Very excited to see NCAC football back in action this weekend! Here's the weekend's slate:

Friday 7pm Hiram v. Bethany

Saturday 12pm Wittenberg v. Cortland St.

Saturday 12pm Ohio Wesleyan @ Otterbein

Saturday 1pm Oberlin v. Kalamazoo

Saturday 1pm Kenyon v. Benedictine (IL)

Saturday 1pm Allegheny v. Thiel

Saturday 6pm Wooster v. Geneva

Saturday 6pm Denison @ Ohio Northern

Saturday 7pm Wabash @ Rose-Hulman

No love for the NCAC in the d3Football Preseason Top 25...Wabash and Denison are the only schools receiving votes !! What's the word over in Springfield?

Quote from: Pat Coleman on December 04, 2015, 11:13:53 AM
In terms of fans, who's traveling today?

I'm leaving work at 3 to make the trek up to the Great White North! Expect to see many Wabash fans in attendance as well.  Should be a great day!  Have enjoyed the dialogue on the board this week.  Let's hoping the game matches the hype...

Or, alternatively, Wabash beats the ever loving you know what out of UST! 

Onward and upward!  WAF!

Quote from: Wooster Booster on February 26, 2015, 11:59:19 AM

Quote from: monsoon on February 25, 2015, 11:59:31 PM
This is what OWU's website says:

Branch Rickey Arena seats 1450 for basketball and has been the site for NCAA Division III playoff games for both genders as well as several North Coast Athletic Conference and Ohio Athletic Conference tournaments.

That's quite a difference from 2300. I've not been there, but it looks like quite a place.

From my memory, the 1450 number sounds more realistic.  Each side is a single level of no more than fifteen rows, stretching from end line to end line.  There is no end seating.  Do we have any rocket scientists who can produce a number from this?

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F7ye86sL9hY/UWgdHCzEIZI/AAAAAAAAC1M/38aK1Lx9LRo/s1600/Branch_Rickey_Arena_2013_dt.jpg

As Wally pointed out, it is a dark arena.  Especially so when Wooster plays there and the lights at the Scots end of the court are dimmed.  OWU: has the Ohio electricians union in its pocket.

The lights aren't "dimmed," rather one end of the gym is a cinder block wall and the other is an arch that goes to the ground.  Lights on white surface = bright.  Lights near shadows = dark.

Quote from: wabndy on November 17, 2014, 09:21:16 AM

Finally- please let's keep insults about another school's academic standing off this board when they are clearly inappropriate. While we have talked about certain d3 schools that welcome d1 transfers with low academic standing who didn't quite make it at that level, that certainly doesn't apply to Franklin.

Lighten up, dude.  Innocent jabs at academic rigor happen all the time.  Just look at the Monon Bell board.  I don't see you chastising those guys.

I don't know what those words mean.  I think you just opened your mouth and words fell out and you were fortunate enough that they appear to form sentences. 

Some posts suggested, from their qualitative reports of seeing UWW in action, that they appear vulnerable.  Not necessarily vulnerable to Wabash, but vulnerable.

People look forward when they release brackets.  Millions of dollars each year are wagered on the NCAA tournament.  That entire process is based on looking forward to the next round.  Please explain why this is something hard to understand?

I'm excited for Saturday.  I am sick and tired of reading about the Franklin football team each Sunday in the Indianapolis Star.  I trust Wabash will leave no doubt as to whom is the superior football program in Indiana.

GRIZ_BACKER, the inferior education they offer in Franktucky must leave you with an inability to comprehend what you read.  No one seems to be saying that Wabash beats UWW in a cake walk.  Rather, they suggest, appropriately, that they appear vulnerable. 

Let me count myself as one who is a little concerned about Saturday.  I was in Springfield last week, and I'm worried the Wabash Offense has become too one-dimensional.  Holmes and Zurek are both workhouses in the ground game but Wabash is not as strong as in year's pass through the air. 

However, the Wabash Defense remains stellar.  Will the Dannies be able to put up enough points to make it a game despite a sluggish, at times, Wabash Offense?

DePauw won most of the games they should and lost one they should have lost.  The gap does appear to be closing.  Matt Hunt is a very good quarterback. 

Partly cloudy and 39 is the forecast for Saturday.  Need to double-up on the Fireball to stay warm.  I love this rivalry.  I love this game.  Excited to see what happens on Saturday.  Gut tells me Bash squeaks out a close one, I'm going WAF 20  DNQ 17.  Ding ding.

Anyone staying in Springfield tomorrow night up to meet for dinner?

Those dreaded early season rankings...I can remember when Wabash knocked off 4th ranked Randolph-Macon a couple of years ago, and, while that Wabash team was good, I also think it was a stretch to believe that RMC was the 4th best team in the country. Methinks early season rankings are based a lot on pedigree.

I had the opportunity to see Wabash play against Franklin last Friday night. Some of my observations, after a long Monon Bell weekend:

1. As Smed mentioned above, the Little Giants are young. Very young. They started two freshmen, Kyle Aiton and Gary Ulrich, a pair of guards from Castle and Rockville, Indiana. Aiton and Ulrich are pretty good players, but Wabash looked guard-heavy, especially against a Franklin team that was small. Which brings me to my second point...

2. Why not spend more time pounding the ball inside? Nicksic had 20, which was great, but they should have spent more time in the post, especially late in the game, when their tallest player on the floor was 6' 2".

3. Franklin had some kids hit some big shots late, and it seemed like 3s were falling all night. They will be an interesting team to watch in the HCAC.

4. Wabash will definitely benefit from the returns of Hodges and Walsh. Wabash is in action next on Saturday against Albion. A good, early season test to see if Wabash learned any lessons from the OT loss to Franklin.

Finally, a big congrats to DePauw for knocking off the #6 ranked North Central Cardinals! Game story here: http://www.depauw.edu/athletics/mens/basketball/news/details/30505/

Hey Smed, lets get those non-conferences records updated 

The board has been so quiet this week. It's depressing. Heard good things about last night's Stag! Can't wait to be back in Greencastle tonight...the clock on this wall just keeps getting slower, and slower, and slow.....

Not so fast my friend...

From what I've been told, they aren't putting up bleachers on the east side, rather will roll out portable bleachers. The new track and pits for the field events I believe make a visitors stand difficult, since it backs up to a city street.

The Wooster season preview is up. I have always enjoyed reading these things. I especially love this quote,

"The College of Wooster welcomes in a new era of football in 2013, which starts at the top with first-year head coach Frank Colaprete and ranges to the new matte helmets, and more importantly, a new set of offensive and defensive schemes."

Any time you mention a new helmet as a major reason to be excited about the season...it might be a long year ahead.

http://www.woosterathletics.com/sports/fball/2013-14/releases/2013080107myio

Thanks Wally for catching that mistake! That must have been the one press release that had "Media" listed before "Coaches."

For the record, the preseason coaches' polls in the NCAC mean very little in what actually happens during the course of the season. In fact, since 2002, only THRICE have the coaches' predicted the eventual conference champion.

Year             Preseason              Actual
2012                     Wabash                  Witt
2011                     Witt                         Wabash
2010                     Witt                        Witt
2009                     Wabash                  Witt
2008                     Witt                         Wabash
2007                     Wabash                   Wabash
2006                     Wabash                   Witt
2005                     Witt                         Wabash
2004                     Wooster                  Wooster
2003                     Wooster                  Allegheny
2002                     Witt                         Wabash

Granted, in many years, the result turned on the outcome of a single game. Lets not give too much credit to preseason rankings. They are little more than message board fodder.