You don't have to stick around for the concert!

I have a couple of Twins tickets for this Friday against the Pirates and I can't make it.

Seats behind homeplate/visitor dugout, three rows up, on the aisle.
Skenes likely starting for the Pirates.
Nelly concert after the game.

Let me know if you're interested

https://seatgeek.com/minnesota-twins-tickets/7-11-2025-minneapolis-minnesota-target-field/mlb/17019767?listing=rd9do8w#listing=rd9do8w

Luther being as bad as they are in football right now is a relatively new phenomenon. They went 5-5 each year I was in school. They're not like an Oberlin or Hiram who has never seen success, they've just had a couple successive unsuccessful coaching hires that have really dismantled their foundation.

Quote from: BLynn on July 01, 2025, 11:13:11 PMI have always thought that Iowa could produce a magnificent football conference by including the ARC (sans NWU) with Morningside, Northwestern, Grand View, St. Ambrose and possibly Clarke and/or Briar Cliff. Only problem, as mentioned, is who blinks first: ARC moves to NAIA (which most were at one time) or the others roll to NCAA D3. I guess it's just wishful thinking.

If you took the top 3 or 4 teams from the ARC and mushed them together with the top 4 NAIA teams in Iowa (Grandview, Morningside, Northwestern, and Dordt are all Top 10 in Massey's preseason ratings), you would have either the strongest DIII conference in the country or the strongest NAIA conference in the country.

The only way I see something like that happening is if ~half of the small colleges in Iowa shutter their doors, though. I think all of those schools are pretty happy with their current situations.

Updating my conference projections now that I have returning production data:

School		SOS		Proj. W-L	Conf. W-L
Wartburg		0.547		8.6-1.4	7.3-0.7
Coe		0.491		7.7-2.3	6.5-1.5
Central		0.544		7.8-2.2	6.5-1.5
Dubuque		0.596		5.2-4.8	5.1-2.9
Loras		0.558		3.4-6.6	2.9-5.1
Simpson		0.501		3.8-6.2	2.6-5.4
Nebraska Wesleyan		0.540		2.8-7.2	2.3-5.7
Buena Vista		0.513		2.9-7.1	2.2-5.8
Luther		0.480		1.5-8.5	0.6-7.4

Posted an update on my site last night. I added a page for returning production. Here's where the ARC sits:

Total returning production: the top 4 teams in the conference return the least production, with Luther head & shoulders ahead of everybody else.

Offensive production: Coe actually ranks second in returning offensive production behind Luther, with >75% of last year's production coming back

Defensive production: Coe, Central, & Dubuque all return less than 40% of their defensive production. Wartburg returns a respectable 55%.

OL: Luther, NWU, Simpson, and BVU all return nearly all of their OL. Loras, Central, and Dubuque each return ~2/5 of their OL, which is the low mark in the conference.

Passing: Simpson and BVU are really the only teams returning no QB production. Between injuries and splitting time last year, teams like Wartburg, Central, and Dubuque all return ~25-50% of their passing production.

Rushing: I would expect some good running attacks this season. BVU & Coe are the only teams returning less than 60%

Receiving: Dubuque hardly has any pass catchers coming back. Wartburg, Central, & NWU around 40-50%. Everyone else returns nearly all their receiving production.

Defensive Starters: The whole conference has a ton of turnover on their defenses. Only BUV & Luther return an above average amount of games started/played

Tackles: I found it interesting that despite losing >60% of their defensive games started, Wartburg still returned ~60% of their tackles from last year.

TFLs/Sacks: Central lost a ton here. Coe & Dubuque not far behind.

PBUs/INTs: With Rochford gone, this was the bulk of Wartburg's losses. The other top 3 teams should have a little more experience in the secondary.

(if you click to open this image in a new tab a couple of times, the resolution gets easier to read)

Quote from: DriftlessDuhawk on June 27, 2025, 02:02:31 PMYeah, Logan and I have very similar sources, as these are the two schools I was referring to. The only thing I would add is that with Luther leaving, the conference is looking to move to a "travel partner" approach for all non-football sports.

With that being said, adding both Monmouth and Northwestern doesn't really work with that idea, and so the league would rather expand in one direction by getting two schools. So, either looking for an additional school in western Illinois or another one in the Twin Cities area.

I said this before, but I think Augustana would make a lot of sense for both parties. They're a good fit for the ARC geographically & fit the mold of the current institutions, and if Monmouth gets/accepts an invitation, that would be a good travel partner for them.

I'm not sure who else from the Twin Cities area would make sense, either for the ARC or for a school potentially looking for greener pastures.

Quote from: doolittledog on June 26, 2025, 10:22:53 PM

Quote from: DriftlessDuhawk on June 26, 2025, 04:13:42 PM

Quote from: HansenRatings on June 25, 2025, 10:17:50 PMI could maybe see something where the top non-playoff team from a combination of the UMAC/MWC/NACC matches up with the next best team from the ARC, but that would probably, regrettably mean the dissolution of the Lakefront Bowl.

The other issue with this is that I know a couple of teams in these conferences have asked if the ARC plans on moving up to 10 teams with the subtraction of Luther, according to my "sources".

