FB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[bashbrother]

Great job by the Wittenberg Tigers is playing very well today in their win against Trine 34-17.

Huffman had maybe the game of his career..... so did Glover....close to 200 yards.....

Good luck next week in what is looking to be a trip North to Wisconsin.

[pennstghs]

Huffman put up numbers that fantasy owners would salivate at.

Great job overall by Witt today as they were just overly prepared from what I saw. Trine had no answer for the 3,4 wide receiver threats and had a lot of long pass plays. It also helped when your RB is getting 5 yards a carry to open up the secondary a little bit!

On to Wisconsin, time to pull an upset and make people really take notice

[wally_wabash]

Deserved congratulations are in order for Wittenberg on another fine playoff win.  The ante goes way, way up next weekend.  Nice to see the NCAC represented in a regional final yet again. 

As it relates to a 10th NCAC team...I've said it before ad nauseum...DePauw makes the most sense, by far, for any school mentioned.  They fit academically, they are illogically placed currently, they would be immediately competitive in all sports, they would raise the profile of the league considerably.  And really, I think the first two points are the most important.  They fit academically (which always seems to be the first thing we mention) and right now they are in a league that doesn't make any sense for them to be in.  JCU is in a league that makes sense.  Centre is in a league that makes sense.  W&J is in a league that makes sense.  DePauw...DePauw just doesn't make any good sense in the SCAC.  The chance to get out is here, they need to take it. 

[smedindy]

However, the Heartland made 'sense' for Wabash and DePauw, but it wasn't a good 'fit'.

[DPU3619]

You and I have discussed this at length previously, wally. I'm still going to be stunned if DePauw leaves the SCAC.  There are too many people in that athletic department office that like the SCAC. 

The only way this is going to happen is if the administration puts their foot down and says that they aren't paying the bill for all that travel. As we all know, when it comes to the DePauw administration, there's a very minute chance of them doing anything that could even remotely be considered productive.

As you've said before, this just makes too much sense.  That alone is reason enough to think that the suits won't pull the trigger.

[wab64]

Number 10? I vote for W&J, and I'm sure that most of the Ohio schools, and particularly Allegheny would love to avoid  trips to the "wild frontier". They may like it so much that they throw Wabash out for JCU. I support W&J as a historical football team with a great tradition. Besides, there would 4 W's in the first level, and the Presidents may teach us something about playing football. It would be a challenge.
    DePauw makes a lot of sense for Wabash-proximity& rivalry-and not so much for the rest. They've made their bed in the SCAC, and even though it took 12 years to squeak out an AQ, I would urge them to lay in it. And, with the exception of our friends Wes and DPUfan, they seem to be all too petulant about their place in the universe. Ready for this year's Purple show? Best of luck to Witt to get some good, honest Red&White into the mix. Why do they call themselves "Tigers"? Tigers are supposed to wear orange and black.

[maripp2002]

Wittenberg looked awesome this week. UWW is, well UWW, but I think if Wittenberg plays like they did today at the very least we see a close game. I think a lot of the fans who followed the NCAC all year saw what we expected. Trine played really hard, but in the end they were outmatched. The athlete difference was just too much, Witt was flying all over the place on offense and defense and Trine just looked lost at times.

The UAA deal looks even more suspect now. If CWRU had Wittenberg, Wabash, or Allegheny on their schedule I am not sure they win 1 of 3. I think the NCAC needs to up the out of conference schedule after the UAA deal is done.  Start scheduling the big dogs out of the CCIW, PAC, and OAC, we have an automatic bid, and IMHO it will do nothing but help to play ONU, W&J/TMC, and Wheaton/NCC/IWU each year. It just gets the NCAC ready to play against UWW's and MUC's each year.

[Uncle Rico]

Congrats to Wittenberg today from a Trine fan.  Hopefully we can meet again in the playoffs next year.  Good luck against UWW, I will be rooting for you.

[wally_wabash]

Wittenberg looked awesome this week. UWW is, well UWW, but I think if Wittenberg plays like they did today at the very least we see a close game. I think a lot of the fans who followed the NCAC all year saw what we expected. Trine played really hard, but in the end they were outmatched. The athlete difference was just too much, Witt was flying all over the place on offense and defense and Trine just looked lost at times.

The UAA deal looks even more suspect now. If CWRU had Wittenberg, Wabash, or Allegheny on their schedule I am not sure they win 1 of 3. I think the NCAC needs to up the out of conference schedule after the UAA deal is done.  Start scheduling the big dogs out of the CCIW, PAC, and OAC, we have an automatic bid, and IMHO it will do nothing but help to play ONU, W&J/TMC, and Wheaton/NCC/IWU each year. It just gets the NCAC ready to play against UWW's and MUC's each year.

