FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Langhorst_Ghost]

Incredibly frustrating day in Angola for Jays' fans.

A couple take-aways from Saturday's non-conference defeat:

1. Trine's front seven is very physical and kept the EC ground game stalled for four quarters.  On multiple third and short opportunities, the Thunder turned back the Jays.
2. The value of a four-year starter at quarterback is immeasurable.  With Furco now coaching in Dubuque, Camiliere turned the ball over four times in his first collegiate road start.
3. Coming off a week when EC was flagged ten times, penalties once again stalled the Jays - multiple holding penalties and after the whistle 15-yarders were self-inflicted back breakers all day.

Tip of the cap to the Thunder Defense - they were well prepared for the Jay's offense and turned in a stout and consistent effort today.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Final at Alma: IWU 38, Alma 3.  About the final I would have expected, but what a contrast in halves!  Gallik was as good in the 2nd half (11 of 15, 147 yards, 2 TDs) as he was bad in the 1st.  Alma had zero first downs in the 2nd half.

[AndOne]

North Central avenges last year's opening game loss by downing UW-LaCrosse 41-24 after a UWL TD with 1:17 left.
NCC had 37 1st downs compared with UWL's 15, and rolled up 674 yards of total offense while UWL gained a total of 264.

* Spencer Stanek with a fabulous overall game, hitting on 26 of 35 passes for 330 yards and a TD, and rushing for another 106 yards and 2 TDs.
* RBs Matt Randolph (80), Ryan Kent (76), and Oshayne Brown (54) combined for 210 yards.
* The Cards also had two 100 yard receivers in Peter Sorenson with 142, and Chad O'Kane with 105.
* The defense was led by Nick Slezak with 9 tackles.   

[Gregory Sager]

Carthage 52
Lakeland 6

Hope 41
Millikin 7

[hazzben]

My take is that the CCIW is a pretty solid conference top to bottom.  Obviously North Park is a little behind, but most of the conference is pretty solid.
Ohio (Well ah Mt. Union)
WIAC
CCIW
is how I would rank it.  The CCIW tends to squash teams from the NAC, MWC, old Illini-Badger, Iowa (Central might be an exception), etc.  so given their Midwest geography, I would say they are a lion and not a wildebeest.

I'd rank it this way:

WIAC/OAC- WIAC has the best depth. Case in point, I predict UWP will be a Top 5 caliber WIAC champ this year. OAC has the top team of the last 20 years.
MIAC - has very strong top half (middle teams are all very competitive) and always has a team (or two) that are a Final 4 or Stagg threat.
NWC - usually two really strong squads; Linfield could make the same argument as Wheaton (they only seem to lose to a team that ends up in the Stagg or Region finals, but they've also won the whole shebang)
CCIW

The thing that separates the the top 4 from the CCIW is that they each have at least one team who has made and won the Stagg. It's no small thing that the NWC, WIAC and MIAC teams are often lined up against each other in the blood bath that is the West Region.

[kiko]

On this debate about the strength of the CCIW, I don't have the time this morning to go back thru 20 years of numbers but I can say the following with 100% conviction as a Mount guy:

Other than the WIAC, no conference has more respect in Alliance than the CCIW and their teams have more consistently given Mount a tougher time in the playoffs.  And at the top of that charge is Wheaton which was always one of best coached opponents we would face.   Unlike so many others, Wheaton made Mount beat them, opposed to pissing down their leg when Mount made a play.

HS Coach, I know you mean this as a complement, and I appreciate the kind words and the perspective from outside the conference.  FWIW, I will know that the CCIW as a football conference has turned a corner when we see this as some combination of patronizing / faint praise / backhanded complement.  (And again, I know that's not how you meant it, and that's not how I'm taking it.  Please don't read this as any sort of belligerence in response.)

There's a little bit of 'hey, this one put up much more of a fight than the last one did!' in that framing, and if we truly want to be considered an elite/power/pick-your-adjective conference, we can't be satisfied with that.  It's absolutely justified based on how we have performed against the purples to date, but when CCIW schools and coaches and players and fans see praise like this and think "... that's not good enough -- we need to be better than that", then the bar will be set at a place where we can really start to consider ourselves to be part of a different conversation.

