A little late to the game on the NIL discussion and how to keep D3 athletes from portaling......not sure there is a great answer but I do know the Ivy League is actively wrestling with this. They have lost some big time players to the portal (Princeton's Xavian Lee played at UFlorida last year for $6M, Danny Wolfe left Yale after 2 years for Michigan, Penn and Harvard lost their best freshmen recently to Villanova and Georgetown). Ivy's are the only D1 that doesn't offer scholarships and has also banned most NIL collectives. But Fran McCaffrey (former Iowa HC) is at Penn and is rethinking the pitch. Tommy Amaker is HC at Harvard (former Duke player) and has always sold the "40 year decision" over the 4 year decision. McCaffrey has enlisted alums to guarantee recruits summer internships and jobs and Penn recently got a former 5 start Duke recruit to transfer there (via Univ of Virginia) and lead them to the NCAA tournament last year.

I think some schools can sell the alumni network and long term decision and may also be able to leverage the alumni network for opportunities. In the CCIW that certainly includes IWU and Wheaton and I would think some of the others would have similar strengths to provide.

The scholarship plus upfront cash of 100k a year (or more) that even these mid majors are now offering is tough to compete with but many D3's offer a higher quality education and network that can be leveraged more effectively IMO.

Steve Schweer Q-Cast? C'mon Q, I thought you knew people!

Quote from: FiredCoachesPod on Yesterday at 01:19:10 PMAs everyone stated, Carroll is not in financial trouble.
Carroll is the oldest institution in Wisconsin.
Just had the largest freshman class in school history.
$52.5 million dollar facilities plan in place. Have you ever looked at the facilities work they have done over the past fifteen years?

Meanwhile, at least five institutions (in the B- or above range) have had public cuts over the past six years! But, let's go off a letter grade by Forbes.

The Forbes grade is not a hot take based on someone's opinion. Its a quantitative model. Carroll had operating deficits in 2023 and 2024 (combined almost $14M) but then swung back with a slight surplus in 2025, which is a good sign. Forbes grades have 9 factors they measure for their grades including: reserve ratio/liquidity, tuition as a % of revenue, assets vs liabilities, operating, etc. Their relatively high dependence on tuition (90%) with low investment income (3-4%) along with the 23/24 deficits are likely what's driving their grade. Forbes may be relying on lagging NCES data and Carrol's 2025 surplus may not have been factored in.

Carroll has definitely improved their balance sheet recentl (growing net assets and low liabilities relative to assets) so I don't see any near term cause for concern. If that trend continues they will be just fine. But you can't run operating deficits very often and be considered healthy. That said, I think Carroll has made some solid adjustments and should be trending stronger.

Quote from: FiredCoachesPod on June 24, 2026, 05:43:03 PM

Quote from: USee on June 23, 2026, 10:28:19 PM

Quote from: FiredCoachesPod on June 23, 2026, 11:56:00 AMThe article from Forbes is nothing more than a "we don't have all the facts piece."

What do you base this opinion on? What facts do you have?

Follow along with the links that have been shared.

So you have no facts, just links someone else provided?

Quote from: FiredCoachesPod on June 23, 2026, 11:56:00 AMThe article from Forbes is nothing more than a "we don't have all the facts piece."

What do you base this opinion on? What facts do you have?

It's probably more accurate than you think. The rankings are a measure of an institutions "Liquidity". It measures operational revenue, dependence on tuition, size of endowment, capital projects as well as admission policies and enrollment trends. Carroll may have recently improved their position to this current grade but they still provide 100% of students with financial aid at about $41M annually. They are also selling off older residential buildings to consolidate around these projects and cater to high, in-demand majors like healthcare and engineering.

Carroll may be trending higher but that doesn't mean they are healthy.

Saw this on the OAC board and was curious how CCIW stacked up. Forbes annual College Financial Grades report came out. Schools with A+ to B+ grades are in strong positions. Anyone with a C grade or worse is on life support as an institution.

CCIW:
Wheaton College  A+  4.5
IWU  A+  3.86
Augustana  A-  3.74
Elmhurst  B+  3.43
Concordia UW  B 3.02
North Park  B  3.01
North Central  B-  2.91
Carthage  C+ 2.64
Millikin  C  2.14
Carroll  C-  1.99 

Tragic accident. Jalen and Phil were great representations of the Wheaton program and ambassador's for their faith. According to Jalen's father he died while trying to save Phil. Two great young men gone too soon. The Wheaton FB community is grieving alongside these families.

Quote from: AndrewB on June 01, 2026, 06:43:42 PMNorth Central just lost too much this off season.

This is almost funny. Have you been watching the last 5 years? Unless something dramatic has changed, North Central will have plenty of talent on the field in September.

Wheaton is going to be pretty good next year. They get their Gagliardi finalist QB, top 2 WR's and top RB's all back with several OL returning. On def they have 6-7 returning starters including a stud MLB and Safety. If they can find a couple cover corners and 1-2 DL who can pressure the QB, they can make another run. 8-2 would be a disappointment from my perspective. That said we will know early how good they are as they host Mt Union and travel to Albion in weeks 1-2 and travel to Naperville (again) in early October (where are all the schedule complainers now?

It looks to me like the scheduling strategy for D3 coaches has changed with the NPI era. A loss to a top 10 NPI school is better than a win against a 100+ NPI school. Wheaton showed that last year by playing Mt Union. NCC, Bethel, St Johns, and as usual most of the WIAC are embracing stronger schedules. This seems to be a benefit of the NPI system.

Quote from: Mister36 on February 05, 2026, 04:00:32 PMNCCs 2026 schedule released today...which is how we find out that Bethel is going back to Naperville start of this season - getting all we can this year from the one OOC opponent I guess.

https://northcentralcardinals.com/sports/football/schedule

and NCC is @Wartburg in week 2. They are going all in for the NPI #1 seed!

CardAlum pointed out to me that North Central has posted their schedule for the fall and lets just say they seem to be levelling up:

https://northcentralcardinals.com/sports/football/schedule

V Bethel
@ Wartburg

Can you say NPI? If they go undefeated this year it will be tough to deny them the #1 seed.

No

Wheaton AA Linebacker Luca Torti committed to USC: https://x.com/LucaTorti12/status/2016659278640402671

Pretty impressive jump.

Also, I have heard (though not confirmed) AA QB Mark Forcucci along with Wheaton's top tow WR's Seth Kortenhoeven and Caleb Titherington are returning to Wheaton next year. Big news for the Thunder.