Nov. 18, 2006 was the date of the last NCAA tournament game Jay Accorsi’s Rowan University football team hosted.

The Profs beat Hobart 20-18 that day before ultimately bowing out in the quarterfinals. But that day may be remembered as the last home postseason game Rowan hosts in football or any other sport after the NCAA announced a postseason ban on New Jersey in response to the state’s plan to legalize single-game betting starting next January.

“Maintaining the integrity of sports and protecting student-athlete well-being are at the bedrock of the NCAA’s mission, and are reflected in our policies prohibiting the hosting of our championships in states that provide for single game sports wagering,” said Mark Lewis, NCAA executive vice president of championships and alliances, in an Oct. 15 news release.

The decision meant that the then-conference-unbeaten Profs would not be able to host a playoff game, regardless of how well they finished the season. Rowan is 4-0 this year at home and 27-7 in Glassboro since 2006.

In its first game since the announcement, Rowan lost 24-21 at SUNY Cortland, in a game that allowed the Red Dragons to clinch the New Jersey Athletic Conference’s guaranteed bid to the NCAA tournament.

Accorsi now must prepare his team to chase down one of seven at-large bids. Regardless of how successfully he does so, he takes on the task knowing there will be no home game as a reward. The head coach and his staff choose not to make much of the decision.

But while the coaches stayed at Rowan to prepare for the team’s must-win games against Kean University and The College of New Jersey, Hurricane Sandy closed campus and sent players scattering across the state.

“You follow the weather and all that, but you’re saying, ‘OK, we have a game coming up, what do we got to do preparation-wise to prepare for that?’” offensive coordinator Tom Doddy said. “And then you watch your film and do your game plan and stuff, so when we do practice, you’re ready to rock.”

But coaches and subsequently players only got word around 1 p.m. Tuesday that campus would re-open Wednesday. Players were sent home Sunday when it was determined that campus was in the hurricane’s path. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie declared a state of emergency Saturday.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Accorsi was unsure if Saturday’s game would even be played, as he had not yet spoken with athletic director Dan Gilmore.

“We’re sitting here waiting to see when they can come back. I know campus is opening tomorrow,” Doddy said. “So hopefully we’ll be able to get a practice in tomorrow for this Saturday’s game.”

Rowan’s starting quarterback, Louie Bianchini, hails from West Long Branch, N.J., where a mandatory evacuation was issued Sunday. The borough is within walking distance of the Atlantic Ocean.

As of 2:15 p.m. Tuesday, Doddy had not heard from the current NJAC Player of the Week, yet he remained optimistic his quarterback would be ready for Saturday’s home game against Kean, calling Bianchini “a gamer.”

Win or lose Saturday, there will be no postseason football in New Jersey. Rowan is the last team really in contention for the NCAA tournament, but that means nothing to Accorsi’s staff.

“Our hope is that we win the rest of our last two remaining games and get an at-large bid to the playoffs,” Accorsi said. “I’ve been at Rowan before where we’ve played all our playoff games away, so, you know, we’ve done it in the past so we can certainly do it in the future.”

Accorsi remembers hearing the news. He saw it on TV and he gave Gilmore a call. After Gilmore called Accorsi back at the Rowan University Football Office, he called a brief meeting with his coaching staff.

The meeting lasted less than five minutes, according to Doddy.

“We go, ‘OK, that’s what it is. What do we need to do to make the playoffs?’ was pretty much the assistants’ philosophy on that one,” he said.

Accorsi has yet to address the issue with his players.

“We’re not in the playoffs, we haven’t made the playoffs, so I haven’t really discussed it with them at all, actually,” he said.

And while winning, and winning big against fellow at-large bidder Kean would help move RU further into the playoff picture, Accorsi said margin of victory is the least of his concerns.

“I’m worried about the game at hand, which is obviously against Kean this weekend,” Accorsi said. “So when you start to worry about points and a lot of other things that sometimes you don’t have any control over, you lose sight of what your primary goal is.

“So we just want to beat Kean. That’s all we’re trying to do.”

Published on October 30, 2012 at 11:49 pm

Contact Jacob: jmklinge@syr.edu | @Jacob_Klinger_