For whatever reason, the last two Hamline away games have fallen on the rare fall weekend when we have very little else going on for youth sports in my household. So I find myself watching a blowout, and laughing at the two Hamline dads who are milking those first downs for as much street cred as possible. Mean mugging and yelling first down as aggressively as possible at the Bethel fans sitting 30 feet away. First time was so entertaining I intentionally sat at the 50 last year just so I could be close to the two dads. The predictable transition from chest out 1st down celebrations to grumbling over Bethel running up the score was more enjoyable than it should have been. 

Quote from: CarollFan on Yesterday at 08:14:14 AMStory on high school football enrollment. They show a map that indicates high school football enrollment in the Midwest and East coast mostly on the decline since 2008 yet in the South it has increased. IL indicated as decreased 25% or more.

I wonder how much of this is owing to youth football playing time practices.

Half of the teams my 8th grade son plays only deploy a single team. They do this so that all the top players are on one team. 40+ kids out, but they will only play the best 15-18 kids. IMO it's all about youth coaches and their ego's, they want to win and go 7-1, rather than really develop all the players but go 4-4.

Fast forward to HS, our first opponent in 6A football this year does not have a sophomore team due to low numbers (Varsity is Top 5 in the state). Another top school in our league, at a HS with 4,000 kids, barely has enough for a freshman team (they run 3 teams in 8th grade but typically stack 1 team that will go 7-1 and two that will go 2-6 or 3-5). So many more examples I could cite.

It's clear that some programs know they'll have plenty of athletes, and have no problem running kids off who they don't project to play or might be a late bloomer. But when kids are going out for football in elementary school and barely seeing the field in 3rd or 4th grade, and not at all in 8th grade, there's a lot of attrition.

Honestly, the best and most nerve racking parts of these great week 1 matchups is all 4 teams have a lot of talent and questions marks. Nothing tests in game coaching adjustments more than a really good week 1 opponent. Teams will have installed some wrinkles and have new guys, who has it all humming and can tweak things on the fly. It's also interesting that all 4 teams have played each other in the playoffs recently.

Quote from: DriftlessDuhawk on August 29, 2026, 11:38:11 AMGrey shirting is still 100% a thing as it was pitched to me about a decade ago and to family members in recent years. The pitch is that you would just save one class, required by your major to graduate, for your 5th fall semester so that you do not have to pay for a whole semester and only pay about 2k.

I've heard from a number of D3 coaches that one of the reasons they are in favor of the 5 for 5 is that they feel that it would level the playing field with the WIAC because of the inability to grey shirt.

This is dead on. First, the pitch isn't that you take a full course-load that 5th fall semester. Just like a player returning with a medical hardship, save a single class required for graduation.

Second, it's very much the WIAC pitch. My son and a few teammates who are in the recruiting process right now were told very frankly by WIAC staffs that Grey shirting is how they approach HS recruits. You come to fall camp, participate fully. When the school year starts, you go to all team mtgs before practice, then while the team practices you do S&C training. Come the offseason you're doing the normal program with the rest of the team.

And yes, the 5 for 5 for football has real potential to level the playing field. Call it 90% of a WIAC Sr class are 5th year players, where most of D3 that percentage is probably flipped. 5 for 5 for football would flatten that advantage, but it's much harder for two semester sports.

On paper, it seems easy to think any league could do Grey Shirting, but sticker shock is real. When most private schools are already more money, explaining to a prospective player (and especially parents) that they'll be doing an extra semester of coursework falls on deaf ears, even if it's probably just a single course.

Quote from: DuffMan on August 28, 2026, 09:16:53 PMWhat if they get double stomped?

They could certainly lose this game and in reality they aren't the favorite. Barring an injury to Drews, a double monkey stomp seems unlikely. And to be fair, SJU was the most recent of the two to be on the wrong end of a Monkey Stomp against a top team.

Early returns on Top Gun offense, minus Blaha, aren't great. Drake loses 38-35 to middling D2 SD Mines.
UST almost lost to Winona, won on a wild fumble TD in the last minute.

Pioneer League had a brutal opening weekend. Davidson and MSU also lost to D2 programs.

Any word on what teams not named SJU and Bethel have coming back or expect from the season?

The new Drake uni's look strangely familiar.

Quote from: DriftlessDuhawk on August 17, 2026, 11:02:40 AMThe ARC is on the forefront of promoting 5 for 5 in D3.
https://x.com/D3Ticker/status/2088317667312582930

5 for 5 is fascinating to me, on the face of it Pat and Greg called out it's not in line with the D3 mission and ethos.

