FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[D3fanboy]

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

[CCIWFan69]

I wonder if any other names were considered and NCUN was the best they could come up with....  ouch

[Gregory Sager]

Been there, done that.

A fair number of North Park College alumni were in a tizzy when our alma mater swapped out "College" for "University" thirty years ago. I was not one of them, because there were a couple of very valid reasons that led to the name change, and also because they kept it simple and didn't add an extra geographic qualifier, as some people on the Board of Trustees whom I felt were misguided were speculating that the new name would be "North Park University Chicago" (with a preposition such as "of" or "in" possibly preceding "Chicago" as well).

(I understand that North Central is in a different position, since there already is a school called North Central University, and, even  worse, it's a fellow D3 school. At least, that's my guess as to why the new name includes the word "Naperville".)

Thirty years ago, in an attempt to help some of my fellow NPC alums get used to our school becoming NPU, I told them to hang on to their North Park College sweatshirts and paraphernalia, and to buy up whatever was left of it in the bookstore, because it might be worth some good money someday. Well, I've never checked eBay to see if that's come to pass, but every now and then I'll see a current student walk around campus in a North Park College t-shirt or sweatshirt, and I smile at the thought of a legacy student stealing mom's or dad's old "College" clothing while packing to head off to NPU.

[CCIWFan69]

Been there, done that.

A fair number of North Park College alumni were in a tizzy when our alma mater swapped out "College" for "University" thirty years ago. I was not one of them, because there were a couple of very valid reasons that led to the name change, and also because they kept it simple and didn't add an extra geographic qualifier, as some people on the Board of Trustees whom I felt were misguided were speculating that the new name would be "North Park University Chicago" (with a preposition such as "of" or "in" possibly preceding "Chicago" as well).

(I understand that North Central is in a different position, since there already is a school called North Central University, and, even  worse, it's a fellow D3 school. At least, that's my guess as to why the new name includes the word "Naperville".)

Thirty years ago, in an attempt to help some of my fellow NPC alums get used to our school becoming NPU, I told them to hang on to their North Park College sweatshirts and paraphernalia, and to buy up whatever was left of it in the bookstore, because it might be worth some good money someday. Well, I've never checked eBay to see if that's come to pass, but every now and then I'll see a current student walk around campus in a North Park College t-shirt or sweatshirt, and I smile at the thought of a legacy student stealing mom's or dad's old "College" clothing while packing to head off to NPU.

North Central University Naperville does have a satellite campus vibe after recalling that there is a North Central University in MN.

[Gregory Sager]

Yep. And you can bet dollars to donuts that that UMAC school is not going to add "Minneapolis" to its name, either. The Rams will simply say, "We've had this name since 1998, so why should we change just because you've decided that you like the name, too?"

Dibs. They're a wonderful thing to have when they're on your side.

[ncc_fan]

Not happy with the NCUN name. I do understand that the President and Board of Trustees felt it was important to work university and Naperville into the name while retaining North Central, but this sure seems like the clumsiest of ways to do it. As others have pointed out, North Central University Naperville seems to label us as another school's branch campus.  I'm not sure that's an improvement on the community college-esque North Central College.

Personally, I prefer the branding contained in the current logo, which keeps the NCC name, includes the founding year (1861) to avoid misidentification as a community college, and identifies the school as Naperville's University.

[mr_b]

Been there, done that.

A fair number of North Park College alumni were in a tizzy when our alma mater swapped out "College" for "University" thirty years ago. I was not one of them, because there were a couple of very valid reasons that led to the name change, and also because they kept it simple and didn't add an extra geographic qualifier, as some people on the Board of Trustees whom I felt were misguided were speculating that the new name would be "North Park University Chicago" (with a preposition such as "of" or "in" possibly preceding "Chicago" as well).

I was in the faculty meetings for the discussions about changing the name, and it was interesting to hear the arguments against as well as the different choices for a new name.  There was a big debate over "North Park University" vs. "The University of North Park": one argument against the latter was that prospective students were still using print guides, such as Peterson's Guide to Colleges and Universities, to compare institutions.  The guides usually ordered schools alphabetically, and prospective Vikings would expect to find North Park in the "N" section rather than clumped together with all of the other "University of..." schools.  One proposal even touted a completely new name, "Nyvall University," in honor of North Park's founder, but that was ruled out because very few people would make that connection. 

