Two NACC games came down to the last seconds with major league title implications involved.

- Lakeland came back from being down 31-7 with a quarter-and-change left to go and beat WLC 32-31. (I'm sure WLC is beside themselves.) After Lakeland took a lead late in the 4th, WLC drove down the field but missed a 26 yard field goal attempt. Lakeland throws the ball; 52 attempts.

- Speaking of throwing the ball, CUW threw 54 - 54! - times for 445 yards in a see-saw affair with Aurora. Aurora appeared to have sealed the game late in the fourth with what was originally called an interception but was overturned after officials conferred. (It would have been CUW's 5th interception of the day.) CUW then drove the length of the field - aided by a pass interference penalty on Aurora on a 4th and 4 - and scored with 16 seconds remaining to take a large step towards a league title in their last year in the NACC. 

Following the non-conference portion of the NACC slate (and without exact knowledge of the strength of all the non-con opponents) I think that I would rearrange the pre-seson poll thusly:

- Switch CUW and Aurora in the #1 and #2 spots. I realize that Aurora's opponents were superior to CUW's but I thought that they would put up more of a fight in their two losses. Still, they have an opportunity to prove themselves on the field.

- Slide St. Norbert down. They look as though they'd be formidable but they have gotten waxed twice. Calvin and  Carroll are decent squads and I think that the Green Knights will put up points in conferecne play, but their defense is going to have to step up. Their upcoming game with WLC will be telling.

- Move Lakeland up. I don't think that most NACC squads are going to handle the Muskies' passing game well.

- Benedictine has a punchers chance at the title; a darkhorse challenger.

- The bottom three will be the bottom three. I'd love to say that CUC is improved and can move up but I don't think they are explosive enough to hang with the "middle tier" of Lakeland, St. Norbert, and WLC.

Quote from: CarollFan on September 07, 2026, 09:10:15 AM

Quote from: RFMichigan on September 06, 2026, 08:29:44 AMAny surprises from the first week of play? (I don't know enough about the NACC opponents from week 1 to make sweeping comments about the league's performance.)

I watched the Carroll vs. St. Norbert game. I don't see St. Norbert finishing 3rd.
Carroll put up 496 yds on them with huge play after huge play.
76 yd TD run, 68 yd TD reception, 47 yd TD reception, 64 yd TD reception on fake punt, 58 yd reception to setup TD.
Their offense relies heavily on their run game. Stop the run and they are done.

I think that's the difference between the CCIW and the NACC though.

Any surprises from the first week of play? (I don't know enough about the NACC opponents from week 1 to make sweeping comments about the league's performance.)

Just perusing the quarterfinal halftime scores and everything's chalk so far ... except CUW has 11 points at halftime. At home.

Lots of last second heroics and perseverance in the NACC today:

- Dominican never trailed in the 2nd half against Lakeland until Max Justic hit a trey with three seconds left to lift the Muskies to a one point win.

- Not to be outdone, Marian never led in the second half against Benedictine until Derek Lindert hit a two point jumper at the buzzer to steal the win for Marian.

- CUW never trailed in the second half against St. Norbert - they had a 13 point lead with 6 minutes left in regulation - until Will Stuckey hit a layup with two seconds remaining to defeat the Falcons by one in Mequon.

- CUC never led in the second half (trailing Wisconsin Lutheran by 21 with 11:10 left to play) until Aaron Brown hit a free throw with 22 seconds remaining and the Cougars held on for a one point win in River Forest.

In the CUW-MSOE game, CUW's Logan Landers put up 49 including 23/23 on free throws in CUW's 113-109 double OT loss. The Falcon's Casey Verhagen added 30; those two players - Landers and Verhagen - scored 79 of CUW's 109 points.

Quote from: GusD on October 22, 2025, 11:22:04 AM

Quote from: CarollFan on October 21, 2025, 07:30:23 PMFuture CCIW member CUW looks like they are in position to take the NACC and get a AQ for the playoffs.

They better enjoy it while they can. In the CCIW this year they're probably 5th, maybe 6th.

Yeah, their only (probable) loss in the regular season is a decisive loss to a Calvin team who is in their second year as a program and will certainly be in the bottom half of the MIAA.

With CUW's high-scoring win over Aurora the Falcons look like they will be the conference's playoff representative this year. They have been able to pull out come-from-behind and close fought victories against their closest competition.

Quote from: Gregulator316 on October 08, 2025, 06:48:30 AMLooks like Lakeland @ CUW is the big leverage game of the week. A Muskie win would would create some very intriguing chaos in the standings.

I didn't think that Lakeland would be a serious threat to CUW, but they held a 28-7 lead in the second half. The battle to represent the conference in the playoffs is wide open. (But that doesn't mean that the winner is actually that good.)

NACC football champion seems wide open this year as Aurora and Benedictine have a loss in conference already. It seems that almost every upcoming week has a "key game" which features Aurora, Benedictine, CUW, and St. Norbert going against one another (one of whom I think will eventually come out on top).

