FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Pat Coleman]

Brockport played Hartwick, and Hartwick played Maine Maritime, which for some reason the NCAA is counting in its stats. MMA is in the middle of bringing back its varsity football program and played two games against D-III opponents this year which the NCAA is including in this calculation.

MMA plays only two D-III opponents this year. Our contention is that those games cannot count. They don't reach the minimum standard to be a D-III varsity program. But that opponents' opponent, for now, boosts Brockport's number.

[CarollFan]

Millikin fires HC

https://www.wandtv.com/sports/millikin-parts-ways-with-head-football-coach-carlton-hall/article_b14f317c-9499-11ef-8b7a-a30562edc19f.html

[wally_wabash]

Brockport played Hartwick, and Hartwick played Maine Maritime, which for some reason the NCAA is counting in its stats. MMA is in the middle of bringing back its varsity football program and played two games against D-III opponents this year which the NCAA is including in this calculation.

MMA plays only two D-III opponents this year. Our contention is that those games cannot count. They don't reach the minimum standard to be a D-III varsity program. But that opponents' opponent, for now, boosts Brockport's number.

That seems rather important as these are teams that could both wind up on or around the cut line. 

[hazzben]

That seems rather important as these are teams that could both wind up on or around the cut line. 

Do we have any word on if that will get remedied?

[Gregory Sager]

Millikin fires HC

https://www.wandtv.com/sports/millikin-parts-ways-with-head-football-coach-carlton-hall/article_b14f317c-9499-11ef-8b7a-a30562edc19f.html

I'm curious as to why Hall was fired. Millikin has been awful under him (Saturday's defeat at the hands of Carthage made it 17 losses in a row for the Big Blue), but this was only his third season. His upperclassmen this season were Dan Gritti recruits, not Carlton Hall recruits. Seventeen straight losses or not, given the fact that he inherited a 3-7 team from Gritti two years ago, and given that it's more difficult to turn around a bad program in football than it is in other college sports, this decision feels a little bit like a rush to judgment ... if it's just based upon wins and losses, that is.

The loss to Carthage was a bad look for Hall -- it was at Lindsay Field in front of the home folks, it was to a winless Firebirds team, it left the Big Blue as the only CCIW team that hasn't won a game this year, and it featured Millikin blowing a two-score lead in the second half -- but is it simply a case of a bad loss providing excellent timing to dump a coach who is being let go for reasons other than too many losses?

This is, after all, D3, where the approach to wins and losses in terms of evaluating head coaches is not nearly as cutthroat as it is in D1. At most D3 schools, a coach who is hitting his marks in terms of recruitment and retention mandates, who isn't bringing in a classful of future felons, and who isn't breaking any school policies or mistreating people either off or on the field, typically gets at least a full graduation cycle to prove himself. He doesn't get the axe only two-thirds of the way through his third season.

[Pat Coleman]

That seems rather important as these are teams that could both wind up on or around the cut line. 

Do we have any word on if that will get remedied?

Not yet. I checked today and it is still an open issue and has not been resolved.

[CarollFan]

Millikin fires HC

https://www.wandtv.com/sports/millikin-parts-ways-with-head-football-coach-carlton-hall/article_b14f317c-9499-11ef-8b7a-a30562edc19f.html

I'm curious as to why Hall was fired. Millikin has been awful under him (Saturday's defeat at the hands of Carthage made it 17 losses in a row for the Big Blue), but this was only his third season. His upperclassmen this season were Dan Gritti recruits, not Carlton Hall recruits. Seventeen straight losses or not, given the fact that he inherited a 3-7 team from Gritti two years ago, and given that it's more difficult to turn around a bad program in football than it is in other college sports, this decision feels a little bit like a rush to judgment ... if it's just based upon wins and losses, that is.

The loss to Carthage was a bad look for Hall -- it was at Lindsay Field in front of the home folks, it was to a winless Firebirds team, it left the Big Blue as the only CCIW team that hasn't won a game this year, and it featured Millikin blowing a two-score lead in the second half -- but is it simply a case of a bad loss providing excellent timing to dump a coach who is being let go for reasons other than too many losses?

This is, after all, D3, where the approach to wins and losses in terms of evaluating head coaches is not nearly as cutthroat as it is in D1. At most D3 schools, a coach who is hitting his marks in terms of recruitment and retention mandates, who isn't bringing in a classful of future felons, and who isn't breaking any school policies or mistreating people either off or on the field, typically gets at least a full graduation cycle to prove himself. He doesn't get the axe only two-thirds of the way through his third season.

I don't know much about Millikin but I saw recently their athletic director was retiring. 

https://decaturian.com/features/2024/09/06/millikin-university-to-hire-new-athletic-director/

They are also searching for a new president.

https://millikin.edu/news-events/newsroom/millikin-university-president-dr-jim-reynolds-announces-retirement-plans

[USee]

Brockport played Hartwick, and Hartwick played Maine Maritime, which for some reason the NCAA is counting in its stats. MMA is in the middle of bringing back its varsity football program and played two games against D-III opponents this year which the NCAA is including in this calculation.

MMA plays only two D-III opponents this year. Our contention is that those games cannot count. They don't reach the minimum standard to be a D-III varsity program. But that opponents' opponent, for now, boosts Brockport's number.

That seems rather important as these are teams that could both wind up on or around the cut line. 

