Quote Originally Posted by NY Crusader 2010 View Post
I think the PL will continue to get a little bit deeper next year. Lafayette, Holy Cross, Colgate and Fordham should all be decent to good. Does Lehigh make a marked turnaround in 2024 or are we still another year away from seeing them contend again? Bucknell is Bucknell and Georgetown IMO will continue to punch above its weight.

My 2024 PL champ pick right now is Colgate.

As far as comparing to the Ivy, last couple of years have been a bit strange in the Ancient 8. Still very strong top to bottom but lacked truly great teams at the top. I see next year the Ivy winning around 60% of the cross sectional matchups.
Losing Chesney is big loss for both the league and Holy Cross. Just like losing Biddle, Moorhead, Coen, etc was. Like in basketball with Langel, who has the best coach pretty much runs the league because for whatever reason, the administrations have struggled to get it right at the same time in recent years. Troxell is the proven commodity at this point given what he did at F&M and within two years at Lafayette. The Leopards return more than enough talent/experience to repeat. Plus, their schedule is quite favorable, 9-3 maybe 8-4 is my guess.

Colgate did beat the 'Pards last year in Easton which means Lafayette heads to Hamilton, in November as a bonus, this season which could factor into a tie-breaker situation. I don't put too much stock in their wins over Lehigh (Mountain Hawks no-showed) and Fordham (flaky Fordham at its best). Raiders first 5 games are @ Maine, Villanova, @ Akron, Cornell, @ Penn. I don't think it's beyond reason to believe a 1-4 or even an 0-5 start is possible. With that said, beat Maine in Orono and the tone changes significantly. Moorhead is in year 3 at Akron. Last year they were competitively terrible. Villanova will win by 3+ TDs, Penn will be a "solid" favorite, and Cornell is a big rival.

Fordham may very well be the most talented team but I don't trust them. They'll sleep walk to a 7-5 type season imo....

Holy Cross is naturally going to experience a regression in coaching and talent (especially depth of talent). I'm still shocked they went with Curran. While this is obviously a small sample size (i've paid attention to Merrimack given this tie) Curran is 0-2 against Lehigh recently which is a tough feat to accomplish. My believe he'll prove to be a solid hire (similar to early Gilmore) in large part to the program investments/residual equity created by Chesney. HC's schedule is brutal, @ Rhode Island, UNH, @ Bryant, Yale, @ Syracuse, @ Colgate, Fordham, @ Harvard, @ Lafayette before 3 very winnable game to end the season. When factoring in the attrition on the heels of last year's 7-4 campaign, I foresee a 5-7 maybe even a 4-8 type season in Worcester. Of the games I listed which ones will HC be favored in?