HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Colby-Bates-Bowdoin Consortium (CBB) is an
athletic conference An athletic conference is a collection of sports teams, playing competitively against each other in a sports league. In many cases conferences are subdivided into smaller divisions, with the best teams competing at successively higher levels. Confe ...
and academic consortium between three private
liberal arts Liberal arts education (from Latin "free" and "art or principled practice") is the traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term ''art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically the ...
colleges in the U.S. State of
Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...
. The group consists of
Colby College Colby College is a private liberal arts college in Waterville, Maine. It was founded in 1813 as the Maine Literary and Theological Institution, then renamed Waterville College after the city where it resides. The donations of Christian philanthr ...
in Waterville,
Bates College Bates College () is a private liberal arts college in Lewiston, Maine. Anchored by the Historic Quad, the campus of Bates totals with a small urban campus which includes 33 Victorian Houses as some of the dormitories. It maintains of nature p ...
in Lewiston, and
Bowdoin College Bowdoin College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. When Bowdoin was chartered in 1794, Maine was still a part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The college offers 34 majors and 36 minors, as well as several joint eng ...
in Brunswick. In allusion to the Big Three of the
Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight schools ...
, Colby, Bates, and Bowdoin, are collectively known the "Maine Big Three", a
play on words Word play or wordplay (also: play-on-words) is a literary technique and a form of wit in which words used become the main subject of the work, primarily for the purpose of intended effect or amusement. Examples of word play include puns, phone ...
with the words "Maine" and "main". The school names are ordered by their geographical organization in Maine (north to south). The colleges contest the C-B-B Trophy in three-way football games in the Fall of their respective academic years. As of the 2017-18 season, Bowdoin leads the conference in wins, with 19; Colby has 14 and
Bates Bates may refer to: Places * Bates, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Bates, Illinois. an unincorporated community in Sangamon County * Bates, Michigan, a community in Grand Traverse County * Bates, New York, a hamlet in the town of Elli ...
has won 13. Colby holds the record for the longest streak of consecutive wins (1988–1992). Bates holds the record for biggest
shutout In team sports, a shutout ( US) or clean sheet ( UK) is a game in which one team prevents the other from scoring any points. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball. Shutouts are usuall ...
with a 51–0 game over Colby in 1985. There have been seven three-way-ties: 1965, 1979, 1993, 1995, 2009, 2011, and 2013. The three colleges also contest the Chase Regatta, an annual up-and-down river tourney. The inaugural winner was Bowdoin, but the series has since been dominated by Bates and Colby; Colby has won the regatta five times and the
President's Cup The Presidents Cup is a series of men's golf matches between a team representing the United States and an International Team representing the rest of the world minus Europe. Europe competes against the United States in a similar but considerably ...
nine times. Bates currently holds the most titles (14 out of 20 wins), the winning streak (2006–present), and the most President's Cups (9 cups). The CBB Consortium often draws comparisons to the football games of the Big Three of the
Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight schools ...
, with Bowdoin often drawing the connection to
Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
, Bates to
Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine ...
, and Colby to
Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...
. Just as Harvard, Yale, and Princeton are initialized as HYP, so too are Colby, Bates, and Bowdoin as "CBB".


History

From its inception,
Bates College Bates College () is a private liberal arts college in Lewiston, Maine. Anchored by the Historic Quad, the campus of Bates totals with a small urban campus which includes 33 Victorian Houses as some of the dormitories. It maintains of nature p ...
served as an alternative to a more traditional and historically conservative
Bowdoin College Bowdoin College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. When Bowdoin was chartered in 1794, Maine was still a part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The college offers 34 majors and 36 minors, as well as several joint eng ...
. There is a long tradition of rivalry and competitiveness between the two colleges, revolving around socioeconomic class, academic quality, and
collegiate athletics College athletics encompasses non-professional, collegiate and university-level competitive sports and games. World University Games The first World University Games were held in 1923. There were originally called the ''Union Nationale des ...
. The two colleges have competed against each other athletically since the 1870s, and subsequently share one of the ten oldest
NCAA Division III NCAA Division III (D-III) is a division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-III consists of athletic programs at colleges and universities that choose not to offer athletic scholarships to their stu ...
football rivalries, in the United States. The Bates-Bowdoin Game is the most attended football game every academic year at both colleges. As of 2015, both college's presidents are named Clayton ( Spencer and
Rose A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...
), leading students to include them in chants against each other. Bowdoin developed a "football fight song" entitled, "Forward the White" in 1913. All football games between the two occurred on Bowdoin's
Whittier Field Whittier Field is the outdoor stadium of Bowdoin College. Located in Brunswick, Maine, it is the field for Bowdoin football, Bowdoin outdoor track and field, and the Maine Distance Festival. The Whittier Field Athletic Complex was added to the Nati ...
, but with the development of Bates'
Garcelon Field Garcelon Field is the outdoor stadium and field of Bates College. Located in Lewiston, Maine, it is the field for Bates football, soccer, lacrosse, and various other sports. History The field was completed in 1899, and is one of the oldest foot ...
, both fields have been used to hold football games. Colby remained isolated from neighboring Bates, and the Colby-Bates-Bowdoin Consortium because of its location in Waterville, and socio-economic and political differences. However, in the 1940s, Colby began competing with the two colleges and in the first game, had a three-way tie. In 1988, Bates president Reynolds began the Chase Regatta, which features the President's Cup, which is contested by Bates, Colby, and Bowdoin annually. The CBB Games is a
college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...
competition between the three colleges. Each team plays the others once, with the C-B-B Trophy awarded to the college that beats the other two. The CBB Games was created for the 1965 college football season. Previously, Bates and Bowdoin have competed since 1870s against the
University of Maine The University of Maine (UMaine or UMO) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Orono, Maine. It was established in 1865 as the land-grant college of Maine and is the Flagship universities, flagshi ...
in the Maine State Series or Maine State Championship. When the University of Maine moved to a higher division in 1965, Colby joined and the rivalry took its current name. The Chase Regatta is an annual rowing race between the men's and women's heavyweight varsity and club rowing crews of the colleges. The colleges have competed in the regatta since August 3, 1988 but have competed annually since August 3, 1997, when Bates President
Thomas Hedley Reynolds Thomas Hedley Reynolds (November 23, 1920 – September 22, 2009) was an American historian and university professor who served as the fifth President of Bates College from March 1967 to November 1989. His presidency was marked with a renewed f ...
instated the President's Cup to be contested by all three of the CBB schools. The President's Cup is given to the team that has won the most overall heats and races, while the overall winner is determined by who won the most varsity and heavyweight competitions in the regatta.


