FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

Three touchdowns scored in the final two minutes (two by Millikin sandwiching one by Illinois Wesleyan) in Millikin's 42-35 home win over the Big Blue's archival.

Man, the paying customers at Lindsay Field have certainly been getting their money's worth of end-of-the-game dramatics this season.

[CarollFan]

Three touchdowns scored in the final two minutes (two by Millikin sandwiching one by Illinois Wesleyan) in Millikin's 42-35 home win over the Big Blue's archival.

Man, the paying customers at Lindsay Field have certainly been getting their money's worth of end-of-the-game dramatics this season.

Yes here is a little more details.

https://www.iwusports.com/news/2026/10/17/football-downed-on-the-road-in-decatur.aspx

Millikin just came off a loss to Augie where Millikin had 41 points.
They play Carthage and Elmhurst next.

After doing some research looks like going to the Isthmus Bowl may be based only on conference record not total record?

NPU still has Augie, Carroll and IWU on their schedule. They could shake some things up in regards to Isthmus Bowl.

[CarollFan]

New Top 25

#1 Wheaton
#2 UWP
#3 St. John's
#4 NCC
#5 UWW

WashU moves to #8

[USee]

Three touchdowns scored in the final two minutes (two by Millikin sandwiching one by Illinois Wesleyan) in Millikin's 42-35 home win over the Big Blue's archival.

Man, the paying customers at Lindsay Field have certainly been getting their money's worth of end-of-the-game dramatics this season.

And IWU ended the game on the Millikin 8 yd line with a turnover on downs. Crazy end to that game.

[Patrick Coleman]

Three touchdowns scored in the final two minutes (two by Millikin sandwiching one by Illinois Wesleyan) in Millikin's 42-35 home win over the Big Blue's archival.

Man, the paying customers at Lindsay Field have certainly been getting their money's worth of end-of-the-game dramatics this season.

Yes here is a little more details.

https://www.iwusports.com/news/2026/10/17/football-downed-on-the-road-in-decatur.aspx

Millikin just came off a loss to Augie where Millikin had 41 points.
They play Carthage and Elmhurst next.

After doing some research looks like going to the Isthmus Bowl may be based only on conference record not total record?

Yes, just like winning the automatic bid.

[Gregory Sager]

After doing some research looks like going to the Isthmus Bowl may be based only on conference record not total record?

Yes, the Isthmus Bowl website clearly states that the selection of the participants is based upon the standings of the two conferences.

NPU still has Augie, Carroll and IWU on their schedule. They could shake some things up in regards to Isthmus Bowl.

Yep. Run the table against Augie, Carroll, IWU, and Elmhurst, and then it's off to Mad City, baby!

[markerickson]

Following a 90+ yard td drive, Millikin recovered an onside kick against NPU.  Scored another td to win the game.

Yesterday, Carthage College also recovered an onside kick against NPU...a td woulda won it for Carthage.

[Cardinal773]

If this spreadsheet is up to date, the 74-2 score is a scorigami.  That's kinda fun.

[AndrewB]

After doing some research looks like going to the Isthmus Bowl may be based only on conference record not total record?

Yes, the Isthmus Bowl website clearly states that the selection of the participants is based upon the standings of the two conferences.


Yep. Run the table against Augie, Carroll, IWU, and Elmhurst, and then it's off to Mad City, baby!

No, Sun Prairie. 

[BIG BLUE BEN]

How Millikin Pulled Off the Upset Over Illinois Wesleyan

The most fascinating part of Millikin's upset over Illinois Wesleyan wasn't just that Millikin won. It was watching Illinois Wesleyan play as though they didn't believe they were in any real danger of losing until it was too late.

Wesleyan played like a team that expected to win by 21 points simply by showing up and being the more talented team. They never seemed to fully appreciate that Millikin was capable of beating them, and that arrogance showed up repeatedly in their play calling.

Go back and watch some of those fourth-down decisions. One of them was Wesleyan going for a 4th and 11 at midfield early in 4th... WHY?) Those are the kinds of risks you take when you believe you're so much better than your opponent that the consequences of a mistake don't really matter. Except Millikin kept making them pay. Over and over again, Millikin showed that they could compete, make plays, and put Wesleyan under pressure. And over and over again, Wesleyan seemed unwilling to adjust its approach.

It was like watching a man sitting on the deck of a sinking boat, drinking Kool-Aid and insisting everything was fine while the water slowly crept up around his ankles. The boat wasn't sinking all at once. It was happening gradually, right in front of him. And he still refused to recognize what was happening.