Having said that, enrollment implications color everything nowadays. If NAIA adopts 5 for 5, that's not nothing when you're recruiting kids, especially in Iowa where there are so many strong NAIA programs. Kids know they have a very limited window to play football, a guaranteed 5th year is enticing. Makes sense why the ARC is leading the charge on this.

Also an interesting wrinkle for the WIAC and grey shirting. They would lose the advantage of 90% of their seniors being 5th year guys.

In football most guys could just save a class or two for the fall of their 5th season. It's a lot harder for a sport like basketball that spans two semesters each season.

Quote from: NCC2010 on August 14, 2026, 12:00:23 PMI think the bigger key to the Bethel game will be NCC's rushing offense against Bethel's defense. McNeal made A LOT happen on his own and after contact last year, and I don't think they have another difference-making running back on the roster this year.

Will be interesting to see how both Drews and Wilson perform, neither was able to get much going throwing the ball in the game last year. Wilson finished the game with 83 yards passing and Drews had 75 yards passing when the score was 35-7. 

McNeal not playing is interesting, something tells me NCC has a few stud RB's in that 140 man roster. Bethel being healthy up front on D is too. Frankly both teams coming in fresh and healthy is one wrinkle making the early season matchup fascinating.

Has Bethel closed the LOS gap in the offseason or not is another key? Both teams have key guys back and holes to fill...

Quote from: carletonknights on August 05, 2026, 03:48:59 AMI'll never forget, the year after we graduated, we came back for the game at St. Olaf. We were sipping our beer as we walked to the stadium when a female student yelled "Excuse me! This is a dry campus!"

Sounds to me like she wasn't getting invited to many "dry" party's with the St. Olaf hockey team then. 

Quote from: Texas Ole on July 30, 2026, 06:06:10 PM

Quote from: faunch on July 28, 2026, 11:24:15 AM$20 per ticket and $20 for the pre-game hospitality event to watch a game with a 30 point spread. And I wonder the charge will be for food and drink once in the "hospitality" zone?

Takes an opportunity for the Olaf students a chance to watch a game at home.  Not a fan at all!  If we were talking about a late season game in a dome I would support it, but this is ridiculous. 

Given St. Olaf averaged 965 fans at home games last year, and anecdotal experience (both as a player and fan and talking to my wife who is an Olaf grad), I'm not sure that St. Olaf students are queueing up en masse to attend home games. Outside of Carleton.

Case in point, in 2023 when the game was at Olaf, there were a wopping 564 fans vs SJU. I'm assuming SJU was at least half of that number. So let's call it 25 disappointed St. Olaf students, and 20 of them are probably girlfriends who would make the 30 minute drive to TCO. 

I love the idea of doing a game at TCO. Agree that a night game on Nov 14 could be really chilly, you're rolling the dice. But it's not like the B1G doesn't have night games that time of year in the same geographic footprint.

I don't think those prices are out of line for the venue. I'd love to see Bethel do a game there, though it's hard to give up a home game for it. Maybe a similar game against Olaf or GAC where it's a neutral site and taps into both twin cities alumni bases. The key is that the venue won't dwarf the turnout.

Well, week 1 in Naperville/Wheaton should be fun, 1v2 and 3@5 ... love it! Kudos to all 4 programs for the willingness to go out and schedule really competitive games early in the season.

I know NCC and Wart, SJU and UWL, UWRF and Wart are all on deck too... I'm trying to remember a year we've had this much Top 10 action so early in the season?! The Region 5 and 6 crossover games are a great wrinkle as well, given their relative strength.

Should give a lot of clarity to where teams sit, either leading to a lot of re-shuffling in the Top 10 or teams getting solidified in their spots. 

Quote from: Patrick Coleman on July 14, 2026, 12:18:29 PM

Quote from: AndrewB on July 12, 2026, 10:32:13 PM

Quote from: Patrick Coleman on July 12, 2026, 10:01:07 PM

Quote from: bleedpurple on July 12, 2026, 09:24:17 PMAhhh. I stand corrected. Thanks Pat. Why would I think the NCAA would have something simple and straightforward? Silly me. 

It's based on practice opportunities, rather than days, and days before class starts are counted differently as a result.

Just did a quick Google search for WIAC 2026 fall semester start dates.  These are the results:

Sep 1 - UWEC
Sep 2- UWP, UWW, UWSP, STOUT, UW-RF
Sep 8 - UW-L
Sep 9 - UW-O

Looks to be a disadvantage for Demir Ashiru to start the season strong.

Everyone has the same 25 practice opportunities before the first game. (Although schools playing on Thursday or Friday might short themselves by one or two in order to do so.)

Would seem to be a disadvantage of the Week 1 Bye then wouldn't it? You don't play week 1, you loose 5 practices during the season, since your calendar starts a week later. Unless I'm missing how that's accounted for.