FB: Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference

[WLCALUM83]

Alma 10, Rockford 10  Just over 11 minutes left in 4th Qrtr.

[WLCALUM83]

Alma 17, Rockford 10  Just over 9 min. left in 4th

(Scots tried an onside kick, then moved the ball right down the field).

[WLCALUM83]

Alma 20, Rockford 10  Less than 2 minutes left in 4th.

[WLCALUM83]

Alma 27, Rockford 10  58 seconds left in 4th

(Scots returned an INT for a TD)

[WLCALUM83]

Alma 27, Rockford 10 --Final

[WLCALUM83]

Look-ins:

Per St. Scholastica feed:
Concordia-Chicago up 35-0 with less than 4 minutes left in the 3rd Quarter.

Maranatha trailing Macalester 14-0  less than 2 minutes left in 3rd

WLC 33,  MN-Morris 14  Approx 8 minutes left in 3rd Qrtr.

[old 40]

AU was impressive today. The D look very good as IWU had to earn everything they got. Bevell is making strides each week. Despite the lost it was the best game of the year for Sparty againt a good team.  They are IMHO the team to beat in the NAC. However WLC (congrats on their victory) and CUC (also congrats) will have alot to say about who represents the NAC in the playoffs.

AU opens conference  in 2 weeks which sould be an easy win over LC who is down this year, currentlu 0-2. The WLC and CUC games will be great excitement for the Spartans. Should be a great run for the Spartans.

[bleedblue]

Old 40 nailed it. AU played a great game. To say that AU came up just short would be an understatement. IWU is a good team and AU proved they could play with anyone. If IWU is the 24th ranked team in D3, then the NAC is going to surprise a lot of people the rest of the year. AU played with them, out gained them, out played them and outhit them. IWU won on the scoreboard and deserve all the praise. But that AU team just let everyone know that AU is going to be no cupcake the rest of the year!!!

[Mugsy]

Old 40 nailed it. AU played a great game. To say that AU came up just short would be an understatement. IWU is a good team and AU proved they could play with anyone. If IWU is the 24th ranked team in D3, then the NAC is going to surprise a lot of people the rest of the year. AU played with them, out gained them, out played them and outhit them. IWU won on the scoreboard and deserve all the praise. But that AU team just let everyone know that AU is going to be no cupcake the rest of the year!!!

No offense to the Aurora squad, but IWU is the 24th ranked team in the country based on last seasons result and the fact they haven't lost yet this year.  While a solid team, they only have 11 or 12 returning starters.  It remains to be seen just how strong they are.  Even IWU followers are questioning the 24th ranking right now.

High early season rankings were discussed last week on the CCIW board and the Wheaton 2009 squad was mentioned as a example.  Last year Wheaton was very highly ranked, climbing as high as #4.  Most feel Wheaton's high ranking in 2009 was based on their semi-final year in 2008.  Turns out when they hit the meat of their schedule they lost their last 3 games of the season to finish 7-3.

[dizzle52]

Rankings can be tricky....maybe IWU doesn't deserve top 25 but they are still undefeated....until they prove otherwise, they belong there.....if a team deserves/does not deserve a top 25 ranking, their on field play will prove it

[Mugsy]

Rankings can be tricky....maybe IWU doesn't deserve top 25 but they are still undefeated....until they prove otherwise, they belong there.....if a team deserves/does not deserve a top 25 ranking, their on field play will prove it

Yup.  My point was more to the fact that while IWU (and Wheaton) are in the top 25 right now, it is more based on last years results and the fact they are both undefeated thus far.  Right now they do belong there, but true validation of their relative strength will be exposed as the season progresses. The next 3 or so weeks will begin to show whether or not they are in fact that caliber of team.  Wheaton & IWU play on Oct 2nd., so we'll probably get the first sign on which of those teams truely belongs in the top 25.

As bleedblue mentioned, teams in the NAC should take notice of Aurora given how tough they played IWU, who is clearly a very solid team.  But at this point I would not go too far down the path of saying if IWU is the 24th ranked team in D3, then Aurora can play with anyone.  IMO it is too early to say that about IWU...

[dizzle52]

I agree....the AU/IWU game should come as a MAJOR warning to the other NAC teams....the last time AU played IWU this close was in 2008 (3 point game)....after that loss, AU ran the table through the conference

[dizzle52]

Week 4 Picks:

Hope in a close game over LC to put the muskies @ 0-3
      
BU bounces back at home over Kalamazoo

[RFMichigan]

Now that most of the non-conference schedule is out of the way, are there any changes to anyones pre-season's conference predictions? Some observations:

CUC - Hammered two weak opponents, lost to a decent one. In all their games the offense has moved the ball (which is expected) but the defense got shredded against Chicago while looking good against the weaker ones. Time will tell. . .

Lakeland - Two close losses in which they've scored some points, but against teams that are undefeated. Their one point OT loss to Carthage says to me that Lakeland will be in the hunt. Their game against Hope will give some comparison points to WLC.

CUW - Hard to figure. Three lopsided losses albeit to three undefeated teams. They seem to be struggling to move the ball, but again, their opponents seem to be pretty strong. Common opponent with Lakeland - Carthage; I'd keep Lakeland above CUW at this point.

WLC - Nice victory over Hope, but folks in the MIAA are having real questions about the strength of their conference in general and Hope in particular. We'll see how Lakeland does against Hope. If Lakeland loses to Hope (and Hope snaps their ___game non-conference losing skid), then WLC may challenge for the title.

Aurora - Their win over North Park would keep them above Benedictine anyhow, but their tough, tight loss to IWU makes me think that they should be at or near the top.


Rockford - Again, are they very much improved, or did Alma sleepwalk through the first three quarters against them? I think they're about right at #7.


Benedictine - Closs loss to North Park. Blowout win over a questionable Eureka. A loss to K-zoo would either indicate that the MIAA is still a lot stronger than the NAC or that Bennie was slotted about right in the pre-season poll. I personally think that they're going to finish higher than 6th in the NAC. The game vs. CUC on the 2nd will tell a ton about the conference.

[formerd3db]

So some of you have predicted Hope over Lakeland.  Will the Muskies go to 0-3 or will Hope go to 0-4?  I may be biased, but I think Hope will get its first non-conference win since 2004 to break the streak since we'll be at home.  However, stranger things have happened.

Can any of you relate what Lakeland's strengths are?  I don't know much about this year's team.   Also, will they be coming "across the pond" via the ferry or taking the long bus ride "around the horn"?