It's similar to what I suspect North Park fans go through when they're told 'oooh, almost a victory this time!'.  It's nice, it's meant to be well-meaning... but what you really want are scoreboard victories and not moral victories.

[Mr. Ypsi]

My take is that the CCIW is a pretty solid conference top to bottom.  Obviously North Park is a little behind, but most of the conference is pretty solid.
Ohio (Well ah Mt. Union)
WIAC
CCIW
is how I would rank it.  The CCIW tends to squash teams from the NAC, MWC, old Illini-Badger, Iowa (Central might be an exception), etc.  so given their Midwest geography, I would say they are a lion and not a wildebeest.

I'd rank it this way:

WIAC/OAC- WIAC has the best depth. Case in point, I predict UWP will be a Top 5 caliber WIAC champ this year. OAC has the top team of the last 20 years.
MIAC - has very strong top half (middle teams are all very competitive) and always has a team (or two) that are a Final 4 or Stagg threat.
NWC - usually two really strong squads; Linfield could make the same argument as Wheaton (they only seem to lose to a team that ends up in the Stagg or Region finals, but they've also won the whole shebang)
CCIW

The thing that separates the the top 4 from the CCIW is that they each have at least one team who has made and won the Stagg. It's no small thing that the NWC, WIAC and MIAC teams are often lined up against each other in the blood bath that is the West Region.

I realize it has been a while, but Augustana of the CCIW not only has won the Stagg, they did it FOUR CONSECUTIVE YEARS (something not even The Machine has been able to do).

[Gregory Sager]

Halftime at Lindberg Stadium:

Central 24
Augustana 0

Trainwreck on the Rock Island Line.

[HScoach]

On this debate about the strength of the CCIW, I don't have the time this morning to go back thru 20 years of numbers but I can say the following with 100% conviction as a Mount guy:

Other than the WIAC, no conference has more respect in Alliance than the CCIW and their teams have more consistently given Mount a tougher time in the playoffs.  And at the top of that charge is Wheaton which was always one of best coached opponents we would face.   Unlike so many others, Wheaton made Mount beat them, opposed to pissing down their leg when Mount made a play.

HS Coach, I know you mean this as a complement, and I appreciate the kind words and the perspective from outside the conference.  FWIW, I will know that the CCIW as a football conference has turned a corner when we see this as some combination of patronizing / faint praise / backhanded complement.  (And again, I know that's not how you meant it, and that's not how I'm taking it.  Please don't read this as any sort of belligerence in response.)

There's a little bit of 'hey, this one put up much more of a fight than the last one did!' in that framing, and if we truly want to be considered an elite/power/pick-your-adjective conference, we can't be satisfied with that.  It's absolutely justified based on how we have performed against the purples to date, but when CCIW schools and coaches and players and fans see praise like this and think "... that's not good enough -- we need to be better than that", then the bar will be set at a place where we can really start to consider ourselves to be part of a different conversation.

It's similar to what I suspect North Park fans go through when they're told 'oooh, almost a victory this time!'.  It's nice, it's meant to be well-meaning... but what you really want are scoreboard victories and not moral victories.

You obviously have  issues and should seek professional help.

[Fannosaurus Rex]

Halftime at Lindberg Stadium:

Central 24
Augustana 0

Trainwreck on the Rock Island Line.

Auggie's stadium sure looks nice though.  Are the home stands on the river side now?

[kiko]

You obviously have  issues and should seek professional help.

Hmmm... I'm pretty sure that one wasn't meant as a complement.

Have a nice evening!

[Gregory Sager]

Central 38
Augustana 13

[Mr. Ypsi]

Wheaton having no problem with out-manned Albion: 45-0 at the half, and they are driving again early in the 3rd.

[Mr. Ypsi]

North Park is back in the game - 10 points in less than 7 minutes of the 3rd has cut a 17-0 halftime deficit to 17-10.

[Gregory Sager]

Benedictine 36
NPU 10