C-B-B Games results

Note: Source of wins and losses: games between 1966 and 1978, games between 1979 and 1998, and for all other games not specified in aforementioned years: The highest scoring game was the 1987 Colby-Bates with a total of 74 points. The lowest scoring game was the 1967 Bowdoin-Colby game with a total of 7 points. The biggest
shutout In team sports, a shutout ( US) or clean sheet ( UK) is a game in which one team prevents the other from scoring any points. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball. Shutouts are usuall ...
was Bates' 51–0 game against Colby in 1985. The longest consecutive streak of games won is Colby with 5 championships in a row (1988–1992). There have been 7 three-way-ties, 1 two-way tie, and 4 uses of overtime, (the 2006 Colby-Bates game required overtime to be issued four times for a winner to be determined).


Series Statistics


Chase Regatta results


In fiction and literature

In 1999, all three colleges were prominently featured in ''
The Sopranos ''The Sopranos'' is an American Crime film#Crime drama, crime drama television series created by David Chase. The story revolves around Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), a New Jersey-based American Mafia, Italian-American mobster, portraying h ...
.'' In the episode entitled, "
College A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offering ...
",
Tony Soprano Anthony John Soprano is a fictional character and the antihero protagonist in the HBO television drama series ''The Sopranos'' (1999–2007), portrayed by James Gandolfini. Soprano is a member of the American Mafia, Italian-American Mafia and, ...
takes his daughter,
Meadow A meadow ( ) is an open habitat, or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non-woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as these areas maintain an open character. Meadows may be naturally occurring or artifi ...
on a trip to
Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...
to tour the Colby-Bates-Bowdoin Consortium. They first visit
Bates Bates may refer to: Places * Bates, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Bates, Illinois. an unincorporated community in Sangamon County * Bates, Michigan, a community in Grand Traverse County * Bates, New York, a hamlet in the town of Elli ...
in Lewiston; while walking past the college's chapel she states, "
ates has Ates is a given name and a surname which may refer to: * Roscoe Ates Roscoe Blevel Ates (January 20, 1895 – March 1, 1962) was an American vaudeville performer, actor of stage and screen, comedian and musician who primarily featured in ...
a 48-to-52 male-female ratio, which is great, strong
liberal arts Liberal arts education (from Latin "free" and "art or principled practice") is the traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term ''art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically the ...
program and this cool Olin Arts Center for music." They then drive up to Colby and Bowdoin using
Drew University Drew University is a private university in Madison, New Jersey. Drew has been nicknamed the "University in the Forest" because of its wooded campus. As of fall 2020, more than 2,200 students were pursuing degrees at the university's three scho ...
in New Jersey as the two college's exteriors. On the drive from Bates to Colby, Tony Soprano reveals to his daughter that he is in
the mafia "Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of d ...
, a major turning point in the series.


See also

*
List of college athletic programs in Maine This is a list of college athletics programs in the U.S. state of Maine. Notes: *This list is in a tabular format, with columns arranged in the following order, from left to right: **Athletic team description (short school name and nickname), with ...


References


External links

For further information on history of the Colby-Bates-Bowdoin Consortium:
2009 Article from Bleacher ReportColby College CBB
For further reading:
CBB Faculty Resource SharingBowdoin College Football HistoryCBB Study AbroadCBB Library ResourcesBowdoin Football Featured in Sporting News "50 States, 50 Rivalries"
For further information on the NESCAC, and individual collegiate scores:
History of Bowdoin FootballBates Football Past Seasons
{{DEFAULTSORT:Colby-Bates-Bowdoin New England Small College Athletic Conference College sports rivalries in the United States Bates Bobcats Colby Mules Bowdoin Polar Bears Bowdoin College