Thanks to pat for that information.

A fri post by bleed purple seemed to indicate that a player uses a year of eligibility by simply being on a roster. I always thought a player had to participate in a game to use eligibility. Would appreciate some clarification re/this. Thank you.

Testing- registration issues solved?

Add another 27 wis players signed at St. Cloud.

Duluth, Mankato, Winona, bemidji, and Concordia St. Paul signed a total of 43 Wisconsin players so far to some type of d2 scholarship.

I attended the river falls- whitewater game this year and in my view both Fred's analysis and bleed purple's reaction are defensible.  Fred is a fan stating his opinion and bleed purple's reaction is certainly well within the range of civilized discourse. Is it a bit snarky? Opinions vary, as they should on a platform such as this.

Excellent info from screaming Eagles. It will take much more than changing coaches and/ or athletic directors to return to the upper echelon of Wiac football.

How far has lax fallen? I was surprised. Lax last made the playoffs in 2006, and since then they are 3-6 vs uwec, which last made the playoffs in 2007. Posters who insist that administrative support from the top is essential for significant progress to take place are correct.

To badger 1845. / I would be interested in your ( or anyone else's) response to my post tuesday on the wiac page. Thank you. Wsuc/ wiac fan.    Ps- I was at carleton's final game of the 2013 season when they launched a huge late comeback to beat Augsburg 45-42. I believe that is their only miac win over a team other than hamline or st Olaf in seven years or so.

Thesis-high level administrative support is virtually a necessity now if a wiac, miac, or mwc football program is to be respectable, let alone successful. hamline appears to be making an effort to become respectable, while uwrf, carleton, and st Olaf appear to be doing little or nothing. Pres Rosenberg at macalester has made it clear that he wants a respectable program. I counted about 75 Mac players dressed at their recent game with Beloit, which is over double the size of the roster not that long ago.

Examples? Bob Sullivan's excellent career at Carleton was certainly aided by pres Lewis and frank wright. Uwrf Chancellor George field ( with a major assist from ad don page) contributed tremendously to mike farley's eight conference championships. (An aside-wright and field were football teammates as Carleton undergrads.)  Mac's four winning miac seasons under tom hosier during the 1980's following their massive losing streak must have had some major assistance from top administrators. 

In 1982 elite swarthmore college had an undefeated football team late in the season. A number of faculty and alums objected because they thought winning football games detracted from swathmore's lofty intellectual status. How much, if any, of this attitude exists at Carleton and st Olaf now? Oh, by the way, Amherst which places ahead of Carleton in most rankings of liberal arts colleges, has not had a losing football season for many years.

Hazzben makes excellent points. A quick count of the four nsic schools he names plus Concordia St. Paul shows a total of 166 Wisconsin players listed on their 2015 website rosters, ranging from from 41 at winona to 23 at Concordia. Even if my quick count is not exact, one has to wonder how many of them would have been playing in the wiac/ wsuc back in the day. Also- yes, institutional support is critical. I have been told that it is outstanding at whitewater, and one  can only speculate to what degree, if any, lack of it has hurt the four "western" schools, especially in football.

Well, opinions will vary considerably. In 1998 uwrf hammered d2 bemidji state 45-14 in the metrodome game. Bemidji coach tesch said-I am paraphrasing from memory- something like this in the bemidji paper: uwrf is a legit d3 team in a legit d3 league. But there are no d2 teams in wis and many wis kids want to play close to home. As a result, the league has quite a few players who could play in d2. Lacrosse, for example, had considerable success against d2 Winona state until 1998. Then wsu won four straight and the series was dropped. The nsic has upgraded overall in the past 15 years or so. It seems to me that many more d2- type  wis players are playing in the nsic since they have upgraded and they apparently have more scholarship money now.  In my opinion, many of these players would have chosen uwec, uw stout, uwrf, or Uwl back in the day.  On the other hand, how many players in a Uww- mt union championship game could be playing somewhere in d2? Quite a few.
This is not the only factor, but I think it is an important one.

Unless uwec pulls a major upset, they will be winless and 3-18 over the last three conference seasons. While they have played a quite tough non- conference schedule recently, the fact remains that they have been a poor football team during that span. Uwec should be able to field a respectable squad every year. However, it is also worth pointing out that, barring a major upset, the four "western" teams will finish 0-16 against Uwo, Uww, Uwp, and uwsp. I would like to see the league return to at least a semblance of its former balance, but a number of factors are working against this goal.

Replying to pat's comments re/ post game interview with coach bullis. I thought the interview was excellent. Those of us who worked with Kevin during his tenure at River falls know that "complete and thoughtful answers" will be the norm.

Yes, uwl had outstanding teams during the 1980's , but uwrf was pretty decent also. My check of the records shows that uwrf was 6-4 vs uwl from 1980-89. Uwrf won or shared 5 conference championships to 4 for uwl during that span. One of the best football games I have ever seen was uwrf's come from behind 22-21 homecoming win in 1986. Uwrf trailed 21-7 and converted a 2-point try after coming back to 21-20, primarily through passing out of the wishbone. They scored the 2 point conversion on an option play.  It was also coach farley's 100th win at uwrf. However, one can only applaud uwl's performance in the playoffs over the years.