In recent years the Mid-Atlantic DI club league has been headed up by PAC and Norfolk.

But this year could be the most wide open since 2008. With NOVA working in some new talent, and Schuylkill River still moving up, challengers will have to have noticed that both PAC and Norfolk will be without some very experienced leaders.

With the other teams expected to be improved, this could be a competition where the first-place team could well have two, or even three, losses.

But PAC and Norfolk are still probably the two best teams in the league, and their problems are all fixable. Their issues are mainly those related to leadership, experience, and cohesion. Well all of those things tend to get better with time.

So if you’re going to knock down these two, you’re going to need to do it early, and then you can put them under pressure.

This week, the improving Schuylkill River Exiles play PAC, and the always unpredictable NOVA play Norfolk. Those are perfect games for the favorites to get upended.

If Potomac and the Blues win impressively, we may have to throw out all that talk about this being a wide open league. This could be wide open, and it will be weekend #1 which will tell us just how wide.

Opening Weekend Mid-Atlantic DI
Norfolk at NOVA
Schuylkill River at PAC
Raleigh at Maryland
Pittsburgh at Washington