In US higher education, there is a distinction between the two, with a university offering more graduate program options, while a college suggests a smaller or even more selective type of institution.  Furthermore, in many countries, as "college" is synonymous with secondary and not higher education. That said, schools can use "College" or "University" without having to meet any external conditions -- for example, Wheaton has chosen to keep "College" as its name.  North Park had expanded its graduate degree programs in the early 1990s, so it wanted its full name to reflect this fact.

[Gregory Sager]

In US higher education, there is a distinction between the two, with a university offering more graduate program options, while a college suggests a smaller or even more selective type of institution.  Furthermore, in many countries, as "college" is synonymous with secondary and not higher education. That said, schools can use "College" or "University" without having to meet any external conditions -- for example, Wheaton has chosen to keep "College" as their name.  North Park had expanded its graduate degree programs in the early 1990s, so it wanted its full name to reflect this fact.

Exactly. And with a significant presence of international students and students from families newly arrived in this country, it was important for North Park not to allow itself to be hampered by that difference in meaning in the word "college" between the U.S. and other countries. That, as well as acknowledging North Park's grad programs, was why it made sense to change the name thirty years ago. As far as North Central is concerned, there are nine graduate-degree programs available at that school, so it makes complete sense to have the school's name reflect that.

But you're right that schools can use whatever designations they want. There are no rules where that's concerned. Wheaton has grad programs, but it still calls itself a college. Illinois Wesleyan has no grad programs, but it calls itself a university.

[CarollFan]

CCIW week 7 scores:

#1 Wheaton 41  Carroll 3
#3 NCC 74  Elmhurst 2
NPU 17  Carthage 12
IWU @ Millikin   6:00 p.m.

https://d3football.com/conf/CCIW/2026/standings

Top 25 scores

#2 St. John's 33 Concordia-Moorhead 23
#4 UWW 37  UWS 24. 4th Q
#5 UWP 42  #6 UWRF 0 (UWRF 4-2)
 Maryville (Tenn.) 16. #8 Trinity (Texas) 12
#9 Endicott 35  WNE 10
#12 Hope 24  Adrian 22
#13 CNU 21  Montclair St. 14
#16 JCU 24   Wabash 17
#17 BW 31  Marietta 7

[Gregory Sager]

Final from Kenosha:

North Park 17
Carthage 12

For the third time this season the Vikings saw a win turn into a potential loss in the final sixty seconds. This time, though, they dodged yet another bullet that was largely of their own making and finished the W.

[Ccrfer]

The name change proponents in Naperville also were in favor of the post game fireworks following losing the bell on homecoming.

Brilliant!

[Gregory Sager]

North Park looked effective, if hardly dominant, for 59 and a half minutes. The running game worked well, for the most part; the defense was opportunistic (2 ints, 2 recovered fumbles) and resilient (no TDs allowed, even though the Firebirds were in the red zone twice); and great special teams (superb punting by Hugo Backing to pin Carthage deep multiple times, and a 46-yard FG on the last play of the 1st half by Robert Kubon that is the longest FG kicked by the Vikings in 59 years). They played very well.

But they weren't dominant, which is why they were only up 17-6 with half a minute left. Facing a 4th-and-10 at the Carthage 22, NPU chose neither to attempt a 39-yard FG or just take a knee. They stayed in a standard pistol formation -- and botched the snap. The ball got kicked backwards, and a Carthage defender scooped it up at the 32 and took it 68 yards to the house.

After NPU sacked Carthage QB Leo Chiapetta on the 2-pt conversion try that would've put the Firebirds within a field goal, Carthage attempted an onside kick. And for the second time this season while nursing a tight lead in the waning moments against a CCIW opponent, North Park couldn't recover the other team's onside kick.

So Carthage got the ball back on its own 43 with 20 seconds left, in position for an amazing comeback win if Chiapetta & Co. could go 57 yards to paydirt in that short amount of time. Fortunately for Kyle Rooker's blood pressure, the prevent defense forced three incompletions and a quickly-tackled completion in the flat, and the Vikings got off of Art Keller Field with a win.

The Vikings aren't a half-bad football team at all. And they certainly earned this road victory. I'm just a little tired of seeing them try to shoot themselves in the foot at the end of games, that's all.