Yep, very big deal. The NCAA's current NPI has Brockport at #40 and taking a pool C and in the field, if they adopt the D3.com view, they would be #46 and outside the cut line.

This NPI calculation is new for all of us so it will be interesting to see how things change over the final 3 weeks. Two weeks ago, Wheaton was ranked at #50 for pool C purposes (top 12 make the field) and now they are #15 or #16 depending on the NCAA's final take on Brockport. Wheaton's NPI should trickle up in the final weeks (subject to other movements of their opponent NPI's) and it will be very close as to whether they are in or not

[CarollFan]

You mention financial situation, but interestingly, the Wall Street Journal had a story about colleges at risk of closure and they had a list that included Lake Forest.  I was surprised by that.

I am, too. Lake Forest has an endowment north of $110m. I realize that endowment figures can be deceiving, because much of the endowment could consist of directed giving that can't be used for drawdown purposes, but that's still surprising news.

On this site https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/ you can enter a university name and find revenue, expenses, net income, net assets over multiple years.

This scholarship foundation out of St. Louis has Lake Forest on a watch list too. No details as to why. Just states it has 37 schools on a watchlist that have shown signs of significant financial distress in one or more of last 5 years. Some other D3 schools on it, I notice are Millikin, Coe, Ripon and Rose-Hulman.
https://sfstl.org/financial-solvency-alert-midwestern-colleges-in-danger-of-closing/

[robertgoulet]

On this site https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/ you can enter a university name and find revenue, expenses, net income, net assets over multiple years.

This scholarship foundation out of St. Louis has Lake Forest on a watch list too. No details as to why. Just states it has 37 schools on a watchlist that have shown signs of significant financial distress in one or more of last 5 years. Some other D3 schools on it, I notice are Millikin, Benedictine, Coe, Ripon and Rose-Hulman.
https://sfstl.org/financial-solvency-alert-midwestern-colleges-in-danger-of-closing/

They very well may have gotten their info from this report (I didn't press them and thus didn't bring it up here), but I had it mentioned to me 2 weeks ago by a friend from Central IL that Millikin may be in trouble.

[hazzben]

Millikin fires HC

https://www.wandtv.com/sports/millikin-parts-ways-with-head-football-coach-carlton-hall/article_b14f317c-9499-11ef-8b7a-a30562edc19f.html

I'm curious as to why Hall was fired. Millikin has been awful under him (Saturday's defeat at the hands of Carthage made it 17 losses in a row for the Big Blue)

The loss to Carthage was a bad look for Hall -- it was at Lindsay Field in front of the home folks, it was to a winless Firebirds team, it left the Big Blue as the only CCIW team that hasn't won a game this year, and it featured Millikin blowing a two-score lead in the second half --

I think you answered your own question Greg. Even in D3 there's a tipping point where W/L and general direction are inescapable. Would appear Millikin felt they were at that point.

[Pat Coleman]

If you're on the verge of losing the team, as it were, that might be a viable reason even from a D-III perspective to make a coaching change midseason.

[USee]

In the WashU student paper there is an article on the game v Wheaton. The article references a pass interference call late in the game that had WashU supporters up in arms:

After Carter's touchdown, the Bears were in position to get the ball back with over three minutes left. On third down, Forcucci fired a deep ball to Bonga that was incomplete. But, to the ire of the WashU sideline and supporters, the referee threw a late flag on the play, penalizing Hill for pass interference. The penalty forced WashU to burn their timeouts, and while they held Wheaton scoreless, it killed the momentum that the Bears had garnered.

"We're down two scores, and that would have been a huge play to get a stop there," Keen said. "The bottom line is, they saw something they called, and we've got to deal with it."

Having seen this play and reviewed it later via tape I can say it was the right call. DB Caiden Hill had his left arm on Bonga's shoulder as the ball arrived which affected Bonga's ability to jump for the ball. Tough call but it looked legit to me on tape.

[Gregory Sager]

I think you answered your own question Greg. Even in D3 there's a tipping point where W/L and general direction are inescapable. Would appear Millikin felt they were at that point.

If you're on the verge of losing the team, as it were, that might be a viable reason even from a D-III perspective to make a coaching change midseason.

I suspect that what CarollFan posted might have something to do with it:

I don't know much about Millikin but I saw recently their athletic director was retiring. 

https://decaturian.com/features/2024/09/06/millikin-university-to-hire-new-athletic-director/

They are also searching for a new president.

https://millikin.edu/news-events/newsroom/millikin-university-president-dr-jim-reynolds-announces-retirement-plans

This could, at least in part, be a move by interim AD Bryan Marshall to clear the deck and give the incoming AD a chance to hire his or her own choice to run the football program, while at the same time giving faithful Millikin assistant Patrick Allgeier (who is in his 28th season on the MU football coaching staff) an opportunity to earn the permanent HC job -- if he wants it -- by giving him a three-game trial run. It also gives Allgeier the chance to secure the prospects that he, as the Big Blue's recruiting coordinator, has pursued on the recruiting trail this year.

[Cardinal773]

CCIW Players of the Week Against (week 6 of 9):

Team         Total Off. Def. S.T.
Carthage     4        2      2      0
Millikin         3        0      1      2
N. Park         3        0      1      2
Carroll          2        1      1      0
IWU               2        1      1      0
Wash. U.      2        0      0      2
Augustana  1        1      0      0
Elmhurst     1        1      0      0
Wheaton     1        1      0      0
N. Central   0        0      0      0