Quote from: Captain_Joe08 on September 20, 2025, 04:10:58 PMFull time or Football only? If they take Greenville that basically blows up the UMAC as a football league because the Panthers are a football affiliate. They are decent program elsewhere so it has upside for the NACC but they are a geographic outlier being near St. Louis.

Moving Eureka to full time could be a thing but still that would leave a 3 team non-con slate but they are still a outlier in geography. Not sure where their athletics success would fit in the NACC hierarchy.

Maybe trying to woo one of the Midwest teams to join could be a solution too.

Off topic for the first bit, but I just think that the UMAC is such a weird football conference anyhow with half the teams near St. Louis and the other half up in Minnesota. I get why they do it, but it seems crazy to me. Every team in that league takes at least two LONG road trips per year for football. (I suppose that there are other conferences in the nation where this happens as well, but it's funny that Greenville drives past a lot of DIII football schools on their way to, say, Minnesota-Morris.)

Anyhow, I have no idea what goes through ADs' and presidents' heads (and budgets) when it comes to the desirability of which schools are in which conference, but it would seem that Greenville is such a long haul for the NACC schools because you'd be talking about all sports, not just football.

As for the Midwest Conference, yes, it's pretty spread out also but I'm wondering if that conference's members are so homogeneous in some way (highly selective, high endowment, super historical, whatever) that it would be tough to pry one away in order to join the NACC. It seems that schools such as Lake Forest or Beloit would be better geographical fits for the NACC than Greenville, but I don't think that their ... (financial make-up? academic situation? I don't know the right word here) necessarily fits the NACC.

I do not know if having no bye week for football once the conference schedule begins is desirable either, but I do wonder if finding three non-conference opponents might not be somewhat difficult.

As to why CUW for the CCIW, great question!

Quote from: Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan) on September 13, 2025, 01:48:15 PMFrom 2023 to 2024 they reported an increase in undergraduate enrollment from 1700 to 2400. 

I wonder about the jump in reported undergrad enrollment. It would seem that it has to be a difference in reporting of one type or another.

Quote from: Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan) on September 13, 2025, 01:48:15 PMIt's not unlike a state system, where the campuses are independent, but there's an overarching organizational structure that they're all a part of, as well.

That is a good analogy. The relationship between the colleges and the LC-MS is somewhat layered. There is a goodly amount of autonomy among the individual Concordias (The synodical governing body repeatedly stated that the extreme downsizing of Ann Arbor was made on the local level.) but there are some legal connections between the colleges and the LC-MS such as language regarding the colleges' property/the colleges following the synodical by-laws. (This, from what I understand, is the heart of the Concordia-Texas lawsuit.)

Quote from: Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan) on September 13, 2025, 01:48:15 PMThe Ann Arbor campus (which is technically a satellite of CUW) keeps getting smaller and likely will go away at some point.

I anticipate that also. I'm, not sure that "satellite" is the term I'd use as CUAA was separate from CUW in some ways, but yes, CUW was calling the shots.

Quote from: Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan) on September 13, 2025, 01:48:15 PMIf the LCMS is like any other US denomination, it's likely hemorrhaging money and members - consolidating higher ed in one much larger, more stable campus is a good way to move forward in that situation. 

Yes, the synod is shrinking, but I think that four or five Concordias stay open in the foreseeable future.

Quote from: Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan) on September 13, 2025, 01:48:15 PMA bigger, more robust CUW fits pretty well in the CCIW and I think there's a lot of mutual benefit there.

You would think that this would be the case, but I'm not sure if CUW is going to grow a lot more. Actually, I can't see any Concordia getting a lot bigger as a result of there being less Concordias. I suppose that if all but two Concordias closed - say CUW and Nebraska stayed open - they would grow from their present enrollment somewhat, but geography and sports play a HUGE roll in the Concordias enrollment. When Ann Arbor dowsized, only a small percentage of the affected students went to other Concordias. It is my understanding that Concordia-Nebraska picked up more ex-Ann Arbor students than any other. (This is anecdotal, but the Ann Arbor students that I talked to were not excited in attending CUW at all. They felt betrayed.)

Quote from: Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan) on September 13, 2025, 01:48:15 PMA bigger, more robust CUW fits pretty well in the CCIW and I think there's a lot of mutual benefit there.

I don't think that this happens without CUW downsizing Ann Arbor as they were supposedly a large financial drain on CUW-CUAA. I just wonder whether there isn't another college in Illinois or Wisconsin who isn't in better shape than CUW, but it takes two to tango.

Quote from: Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan) on September 13, 2025, 01:48:15 PMI'm making a ton of assumptions in this analysis (I don't actually know what the Concordia system is doing), but I don't think they are far-fetched assumptions.

You're not the only one.



Scott, you are really on target with your findings and thank you for doing this work.

When does CUW begin in the CCIW?

Quote from: GU1999 on September 12, 2025, 05:57:30 PMI didn't intend middling to be as negative as it came off.  They certainly not dominate in anything I have watched in the three years.  Maybe I missed women's lacrosse or something. But having been watched the NACC for the past three years, as I have a kid at a NACC school, they just don't stand out.

No, it didn't come off as negative at all and I agree that they are going to struggle in the major sports. I am curious why CUW and not someone else.