Herzog: Glenn, Freeport should be Rutgers winners

Not until the fourth game of the Long Island Championships had been completed Saturday night and darkness had fully settled over Stony Brook's LaValle Stadium was light finally shed on the Rutgers awards picture for 2010.

Glenn's 28-7 victory over Seaford in a duel of undefeated Class IV teams wound up crystalizing both the Rutgers Cup for Nassau and the Rutgers Trophy for Suffolk.

The Knights emerged as the only unbeaten public school on Long Island at 12-0, which, from this vantage point, cements their status as the most deserving Rutgers team in the 631.

Class II Bellport, the other Long Island champion from Suffolk, finished 9-3 and needed Glenn to lose to claim its second Rutgers Trophy.

In Nassau, Seaford was in position to win its first Rutgers Cup, a sore point for Vikings coach Rob Perpall, who believes his team was deserving in both 2008 (when Seaford went 11-1 but lost out to 10-2 Freeport) and 2009 (when Seaford and Garden City went 12-0 but the Trojans won the Cup).

"If they win, it would be a crime if they don't get the Rutgers," Nassau football coordinator Pat Pizzarelli said Friday. "If they lose, all bets are off."

The deck got shuffled when the Vikings (11-1), who have won four straight Nassau Conference IV titles, were beaten. They'll get beaten out for the Rutgers by two other 11-1 teams, Class I Freeport and Class III Lynbrook, both of which were impressive in winning LI titles. Freeport beat Floyd, 62-35, and Lynbrook defeated Sayville, 42-27.

SEE PHOTOSClass I LIC: Freeport 62, Floyd 35

The pick here is Freeport, but Lynbrook is a defendable choice. It must be noted here that Newsday does not vote for either Rutgers award. The voting is done by all the coaches before their respective dinners - Wednesday in Nassau and Thursday in Suffolk.

And while this year's voting seems pretty clear, that hasn't always been the case. In the LIC program that lists previous winners, it states that the Rutgers Trophy/Cup goes to the "outstanding team" in each county. What defines the most outstanding team? Is it the best team or the one that had the best season?

History tells us that there is at least some bias toward larger schools because of the perception that those teams play tougher schedules and are, most times, bigger and better because of enrollment advantages. That explains Freeport's win in 2008 and Garden City's in 2009. It might be a reason that Freeport edges Lynbrook in Nassau this year, even though both had dominating seasons and convincing playoff runs.

"If you look at the history, there is a small-school bias," said Pizzarelli, the athletic director at Lawrence, where he is a former football coach. "Unfortunately, some people forget that it's the most outstanding season, not the best team."

SEE PHOTOSClass IV LIC: Glenn 28, Seaford 7

Hans Wiederkehr, president of the Suffolk County Football Coaches Association and a former coach at Division IV Babylon, observed, "There's a valid point to be made about the difference between a Division I schedule and a Division IV schedule. In my 20 years of coaching, there were maybe two or three times that we could've played with a Division I team. It's just common sense that the bigger schools are better. More kids to choose from."

Bay Shore coach Jim Giattino said he doesn't believe there is bias among the Suffolk coaches because the process polices itself. No coach wants to vote in a way that could come back to bite him if his team is up for the award in the future. Said Giattino, "The team that's supposed to win usually wins.''

For this season, that would be Glenn in Suffolk and would have been Seaford in Nassau had the Vikings prevailed.

Could Glenn beat Bellport? Probably not.

Could Seaford beat Freeport or Lynbrook? Probably not.

Was either team worthy of the 2010 Rutgers award?

Most definitely.