Even if completely made up...you have my attention 

I've been sitting on this for a little while, because I'm not exactly in the business of breaking news and I don't want to upset my "sources," since probably anybody who knows me would pretty easily be able to figure out who those sources are - Monmouth and Northwestern MN have both previously expressed interest in ARC membership and both have reached out to the league about joining since Luther's departure.

Neither would be a perfect fit, geographically, with several road trips extending beyond 4 hours:
NWU to NW'ern = 6:29
NWU to Monmouth = 5:51
BVU to Monmouth = 5:13
Central to NW'ern = 4:19
BVU to NW'ern = 4:18
Simpson to NW'ern = 4:01

And both would be outliers in terms of enrollment.
Monmouth: 715
Central: 1,095
Loras: 1,149
Simpson: 1,163
Coe: 1,278
BVU: 1,442
Wartburg: 1,451
NWU: 1,531
Dubuque: 1,795
Northwestern: 3,262

Would love to hear if those are the same schools DriftlessDuhawk was referring to.

Quote from: DriftlessDuhawk on June 26, 2025, 04:10:11 PMSo happy to hear this news about the future of an ARC team playing in a bowl game. I have long said that I think the MIAC would be a great conference to match up with. I know Rochester Community College has a pretty decent stadium, and it would be halfway-ish between the cities and Iowa, not to mention you could ask Mayo to spare a few bucks to sponsor it. Otherwise, a game in the Waterloo/Cedar Falls area would make sense (UNI dome?).

My only issue with this idea is if the game tried to make a Floyd of Rosedale-esque trophy, as I personally cannot stand the two D1 teams who play for that silly pig. 

UNI Dome would be really convenient for me, since my in-laws live 10 miles away, but that weekend is already pretty good & booked with the state high school playoffs, even if they are finished up on Friday.

Just had another idea: get the GPAC or Heart of America to agree to a bowl matchup. I want to see how some of these NAIA's match up against the ARC.

This is also me wish-casting a recurring Wartburg/Grand View wrestling dual into existence.

Quote from: doolittledog on June 25, 2025, 02:52:00 PMNew strategic plan for the conference.

https://rollrivers.com/news/2025/6/23/american-rivers-conference-unveils-2025-28-strategic-plan-to-guide-future-growth-and-impact.aspx

Particularly of note in the "Achievement and Competitive Opportunities" section, the first bullet point:
Introduce a new football bowl game in partnership with another conference

I wonder if the MIAC will soften their stance on bowl games now that they've done away with their "championship week," otherwise I'm not sure who would make sense. I could maybe see something where the top non-playoff team from a combination of the UMAC/MWC/NACC matches up with the next best team from the ARC, but that would probably, regrettably mean the dissolution of the Lakefront Bowl. If money wasn't an issue (ha), some sort of partnership with the NWC/ASC would be amazing.

Quote from: OzJohnnie on June 23, 2025, 12:16:01 AM

Quote from: faunch on June 22, 2025, 08:33:11 AMWill the Johnnies play rotating quarterbacks in 2025?

https://www.stcloudlive.com/sports/college/fasching-isnt-opposed-to-using-2-quarterbacks-for-johnnies-2025-season

It's great to get some Johnnie content.  Thanks for the link, faunch.

It looks like Gary hopes to avoid a rotating quarterback.  I hope he does.  I don't reckon it works anywhere but at Mount Union.

This was new to me.  I liked "Blakely" as the RB.  Anyways, let's hope he's a great coach, too.

Linfield had success with it last year, with one QB being primarily a runner (104 rush att vs. 91 passes) and the other a passer (40 rush att vs. 298 passes).

Just posted some graphs on Twitter, and figured this was the best board to post them to on here. Should come as no surprise that the WIAC has the toughest non-conference schedules in the country. Given that and their projected winning percentage in those games, the conference should be setup nicely to assist any 8-2 (or "7-2" of you play a non-DIII opponent) teams in getting an at-large bid to the playoff.

Quote from: Little Giant 89 on June 09, 2025, 12:35:31 PM

Quote from: The Third Division on May 28, 2025, 01:41:45 PMIt should be "The College of North Central That Is North Central of Absolutely Nothing"

Not even in the center of Naperville, or DuPage County for that matter.

In 1926, when then name was adopted, the college would have been nearly directly North of the population center of the United States.

Quote from: DriftlessDuhawk on June 09, 2025, 11:41:15 AMA lot of non-answers in that interview...

I think that the most interesting aspect was that he said they had an invitation to the MWC since 2022. From my understanding, they did not alert the league office to their intention to leave the conference until the day prior to the press release. They are also not leaving the conference in the way agreed upon in the bylaws, and thus will be paying additional fees to leave in such a hasty manner. It makes you wonder why they sat on this idea for so long, but now feel the need to rush out of the league.

He said the most recent invitation came at the end of May? I'm assuming that was just the public invitation, since it appeared form his other responses that they had been prepping to leave the league since 2022.

I'm not a reporter by any means, but talking to the couple of folks I know who are actually "in the know," the ARC was not caught off guard by this announcement at all, and they've been passively courting new members for a while. Sounded like there were 2-3 different schools interested.