Over the next few days we will be posting our 2013 NESCAC football preview. The season kicks off Saturday, September 21, with Middlebury headed to Bowdoin to take on the Polar Bears. We will be covering the Panthers season on the blog again this year, and also will broadcast the home games on WRMC radio. This preview starts with a conference preview in which we rank the NESCAC teams and highlight the key players and story lines. If you are a fan of a team other than Middlebury, we also recommend that you read the in-depth team previews that we wrote for D3Football.com’s 2013 Kickoff. Next is a Middlebury preview, including spotlights on a few key players (though many new ones will emerge as the season progresses), and some discussion of how we expect the 2013 season to play out. Lastly, we will have some individual picks, line bets, and our preseason All-Conference team.

We will start with our projected final standings:

Trinity 8-0
Amherst 6-2
Bates 6-2
Middlebury 6-2
Wesleyan 5-3
Williams 4-4
Tufts 2-6
Colby 2-6
Bowdoin 1-7
Hamilton 0-8