Another saturday of unexpected football in the NAC.  I was looking at the stats for CUC/AU and CUC was up 28-6 after the 1st!  It got close though.  It looks like I was way way way off with my prediction for CUW as well.  That offense up in Mequon seems to be doing nothing.  A huge win for BU over WLC keeps them in the hunt and makes their game against CUC even bigger.  Being an old IBFC guy I can remember when these two teams would compete in the annual Toliet Bowl year after year, so what a great job by both programs on turning it around.  I know I should wait to make my predictions but this week has so many compelling issues to discus.
1.  Can CUC hold on to the lead in the NAC for their first playoff birth ever?
2.  Can BU's smashmouth style of football keep the CUC offense off the field long enough?
3.  Will LC take care of business against AU? (What is interesting about this senario is that if LC loses to AU, CUC loses to BU, and CUW takes down RC you will have 4 teams with 4-2 records in conference.  Talk about a mess)
It will be an interesting weekend for sure.
Just in case you were curious, if senario 3 (see above) does happen these would be the losses each team would have:
CUC:  WLC, BU
LC:  CUC, AU
BU:   LC, CUW
CUW:  CUC, LC
How you figure that tie-breaker out is beyond my pay grade.

WEEK10 PREDICTIONS
CUW over RC- CUW controls the game start to finish as expected.  45-0
WLC over MBBC- WLC crushes  MBBC and finishes a nice season with a big win. 52-6
LC over AU- LC keeps building on its big win against CUW nad takes it to a struggling AU team. 35-14
BU over CUC-Call me a pessimist, but I just wont believe it until it happens for CUC.  I think that BU will control the clock and the ball and come away with a close one. 27-24

Good luck to everyone on this final week of the season.

Wow, I must say I am impressed.  I certainly was shocked when I heard CUC beat CUW, in 2OT no less.  What a gutsy call to go for 2, but it paid off.  Congrats to CUC on the huge win.  I was equally impressed by the performance of WLC against AU.  The conference is certainly turning around and becoming more evenly matched.  I look forward to seeing what happens in the coming weeks.  It looks as if the conference is CUC's for the taking.  I will be most interested to see how a team that has never been on top responds to the challenges of two pretty decent teams that could play spoilers in the hunt for the NAC title.  Good luck in the coming weeks to all of the teams.

MY PICKS-WEEK 9
WLC over BU:  WLC's defensive front shuts down the BU run game and propels them to a close win.  27-21
RC over MBBC:  RC's defense is the difference in a close one between these two struggling clubs.  21-14
CUW over LC:  CUW rebounds after a heartbreaker and shuts down their rivals from the north.  24-14
AU over CUC:  This will not be a popular pick, but going to AU after the tough game could be a trap for CUC.  31-28

WOW.  In what I thought would be an otherwise uninteresting week there were two great games.  I am not sure to think of AU, CUW, or BU.  Is CUW and BU that good or is AU down or is it a bit of both.  And CUC, here is a team that I thought would win 1 game in the second half.  They certainly proved me wrong.  Their QB had himself another day it looked like according to the stats.  Regardless of whether or not LC is up or down, CUC has thrown a wrench into what looks now to be a very even and open NAC.

WEEK 7 PICKS

BU v MBBC
The Eagles run all over Maranatha all day.  42-7

CUW v AU
The Falcons play a close one for a while but pull away late in the game.  28-13

WLC v RC
The Warriors do anything they want against the Regents.  56-7

CUC v LC
The Muskies avenge last year and more as the dominate the Cougars.  42-14

With the exception the CUW/AU game it could be a pretty boring week of football in the NAC.  The only game I admit I could be wrong about is CUC, but I just dont see a young, small, and weak CUC team sneaking up on Lakeland again.

Glad to be on here finally.  So were at the half way point and we see CUC at the top of the mountain.  Well do not worry because the second half will prove that this conference has changed, but not as much as it looks like. Here are my predictions for how the season will end.

1.  CUW 7-3(7-0)  No one is beating these guys in the NAC.  Did I mention one of those losses is to a D-1A school in Valpo by only 3 points?  This team is going to absolutley going to crush everyone but LC.  Benedictine was a fluke.  Once again they will win out.  Cream of the Crop.
2.  Lakeland 6-4(6-1)  Only loss will be to CUW.  Their offense seems to be clicking on all cylinders and the defense looks just as good, if not better than the team we saw after the fluke CUC upset last year.  A solid team that will crush everyone but the Falcons.
3.  Benedictine 6-4(5-2)  A very good football team, not pretenders like CUC.  Huge win against AU will pay dividends.  Cooper has done a nice job getting numbers and some really good players to make their physical style of play a moderate success in the NAC.
4.  Aurora 6-4(4-3) The BU game will hurt them, but so will LC and CUW.  A good team but not dominate by any means.  The Aurora we are used to seeing, that big nasty physical team, is just not there anymore and it will show.
5.  WLC 4-6(3-4)  Not a bad team at all, but still with the bottom feeders of the NAC.  A very good running game and a fairl good defense should keep them in a few contests, but they still have a way to go before they can be considered contenders.
6.  CUC 5-5(3-4)  A team that should probably be undefeated right now, CUC goes back to form the 2nd half.  The cupcake schedule they had will be exposed the last half of the season, along with their undersized defense and shaky, undiscipline offense, as we saw against WLC.  This is not the same old CU, but it is not the real deal just yet.
7.  Maranatha 1-9(1-6) I have no idea who to pick for the bottom of the barrel, but from what I hear and read Rockford is about as bad as it gets.  Keep in mind the date, 11-7-09 because Rockford and MBBC square off that day in the NAC's version of the Toilet Bowl.
8.  Rockford  0-10(0-7)  No offense.  No Defense.  No chance.

Hopefully this board gets going again.  It has been kind of dead as of late.  I have been reading this thing for about 6 years now and always had wanted to get in on the discussion.  Hope to hear back from some of you guys.