

But that’s enough about the negative stuff. What are the best things to look forward to? For me, one thing that stands out is seeing if either of the league’s Philadelphia schools can bounce back. Penn finished below .500 last year for the first time since 2013, while Chestnut Hill is a combined 1-13 in the 2020s after having three straight winning seasons from 2017-2019. As has been discussed ad nauseam on this website, the league is at its best when there’s legitimate parity beyond the always strong Army and Navy teams. Caldwell, which is coming off consecutive 5-2 seasons (including two pretty competitive losses to Army and Navy in 2022) is doing all it can to provide such parity. But if the Philly schools can take a step forward, that’ll go a long way in not only fostering a strong rivalry between those local foes, but also in improving the league’s balance as a whole.
One more concept to look out for is increased MSFL-CSFL interaction in Year 2 of the MSFL’s existence. While there’s still no planned MSFL-CSFL championship game this season as far as I know (though Kyle Johnson-Hackett would know better than me), there are several MSFL teams that have preseason scrimmages planned against CSFL teams, which shows that the wheels are at least in motion for more interaction between these groups. As I’ve written before on this site, if the sport does want to become a national one, it should have the CSFL and MSFL operate as two conferences under the same umbrella (e.g. SEC and ACC) rather than two entirely different entities (e.g. NFL and MLB). And while it seems like that process is taking longer than it should, it ultimately is going in the right direction. If the MSFL teams can generally be pretty competitive in their action against CSFL squads despite only being in their second year of existence, that’ll be a great sign for the sport’s willingness to merge these two sides even further.

Kyle Johnson-Hackett: As Cole has already mentioned the unfortunate situation at Alderson Broaddus has left many students and student athletes scrambling to find homes as we approach the start of the academic year. It brings joy to my heart to see that many players on the CSFL team have begun to find homes to continue their education with many also continuing their athletic careers. A big shoutout must be given to the MSFL as a whole with many teams welcoming AB players with open arms. Oakland City and Fontbonne are just two of the teams that will have some former AB players on their opening day roster. I know the players and their families are appreciative of all of the teams that have welcomed their sons during this difficult time.

On a lighter note there are so many things to be excited about this season that its hard to pick. One thing that I can pinpoint that deserves recognition is the MSFL heading into their second season. SMWC was the league champ during the inaugural MSFL season last year. With major pieces returning and a strong recruiting class the Pomeroys are looking strong as they go for a second title. The pack of challengers led by CCSJ who were the runner ups last season will be even stronger heading into their second season with Quincy and Bellarmine primed to make a strong run as well. Despite being near the bottom of the league last year Fontbonne has a ton of talent including former AB defensive standouts Jacob Carter and Zachary Allison. Midway finished last in the league last year but with a season under their belt and another recruiting class the Eagles have a strong chance to get their first win in program history. There will be two new additions to the MSFL this season in Oakland City and Walsh University. Both teams are entering at a great time with the rest of the MSFL teams only having one year up on them. I expect both of these squads to be dangerous especially early as teams try to figure them out.

There is just as much excitement heading into the season for the CSFL. The big thing that excites me for the CSFL is the high level of quarterback play that will be on display each week. Mansfield Jr Cahsid Raymond, Navy Sr Brandon Atwood, Caldwell Sr Frank DeMaio, Army Sr Mikal Willeke, and STAC Jr Ryan Kenny could all be in the mix for Offensive player of the year, MVP, and our HUB awards as well. This might be the best group of quarterbacks playing at the same time in CSFL history. We should see amazing plays from these guys week in week out. Its a great time to be a fan of each of these teams. For the other three teams there is a question mark at the QB position that needs to be addressed during camp. Cornell has struggled to find a capable QB for some time now, Chestnut Hill has two guys who have shown flashes but it remains to be seen which one will take the reigns, and Penn has the tough job of replacing program great Andrew Paolini. With how capable the rest of the CSFL quarterbacks are these three teams need to find a capable guy sooner rather than later.