What makes it even more incredible is that Wesleyan seemed to carry that same mentality into the final moments. Even on the last play, they took their chances on a jump-ball fade or back-shoulder throw rather than running something that reflected a genuine respect for Millikin's ability to win the game. In a way, it was the perfect ending to a game in which Wesleyan never seemed to fully respect the opponent standing across from them.

And honestly, I don't think this falls entirely on the players. I would love to hear someone ask the coaching staff to explain some of those decisions. This looked like a game in which the coordinators expected to win comfortably and never really prepared for the possibility that Millikin would drag them into a four-quarter fistfight. They wanted to win this game on their terms, without ever seeming to appreciate that Millikin had every intention of making them earn it.

To be fair, we can debate just how enormous this upset really was. Millikin had already played close games against Augusta and Carroll, so this wasn't a team incapable of competing with quality opponents.  With that said, for Millikin, this was the biggest win of the Riebock era, and I'm genuinely happy for him and the team. Beating Wesleyan means something in Decatur. I know that firsthand. Losing to Wesleyan throughout my four years was painful enough, and I believe my class was only the second in program history to go all four years without beating them. That makes this result especially satisfying.

And the best part? This doesn't have to be the high point of the season.

There's no reason Millikin can't beat Carthage and Elmhurst and get to five wins before the season finale against North Central. Finishing 5–5 would be a tremendous accomplishment for Reebok in his second year, especially considering it would mark the program's first five-win season since 2019.

So congratulations to Millikin. They earned this one. And to the Wesleyan faithful who apparently thought this game was a foregone conclusion: sometimes the most dangerous thing you can do in football is convince yourself that your opponent can't hurt you.

Millikin spent four quarters proving otherwise. Wesleyan just didn't seem to believe it until the game was over.

[NCC2010]

Some quick notes on the NCC game this past week.

Dennis Dracup was reinserted as the starting LG. Austin Roush, who started against Wheaton, did not play at all, so it is unclear if he was injured.

David Ballard III did not dress for the game, so hopefully it is just a minor injury. Jake Vitel, who had been operating as the 3rd or 4th wide receiver, was on crutches before the Wheaton game and remained on them Saturday. Assuming he may be out for a while after getting hurt near the end of the North Park game. WR Jim Curtin also left Saturday's game with an injury, meaning 3 of the top 4 WRs are now banged up. This led to freshman Blake Lehnen getting his first extensive action of the season, and he seems to have moved ahead of a couple of seniors on the depth chart.

Backup QB Kellen Davis saw his most playing time of the year and ran the ball quite a bit. It was great to see the coaching staff utilize the QB run game more, and I hope they do the same with Wilson in high leverage situations moving forward, as it has been a missing element of the running game recently.

Not much new to note on defense, except that starting defensive end Troy Kashul has still not played since suffering a hand injury in Week 1 against Bethel.

Elmhurst blocked 3 consecutive extra point attempts, returning one of them for a defensive 2 pt conversion.

[CarollFan]

The IWU @ Millikin game was a trap game. Outside of losing to #1 Wheaton, Millikin has played other conference opponents tough. IWU's backup QB has played well and they scored enough points to win. Their D did not have their best game. They gave up 28 to Wheaton, 10 to Augie, 7 to Carroll and 42 to Millikin.

Speaking of running QB's, Wheaton's QB Forcucci rushed for 87 yards on 10 attempts while also throwing dimes to #4 Kortenhoeven for 192 yards.

I thought Carroll had 2 more points when Carroll's sack leader got to Forcucci in the end zone but not to be as another DL got called for hands in the face.

[CarollFan]

Logan's Week 8 predictions.

https://hansenratings.com/projections/2026/week-8/

NCC -43.7 @ Carroll
Elmhurst +44.6 @ IWU
Augie -15 @ NPU
Millikin -2.4 @ Carthage

Wheaton with a bye

Logan 34-4 (89%) straight up in CCIW game predictions.

The 4 games that went the other way:

NPU @ Millikin
IWU @ Augie
Wheaton @ NCC
IWU @ Millikin

No game this week where top 25 teams play against each other.

[New Tradition]

Thursday evening, the North Central College Board of Trustees voted to change the name of the institution to North Central University Naperville. This change will go into effect July 1, 2027.


Not a fan.

been there man, it sucks.  Mount will always be MUC to me, UMU is trash.  NCUN...yikes.  Just wait for the logo changes that are certainly coming

NCC is going to be fine, but the caNCUN memes if they ever drop an early round playoff game, etc are sitting on a tee

Glad your mind went there.  My immediate thought was that NCUN detractors would start appending a cerTain letter to the end.