Couldn't agree more, Ripp.  These are the facts about the UAA agreement:
- The UAA can't offer games to the top teams in the NCAC that are particularly useful (in part because...)
- CWRU isn't using the opportunity for their own good, which is the only way that the agreement could benefit the top teams in the NCAC
- The games against WUStl are out of region and doubly pointless

I do believe that there is benefit to Kenyon, Dension, and Oberlin playing games against CMU and Chicago, but really why do we need a conference wide agreement to make these games happen?  I realize that part of the deal is to make sure the UAA teams can get games in October when they normally wouldn't, but I'm not opposed to the league allowing for the scheduling of non-con games in weeks 6-8.  That doesn't hurt anybody.  Unfortunately, I think we're locked into this agreement for the forseeable future.  

[smedindy]

Perhaps Case had remorse in leaving the NCAC and the NCAC had remorse as well and this is how everyone can feel better about themselves?

It is hard for the UAA to get mid-season non-conference games, yes. And I think the UAA should exist, but perhaps not for football.

[DanTHEman67]

Best of luck to Witt to get some good, honest Red&White into the mix. Why do they call themselves "Tigers"? Tigers are supposed to wear orange and black.

This explains that better than I could:
http://www4.wittenberg.edu/news/athletics/mascot/mascot.html
To sum up, we aren't Tigers because of how we look, we are Tigers because of how we PLAY

[ADL70]

The NCAC-UAA agreement was entered into before the 2005 season and the 2008 and 2009 schedules set then.  At that time CWRU had had one winning season in the previous six years.  Meanwhile WUStL had won 15 straight UAA games (12 against current football members) from 2001-2004.  And by the way, Wabash scheduled them in 2004 and 2005, before the conjoined schedule.  The 2010 schedule was set before the 2008 season.  In 2010 CWRU has Allegheny on the schedule as part of the agreement.  

Whenever this topic comes up it is implied that Wabash had no choice in the schedule, but somehow CWRU did.  CWRU had scheduled four NCAC teams each  year from 2004-2007 without the inter-league schedule, so don't think that CWRU-NCAC longing had anything to do with the agreement.  Yes the UAA teams probably benefit more from the agreement by getting their schedules filled, but the NCAC teams get games against teams with similar standards and program philosophies.  The UAA teams would all be ranked above the bottom six (five after Earlham leaves) teams in the NCAC.  Maybe they should be cast adrift for football (no play-off aspirations for them anyway) and replaced by the UAA teams?

Would Wabash and Wittenberg have beaten CWRU, probably.  But Wabash had a last second escape against CWRU last year.  Would the Spartans have lost to Allegheny this year?  Not if you go by the Wooster, CMU, or Kenyon games (each only a 3 point Gator win).

This UAA bashing is getting old.

[maripp2002]

I have no problems with CWRU, and in their playoff runs they have played with incredible heart and have had some tough losses. I think the UAA plays good football, just it hasn't neccesarily done the "top half" of the NCAC much good to play anyone from the UAA BUT Case.

I understand that this year Case's schedule was pretty weak because they didn't have Wab, Witt, or All. I think Case is a good program and would want to play those teams but the setup didn't work out this or any one of these last three years, before the playoffs. Not Case's fault or Wab, Witt, or All's fault. I think if anything it's just frustrating for NCAC fans to see a good team from a conference we have a reciprocal agreement with and then not get to play the best team(s) from that conference. (and, I assume, vice versa for Case)

I think, if anything, the fact that CWRU doesn't like the UAA/NCAC deal it's all the more reason to not renew it. I never hinted that ending the UAA deal was because there aren't quality teams in the UAA, it is because, in these last three years, the best team in the UAA hasn't been playing Wab, Witt, and All during the regular season. I think that if you want to make solid playoff runs year in and year out you have to play the better teams from other conferences to get ready. And because the teams likely to get playoff bids from the NCAC aren't playing CWRU, they need to look elsewhere to get it done.

[ADL70]

Who said CWRU doesn't like the agrement?

The point is CWRU got the schedule it got because it has only been good the last three seasons.  With the departure of Whalen and Checkan and five of the back seven on D, the Spartans could come back to the other UAA teams next season.  WUStL got Wabash and Wittenberg because it had been the dominant UAA team at the time the schedule was drawn up.  From 2004-2007 each school won an undisputed UAA title.

[wally_wabash]

I would think that WUStl gets Wabash and Wittenberg in the agreement because those are the two westernmost schools (save Earlham who never participated in the agreement anyway....and now I think we know why). 

Look, I've got nothing against the football programs in the UAA.  But as smed mentioned, I'm not sure the UAA works as a football league.  And if those four schools want to be in a pool B league, then I think they need to accept some of the negatives that come along with that...namely, difficulty finding close in-division games after September.  That's the nature of the pool B beast.  And again, I think there are some very positive games that can be made between teams in the UAA and the NCAC but I don't see why the entire league needs to be beholden to those four teams.  There are better games out there for Wabash (Franklin, your choice of CCIW, Trine, and on and on) that provide more challenge and count for regional results.   

Re: Wabash and WUStl...Wabash and WUStl have been playing an on again, off again series for quite some time.  If I had to guess, I'd say that the games in 2004-2005 had already been scheduled for some time.  I'm away from my media guides right now, but I'm almost certain that those games were on schedules at least three years in advance.  I'll check this when I get back to the heartland.