FB: American Rivers Conference

[Dsquared]

Good luck to all the high school coaches tonight as the playoffs are officially upon us.  I'm especially interested in the rematch that could take place next Monday between Ed Thomas' AP Falcons and the D-NH Wolverines in Aplington... I'll be making the trip up from CR if that rematch takes place.

Picks for the week...

Wartburg over Cornell 20-7 (close game because of experimenting with new QB)
BVU over Dubuque 45-43 3OT (very close game)
Loras over Simpson 14-3 (I'll look forward to seeing 4 sophomores with 1 year of experience next year)
Game of the Week - Turns out to be a replay of Wartburg vs. Coe with rain and COLD in the forecast.  Game will be closer in score than it is in the trenches as Coe gets conference loss #3 tacked onto their record for the year.  Central over Coe 17-10.

More lines for the state institutions as the week progresses.

[sc_stormchaser]

I certainly wouldn't say the entire athletic program is meager...maybe just the men's side of things.

2006 Women's Golf IIAC champs
2006 Women's Soccer IIAC champs
2006 Women's Volleyball IIAC Co-Champs

[Storm-what?]

Yep, and in the past 12 months, you can add
Women's basketball champs, mens baseball co-champs, and indivudual champ for x-country.  Plus a 9th place national team finish in wrestling. 

Don't get me wrong, I know Wartburg can boast of even more right now. I'm just responding to the "meager" statement. A lot of people wouldn't say 6 conference champions/championships is meager for 12 months is meager.

[Walston Hoover]

I certainly wouldn't say the entire athletic program is meager...maybe just the men's side of things.

2006 Women's Golf IIAC champs
2006 Women's Soccer IIAC champs
2006 Women's Volleyball IIAC Co-Champs

I'd say just a flat-out bad football team sums it up.
But they haven't been shut out in 20 years which is more than anyone else in the conference can say.
Good job on that.
Look for that streak to end in 1 of these last 2 weeks.

Picks this week
Dutch
Knights
Loras
Dubuque
UD/BV game is toughest of the week to call.  I guess I'll take the home team.

[sc_stormchaser]

WH- I never said Simpson's football team wasn't "flat-out bad," but the last time I checked there were more than just football in an athletic department. I realize most of the posters believe football is the only sport, but it's not D-1. Football certainly isn't funding the other sports in order to survive. Simpson's athletic department is nowhere close to meager just because the football team has one horrible year.

[Walston Hoover]

WH- I never said Simpson's football team wasn't "flat-out bad," but the last time I checked there were more than just football in an athletic department. I realize most of the posters believe football is the only sport, but it's not D-1. Football certainly isn't funding the other sports in order to survive. Simpson's athletic department is nowhere close to meager just because the football team has one horrible year.

I wasn't the one that brought that up. I am a big supporter of all programs at Wartburg as well and have been accused in the past of talking too much about them because this is a "football board"

What's the thoughts on Niemann down there right now.

[Walston Hoover]

I was just checking out his record and it has gradually gotten worse
2002 6-4
2003 9-2 8-1 IIAC
2004 5-5 4-4
2005 5-5 3-5
2006 2-6 2-4 with 2 games left that I don't see them winning.

[lorbec47]

Show--
I'll be with the Kuemper Knights of course!

[lorbec47]

http://www.dbq.edu/news/news1.cfm?ID=291

Thought I'd throw this in here also.

[Floyd in Iowa City]

Walston or anyone else from Wartburg,

Have you heard anything about Akeem Carter and why he wasn't listed among the rated national wrestlers in the 1st preseason poll?  I thought both he and Gillis were going to be seniors, yet the Knights have someone new listed at 184 and Miller and Gillis are listed at 197 and heavyweight.

While I may pay attention to how other IIAC sports are doing, I pretty much follow football in the fall, wrestling in the winter, and baseball in the spring.  Luther is off this week and only has one game left, so I am just starting to pay attention to IIAC Wrestling and Iowa Wrestling.

[doolittledog]

Not wanting to go through all 230 pages of this board.  Has there been any talk about IIAC expantion or contraction in the near future???  I believe Grinnell is the only D-III school in the state that doesn't belong to the IIAC.  Has there ever been any talk of them moving from the Midwest Conference over to the IIAC?  Coe and Cornell came over from that conference and the travel would be better for Grinnell.  Just wondering there.  Also, have any current schools talked of moving to Div-II or to NAIA like Upper Iowa and William Penn did recently?  Just curious to see what people on here think.  

[Floyd in Iowa City]

I thought Grinnell would be a good addition after Upper Iowa left.  They might struggle in some sports, but adding an academic school like Grinnell while dropping a school of Upper Iowa's reputation would be a huge switch.

Adding a Cornell and subtracting a Billy Penn also appears to be a positive in terms of the academic reputation of the two schools.  Cornell may be struggling right now in football, but they have more football tradition by far than Penn.

Upper Iowa was a good wrestling school and had good baseball and basketball teams at times in the 90s, but IMO neither they nor Penn have really hurt the Iowa Conference athletically by leaving.  Both schools could field a good baseball team, but the Iowa Conference is more of a wrestling or a football conference than a baseball conference in recent decades.

I miss Upper Iowa just because of the jokes and such.

[The Show]

Are you on the staff?  I just assumed you were friends with the head coach and not a part of the program.  Either way, good luck tonight as well.  Hopefully, we'll be seeing each other in Carroll on Tues.!!!

[Dsquared]

I hadn't heard anything about expansion or contraction, but if Grinnell's football team is anything like it's mens basketball team, I don't think they'd fit into IIAC play.  If you would've asked this question a few years ago, I would've thought that UDUB might as well have folded their non-existent football program.  Now, it's in the lull where I think Cornell should think of folding (though they are not very far removed from a laundry list of great players).  I think for the IIAC to succeed, the off-week fits very well, and it lends itself to testing the waters of at least 1 (if not 2) other conference's styles of play.  My vote is that the IIAC stays at 9 teams with 2 non-conference games and the off-week.

As for the wrestling team, Miller was at 197 last year and Gillis was at HWT.  I think that Akeem might already have at least 3 1/2 years of wrestling, so he won't be eligible until 2nd semester.  Anyone with more knowledge on the Carter situation, correct me.  I'm awfully sure that this has happened quite a few times before with WB wrestlers.

[doolittledog]

Yeah, I like the 9 team format for football with 2 non-con games and an off week in there.  I was just curious if there was any talk out there of adding or subtracting teams.